Pressing business

I’ve been happy to see the recent coverage of the SCVWD in the Mercury. Paul Rogers has written stories on the new water quality lab and the groundbreaking for the upper Guadalupe project. Scott Herhold has written a somewhat more critical piece on the proposed Gold Street Educational Center. This morning, Paul Rogers reported on CEO Olga Martin Steele’s high salary and state pension, since extending her contract was on the agenda for today’s Board meeting.

The meeting was a speedy one, with item after item disposed of sans discussion or dissenting votes. When the contract extension came up, Board members were fulsome in their praise. Director Estremera recounted how the Board had “begged” Ms. Steele to take the job, and how much of a hardship is must pose to her, with all of the travel and disruption of her planned retirement. Director Santos echoed this gratitude, and went on to complain that the real reason that the newspaper was critical of the District’s CEO is because she’s a woman.

Director Kwok, after joining in the chorus of thanks to Ms. Steele, did say that it is time for the Board to find a permanent replacement, but no one seemed inclined to take that anywhere. If, as the article says, she’s likely to quit at the end of 2008 to preserve her $180,000 state pension, the Board doesn’t have a lot of time to waste.

It should come as no surprise that the Board voted unanimously to extend her contract by six months, and Paul Rogers has already posted a follow-up article reporting so.