|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The founder of Match.com, Gary Kremen, has won a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board, with 51.62 percent of the vote to incumbent Brian Schmidt’s 48.38 percent, with all 212 precincts reporting.
While provisional ballots are yet to be counted, Kremen led all Tuesday night as votes were tallied. He had garnered 18,063 votes as of Wednesday morning to Schmidt’s 16,926.
Schmidt said early Tuesday evening that he was hoping the percentage would shift as more returns were counted.
“I’m on pins and needles. It’s really close,” he said by phone from a campaign gathering.
In a race that no one would have predicted to be so contentious, both candidates fought hard to have the edge.
“It’s been brutal,” Kremen said Tuesday. “I guess I’m an idiot do this. All I wanted was to do something about the drought and about water. I didn’t think it would get so personal with all of the campaign finance stuff. I got pummeled.
Kremen, a serial entrepreneur, outspent Schmidt 22 to 1 during the race. As of Oct. 18, Kremen had spent $397,993 to Schmidt’s $17,229.
“Oh, well. They say politics is a full-contact sport. I didn’t think it applied to me,” Kremen said.
Both candidates fought hard for the seat, which represents the cities of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Gatos. They traded accusations of conflicts of interest, claims of a failure to act decisively on the drought (made by Kremen against Schmidt), and claims of misleading statements and excessive water use (made by Schmidt against Kremen).
But they agreed that drought, clean water, conservation, climate change and flooding are the major challenges the winner will face.
Schmidt, an environmental attorney, served on the board since 2010 and is its current vice president.
Kremen, board president of the Purissima Hills Water District in Los Altos Hills, said during the campaign that he will focus on additional stormwater capture with groundwater percolation, regional recycling and reuse, recharging groundwater basins and desalination.
He pledged to take on a California State Water Project tax he says is unfair to Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos residents, who receive most of their water from the Hetch Hetchy water system through the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and not through the state.
Kremen said he will work to get more conservation funds for districts that use Hetch Hetchy or remove the tax entirely from Hetch Hetchy districts. The water district could get increased water-recycling money and use it to put in gray-water systems in homes, and it could receive water-conservation dollars to extend some of the recycled water across Foothill Expressway into areas of Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills, he said.
Kremen thinks that building coalitions on a regional level will be key to getting things accomplished, and the water district should be using its clout, he said. He pointed to the drawn-out process to get a permit for the San Francisquito Creek flood-control project.
“The water district is the one with some good money. They have discretionary money, and they have their own lobbyist in Sacramento. They touch a lot of people in politics more than other people do,” he said.
He added that he will also focus on eliminating fiscal waste and abuse within the district, especially holding board members and the CEO accountable.
-
Matthew McConaughey with Timothee Chalamet and Mackenzie Foy. Courtesy Paramount Pictures. -
Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey undertake a mission to save humanity in “Interstellar.” Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures. -
Carola Zertuche, the artistic director of Theatre Flamenco, says her art form transcends cultural and linguistic boundaries. Photo courtesy of Theatre Flamenco.
So we get the best candidates money can buy in this country at all levels. A dark cloud looms over our country and the democratic republic is waning.
Money is not the best answer.
Kremen got my vote: he has solutions. What has Schmidt done? Never heard of the guy until this election. Although they’re always talking of a drought, it didn’t hit hard until this year, and what were the solutions? Raise rates, ask residents to use less, and place restrictions on outdoor watering. Not exactly a well thought out solution! We can do better than that.
OK with me if he used his own money; in fact I think it’s a good thing — he’s not beholden to special interests.
Inadequate storage is only part of the problem.
I wish any of these people would influence Sacramento to impose higher efficiency standards on irrigated agriculture. Squeezing the 10% the residential use is just symbolic. Irrigated agriculture is 70-80% of the use, depending on the time of year, and half of that water gets wasted through evaporation.
It’s taboo to deal with facts anymore though, because profitable welfare farming is as American as Chevys and dry levees.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water-use.aspx
http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/wbp/global-water-crisis/441