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Rebecca Eisenberg
Director, Santa Clara Valley Water District 7 | rebecca4water.com
Top priorities
- Affordability
- Sustainability
- Community and flood protection
Public service
- Santa Clara Valley Water Board of Directors, District 7 (2022-Present)
Community involvement
- North American African American Civil Rights Organization, legal advisor (2024-present)
- San Francisquito Creek JPA Board, vice chair (2023-24)
- Palo Alto Unified School District Local District Advisory Committee, parent representative (2018-24)
- Palo Alto High School Baseball Team Parents Association/Boosters, board director (2023-24)
Despite years of pushback and censuring, Rebecca Eisenberg, current Santa Clara Valley Water District 7 director, is hoping to retain her position and enter a new era on the board with the goals of affordability, sustainability and protection.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District, also referred to as Valley Water, manages much of the area’s local water supply and spearheads Santa Clara County’s stream maintenance and flood protection.
The water district is split into seven geographic territories, with one director appointed by the voters in each area. Area 7 covers portions of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno and Los Gatos, among other communities.
Eisenberg is one of two candidates vying for the District 7 slot on the seven-member board. She’s running against challenger Pete Dailey, who serves on the Los Altos City Council and Santa Clara Valley Water Commission.
Although her time on the board has been controversial, and she was censured for half of her term, she said that she was proud of the influence she had on the board. She pointed to stopping the Pacheco Dam from being built, and influencing changes to the agency’s culture.
“I got rid of both of the corrupt executives, and I stopped the dam that would have quadrupled people’s water rates because water needs to be affordable,” she said in a recent interview to the Voice. “It’s not optional.”
While she had a passion for water conservation and stewardship since her time living in Wisconsin, she didn’t set her eyes on Valley Water until she was approached by retired Santa Clara County Judge LaDoris Cordell.
Eisenberg said Cordell suggested she run for the District 7 seat, which at the time was occupied by Gary Kremen. Kremen, who was previously accused of bullying in an external investigation, was running uncontested for his seat.
“I had no intention of doing this,” Eisenberg said. “One of my biggest heroes on earth asked me to run. I’m not a local politician.”
But her time on the board has been divisive. In February 2024, an investigation into Eisenberg examined 25 complaints against her since the beginning of her time on the board and found nine of them to be substantiated.
After the investigation, she took a 2,000-page document detailing its results. After the incident, the Valley Water board censured her and the organization sued her. The case is ongoing.
Eisenberg denied the allegations – which ranged from harassment and abuse to discriminatory remarks – and explained that the majority of the allegedly abusive conversations were taken out of context. She said her remarks that “men love to build things and use concrete” and that many flooding issues stemmed from “men engineers” were misconstrued. She said she was actually quoting “Cadillac Desert,” a book by Marc Reisner about the history of water policies and dams.
Eisenberg said that accusing former Valley Water CEO Rick Callender “corruption” was accurate – in part because claims he sexually harassed a number of Valley Water employees were found substantiated following an external investigation.
On Oct. 9, Eisenberg’s lawyer, Evan C. Nelson of the Walnut Creek-based offices of Brothers Smith, filed a suit alleging whistleblower retaliation and 12 other claims against Valley Water, Callender and District Counsel Carlos Orellana.
The suit alleges that Callender and Valley Water as a whole retaliated against Eisenberg after she pointed out committee appointment gender bias and questioned if financial disclosures were concealed as related to a federal loan application.
If she’s re-elected, Eisenberg doesn’t believe her censure will continue because the people with whom she quarreled were no longer at Valley Water.
“I have a lot of reasons to believe that, including the fact that everyone who has ever complained about me is no longer working at the district,” she said. “Their employment has been terminated. They have resigned.”
Although she’s been off her committee assignments, including on the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, because of the censure, she said she’s gone to meetings and is in close contact with those on the authority.
The regional agency is focused on flood risk reduction and habitat restoration along the creek in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. It was founded in 1999 after a flood the year prior damaged more than 1,700 properties.
“Yeah, they took me off that board but I’ve attended every single meeting,” she said. “I’ve spoken out at several, and I can and I have continued to effectively represent my community.”
