A Slice of Valley Water’s Controversial History

Now that Valley Water has thrown everything at me that it has within its power, it’s time for me to keep going.

I would add “taken seriously” and “believed” to that list.

I am the first Board Director that Valley Water ever punished. They censured me because of 7 isolated statements I said at Board meetings, statements that include the fact that men built dams out of concrete, that it is rare that discrimination against men can be proven in a male-dominated workplace, and that all of my colleagues are Baby Boomers while I am Gen X. (If Baby Boomer is a slur, is Gen X a compliment?)

So it goes. They spent 14 months and almost a million dollars of taxpayer and ratepayer money to dig up bad things I did, and that is the very worst they could find. And yes, it did happen in that order. But I’m here to say that no one is perfect, and some people are less perfect than others.

In 2010, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury determined that Valley Water had violated its own policies by allowing Director Dick Santos (who still serves in his position 14 years later) to use his elected position in order to enrich himself and his family at the expense of the majority of his District. (click on the link to read the report)

The Grand Jury Found:

“The SCVWD Board did not adhere to its own good governance practices, and did not question Director Santos when he participated in discussions and voted on projects from which he had previously recused himself due to personal financial interests.”

The Mercury News (back when it cared), reported Santos’s defense of his unethical self dealing as follows:

“I did my job like I’m supposed to, and I’m going to continue to do it,” said Santos, 66.

As a result of this Grand Jury Report (and more specifically, in response to Director Santos’s questionable actions described therein), the Board made no changes. They did not censure Director Santos, nor did they remove any of his committee assignments or other appointments. For their part, the executives at Valley Water defended the Director rather than attack him.

Dick Santos to this day continues activities that many view as conflict of interest.

I am a colleague of Director Santos and I like him on a personal basis. I think he genuinely cares about his community, and definitely, like me, cares for the vulnerable and the downtrodden. Working with him on the Environmental “Creek Cleanup Committee” (terrible name) to assist with the unhoused communities who live near creeks was truly my favorite part of my job last year. Yet, Dick Santos was one of the Directors who drove the charge to remove me from that committee, despite unanimous agreement that I was doing a great job. It was a mean and unnecessary thing for him to do, and will harm our shared goals of serving the unhoused.

Dick Santos has served as a Director of the Santa Clara Valley Water district since 2000. He was one of the primary proponents of Measure A, which unfairly extended his term limits from 3 to 4 (even though he has served the equivalent of 5 terms already). He has had ample opportunity to do good work on Valley Water’s Board.

Someone in Sunnyvalle, Milpitas, Santa Clara, or San Jose needs to run to replace him this November. These directorships should not be lifetime jobs.

A public speaker told me I was extremely offensive for using images of that little cartoon girl, you know, the awful one, the bad one ….