Drummond: Water district board has experience with appointments

Eleven-year Yorba Linda City Councilman Gene Hernandez, who was recently chosen from three applicants for a coveted governing board position at the Yorba Linda Water District, is the third former council member to serve on the five-member panel.

Hernandez joins past eight-year council member Tom Lindsey as a director. Lindsey was appointed to the body in 2021 and elected to a four-year term in 2022. A former one-term council member, Mike Beverage, served as a director for 24 years beginning in 1992.

Three other former council members, 30-year veteran Hank Wedaa, 20-year member Mark Schwing and eight-year member Barbara Kiley, sought director positions but were defeated by incumbents, Wedaa in 2000, Schwing in 2004 and Kiley in 2018.

And eight-year council member Peggy Huang, who ran for a Congressional seat in 2020 and a Superior Court judgeship in 2022, was one of the three applicants for this year’s open position.

Interestingly, the Hernandez and Lindsey appointments were made to fill seats vacated by the winning candidates in the district’s most contentious election in 2016, when voters removed three incumbents from office, two by lopsided recall votes and a third who lost a fourth term.

Hernandez replaces J. Wayne Miller, who won the full four-year term in 2016, and Lindsey replaced Al Nederhood, who won a two-year term in the recall and resigned after his 2020 election to the county Municipal Water District.

The other recall winner, Brooke Jones, lost his seat in 2022 to Brett Barbre, who had served two years on the local board before his election to the county district in 2000. He also served the local district as assistant general manager and general manager until his 2022 resignation.

Four of the five currently serving directors were appointed to office. In addition to Hernandez and Lindsey, Phil Hawkins was appointed in February 2010 prior to his election in November.

Trudi DesRoches was appointed to office in 2020 because she was one of only two candidates who filed to run for two open seats that year. She is the first woman to serve on the board since the mutual company was founded in 1909 and became a public agency in 1959.

Except for a brief period in 2015-16, when drought restrictions and water pricing led to the recall, district elections were pretty tame. Prior to 2020, eight elections had been cancelled because only the incumbents filed to run (1969, 1979, 1988, 1994, 1996, 2006, 2012 and 2014).

The seats now held by DesRoches and Hernandez are scheduled for the November general election ballot. Term limits don’t apply to board positions, and six of the 24 past directors served more than 20 years.

The directors oversee a district with 25,497 water connections (21,754 in Yorba Linda; 2,543 in Placentia; 330 in Anaheim; 67 in Brea; and 803 in county territory) and 24,699 sewer connections (21,533 in Yorba Linda; 1,218 in Placentia; and 1,948 in county territory).

Jim Drummond is a longtime Yorba Linda resident. He gives his opinion on local issues weekly. Send e-mail to jimdrummond@hotmail.com.