Election 2026: After recent conflict and controversy, three seats are up for grabs at the Santa Clara Valley Water District

Water is like electricity. Most people don’t notice it until it goes away.

But there are big issues with big price tags facing Silicon Valley’s largest water agency, a district that has spent the past few years immersed in conflict and controversy.

Three of the seven seats on the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District are up for re-election this fall. The district, based in San Jose, is a government agency that provides drinking water and flood control to 2 million people in Santa Clara County. As a wholesaler, the district buys water from state and federal agencies. It regulates local groundwater, operates 10 reservoirs and sells water to more than a dozen cities and private companies, who in turn sell it to homes and businesses. The district’s directors serve four-year terms and earn about $60,000 a year.

One of the largest government agencies in Santa Clara County, the district is funded by water rates, taxes and federal and state grants. It has a budget of $1.2 billion and 878 employees.

California hasn’t had a drought in four years, which has made the district’s work easier. But the agency, which also provides flood protection in creeks and rivers from Palo Alto to San Jose to Gilroy, is facing major challenges. Top of the list is preparing for the strongest El Niño ever recorded, which increases the chances of drenching storms and floods this winter in the Bay Area and across California.

Second, the agency’s board has generated multiple controversies recently, including abandoning a $3.2 billion plan last year to build a new reservoir near Pacheco Pass after the project suffered repeated cost overruns and failed to find any other large water districts to help pay its costs, lost a lawsuit from landowners and was hit with a decision by the Trump administration not to allow federal water to be stored there. The district spent $100 million over eight years and ended up with no new reservoir.

The district’s CEO, Rick Callender, resigned in March after an outside investigation found that he had sexually harassed two female employees. The district’s board, which last month hired long-time engineer Aaron Baker as his successor, drew widespread criticism from its staff members and employee unions after it agreed to continue to pay Callender his $512,866 annual salary plus $7,200 yearly car allowance and other benefits for another year until March 1, 2027, while he worked as a “special advisor” to board chair Tony Estremera with no defined work requirements, hours or deliverables.

Estremera, who is leaving the board this year after 30 years due to term limits, told employees at a staff meeting days afterward that the agreement, in which Callender agreed not to sue the agency, was a way to reduce liability and ultimately save costs.

In August, one of the women named in the investigative report sued Callender and the district.

The agency also is working to rebuild the largest dam in Santa Clara County, Anderson near Morgan Hill. Federal regulators worried that the 76-year old structure could fail in a major earthquake and ordered the work in 2020. A huge outlet tunnel is nearly finished. But the entire job will take at least 6 more years, and costs have increased 50% since 2023 to $3.2 billion.

In one of the board’s districts, District 4, former State Sen. Jim Beall is unopposed for re-election.

Of the three contested races this fall, the most high-profile is for District 7, which includes Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Gatos, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

First-term incumbent Rebecca Eisenberg, a former attorney for technology companies who defeated Match.com co-founder Gary Kremen four years ago, is being challenged by Los Altos city councilman and former Los Altos Mayor Pete Dailey.

During her four years on the board, Eisenberg has clashed regularly with other board members. In 2024, they censured her, stripped her of her committee assignments and required her to take anti-discrimination and behavioral management training. An independent investigation found that she had been abusive to staff and fellow board members, and had made racist comments, including telling chairwoman Nai Hsueh, “English isn’t your first language, so I want to make sure you understand.”

Eisenberg took the 2,000-page investigative report out of the district offices after being told not to because it was a confidential report with the names of staff members and their interviews. After she refused to give it back, the water district sued her. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Ellen E. Williams ordered her to return the documents.

Eisenberg says the investigation and lawsuit were retaliation from Callender and former district counsel Carlos Orellana because she opposed the Pacheco Dam project and raised concerns about sexism at the agency. On July 14, the other board members ordered security to remove Eisenberg from a public board meeting and threatened to call the police to remove her after she began yelling about a conspiracy involving the board to keep information from her about Orellana’s resignation the month before.

“A lot of the conflicts on the board have been a disagreement about what our job is,” Eisenberg said. “Our job is to protect the public from corruption, irresponsibility and bad decisions made by the district. Some of my colleagues believe their job is to protect the district.”

“While I may have been unpopular among my colleagues, my colleagues are not the people I serve,” she said. “Or the CEO. Or the district counsel. It’s the public.”

Eisenberg has been endorsed by UA Local Union 393 Plumbers, Steamfitters and Pipefitters; former Judge LaDoris Cordell and former Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss.

If re-elected, said she will focus on expanding recycled water, boosting stormwater capture and will oppose the district participating in the Sites Reservoir project, a $6.2 billion plan supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom to build a huge new off-stream reservoir in Colusa County and share the water with agencies that help pay construction costs.

Her opponent, Dailey, has served on the Santa Clara Valley Water Commission, an 18-member advisory body to the district made up of local elected officials, for the past four years.

A former manager with Acer and other tech companies, he has an MBA from Pepperdine University, a master’s degree in history from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in history from UC Berkeley. Dailey is endorsed by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party, the South Bay Labor Council and Clean Water Action, along with State senator Josh Becker, Assemblymen Patrick Ahrens and Marc Berman, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, and the mayors of Los Gatos, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and Campbell.

Dailey said he wants to improve flood control, and that he supports the district participating in the state’s Sites Reservoir project, and hopes to bring a less confrontational approach to the seat.

“I voted for Rebecca four years ago,” Dailey said. “But her strengths are just not well suited for this position. Maybe she should be an activist. She just can’t seem to comport herself appropriately on this deliberative body. She hasn’t been an effective representative for our district.”

In District 1, which includes Gilroy, Morgan Hill and parts of South San Jose, incumbent John Varela is running for another term against Jimmy Forbis, former Gilroy city manager. Varela, a former sales representative for toy companies and past mayor of Morgan Hill, was appointed to the water board in 2015 following a vacancy. He won re-election in 2022, 2018 and 2016. He voted yes in the 4-3 vote to appoint Callender CEO in 2020. He has also been a strong supporter of Pacheco Reservoir.

“Pacheco was a huge disappointment,” he said. “We were moving forward. We had a loan from the federal government, but we just weren’t getting support from other water districts. They couldn’t find it in their scope and their budgets. It’s on the shelf. It could come back.”

Varela said if re-elected, he plans to work to expand programs to lower water rates for low-income and working-class residents. He also supports the Sites Reservoir project, expanding flood control work and finishing rebuilding Anderson Dam.

Forbis, a Navy veteran who worked as finance director in Gilroy and Monterey before serving as city administrator in Gilroy from 2020 to 2025, said the board needs new ideas and a financial expert to help keep costs down.

“My motto is ratepayers first,” he said. “The district is known as the golden spigot. They fly under the radar. I’m a finance guy. That’s my bread and butter. They need a finance person on the board. I’ve issued utility bonds. I know how this works. The boards that work best are boards with people who have expertise. It’s time for some fresh blood and new energy.”

The other race is in District 6, which includes east San Jose and south San Jose.

Because the incumbent, Estremera, is termed out, two newcomers are running: Milan Balinton and Phuong Nguyen.

Since 2011, Balinton has worked as executive director at the African American Community Service Agency, a non-profit cultural center in San Jose that provides economic programs, workforce development, senior services and food distribution programs. Endorsed by U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose, five of the water district board members and all five Santa Clara County supervisors, Balinton said his main priorities if elected will be expanding flood control projects — particularly in low-income neighborhoods that flooded in 2017 storms — and keeping water rates in check.

“I am a unifier,” he said. “I work with the private sector, government and non-profits. I am coming in with a listening ear and an opportunity help people we serve. I’m a young leader. I bring new ideas. How can we make things better for those we serve?”

Nguyen has been a district staff representative for State Sen. Dave Cortese since 2021. Before that, he worked as an inventory control specialist at several South Bay medical and pharmaceutical companies.

Endorsed by District Attorney Jeff Rosen and Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor, Nguyen said his top priorities are reducing flood risk and lowering water rates.

“There are 130,000 Vietnamese people in San Jose,” he said. “They have encouraged me to run to help people. I’ve lived in this district for 30 years. The bills are too high.”