April Chan for EBMUD Director

In May when I announced that I would not run for re-election to the EBMUD Ward 7 seat, I also announced that I endorsed April Chan to succeed me.  And Chan went to work – by the end of May there was a Vote4AprilChan.com web page along with campaign flyers.  From May until the filing for candidacy in mid-August, Chan was going door-to-to and securing an impressive list of endorsers.

In August, Matt Turner filed, followed by Corina Lopez for the EBMUD seat. From mid-August until well after Labor Day, Lopez’ web page had her running for Mayor of San Leandro and Turner had the makings of a web page.  But, by the end of September, Lopez and Turner had EBMUD candidacy web pages that, under careful examination, mimicked Chan’s web page with neither having flyers. Those flyers also mimicked Chan’s materials - not coming out until the beginning of October.  Of course, wanting to show distinction from Chan, Turner came up with wanting to completely open the fragile watershed (home to many species) to more and more trails than the already existing miles of trails.  Lopez, not only copied Turner on the trails issue, but came up with the extraordinary position that EBMUD should not be looking for alternative water storage – but totally rely on mountain runoff – ignoring the realities of decreasing runoff due to unreliable rain and snow. By the way, Lake Chabot is NOT a water supply source to EBMUD.

For May until now, notwithstanding the “copy cats”, Chan has kept her message of Customers, Conservation, Infrastructure and Sustainability consistent – all while picking up more and more endorsers and continuing to walk the precincts.  Chan’s consistency, not letting the “copy cats” affect her message and getting out to meet the citizens of EBMUD Ward 7, has validated my endorsement.  I urge voting for April Chan as the only original candidate for the EBMUD Ward 7.  She is first on the ballot – naturally.

–Frank Mellon, Castro Valley

Retiring EBMUD Director