Six Seek CVSan Director Seats
The Castro Valley Sanitary District (CVSan), whose daily work often goes unnoticed, has escaped the apathy that has led to some unchallenged elections this year for other local government boards. Three incumbents are up for election this year, and three quite spirited challengers for those three seats.
Incumbents Daniel Akagi, Timothy McGowan, and Dave Sadoff, who have a combined 62 years of CVSan board experience, will face challengers Joseph Grcar, Kenneth Owen, and Darshan Saini.
All six are expected to participate in an online forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters tomorrow night, Thursday, September 19, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. to discuss the issues and why each thinks they deserve your vote.
Incumbent McGowan is a senior civil engineer with another utility district and has been a CVSan board member since 2004. He said he pledges to work with CVSan’s partners in the East Bay Dischargers Authority to reduce nutrients from the region’s wastewater, which will help to reduce potential algae blooms in the San Francisco Bay
Incumbent Sadoff is board president and a geologist who has been on the board since 2011. He thinks the three incumbents up for re-election have all done a solid job and should be returned to office.
Akagi, a civil and sanitary engineer, has served the longest, joining the board in 1995.
“On our watch, you have benefited from among the lowest sewer service fees in the Bay Area while CVSan meets regulatory requirements to protect public health and the environment and (built) over 150 miles of sewer collection infrastructure,” Akagi said, referring to himself and the other two incumbents.
Those fees are not low enough, though, for challenger Joseph Grcar, a retired lab scientist, who comments that “… prices have been growing at 6.4 percent per year for residential sewer service and 5.4 percent per year for garbage pick-up. This growth since the year 2000 far exceeds the growth in prices for the Oro Loma Sanitary District in nearby c
He blames that increase and future ones he anticipates partly on the current board's vote to build a new $27 million operations building at Center Street and Castro Valley Boulevard, which required drawing down reserves and issuing revenue bonds.
Challenger Darshan Saini is a project manager who has worked with companies around the world. He also owns property in Las Vegas and fears CVSan going down the same road as some utilities there. He is also critical of the new $27 million operations building, which he says CVSan could have built with the $7 million they had already put aside.
Challenger Ken Owen is a retired sewer contractor and an attorney who criticizes the current board for being uncritical of anything management proposes. He calls for term limits, paying off the revenue bonds for the new building early to save on service charges, and wants lower CVSan rates for seniors and low-income customers.
The CVSan Candidates Forum will be tomorrow night, Thursday, September 19 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. You do need to register to get the Zoom link; go to the League of Women Voters’ Events page at https://tinyurl.com/LWVEA2024 and click on the event to register.