IEUA District Candidates | News

City of residence: Chino Hills 

Occupation: Elected director and board president of Inland Empire Utilities Agency; environmental and utilities attorney and partner at Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP for 35 years

Education: bachelor’s degrees political science and psychology, State University of New York at Albany; juris doctorate from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Community involvement: Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce board of directors; Chino Valley Fire Foundation volunteer and donor; Chino Valley YMCA; Chino Hills Community Foundation (founding member and former chair); Chino Valley Unified School District’s Measure M Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee (former chair); Boys Republic Board of Directors; volunteer and donor for Let It Be Foundation; AYSO head coach and referee for 10 years; Chino Hills Girls Softball; Chino Basin Watermaster (former chair); Chino Desalter Authority; Chino Basin Water Bank.

Addressing the ongoing drought while keeping rates low: We are in the middle of a 1,200-year drought. IEUA is the Region 39’s water wholesaler and wastewater recycling-sewering agency for our region covering over 875,000 people. Under my leadership, IEUA has been in the forefront of finding ways to conserve these precious resources and finding ways to “create” new sources of water. We have done this by intelligently continuing to invest in infrastructure that modernizes the older parts of our integrated system and also accommodates what has been tremendous growth in our region in the last two decades.  We are in the midst of a $1 billion capital improvement program funded primarily by low interest state and federal loans and grants. 

This has helped preserve our taxpayers’ dollars tremendously while still providing tremendous service. We will continue to do all of these things while keeping our rates among the lowest, if not the lowest sewer rates in Southern California. 

Managing and augmenting the use of recycled water: Our region has been in the forefront of creating and using recycled water to help with reliability and the stability of our local water supply. But we are always looking for ways to increase the use of water created locally and to use (and reuse) our local water supply which is 70 percent of what is used here in the Chino Valley. 

As a director at IEUA for 12 years, I have consistently advocated for and pushed through innovative new and modified programs to enhance the recycled water supply and the way we use that water to maximize the local water resources and minimize the need to use imported water. IEUA takes the water that goes down your drains, sinks and toilets and turns it into recycled water that is used on farms, golf courses, park medians, etc.

We turn your showers into flowers. In the next four years, I will continue to build upon this great foundation to enhance the supply and increase our water reliability. This will include small and large projects funded sensibly as they have been for decades.

City of residence: Chino 

Occupation: Retired fire captain

Education: associate’s degree from San Bernardino Valley College

The top issues facing the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) is an issue that’s common to all of us—dealing with the effects of high inflation and rising interest rates. 

Inflation has increased the costs for IEUA of not only maintaining its existing infrastructure but has also increased the cost of major projects that are critical to IEUA’s mission of ensuring a clean and sustainable water supply. 

The best way to deal with these issues is to provide effective fiscal oversight and to eliminate unnecessary expenses wherever possible. 

This can be accomplished by closely scrutinizing spending and asking tough questions about items that affect the budget, rather than just allowing them to quietly pass through the consent calendar without discussion. 

Rising interest rates have dramatically increased the cost of borrowing to invest in critical infrastructure projects. 

With effective fiscal management, IEUA can obtain and maintain the highest credit rating possible, which will mitigate the impact of rising interest rates. 

A top credit rating will help to minimize borrowing costs for IEUA, and in turn keep costs for IEUA’s customers as low as possible.