Lack of Water Dilutes Board’s Past Obscurity : Drought: The low-profile water authority panel now attracts standing-room-only crowds, thrusting its 34 directors suddenly into the limelight.

For years, the San Diego County Water Authority board of directors toiled in relative obscurity. Rate increases were approved, new dams and pipeline expansions were discussed. And yet, although their meetings were open to the public, no one ever seemed to attend.

Not anymore. Lately, the impending 50% cutbacks in San Diego County’s water supply have lifted the shroud of anonymity from its 34 directors. Recent meetings have drawn standing-room-only crowds and television crews.

Suddenly, as local industries and residents realize the board’s power over their lifestyles and their livelihoods, the directors have become a high-profile group.

“I went for a can of soup at the store the other night, and I was there an hour and a half,” said director Linda Brannon, a housewife and mother of four who represents the city of Poway. “My phone rings off the hook, and it’s all water.”

Director Mark W. Watton, a real estate executive who represents the Otay Water District on the board, agreed.

“We were happy for years being a nondescript, quiet group going about our business,” he said almost wistfully this week. “But Mother Nature has dealt us a hand . . . and we’re now being thrust on the scene. And that’s a new sensation.”

The members are appointed to the water authority board by each of the 23 member agencies. Each sends one delegate, with two exceptions: the Helix Water District sends two representatives, and the city of San Diego, given its dominance in the region, sends 10 representatives, who are nominated by the mayor and approved by the City Council.

The members serve six-year terms, and are paid $100 per meeting, up to a maximum of 10 meetings a month. As board members, their job is to set direction and policy for the water authority, which purchases water from the Southern California Metropolitan Water Authority and, in turn, wholesales it to the county’s local water agencies.

Because of their role, they are considered public officials and, accordingly, must abide by the state laws governing public officials, including disclosure of their financial statements to prevent conflicts of interest.

Who are the 28 men and six women who govern San Diego’s water lifeline? They are lawyers and developers, housewives, avocado and citrus farmers, and college professors. A few make their living in construction, and several are water professionals--men and women who have chosen management careers in the county’s 23 separate water districts.

There’s one retired police sergeant--Frank Chenelle, who represents National City. Dale Mason, of the Vallecitos Water District, owns his own insurance agency in San Marcos. Among his customers is Joe Parker, one of the city of San Diego’s 10 board representatives, who owns a company that manufactures ink.

One board member, Oceanside senior assistant city manager James F. Turner, has won the lottery, and won it big--$300,000. Another director, Fred Thompson of the city of San Diego, is a former singer and actor. Thompson, now the owner of a San Diego event management and marketing firm, once portrayed a vampire in a horror movie.

Amid this diversity, some patterns emerge. The board is predominantly Republican; county voter registration records show 24 pledge allegiance to the Grand Old Party, as contrasted with 10 who are Democrats. They are mostly white. The board includes one Latino and one black--Thompson and Parker, respectively.

Seventeen directors--or half the board--are California natives, and eight of those were born in San Diego County. The board is predominantly middle-aged or older: the average age of directors is 56. Watton, 36, is the youngest. Harry Griffen, a retired banker and celery farmer who has been on the board since 1956, is the oldest. At 83, he is among seven directors who are over 70.

If there is one thing they all have in common, it is this: each wants the public to know that, when the county’s first-ever mandatory water prohibitions go into effect April 1, they, too, are going to suffer.

Last week, during the seven-hour meeting at which the board approved those harsh restrictions, director L.C. (Chuck) Snavely described what he called a “symphony of chain saws” that can be heard each day at his avocado ranch, the Rancho de las Piedras.

“I’m cutting down 2,000 trees right now,” said Snavely, who represents Valley Center Metropolitan Water District. Based on the volume of water distributed, his is the county’s second-largest water district, after the city of San Diego. “It’s just as disastrous to us.”

Director John (Mike) Leach, who represents the city of San Diego and who is the president of Leastar Corp., a consulting service for the development and real estate industry, said he has already stopped watering his lawn.

And Thompson said he has stopped washing his car, a black Mercedes with a vanity license plate--the word “UKELELE,” to remind him of his days in show business, when he sang and played guitar in a group called the Guadalajara National Philharmonic.

“My car is dirty,” Thompson said. “And my lawn is going to die first. Because I’m a board member, and people are watching.”

In the past, other watchful eyes have noticed the development interests on the board. That element, critics allege, has turned the water authority into a growth engine.

In their coming book, “Thirst for Growth: Water Agencies as Hidden Government in California,” UCLA professors Margaret FitzSimmons and Robert Gottlieb note that water authority leaders with ties to development have been “effective opponents” of San Diego’s slow-growth movement.

In the late 1980s, the authors write, “The San Diego water leaders, despite their new emphasis on local storage, also helped steer MWD (Metropolitan Water District) policy toward increasing peaking capacity”--in other words, toward importing more and more water to keep San Diego, already the state’s second-largest city, thriving and prosperous.

Directors are aware of the allegations. When contacted for this story, Mason, the insurance agent, promptly joked that, because he and his wife have no children, they “have not contributed to growth at all. And the only thing we’ve built is a patio roof--I’m not a developer.”

Francesca M. Krauel, an attorney and city of San Diego representative on the board, said, “If you just looked at the makeup of our board without knowing the people you would say, ‘Aha! I’ve got something here.’ But it’s just not true.”

When critics make charges about developer bias, one primary target is director Michael D. Madigan, the current board chairman and a former executive assistant to one-time San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson. Madigan, who is a city of San Diego board member, is an executive with Pardee Construction, one of San Diego’s largest development firms.

But to hear his fellow board members tell it, Madigan has not let that influence his performance on the board.

“He is one of the most sterling, capable public servants in town,” said Krauel.

Eric Larson, a Carlsbad city councilman since 1987, says that, among the “developer types” on the board, he has seen no evidence of pressure being exerted inappropriately.

“They seem able to change hats,” said Larson, the general manager of the San Diego County Flower and Plant Auction, who represents the Carlsbad Metropolitan Water District.

“I don’t see any cliques or back scratching at all,” said Bob Stevens, a retired electronics salesman who represents the city of Del Mar. “Golly, if there’s any group weighted (on the board) it would be attorneys. And we’ve got quite a few professors.”

Anne Omsted, who describes herself as a homemaker, community leader and environmentalist, says there is value to having developers on the board.

“It’s like having the wolf watch the other wolves--they know all the tricks, and they’re always coming up with wonderful ways to plug loopholes,” said Omsted, who represents the San Dieguito Water District. “Mike Leach is one of our best leak pluggers.”

When the board voted to require developers to pay a fee for new water hookups, for example, Omsted says Leach was instrumental in making that regulation--which stood to cost developers thousands of dollars--as tight as possible.

Leach says that, although his clients are developers, when he steps into the water authority board room he is able to put the county’s water needs before his own.

“If you look at the actions the board has taken, they have really given (developers) no quarter,” he said. “I can’t think of one instance where the construction or development industry has been given any sort of break. And the construction industry has been told by me personally that if they think they’re going to continue to do business as usual, they’re missing the entire point.”

And indeed, last week as the board struggled with its most radical and unpopular action ever--the new water use restrictions--Madigan, Watton and Leach led the campaign to adopt the toughest possible measures. Among those measures: growth caps that forbid any new water connections unless the developer can create a “conservation offset” so his new project will mean no new net water demand.

“To date, the county of San Diego has somewhat segregated itself from the rest of the state,” Watton said just before voting to support measures that will probably kill most of San Diego’s lawns before summer. “It’s time to close that gap.”

Leach called those measures “the least we can do,” adding, “We can argue that we want to keep everyone happy. And, in doing so, we’ll make no one happy.”

Madigan answered the public outcry over the difficulty of imposing the 50% cuts by saying simply, “If there were easy answers to this issue, somebody would have discovered them by now.”

Judging by the challenges ahead, the water board is likely to remain in the public eye.

“A lot of big issues remain to be resolved,” said Michael Parrish, a UC San Diego history professor who also represents the city of San Diego on the water board. “Our relationship to MWD. What can we do locally to give us a more secure and dependable water supply, even if we do maintain a relationship with MWD. (We need) more storage.”

And, of course, there are the prohibitions to enforce--and to strengthen or loosen, depending on how long the drought continues. The board has made clear that, should local rainfall significantly improve water supplies, they are ready and eager to modify the current restrictions to allow for more flexibility.

The other members of the water authority board include:

Sherwood D. Anderson, vice president of L.J. Pipeline Construction, represents the Rincon del Diablo Municipal Water District.

Lawrence E. Carlson, director of natural resources at Camp Pendleton, represents the military base.

Susan M. Collins, general manager of Yuima Metropolitan Water District, represents her district.

Charles F. Cooper, a biology professor at San Diego State University, represents the city of San Diego.

David A. Drake, a software unit manager at Digital Equipment Co., represents the city of Escondido.

Nat L. Eggert, a retired accountant, represents the Helix Water District.

Christine M. Frahm, an attorney, represents the city of San Diego.

Harold K. Friedland, a civil engineer specializing in aviation matters, represents the Santa Fe Irrigation District.

Susan Golding, a San Diego County supervisor, represents the county.

William Hollingsworth, general manager of the Olivenhain Metropolitan Water District, represents his district.

G.L. (Jerry) Johnson, general superintendent of West Coast Sheet Metal in Santee, represents Padre Dam Metropolitan Water District.

Philip R. Pryde, a SDSU geography professor and Soviet ecology expert, represents the city of San Diego.

John P. Starkey, president of several real estate and construction-related firms, including the Southern Mortgage Co. and the John P. Starkey Co., represents the city of San Diego.

Herbert H. Stickney, a retired management consultant, represents the Rainbow Metropolitan Water District.

William D. Taylor, a retired resource manager for Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base and a former farm planner for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, represents the Bueno Colorado Metropolitan Water District.

Gordon W. Tinker, general manager and chief engineer of Fallbrook Public Utility District, represents his district.

Kenneth Thompson, a water production superintendent with the city of San Diego Water Utilities Department, represents the Ramona Metropolitan Water District.

Cary F. Wright, a retired Naval officer and county health department employee, represents the South Bay Irrigation District.