The Ebb and Flow of Water Politics : Campaigns: Water district elections are not glamorous or particularly interesting. Yet, they attract a steady stream of candidates.

A hopeful Fred L. Silva took a stapler from the pocket of his brown slacks and, beneath a huge electrical tower, put up a campaign poster on a dirt corner in Pico Rivera.

“Nothing is glamorous about it,” said Silva, 55, referring to the Pico Water District election, which, as it would turn out, he would win along with incumbent Michael E. Mendoza.

Excitement was not rampant on Monday morning, the day before the election. Silva shared the corner of Whittier and Paramount boulevards, not with an opponent, but with a seller of candied apples.

Silva conducted the most active campaign among four candidates competing for two seats on the Pico Water District Board of Directors. In addition to Mendoza, incumbent William M. Camarillo was seeking his fourth term, and challenger Armando R. Sanchez was running for his first political office.

“I’m really pushing it,” Silva said. “I have 350 signs, and a lot of people (about 18) working the phones too.”

The signs had various slogans, all reflecting the low-key character of the campaign, including, “A Vote for Silva is a Vote for a Better Pico Water District,” “Time for a Change” and “We Can Begin a New Direction of a Balanced Budget.”

Like most people who run for water district boards, Silva, a credit union director, is a low-profile politician. He said he would spend about $800 during the campaign.

He ran for the board, he said, because he wanted to further his service to the community. He has been on Pico Rivera’s sister-city committee for more than 25 years.

Silva, bending over a poster with his stapler, discussed the water district position. “It’s not a glamorous job, but at this particular point it is very important. With the drought, with the cost of water up, it’s just as important as a city councilman or mayor because of the commodity you have under your directorship. No commodity sustains life more than water.”

Mendoza, 47, president of the Pico Water District board, overflows with enthusiasm about water. “Water is like gold,” he said. “It’s important. You can’t live without it.”

When Mendoza, the owner of an office supplies store, first ran for the Pico Water District board four years ago, his motive was helping people. “But I didn’t know what to get into,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about (water), and I don’t know anyone who really does (when they first run). It takes four years to be really educated as a water person.”

What a water board member must do, he said, is attend professional seminars and faithfully digest pamphlets and articles dealing with water sources, water-saving devices and new government water regulations that drive up water bills.

“What makes you a good director,” Mendoza said, “is going to the workshops and coming back and applying what you learned.”

Mendoza had about 15 people knocking on doors during his reelection bid, but his campaigning was limited because his wife had been ill recently. “It’s been rough,” he said Monday. “I didn’t get to put up any posters.”

Still, he seemed confident of winning and proud of his position: “I love the job; it’s important. The thing is to give good service and good water at the lowest possible cost. I hope (the voters) go by the job I’ve done.”

The Pico Water District covers 3.6 square miles in Pico Rivera. With six wells, it distributes water to about 5,000 homes, approximately 3,000 fewer than are serviced by the city of Pico Rivera’s water department.

The 65-year-old Pico district, which resisted a takeover attempt by the city in 1986, has its office on Church Street, a location identified by a now-empty water tower that rises above the parking lot.

It has 11 employees and is run by five directors who serve four-year terms, and a general manager, Harold W. Maupin. Board meetings, for which directors are paid $125 to attend, are held twice monthly and are sparsely attended. The few spectators usually are there to discuss problems with their water bills.

The district also distributes a quarterly newsletter, which recently advised customers: “Every little bit counts . . . please use water wisely.” Pico customers have heeded the advice. They decreased water usage by 26.9% in 1990 and have continued that trend this year, Maupin said.

“I had no idea about (water),” said retired postal carrier William Camarillo, one of the incumbents, thinking back to when he first ran 12 years ago. “I thought you turned the faucet on and that was it. Nobody trains for this.”

During his three-term tenure, Camarillo, 72, said the district computerized its operation, updated water wells and cut down operating costs by installing a new “backbone” system of large water mains on the periphery of the district. These feed the service mains that run north and south and east and west.

“We’re just a small district, but I think we’re very efficient,” he said.

Camarillo said he spent about $50 in campaign costs in his previous three election victories, but “not a penny” this time. Campaigning in a water district race, he added, “(It) all depends on how big your ego is.”

The other challenger in the election, realtor Armando Sanchez, 44, was seeking political office for the first time.

His campaign? “Very, very low-profile,” he said. His budget? “A shoestring would be too much.”

Sanchez learned early in the race how much disinterest a water district election can generate. “A lot of people have approached me and said they had seen that I was running for the board,” he said. “They asked why.”

His explanation:

“I’ve lived here all my life and want to give something back to the community,” Sanchez said.

Election night in the Pico Water District came and went without gala parties.

“It looks real good right now,” Mendoza said from his home about 10 Tuesday night, with two of nine precincts having reported. “But I’m not going to count my chickens before they’re hatched.”

When they hatched, about 11 p.m., the grateful Mendoza celebrated with a small group of family and friends. “I had some real good coffee and some sweetbread,” he said.

Silva, bushed from walking through the precincts earlier in the day, had gone to a gym for a steam bath. When he returned about 11:15 p.m., he learned that his campaigning had paid off. He was the top vote-getter with 621, barely edging Mendoza, who was elected with 617. Camarillo got 590 votes and Sanchez 441.

Silva didn’t celebrate. “No, no, you can’t talk about being prudent and then celebrate,” he said.

Having not spent a penny, Camarillo was not completely surprised that he had not won a fourth consecutive term. He acknowledged, however, that “it would have been good to get back again.” Despite his loss, he said, he plans to continue attending water board meetings.

And Sanchez, who had called himself the darkest of the dark horses, was pleased with his showing in a political debut that had required little effort.

“Gosh, I’m happy,” he said, adding to the puzzling mystique of water district elections. “I’m a happy loser.”

Pico Water District

Size of area: 3.6 square miles in Pico Rivera, bordered roughly by Beverly Boulevard on the north, Slauson Avenue on the south, the San Gabriel River on the east and Paramount Boulevard on the west.

When established: 1926.

Number of board members: 5.

Budget: $1.8 million.

Equipment: 6 well sites.

Homes serviced: 5,290.

(The district, set up under the Special Districts Act of 1913, is a nonprofit corporation, a political subdivision of the state.)