Environmental Candidate Elected to MWD’s Top Post

Michael J. Gage, a self-styled environmentalist and political Jack-of-all-trades, was elected board chairman of the Metropolitan Water District on Tuesday, in what was seen as a dramatic turning point for the powerful but conservative agency that supplies more than half of all water to Southern California.

Gage is expected to make the agency more environmentally sensitive and to look for non-traditional sources of water, including reclamation and recycling. He believes new sources are needed to help stem Southern California’s dwindling water supplies and to keep costs down.

Gage, 47, defeated James Blake, 62, of Fullerton, the official candidate of the board’s nominating committee, who drew most of his support from Orange County delegations and longer-term directors who said they supported an up-through-the-ranks approach to picking a chairman.

“It’s a new era for water in Southern California,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), a frequent critic of the MWD. “He will bring a balanced approach to (economic) growth and concern for the environment. For MWD, it is a radical departure.”

After just one year on the board, Gage, former chief deputy to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and a former member of the California Assembly, pieced together a commanding coalition of directors by mending a long-strained relationship between the Los Angeles and San Diego delegations on the board.

Some directors said the coalition of former enemies was an unholy alliance based on pork-barrel promises. But Gage also pulled in a sizable showing of representatives from numerous small cities primarily in southern and eastern Los Angeles County to round out the victory with nearly 58% of the vote.

The election between Gage and Blake was a face-off between the older, traditionalist wing of the board that relies on new dams or canals to solve water shortages and an upstart faction of younger, more political directors who want to set a new environmental direction for the nation’s largest water agency.

Gage seemed an unlikely choice for leadership of the organization, which has a $817.9-million annual budget and is referred to by many critics as an “old boys club.” With his trademark open collar and penchant for river rafting, Gage is a relative newcomer and one of the board’s younger members.

But Robert Gottlieb, a UCLA professor of urban planning and former MWD director, said Gage’s election “is an indication of the changes that have already occurred on the board.”

No longer a bastion of older white males--who for years had a nurse stand by at meetings with an oxygen bottle--the board is increasingly young, female and of color.

The 51-member panel includes nine women, three blacks and three Latinos. The first woman and African-American were not appointed to the MWD board until 1974, and the first Latino joined in 1976.

“There isn’t any old guard any longer,” said Gottlieb, author of “Thirst for Growth,” a book about the development of the MWD. “The election was almost anticlimactic. There’s been a leadership vacuum for years.”

The campaign for chairman itself was unusual for the MWD, where past elections were formalities accomplished by a vote of acclamation.

This year’s unusually active campaign for the unpaid, two-year post saw politicking on a scale that old-timers say was unprecedented.

The board’s 51 directors represent 27 member agencies spread over a six-county region from Ventura County to the Mexican border and inland to Riverside. Directors have voting power based on the tax base in their city or district. Los Angeles, with the greatest tax base in the region, has the largest board contingent. Its eight directors cast 22.1% of the vote. Fullerton, by contrast, has just one director and less than 1% of the vote.

As in most battles, Gage said, the victors will enjoy the spoils and he foresees changes in important committee chairmanships and other appointments.

But Gage insisted that his priority will be to achieve a consensus of the board members on policy.

“I intend to meet with each one of you to fashion an action plan,” Gage told directors after the vote. “I welcome your thoughts, ideas and criticisms.”

Gage, currently a television commentator, said he already was taking one criticism to heart: “I often shoot from the hip. . . . That will have to change.”

The agency’s primary goal, Gage said, will be the same as it has been since the MWD was founded in 1928--to secure more water for Southern California.

But the way that is accomplished will change, he said. Water conservation, recycling and reclamation will be emphasized more, he said. The changes will be “an enhancement as opposed to a new direction,” he said.

Gage said he will step down as president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commissioners on Jan. 1, when he officially takes the reins of the MWD board. He will remain a DWP commissioner.

Not everyone was pleased with Gage’s election.

State Sen. Ruben Ayala (D-Chino), chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources, said: “I have some concerns about the direction they are going.”

Ayala is opposed to Gage’s plan to put Southland farmers on an equal footing with businesses, homeowners and cities. Currently, farmers are entitled only to surplus MWD water.

“We’re already deficient (in water supply), and now they want to share that deficiency with other users,” Ayala complained. Similarly, Ayala said he fears that Gage will want to use MWD supplies for environmental purposes, such as providing fresh water for lakes, rivers or estuaries.

“I don’t like his strong environmental views,” said Ayala. “We need moderation. People are pretty doggone important, too.”