MWD Manager Boronkay to Resign : Government: He led the water agency through an era of great change. It is now undergoing the biggest overhaul in its history.

Carl Boronkay, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District and one of the nation’s most powerful water officials, has announced his resignation from the giant agency that is in the midst of the biggest overhaul in its 64-year history.

Boronkay, 63, sent a letter to the MWD Board of Directors over the New Year’s weekend saying he will retire March 31 after 17 years with the nation’s largest water agency, including eight as general manager.

The decision comes at a turbulent time for the district, as a new chairman with a reputation as an environmentalist takes the helm, budget woes worsen and California continues to suffer the effects of a lengthy drought. The agency, which supplies more than 60% of the water consumed by 15 million residents in the six-county Southern California region, is at the same time seeking to develop a host of new water sources to satisfy an unprecedented growth in demand.

Boronkay, credited by friends and detractors for initiating an era of tremendous change at the MWD, said he wants to have a third career before retiring for good. Boronkay spent 20 years in the state attorney general’s office before joining the MWD in 1976.

He said he wants to stay involved in water policy issues and is interested in pursuing a position in the Clinton Administration’s Interior Department. He is also considering working with environmental groups or working in state government.

Mike Gage, the incoming chairman of the board, said he will call for a nationwide search for a successor and would like to find someone much like Boronkay, whom he described as a strong administrator and creative leader.

Boronkay said his departure from the $189,000-a-year job had nothing to do with the recent election of Gage--a relatively new director and a self-avowed environmentalist--as chairman of the board.

“My plans were independent of who was elected chair,” said Boronkay. Gage agreed that there was no policy dispute or personality conflict between the two, saying: “I wish I could have him to work with for the next few years.”

E. Thornton Ibbetson, the longest-serving MWD board member, said Boronkay continues to enjoy the support of the board. “There’s no animosity at all. It’s just an opportune time for him.”

Still, other directors acknowledge that Boronkay’s authoritarian management style is being challenged increasingly by a younger, more liberal and environmentally sensitive board.

Boronkay’s departure is the latest in a string of high-level defections. Fred Vendig, general council; Mike Maguire, assistant general manger, and Paul Singer, director of operations, all have retired in the last two months.

Boronkay’s resignation is also the latest in the departure of long-serving governmental leaders in recent months. Mayor Tom Bradley decided not to run for a fifth term, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner bowed out of a reelection campaign and Supervisor Kenneth Hahn did not seek an 11th term. Resignations of key appointed officials included County Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Bill Anton.

Kevin Wolf of the environmental group Friends of the River, predicted that a much younger general manager will replace Boronkay.

“Boronkay won’t be replaced by someone in their 60s,” Wolf said. “It will be someone in their 40s or 50s. Someone not of the Depression or World War II generation. Someone who will have a different religion about water.”

Wolf and others suggested that Boronkay is leaving now because he has accomplished much of what he set out in his agenda, including sweeping federal legislation last year that will for the first time allow water from the giant Central Valley Project to be sold to urban water districts.

“Carl has arrived at a point of accomplishment that he had aimed for,” said outgoing MWD Chair Lois Krieger. “I do believe he has broken ground, the future was made clearer.”

But Boronkay also acknowledged that there are some things he leaves unfinished. At the top of the list is the Peripheral Canal--the much maligned water project defeated by the state’s voters in 1982 that would have diverted water from Northern California around the Sacramento River Delta and into the south.

Boronkay continues to advocate a major overhaul of the state’s plumbing system in the delta for the benefit of urban water users as well as for the endangered fishery there.

Assemblyman Richard Katz said, “The change is not complete, but Boronkay did get the MWD started in the right direction.” Katz, who often crossed swords with Boronkay and the MWD, said that the general manager did come around to a more environmentally minded position during his tenure.

“He realized that you can be economically sensitive and environmentally conscious at the same time,” Katz said. “Carl took the agenda as far as he could. Now it is time for someone else to continue it.”

Bob Gottlieb, UCLA professor of urban planning and author of a study of the MWD, said of Boronkay, “He was progressive, in relation to the policies that came before him. But he took a stutter step back on a few issues,” including water quality and growth of the district.

Still, Boronkay leaves an indelible mark on the agency, as staff members already jokingly divide time in terms of “BC” and “AC”-- before Carl and after Carl.