Water District Race Shapes Up Quietly

In possibly the year’s quietest election campaign, two candidates are vying Tuesday for a seat on the Camrosa Water District board.

Incumbent Tim Hoag faces challenger James Lechuga in Division 3, the district’s most easterly division, which includes small portions of Moorpark and Thousand Oaks, as well as most of the Santa Rosa Valley south of Santa Rosa Road.

But calling the campaign a race may be stretching things a bit. Lechuga, a 34-year-old Thousands Oaks farmer and commercial property manager, said he has no complaints with the way the district is run. And he concedes that he has made little effort to catch the attention of the district’s 14,805 registered voters.

“The water board there is doing a really good job,” Lechuga said. “I just thought it would be good to be a part of a strong team. . . . My interest is to just be a public servant.”

Hoag, a 40-year-old Thousand Oaks pharmacist, is seeking his second term on the board of the district that serves 27,000 people in the Camarillo area, including residents of Leisure Village.

“The reason I’m running for reelection is that we have so many projects on the burners right now, I want to see them through to completion,” he said.

That includes a $9-million waste-water treatment plant that the district broke ground on in October and several projects designed to reduce Camrosa’s reliance on imported water.

Quiet as the Division 3 contest is, the only other board member seeking reelection, Division 4 representative Ronald J. Vogel, is practically invisible. Since no one is running against him, Vogel’s name isn’t even on the ballot, and he is expected to be reappointed by the board.

Board members represent geographical divisions within the district but are elected at large by voters.