Rufener, Knopp Lead Water District Races

A challenger for the District 4 seat on the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District board seems to have edged out an incumbent, while a Calabasas man easily won the District 1 seat left vacant this year.

With absentee ballots still uncounted, Ken Rufener, a former Westlake Village mayor and city councilman, squeaked past incumbent Steve Gavin with 2,216 votes, or 50.31%, to Gavin’s 2,188 votes, or 49.68%.

The results will not be official until the absentee ballots are counted, which is expected to take more than three weeks. But Rufener said he is confident he will maintain his lead.

“I think this will stand up,” he said. “I plan to proceed just as if I’ve been elected. I’ve not been on the board, so I have something to learn. But I’m not going to wait until they declare it official.”

Gavin could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Rufener, who ended eight years as a Westlake Village councilman more than a year ago, said he was encouraged to run and take his management style from the council chambers to the district board room.

“I think there was a great deal of dissatisfaction in the community [about] the way the water district has been managed in the past six or seven years,” he said, citing several water rate increases.

In District 1, West Hills resident Gordon Knopp won a clear victory over two others attempting to fill the seat vacated this summer by longtime board member A. Macneil Stelle. Knopp said he worked for the district at one time and has a background in engineering that will help him in his new post.

In unofficial returns, Knopp received 2,419 votes, or 64.67%, while Frank Rich, a Calabasas planning commissioner, received 833 votes, or 22.27%.

Calabasas resident John J. Coveney Jr. received 488 votes, or 13.04%.

Members of the five-person board serve four-year terms.