20-Year Las Virgenes Water Board Member Defeated

Vernon Padgett, a retired doctor and frequent critic of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, has unseated board President Harold “Hal” Helsley, the white-bearded director who has served for 20 years.

Backed by a group pushing for lower water rates, Padgett and two other challengers seeking seats on the board forced three veteran directors--with 48 years of water board service among them--into tight races. Incumbents Ann Dorgelo and Glen Peterson, however, appear to have hung on to their seats, according to preliminary results from the county registrar, which will be final later this month.

“My reaction was one of pleasure--I might even say extreme pleasure,” said Padgett, who helped lead an unsuccessful recall campaign against Helsley two years ago. Padgett said he intends to try lowering water rates and will explore the possibility of selling the $8-million headquarters the district built in 1996.

With 2,025 votes to Helsley’s 1,676, Padgett defeated the Division 3 incumbent by a wider margin than seen in the other Las Virgenes water board races. He captured 55% of the vote. Helsley could not be reached for comment.

In Division 2, Peterson garnered 1,577 votes (52%) to beat challenger Dana Levy, who received 1,472 votes.

In Division 5, Dorgelo, meanwhile, bested challenger Thomas Paskell with 1,680 votes to Paskell’s 1,507. Dorgelo won 53% of the votes cast in that race.

Peterson said he was surprised by Helsley’s defeat but speculated it might have been linked to an increase in water rates two years ago. Nonetheless, he predicted, “The policies of the water board will basically stay the same.”

The influence of Citizens for Lower Water Rates, the newly formed group that supported the opposition slate, seems to have been less dramatic than incumbents feared. Before the election, incumbents and their supporters raised questions about the group’s motive, arguing that it was a grass-roots front for developers trying to take over the water board.

Padgett, however, attributed his decisive win to strong support from his homeowners association, not the backing of the citizens group.

As treasurer of the Greater Mulwood Homeowners Assn., Padgett has written dispatches about the water board for the Calabasas group’s newsletter, which reaches about 1,300 families, for two years. “It is their victory,” he said.