Gary Martin, the current president of the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency board of directors, clearly deserves to be reelected. He has skillfully served on the SCV Water and Castaic Lake Water Agency boards of directors for over 11 years. As CLWA vice president, he supported and participated in negotiations with Newhall County Water District that led to the formation of SCV Water and completed a decades-long objective to integrate the valley’s major water suppliers.
As an SCV Water director, he first served as vice president and since 2020 he has served multiple terms as the board president.
By reelecting Gary, we will be retaining his leadership and policy direction in support of the agency’s mission of providing responsible water stewardship to ensure the SCV has reliable supplies of high-quality water at a reasonable cost.
The recent historical drought highlights just how well SCV Water has performed in accomplishing its mission with Gary at the helm. We recently experienced what has been documented as the driest 22-year period in the last 1,200 years in the American Southwest. The conservation program implemented by SCV Water in 2022 in response to the governor’s executive order mandating water use cutbacks “restricted” residents and businesses to irrigating their landscapes three days a week, whereas certain other agencies had to restrict customers’ irrigation to one day a week.
Even in the face of this historic drought, the impact to SCV Water’s customers was minimal due to its robust water supply portfolio – a water supply portfolio that is the result of the dedication and expertise of agency staff and the commitment and sage leadership of Gary Martin and the agency’s board of directors.
Gary’s career as a water systems engineer and manager serve him well in his role as an SCV Water director. He knows what it takes to acquire, treat and deliver safe, reliable and affordable water. His track record as a director has been impeccable and he clearly deserves to be reelected.
Dan Masnada
Santa Clarita
