Santa Clara Valley Water District names new CEO

Rick Callender, former president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP and a longtime water executive, has been named CEO of Silicon Valley’s largest water provider, the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

The district, also known as Valley Water, provides drinking water and flood protection to 2 million residents in Santa Clara County.

The board of the agency, which has 859 employees and a $610 million annual budget, voted 4-3 to select Callender late Tuesday from a group that included three other finalists for the job. The vote makes Callender the first African-American CEO of the water district and one of the most high-ranking African-American water leaders in the United States, along with Harlan Kelly Jr., general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

The board agreed to pay Callender $326,352 a year, along with a $600 monthly car allowance, when he takes over July 11 from retiring CEO Norma Camacho. Callender is currently serving as the district’s chief of external affairs, overseeing communications and government relations.

Rick Callender, former president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP and a longtime water executive, was named CEO of the Santa Clara Valley Water District on May 26, 2020. (Photo: SCVWD) 

Over the past decade, the district, which is the water wholesaler for the county, has won accolades for its advancements in recycling wastewater to help expand the supply for landscape irrigation and industrial uses. During California’s historic five-year drought, from 2012 to 2016, its conservation efforts cut water use 28 percent countywide.

But after a dry winter that could be the beginning of a new drought in California, the district is facing a myriad of major challenges. Chief among them is a federal order requiring its largest reservoir, Anderson, to be drained starting on Oct. 1 due to earthquake safety risks at the aging dam the district has been unsuccessful in retrofitting over the past decade. Plans to replace that dam, which will cost more than $500 million, are still not complete.

The district also needs to secure more than $1 billion to expand flood control work through San Jose — particularly on Coyote Creek, which flooded badly in 2017, causing $100 million in damage near downtown, and to build a new dam at Pacheco Pass. That project, for which the price tag has now grown to $1.3 billion, was granted a commitment for nearly $500 million in state bond funding. But to get that state bond money, the project must lock in 75% of its outside funding and finish its draft environmental studies by Jan. 1, 2022 — a date which is quickly approaching while the project still remains in the relatively early planning stages.

“I look forward to working with the employees and the board to address the challenges,” said Callender on Thursday. “Where you have challenges you have opportunity.”

All seven members of the board of the water district, a public agency based in San Jose, are elected and serve four-year terms. The close vote had political drama. Voting to name Callender CEO were Gary Kremen, Dick Santos, John Varela and Tony Estremera. Voting no were chairwoman Nai Hsueh, Barbara Keegan and Linda LeZotte.

The debate, which mostly took place behind closed doors in closed session, centered on whether Callender, who has a political background rather than a construction engineering background, was the right person for the job, along with his interactions with other staff members over the years. At the meeting, numerous public representatives spoke in favor of his appointment, including South Bay civil rights leaders.

Callender, 49, is a Las Vegas native who grew up in San Jose and graduated from Santa Teresa High School in 1988.  He earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering and technology from California State University, Chico in 1994. Around that time, he also worked as a campaign organizer for the California Democratic Party during the gubernatorial campaign of Kathleen Brown, and as a congressional fellow in the office of former Oakland Rep. Ron Dellums.

From 1995 to 1996, Callender worked as a special assistant to former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, and was hired at the water district in 1996. He served as president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP from 2000 to 2008, and stepped down to attend law school. Callender graduated from Northwestern California University School of Law, and is a member of the California State Bar.

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