FPUD seeking applications to replace Hayden on board

Bert Hayden has chosen to retire from the Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) board, and FPUD will be appointing a replacement to fill that seat for the remainder of the calendar year.

"Any applicants for the position have until April 30 to submit their name," said FPUD general manager Brian Brady.

Hayden was initially elected to the FPUD board in the November 2000 election and was re-elected in 2004, 2008, and 2012. "He's served the board, on the board, long and well," Brady said.

FPUD has elected its board members by seats with each of the five directors representing a specific seat, but the seats cover the entire district and the voters for the entire district choose the director for each seat.

On March 7, the FPUD board voted 5-0 to change the method of election from at large to by territorial unit effective with the November 2016 election. Although state law requires public utility districts to elect board members at large, a previous exemption allows election by territorial unit for public utility districts in Placer County and a bill to allow an exemption for San Diego County is undergoing the legislative process.

The March 7 action also approved maps for each division, and that map placed Hayden and current director Al Gebhart in the same division.

Hayden chose to retire from the board rather than to run against Gebhart in this November's election.

"He had been thinking about stepping down for the last six months or so," Brady said.

Discussions about electing board members by territorial unit date back to the initial proposal of a consolidation between FPUD and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, which elects its board members by division. A hybrid proposal to elect four directors of the proposed consolidated district by division and three board members at large was rejected by the Rainbow board members in early 2014. San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission rejected the FPUD-Rainbow merger proposal in September 2015, and that process included maps of proposed divisions.

The other three FPUD board members - Milt Davies, Don McDougal, and Charley Wolk - are in divisions with one incumbent apiece. The division election timing was based on the terms of the current members; McDougal will make the decision whether or not to run for re-election in 2016 while Davies and Wolk have terms which expire in 2018.

The selection of Hayden's replacement, which is expected to occur at FPUD's May 23 board meeting, will be under the current system.

"This appointment will be an at-large appointment. If, however, a person is appointed in what becomes a division where there is an incumbent who still has two years on their term there would be no election in that division," Brady said.

Thus if the appointee lives in a division with an 2018 election that appointee will no longer be on the board after December 2016. An appointee who lives in the same division as Gebhart or McDougal can choose to run for re-election in 2016, as can an appointee from the division which has no current board member.

"The Fallbrook Village area does not have an incumbent," Brady said.

FPUD's board may consider the division of residence as a factor in the appointment, but if an applicant lives in the Fallbrook Village division the board is not required to give preference to that candidate.

"It's a political appointment, so the board is free to do as they choose," Brady said.