The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors has chosen Director Linda J. LeZotte to serve as the 2019 Chair of the Board.
The unanimous vote on Tuesday, Jan. 8, launches Dir. LeZotte’s second tenure as board chair, the first one occurring in 2012.
Director LeZotte takes the helm at a time when the agency has $205.1 million in capital projects – out of a $509.9 million total budget – including flood protection projects along a variety of creeks throughout Santa Clara County, as well as the maintenance and repair of aging infrastructure, including the retrofit of Anderson Dam in its largest capital project ever.
"It is an honor and a privilege to be elected by the board of directors to sit in this chair,” said LeZotte. "I thank our board members for their strong leadership over the years and their commitment to the community. Staff and the board have made particularly great strides in the past year working together implementing the mission of the district. I look forward to continuing to make progress on the key issues our agency faces."
Chair LeZotte was first elected to the district board in 2010, and was reelected in 2014 and in 2018, which will be her final term on the board. She represents the city of Campbell, portions of the Willow Glen and Cambrian communities, and North Almaden and Blossom Hill areas of San José. She is a local attorney with 30 years of practice specializing in the areas of land use, environmental and municipal law, and corporate development. For eight years, LeZotte served as a distinguished member of the San José City Council, leading the green building/sustainability discussion, and six years as a San José Planning Commissioner.
In addition, the board elected Director Nai Hsueh to serve as vice chair for the year. Vice Chair Hsueh was first elected to the board in 2012, and served as board chair in 2013. She represents District 5, which includes the cities of Cupertino and Saratoga, as well as parts of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and west San José.