Dr. Tom Moore and Marina Coast Water District (MCWD)

RE-ELECT TOM MOORE IN 2020

BOARD OF DIRECTORS, MARINA COAST WATER DISTRICT

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP

Photos by Steve Zmak of Zmak Creative and Richard Newhouse

If you get your water service from Marina Coast Water District (MCWD), you want clean, reliable water and wastewater collection services at a reasonable cost. You also want to have great customer service and easily accessible water conservation advice from the District. And it's in your interest to have a Board of Directors that is honest, trusted, courteous, respectful and fiscally responsible.

Elect me on November 3, 2020 and I will promote your interests. I'll show respect for you, the public at large, District employees, fellow board members and other agencies. And I'll work to maintain your trust and the great reputation that the District now enjoys with other government agencies, the media and the public.

In the years that I've served on the District Board, I've consistently supported your interests. I will continue to promote water conservation and vote for information and control systems to ensure you get excellent service at a reasonable cost. I will support actions and projects to protect your groundwater and to ensure continued access to this low cost water source. I'll continue to work for good relationships with surrounding cities and special districts and support the work of the District's Groundwater Sustainability Agency.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE PAST FOUR YEARS

· Obtained approval from the Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission to expand the District’s legal boundaries to encompass the developed and entitled parts of the Ord Community served by the District. The District’s new, expanded boundaries were approved in July, 2019.

· Successfully negotiated with Monterey One Water to build and complete the nearly ten-mile long conveyance pipeline that will serve the Ord Community with recycled water and now serves the Pure Water Monterey project. This $28 million project was built on schedule and very nearly on budget with the cooperation of the citizens of Marina and the Ord Community.

· Despite resistance from Monterey County Council’s Office, established the Marina Coast Water District Groundwater Sustainability Agency over Central Marina and the Ord Community.

· As a Groundwater Sustainability Agency under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the District is halfway through the process of developing the Groundwater Sustainability Plan for the Monterey Subbasin (one of nine such subbasins in the Salinas Valley) that is due by January 31, 2021.

· Maintained steadfast and effective opposition to Cal Am’s proposed desalination project in Marina’s back yard. We will continue to oppose this project until either the project dies or Cal Am moves the slant wells away from the CEMEX property and north of the Salinas River.

· Developed new ten-year Water and Wastewater Master Plans.

· Reorganized the Marina Coast Water Conservation Commission and approved new water conservation incentives.

· Settled the Cal Am and Monterey County lawsuit against the District.

· Provided temporary leased space for the Veterans Administration to train new employees.

· Built a new headquarters building for the local office of the Bureau of Land Managements and leased it to them for 20 years.

· We have helped the FORA Board understand the complex water issues related to the redevelopment of the former Fort Ord so that the transition out of the contract with FORA went smoothly as FORA went out of business.

· With the dissolution of FORA, the District has re-taken possession of its office building on Imjin Parkway and is in the process of renovating the office spaces and parts of the building so that some District staff can move out of World War II era former Army buildings and into this much newer facility.

· The District has won an award for the quality of its consolidated annual financial report for 12 years in a row.

Your support, contribution and vote on November 3rd will be much appreciated!

TOM'S QUALIFICATIONS

· Tom served without pay from 1993 to 2010 and 2012 to 2016 on the Board of Directors of the Marina Coast Water District. He has been president of the Board for the past two and a half years.

· He served for 30 years in the United States Army and Army Reserve as an Engineer Officer, Field Artillery Officer, Quartermaster Officer and General Staff Officer. He retired as a Colonel in 2004.

· Tom was elected by the Special Districts in Monterey County to serve on the Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). He served two years on the Commission.

· He has served for eight one-year terms as President of the Board of Directors, Marina Coast Water District.

· He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency for more than eight years.

· Tom served on the Marina Planning Commission for six years.

· Tom chaired the MCWD Water Conservation Commission from 1990 to 1993.

· He is a founding District representative to and past President, Vice President and Treasurer of the Special Districts Association of Monterey County. He is currently the President.

· Tom served for multiple terms in various positions related to MCWD, including the Executive Committee, the City/District Committee, the Operations and Maintenance Committee, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority Board of Directors, the Joint Powers Insurance Agency Board of Directors and various negotiating committees.

· Tom has Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Virginia Tech, an M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford University and a B.A. in Math and Physics from Northeastern University.

· He has taught at the Naval Postgraduate School for more than 25 years.

· Tom has taught for the Fisher Graduate School of International Business at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; CSU Monterey Bay; Golden Gate University; the University of San Francisco; Virginia Tech; Stanford University; and the Army Logistics Management College.

· He is a Certified Professional Logistician.

· Tom has served on the national councils of two national non-profit organizations and as an officer in two state level and five local non-profit organizations, including the Monterey Peninsula Soccer League, the Monterey Peninsula Choral Society and the Ventana Chapter of the Sierra Club.

· Tom has resided in Marina since 1988 and is married to Monique Fargues.

Endorsements

Name	Postion or Affiliation
Jane Parker	Monterey County Supervisor
Gail Morton	Marina City Council Member
Frank O'Connell	Marina City Council Member
Lisa Berkley	Marina City Council Member
Jon Wizard	Seaside City Council Member
Jason Campbell	Seaside City Council Member
Alan Haffa	Monterey City Council Member
Jan Shriner	Vice President, Marina Coast Water District
Herbert Cortez	Director, Marina Coast Water District
Matt Zefferman	Director, Marina Coast Water District
Dennis Allion	Former Director, Monterey One Water
David Burnette	Marina Planning Commissioner
Diane Creasey	Former Trustee, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District
Therese Kollerer	Citizens for Just Water and East Garrison Resident
Susan Schiavone	Member, Public Water Now
Dr. Dan Turner	Member, Public Water Now
Elisabeth Billingsley	Marina Resident
Christine Burnette	Marina Resident
Dr. Robert Creasey	Marina Resident
Dennis Dyrud	Marina Resident
Dr. Monique Fargues	Marina Resident
Mike Kennedy	Marina Resident
Eric Petersen	Salinas Resident
Linda and Roy Madsen	Marina Resident
Gloria Mayugba McKee	Marina Resident
Judy Merritt	Marina Resident
Greg Reilly	East Garrison Resident
Dr. Robert Tomlinson	East Garrison Resident
Julius Vanderspek	Marina Resident
Liesbeth Visscher	Marina Resident
Steve Zmak	Marina Resident/Zmak Creative

Sufficient Water Supply: Unlike Cal Am, Marina Coast Water District (MCWD), serving Marina and the Ord Community, has been blessed with access to water from the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin. While this Basin currently faces a number of challenges such as seawater intrusion, it presently serves us with a sufficient quantity of inexpensive groundwater. Our District continues to help the Monterey County Water Resources Agency address the basin challenges that exist.

Growth is a Challenge: In the past, the land use jurisdictions in Monterey County enabled population growth at a rapid pace. This inevitably increased the demand for water from the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin and from adjoining areas such as the Carmel River and Seaside groundwater basin. These increased demands have led to some damage to these water sources. Local water agencies such as Marina Coast Water District (MCWD) have responded to these problems by increasing investments in conservation and looking to develop new sources of water. The Marina Coast Water District (MCWD) has been particularly proactive in this regard: it built the first publicly owned ocean water desalination plant on the Central Coast and built one of the first recycled water plants in the region. The District has a certified EIR that covers a project to deliver desalinated and reclaimed water to the Ord Community. The District recently approved the construction contract for the recycled water distribution system that will serve the Ord Community and parts of Central Marina. That project is scheduled to be complete by July, 2021. Most immediately it will enable the District to reduce its groundwater pumping by 600 acre-feet per year. This is enough water to serve about 2,400 homes.

New Sources of Water: All the projects to develop new sources of water have two common characteristics:

- They are expensive.

- They are legally, technically, environmentally and politically complex.

When choosing your Board Directors for the Marina Coast Water District (MCWD), you should select candidates who will represent your interests while navigating these complex financial, legal, technical, environmental and political issues in a responsible, mature, collaborative way. You should also choose MCWD Board Directors who can develop good relations with other agencies and cities on the Monterey Peninsula.

To Become a Donor or Endorser:

If you would like to support this website and/or my election campaign, please fill out the following form and return it to Tom Moore for MCWD Board 2020, 3235 Isla del Sol Way, Marina, CA 93933-4321:

Donation Form

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are the rates different in central Marina and the Ord Community? When the Marina Coast Water District (MCWD) and the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) made the agreement under which MCWD provides service to the Ord Community, FORA wanted to be sure that revenues generated by Ord Community ratepayers would remain in the Ord Community. Similarly, MCWD wanted to be sure that revenues generated by Central Marina ratepayers would remain in Central Marina. Thus the agreement calls for the revenues and costs of the Ord Community to be kept separate from the revenues and costs of central Marina. This is known as as maintaining separate cost centers, although it really means that both revenues and costs for each area are kept in separate accounts. Please note that both the Ord Community and central Marina save money by splitting certain overhead costs. For instance, we have one General Manager, one laboratory, one finance officer, one Board Secretary, etc. The costs of these employees, buildings, equipment, etc. are split between the Ord Community and Central Marina, saving money for both areas.

3. Why are the sewer rates higher in the Ord Community? When the Marina Coast Water District took over the wastewater collection system on the former Fort Ord, much of the underground piping and pump stations were already old and had not been used very much since 1991 when the Army began to close the base. Wastewater collection systems that are made from metal piping and are only lightly used for long periods of time tend to corrode much more rapidly than normal. So the District inherited 70+ miles of old, corroding wastewater collection piping and other sewer related facilities. Much of this infrastructure has had to be replaced, moved and/or re-built. In addition, the new development taking place in the Ord Community is scattered around the former Army base. So while the developers are paying for the new wastewater infrastructure within their respective development footprints, the rest of the Ord Community has, so far, had to bear a lot of the cost of upgrading and maintaining the connections between these scattered developments.

4. I've heard that the developers on the former Fort Ord don't have to pay any capacity fees to the MCWD to build there. Is this currently true? No. A capacity fee is a charge to allow someone to buy into a water and wastewater system that already exists. This fee consists of two parts:

1. A buy-in to the existing system to "catch them up" with the contributions that existing customers have made to the capital cost of the system; and

2. A fee that is calculated based on any expansion of the system that is caused by the building of the new development.

A capacity fee is the usual way that water districts throughout the United States obtain the funds necessary to pay for system expansion and ensure equity between new customers and existing customers. The current one-time capacity charges (for water and sewer service) for new homes built in Central Marina this year is $7,929 per home and in the Ord Community it is $14,711.

When the MCWD first began providing service to the Ord Community under the contract with FORA, the District was not allowed to establish developer paid capacity fees. FORA was so concerned about the costs associated with removing old Army buildings and cleaning up the redevelopment sites that they insisted that MCWD have no developer paid capacity fees. However, more than ten years ago the MCWD convinced FORA to approve developer paid capacity charges for new homes built in the Ord Community.

If you are interested in obtaining electronic copies of MCWD agendas, complete Board packets and/or minutes of past meetings you can find them here.

Paid for by Tom Moore for MCWD Board 2020, FPPC #1428395