Head of Sonoma County Water Agency announces retirement

<p>The top official of the Sonoma County Water Agency, Randy Poole, will retire at the end of February, triggering a restructuring at the agency that supplies water to 600,000 people in the North Bay.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Under his direction, the Water Agency has become a force in local energy conservation efforts and in developing policies to limit global warming.</p><p>“It’s a good time. I’m 56, I’ve been in the water business for 33 years, worked on some pretty massive projects all over the country,” said Poole, a Petaluma resident. “It’s an opportunity to be thinking of other things to do over the next 30 or 40 years.”</p><p>Poole joined the Water Agency in 1991 when it had a full-time staff of 140, and later added 50 workers when the agency absorbed Sonoma County’s sanitation department. It now has 182 full-time employees and a budget of $170 million.</p><p>Poole, who was the chief engineer in 1991, took on the position of general manager as well in 1995 with the retirement of Bob Beach.</p><p>With Poole’s retirement, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved a reorganization on Nov. 3 that will split his role as general manager-chief engineer into two positions.</p><p>“The difficulty is finding an engineer who can deal with the political realities of the position and the management of the complex organization of the Water Agency,” Poole said. “There are not that many engineers in that arena who want to take it on. It is hard to have that rolled up into one position.”</p><p>The agency supplies water to the cities of Windsor, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma and Sonoma and the Valley of the Moon, North Marin and Marin Municipal water districts.</p><p>During the last few years, however, the relationship between the Water Agency and its customers has become increasingly strained as three years of drought have constrained supplies and the state’s Water Resources Control Board issued orders for conservation.</p><p>The water industry must reinvent itself from all sides, Poole said.</p><p>“When you look at what goes into a glass of water, it is cost and water quality, environmental issues, climate change issues, carbon-free issues (and) renewable energy,” Poole said.</p><p>Paul Helliker, general manager of the Marin Municipal Water District, said the cities and water districts felt left out as the Water Agency began making critical decisions about conserving water.</p><p>In particular, Helliker said the contractors were not told about the request to the state to reduce Russian River flows and the resulting conservation orders nor the decision to scrap 10 years of efforts to pursue additional water rights.</p><p>The agency is also operating under new rules imposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to protect the coho fishery in Dry Creek, the agency’s pipeline to Lake Sonoma, the operation of the Russian River mouth at Jenner and the flow levels below Lake Mendocino for the fall run of chinook salmon.</p><p>Those far-reaching rules have impacted the agency’s ability to provide water to its customers, and could cost as much as $500 million over the next 20 years to meet.</p><p>Helliker praised Poole, however, for putting together a coalition between California, Oregon and Washington for a federally-funded salmon restoration project and development of renewable resources.</p><p>Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt said she hopes the Water Agency and it contractors can form a closer relationship.</p><p>“This is an opportunity to appoint someone who can work in collaborative fashion with the interested parties, not just water contractors, but the public and interest groups that are trying to tackle these technical and long-term sustainability issues we are facing,” Torliatt said.</p><p>As general manager-chief engineer, Poole was earning $200,000 a year. He will retire with a pension of about $125,000 a year.</p><p>The new position of general manager has a salary range of $175,908 to $213,804, according to the posting.</p><p>The new general manager will select a chief engineer, who will oversee the deputy engineers and the agency’s operations.</p><p>At the same time, the Water Agency position of capital projects manager will be eliminated, said Brad Sherwood, Water Agency spokesman.</p><p>The recruitment is being managed by county supervisors Efren Carrillo and Shirlee Zane. Supervisors sit as the board of directors for the Water Agency.</p>