Text of the Long Beach Press-Telegram Endorsement (October 17 Issue):

 Kawasaki for the WRD

Never heard of this agency?

It's worth paying attention to the far end of the ballot.

f you live in Long Beach or any of six surrounding cities, your ballot on Nov. 7 will include candidates for a job you may know almost nothing about but is important if you care about having enough clean water whether in rain or shine. It is the Water Replenishment District, Division 3.

The incumbent is Norm Ryan, known lately for a mystifying public feud with the city of Long Beach over accounting for his campaign spending. He is opposed by three challengers. Our recommendation is to vote for the most qualified of the challengers, Long Beach Water Commissioner Lillian Kawasaki.

Here's why. We've given up trying to understand why Ryan refused to comply with requests that he account for spending city money in the form of matching funds for one of his several political campaigns. (Most recently, he has run, unsuccessfully, for Long Beach City Council, mayor and school board.) His refusal to comply with a reasonable request provoked a lawsuit, but, long story short; he finally is coming up with the data.

That episode is not a fair representation of his public service, and more about that later, but it may be partly the reason for a broad representation of local public figures to support Kawasaki, not Ryan.. To name a few: Mayor Bob Foster, former City Councilman Frank Colonna, and mayors or council members of Artesia, Cerritos, Lakewood and Signal Hill. She has the backing of both business and labor leaders, and a raft of environmental groups.

Kawasaki is backed also by Steve Conley, president of the Long Beach Water Commission, who is a conservative Republican, and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, who is a liberalish Democrat, as well as Laura Chick, the aggressive L.A. city auditor who has made a name for herself by sniffing out rot and corruption in high public places. (Chick saw Kawasaki's performance up close a few years ago, turning around a messed-up L.A. Community Development Agency, responsible for $300 million a year in federal grants.)

Kawasaki has a fine background for the Water Replenishment Board. She has worked for the Port of Los Angeles' Environmental Management Division, the L.A. Environmental Affairs Department, and now is managing environmental and regulatory oversight for the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Most relevant is her position on the Long Beach Water Commission.

Her primary opponent, Ryan, has a background in municipal finance and, to his credit, he helped oversee the turnaround of the Water Replenishment District, which, like too many agencies ignored by voters, has a messy past. The WRD was the target of a state audit that nearly blew it out of the water, so to speak, although the district now is in compliance with all the relevant demands of the audit.

Why have so many local leaders lined up behind Kawasaki, now that the WRD is emerging from its reputation for underperformance, bad financial decisions and low-grade self-dealing by perk-hungry board members? It has something to do with Ryan's tendency to rub some people the wrong way, as in his recent arguments with Long Beach City Hall and in his successful campaign of a few years ago to whack the city's utility tax in (which was rough on the bureaucracy, though nice for taxpayers).

In any event, just as was true when Ryan came into the WRD office four years ago, this is a good time for a change. Two of his opponents, teacher Douglas Frankenfeld and retired deputy county auditor John Carl Brogdon, have mounted weak and under funded campaigns. But Lillian Kawasaki is well supported, well funded and well prepared.

In the cities of Long Beach, Signal Hill, Lakewood, Cerritos, La Mirada, Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia, Division 3 of the Water Replenishment District will appear toward the far end of a very long ballot. But it matters. And the best choice for this important position is Kawasaki.

The Water Replenishment District race is the very last item on the November Ballot. Don't forget look for Lillian's name at the very end of the Ballot!

Copyright 2006 - Lillian Kawasaki for WRD - All Rights Reserved