The East Bay Municipal Utility District's seven-member board, elected by ward, sets rates and approves big pipeline and treatment projects. Four seats were up this year, but only two are on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Wards 2 and 4: no election

On Aug. 18 the board voted 7-0 to appoint the only candidates in Wards 2 and 4, board President Luz Gómez and Director Andy Katz, to terms running through 2030. EBMUD says skipping those two elections saved ratepayers about $900,000. Under the state law that governs the district, appointed directors serve exactly as if they had been elected.

Ward 3: Marguerite Young vs. Don Gray

Ward 3 covers Piedmont and much of Oakland in Alameda County, plus Orinda, Moraga, El Sobrante and parts of Pinole and Richmond in Contra Costa County.

  • Marguerite Young (incumbent), first elected in 2014. Her ballot statement says she put EBMUD on a path to net-zero emissions by 2030, nearly tripled the pace of pipeline replacement, and made the district's shutoff moratorium permanent. She lists endorsements from Clean Water Action, the Sierra Club and AFSCME.
  • Don Gray, a retired wastewater manager who worked at EBMUD for more than 30 years. His statement says he wants the lowest responsible rates and cites his work on water recycling, two patents on food-waste recycling processes, and avoiding a $2 billion ammonia-treatment build-out.

Ward 7: four candidates

Ward 7 includes Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, parts of Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo and San Ramon, and Norris Canyon. The candidates, as listed by EBMUD:

  • April Chan, the incumbent
  • Joseph Grcar, retired laboratory scientist
  • Luis Reynoso, university business professor
  • Gary Wolff, water resources engineer

Reynoso told the Walnut Creek Record he wants "rigorous scrutiny of spending, not automatic acceptance of higher costs." He served on the Hayward Unified school board from 2008 and was elected to the Chabot-Las Positas community college board in 2020. He is a registered Republican, though the race is nonpartisan.

How to vote

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls and vote centers close at 8 p.m., and mailed ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and arrive within seven days. You can check your registration and ballot status at sos.ca.gov/elections. California lets you register and vote the same day at a vote center.