John Kunkel has been hired as interim general manager of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, its board of directors announced Friday.
Kunkel was most recently interim city manager of Huron in Fresno County. He’s a former police chief who has held city manager roles in several communities.
He will start work on Oct. 28 and serve as interim while the district continues to search for a permanent general manager.
The district is in the midst of a $13 million water system upgrade it has dubbed “Safeguarding San Lorenzo Valley” and which includes “replacing undersized pipelines, hardening against wildfires, ensuring more reliable water infrastructure and adding fire hydrants to improve water supply resiliency and increase firefighting capabilities.”
The San Lorenzo Valley Water District serves more than 7,900 metered connections in Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Zayante, Quail Hollow, Scotts Valley, Whispering Pines, Manana Woods and Felton.
The district has been operating without a permanent general manager or finance director for more than a year, and a previous interim general manager’s contract expired in August. The five-member San Lorenzo Valley Water District board of directors has had to take on some operational oversight that would typically be handled by a general manager.
It’s a critical time for the district, which is still working on recovery from the 2020 CZU wildfire, and $50 million in infrastructure damages it must figure out how to pay for.
In November, voters will decide a contested election for two open seats on the district’s board. They’ll also be asked to decide Measure U, a citizen-initiated ballot question that asks customers to overhaul the district’s fee structure so that it leans more heavily on water rate increases instead of hikes to flat-rate charges to raise revenue for operations and maintenance.
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