Three New Directors Seated on Metropolitan’s Board

Three new directors representing the Central Basin Municipal Water
District and the San Diego County Water Authority have joined the board
of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Robert O. Apodaca and Frank Heldman represent Carson-based Central Basin
on Metropolitan’s 38-member board. They replace three-term director
Phillip D. Hawkins and Leticia Vásquez-Wilson, who served as secretary
of the Metropolitan board, respectively. S. Gail Goldberg succeeds Fern
Steiner in representing the Water Authority. Steiner had served on the
board since February 2009. All three were sworn in Monday, March 11.

Apodaca, a retired social services worker, returns to Metropolitan’s
board for the third time. First elected to the Central Basin board in
November 1998, he represents La Habra Heights, La Mirada, Pico Rivera,
Santa Fe Springs and Whittier. He currently serves as Central Basin’s
board president.

A graduate of Woodbury University, Apodaca was an administrative
coordinator for former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty. He also worked at
the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers and was a
field director to then-Los Angeles City Councilman Art Snyder. In
addition, he was the community relations and government liaison for the
city of Los Angeles' Project Heavy, an anti-gangs program, and was a
partner with A&A Communications. He is a longtime member of the
Association of California Water Agencies and the Main San Gabriel Basin
Watermaster.

Heldman, who joined Central Basin Municipal Water District last month,
represents the district’s large water users in its southeast Los Angeles
County service area. The large water users purchase about 78 percent of
water provided by the district.

With 32 years of experience in water operations for both municipal and
private corporations, Heldman is director of operations for Liberty
Utilities, a nationwide regulated water, wastewater, natural gas,
electric and propane/air utility company with a regional office in
Downey.

Prior to joining Liberty in September 2017, Heldman was the water
utility manager for the city of Monterey Park for three years and
assistant district manager for Golden State Water for 20 years. His
experience includes securing competitive grant funding under Proposition
84, which provided funds for safe drinking water, water quality and
supply; assisting with groundwater basin remediation; and managing staff
for water treatment and distribution systems.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management
from the University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in organizational
leadership from Chapman University.

With more than 20 years of city planning experience, Goldberg retired in
February 2018 after eight years as the executive director of the Urban
Land Institute in Los Angeles. Before joining Urban Land Institute, she
was the director of the Los Angeles City Planning Department from 2006
to 2010. There she was responsible for directing policies and activities
of the department, including the development, maintenance and
implementation of the city’s General Plan and other special zoning
plans. Before her position in Los Angeles, she spent 17 years with the
city of San Diego’s Planning Department, where she was planning director
from 2000 to 2005 and oversaw a process to update the city’s 20-year-old
general plan.

Goldberg holds a degree in urban studies and planning from the
University of California, San Diego. She serves on the board of advisors
for the University of Southern California’s Center for Sustainable
Cities and USC’s Price School Masters of Planning Program. She has
served as a trustee of the Urban Land Institute and as chair of the San
Diego/Tijuana Urban Land Institute District Council.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a
state-established cooperative that, along with its 26 cities and retail
suppliers, provide water for nearly 19 million people in six counties.
The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern
California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to
develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other
resource-management programs.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190312005929/en/

Source: Business Wire
(March 12, 2019 - 6:01 PM EDT)

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