Paradise Irrigation DistrictCandidate for Director, Division 3Duncan Replacement

Most of my career was managing the audiovisual service at a major teaching hospital in Southern California. We produced training materials and documentation for a wide variety of medical specialties within the hospital and the associated university. I was responsible for more than 20 employees and an annual budget of slightly more than a million dollars.

I also managed a group of more than 100 volunteers on a video production crew for my church.

In late 2003, we moved to north Idaho to help care for ailing parents, and I had the opportunity to manage a small business incubator for the Economic Development Corporation of Sandpoint. I was delighted to be involved with the community through Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce.

Now family responsibilities have brought us to Paradise, and I'm looking forward to community involvement here. I think my experience can be useful in restoring the public's trust in the Paradise Irrigation District.

The role of government is to allow citizens as a group to achieve things they could not as individuals. The Paradise Irrigation District is an example of citizens of the ridge banding together to manage a natural resource, water, for the benefit of all. In the 100 years the district has been in existence, the complexity of the task has multiplied as technology, environmental concerns, and the political and regulatory pressure from our parched neighbors to the south have grown.

I have a strong belief that we are much better served by having control of our water resources in our own hands. Should we not comply with the State Water Resources Control Board deadline to cease discharging our process water into Magalia Reservoir, I believe there is a potential for our water district to be taken over by the State of California and eventually be sold to a commercial water company.