City Council faces a very political decision this week as it interviews and selects the chair of the board of the local water and waste authority. Seven have applied for the position, which is the only citizen representative on a five-person board that makes decisions for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority.
Those who have applied are: Rich Collins, a retired UVA professor; Mike Van Yahres, president of a tree company; Donald Sours Sr., an engineering consultant; Mary Huey, a tax accountant; Alex Foraste, a civil engineer; Bruce Sherman, a carpenter; and Mike Gaffney, a homebuilder who is the current RWSA chair. Council will conduct open interviews with candidates December 9.
What makes the appointment particularly political is that a group calling themselves Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan has been pressuring Council to change the 50-year local water supply plan. Some members of that group, most notably former city councilor Kevin Lynch, have made damning comments of RWSA’s executive director, Tom Frederick, as well as of the RWSA board, which Lynch derides as “four bureaucrats and a developer.”
By re-appointing Gaffney, who has served as chair since 2002, Council would largely be seen as endorsing the current direction of the water supply plan. But it could do a 180 by appointing Collins, one of the leaders of the opposition group who preceded Gaffney as RWSA chair. Collins says that he would push to change the current plan by dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir immediately and repairing—rather than replacing—the dam at Ragged Mountain. Whatever the choice, it requires the approval also of the county Board of Supervisors, which might veto Collins.
The most politically palatable alternative candidate, however, could be Van Yahres, who is the son of late state delegate Mitch Van Yahres.
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