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Three new faces — and one familiar — are poised to win the open seats for the Zone 7 Water Agency Board of Directors following the June 2 primary election, according to preliminary tallies from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office.
The county results, which are based on mailed-in ballots and voter turnout Tuesday, show Jim Lehrman as the leading candidate with 26.47% (13,641 votes) as of 11:27 p.m. Tuesday night.
“I’m very happy to see that I’m currently the top vote-getter,” Lehrman told the Weekly the following day. “I thank all the people who voted for me, as well as my family, friends and neighbors here in the Tri-Valley for all of their support.”
Lehrman is a longtime Pleasanton resident who comes from a 40-year professional background in geology and hydrogeology. In the past, he also worked in environmental site assessment and remediation and spent the last decade leading an annual Earth Day creek cleanup along a stretch of the Arroyo Del Valle.
“I think that people voted for me because they believe I’m the best qualified candidate for the Zone 7 Board of Directors,” Lehrman said. “Also because they share my concerns about our groundwater contamination, and related to that, plans for new wells in western Pleasanton.”
Lehrman comments refer to his efforts to have the city of Pleasanton and Zone 7 reassess the proposed new groundwater wells regional project in Pleasanton, a joint project meant to address the region’s contaminated groundwater system..
“When I’m on the Board, assuming my lead holds, I’ll work with the other Directors to guide Zone 7 to a plan for our groundwater that will be better for current and future Tri-Valley residents,” Lehrman said.
Current Zone 7 director Sarah Palmer came in a strong second place with 24.42% (12,586 votes), as of election night. Palmer, the lone incumbent in this year’s race, has been a Livermore resident for over 45 years and has served on the Zone 7 board since 2006.
She holds a doctorate in biochemistry from University of Toronto and has worked in the field of biochemistry. She also worked in the medical diagnostics industry before shifting to teaching in various colleges.
“I was very pleased with the results,” Palmer also told the Weekly Wednesday afternoon. “I am so grateful to my supporters.”
She said she was particularly grateful for the support she saw from several of the Tri-Valley mayors who endorsed her and the groups of people she would see and talk to around the valley who expressed their support for her.
“I’m really grateful for that,” Palmer said. “I think it gave me a good leg up. It gave me a lot of confidence … knowing that maybe people could see that I am working for them and will continue to do so.”
Palmer also said she was happy with the rest of the frontrunners in the Zone 7 election and said she is excited to see what different perspectives they will bring to the board.
“I think we’ve got a good group of people on there now,” Palmer said, noting how the other three showed their commitment to the job by attending past Zone 7 board meetings. “I think it’s going to be a good, strong board.”
The third candidate who is poised to take one of the full-term seats on the Zone 7 board is former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory chemist Alan Burnham.
Burnham, who worked at LLNL for 35 years, ended election night with 17.18% (8,854 votes), according to the county.
“I’m certainly ready to take on the job,” Burnham said. “It’s a very important job to do, which is why I ran … because I believe public service is a really important thing for people to do, who are capable of doing it.”
Burnham spent most of his career working on a variety of energy and national security projects, including laser fusion. After he retired, he spent a few years teaching chemical kinetics at Stanford University.
The Livermore resident said he was particularly thankful for the people who wrote letters of support for him, considering he ran a minimal campaign.
“I didn’t collect any donations but I had a lot of people out there helping me spread the word,” Burnham said.
Although he is still not quite sure how things might change as the county continues to update its election results over the coming weeks, Burnham said things are “looking promising.”
“I don’t know enough about how they might change with time to be sure what the outcome would be but I’m optimistic and I’m looking forward to serving on the Zone 7 board if (the results) hold up.”
The current fourth-place candidate who is poised to land the final spot on the water agency board is Sean Roberts.
According to Tuesday night’s results, Roberts received 11.60% (5,978) of the vote. He did not respond to requests for comment as of time of publication.
Roberts is a Livermore resident who currently works as a computer engineer. He previously spent over 25 years leading large infrastructure projects at places like the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Lab, Yahoo and GE Digital.
He was also elected three times to the OpenStack Foundation Board of Directors; chaired its Finance and Tax Affairs Committee; worked for the city and county of San Francisco — specifically in their elections commission on their open-source election system; and worked with the Foundation for American Innovation on government financial and election transparency projects.
The only runner up with any chance of bypassing Roberts is Dublin resident Seema Badar. She currently holds 7.10% (3,658) of the vote, according to Tuesday’s results.
Despite not coming out of election night as a frontrunner, Badar said she is proud of the campaign she and her supporters ran.
“We talked to thousands of residents across Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore about water reliability, PFAS treatment, and long-term planning for our region’s future,” Badar told the Weekly. “The conversations were real and the issues are urgent — and that doesn’t change based on Tuesday’s outcome.”
She also said she was grateful for the support she received, particularly from several of the current Zone 7 board members and from other Tri-valley elected officials and residents who “believed in this campaign.”
“Win or lose, I intend to stay engaged on these issues,” Badar said.
Three additional candidates with the least amount of votes are — in order from most to least — Heidi Turner-Zika, Rishabh “Rish” Rao and Patricia Muga.
