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All of the incumbents running for the three Zone 7 Water Agency board of directors four-year terms are currently ahead in their race while newcomer Cathy Brown, who is seeking a two-year term, holds a significant lead over her opponent Seema Badar, according to election night tallies from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office.
The early results, which are based on ballots that had been mailed in before the election, indicated that Laurene Green was leading the full term race with 32.29% (7,208 votes) as of 11:01 p.m. Kathy Narum is currently pulling in second with 25.49% (5,691 votes) and Sandy Figuers follows closely behind with 24.46% (5,460 votes).
Coming in last on election night at 17.77% (3,967 votes) is longtime Livermore resident and chemist Alan Burnham, who is running for a seat on the water agency board for the first time.
Green is seeking a second four-year term after having first joined the board in 2020. She has a background of working in the environmental and energy fields in the U.S. and abroad — her early work at Zone 7 includes advocating for PFAS treatment systems like the Ion Exchange PFAS Treatment Facility, located at the Stoneridge groundwater well in Pleasanton.
Narum served as a Pleasanton City Council member for nine years and has a chemical engineering background. She has also been a longtime proponent of reliable water in the Tri-Valley.
Figuers has been a returning figure on the Zone 7 board since 1988. The Livermore resident and groundwater geologist took a break in the early 2000s after 12 years of service and then returned in 2008, where he has been ever since.
Burnham worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 35 years and previously worked as an undergraduate chemist, developing a method for analyzing groundwater for traced organic chemicals.
Two-year term race
In the short term race, where both candidates would be newcomers to the agency, Pleasanton resident Brown closed out election night with a wide lead in the race for the sole seat with 81.58% (8,118 votes) while Dublin resident Badar sits with just 18.42% (1,833 votes), according to the election results.
The two-year term on the ballot is to complete the unexpired elected term of former director Olivia Sanwong, who resigned to join the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors. Narum has been filling the vacancy temporarily by appointment.
Current Zone 7 Director Angela Ramirez Holmes, whose term is also up on June 30, did not seek reelection.
Brown had previously worked as an environmental scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at its San Francisco office before throwing her hat in the race for the two-year seat. Most of her work was based around environmental cleanup, which included a wide array of environmental pollutants, one of which being PFAS, otherwise known as forever chemicals.
Badar is also a first-time candidate who has a background in sociology and comes from more of a community service background after having been involved in multiple nonprofit leadership roles with a focus on business development and strategic partnerships in the community.