Zone 7 board candidates reflect on election results

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While the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office hasn’t certified the official March 5 primary election results, its updates over the month have painted a clear picture of who will be returning to the Zone 7 Water Agency Board of Directors and who will be joining the board for the first time.

According to the latest results on March 20, Zone 7 incumbent directors Laurene Green, Kathy Narum and Sandy Figuers are each on track to win a full-term seat on the board while first-time candidate Cathy Brown holds a huge lead for the the short-term seat.

Monique Santiago, a Zone 7 representative, told the Weekly that the four will be officially sworn in as directors during the July 17 board meeting. The three full-term seat winners will serve for four years while Brown will serve for two years.

Throughout the month, Green held the most votes in the full-term race, now sitting with 30,310 (32.85%) votes. She will be entering her second term on the Zone 7 board after she first joined in 2020. 

“Honestly, I think it was a tough choice for voters as there were many good and highly qualified candidates, but the public appears to be supporting incumbents, which tells me they believe Zone 7 is on the right track,” Green told the Weekly on March 8. “We are fortunate in the Tri-Valley to have many good options to choose from.”

Green, who has a background of working in the environmental and energy fields in the U.S. and abroad, has contributed in various ways to the water agency during the last four years and ran her platform on the basis of continuing the work that needs to be done regarding PFAS — which are forever chemicals that have been found in the groundwater systems in Pleasanton and Livermore.

Narum, a former Pleasanton City Council member with a chemical engineering background, had the second highest number of votes with 23,815 (25.81%) votes. 

“I’m humbled and appreciative of the support shown in the initial voting results,” Narum told the Weekly on March 9. “I look forward to continuing to work hard to represent our Tri-Valley community and their interests towards clean, safe water as well as supply/storage solutions. Just as important are flood control improvements as well as non-potable water needs for agriculture in the valley.”

Narum first joined the board in a temporary position in early 2023 after she was termed out from the council and was appointed through a special Zone 7 recruitment process to serve in former Zone 7 director Olivia Sanwong’s seat, after Sanwong resigned to join the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors.

Figuers is the third incumbent who will be returning to the water agency board for another four years after having received 22,435 (24.31%) of the votes — and he is by far no stranger to Zone 7.

Figuers, a Livermore resident and groundwater geologist, has been on the Zone 7 board since 1988. After 12 years of service, he took a break in the early 2000s but returned in 2008, where he has been ever since working on studying the geology of the Livermore basin in order to continue delivering clean water.

He said he will continue to use his understanding of the groundwater basin as a geophysicist to work with the rest of the Zone 7 board in order to serve the community.

“I’m very proud that (the voters chose me),” Figuers told the Weekly on March 26. “They have enough faith in me to do right by the water, which is always been my intent.”

Alan Burnham, a longtime Livermore resident and chemist who worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 35 years, came in fourth place for the three full seats, receiving only 15,710 (17.03%) of the votes.

It was Burnham’s first time throwing his hat in the race and while he did not win a spot on the board, he said he wanted to thank all of his supporters for their help on his campaign.

“I congratulate Laurene Green, Kathy Narum and Sandy Figuers on their reelection,” he told the Weekly on March 8. “I also congratulate Catherine Brown on her election to the two-year term. They are all capable people with the best interests of Zone 7 water customers at heart.”

In the short-term seat race, Brown took the lead by a landslide after receiving 34,490 (82.22%) of the votes, according to the current election results. 

“I am encouraged by my election and thank the voters for their clear support,” Brown told the Weekly on March 13. “I look forward to working with the Zone 7 Board on water resource issues for the Tri-Valley in the coming years.”

Brown is a Pleasanton resident of more than 20 years who had previously worked as an environmental scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the San Francisco office. Most of her work was based around environmental cleanup for groundwater, surface water, soils and air — including PFAS.

Since election night, Brown held a strong lead over her opponent Seema Badar, who had 7,456 (17.78%) votes as of March 20.

Badar, a Dublin resident who came from a sociology background and had been involved in multiple nonprofit leadership roles, said that while she did lose the Zone 7 election, she was excited to serve on the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee 16th Assembly District, which she also ran for during the primary election.

“Congratulations to Cathy Brown on her successful election as the Zone 7 short-term director,” Badar told the Weekly on March 21. “I would like to thank all those who voted for me and supported me in this campaign.”