Carol Lee Gonzales-Brady is on the Rancho California Water District board, and she is also seeking a seat on the board of Riverside County’s Local Agency Formation Commission. A 7-0 RCWD board vote March 9 gave Gonzales-Brady the RCWD vote for the position.
“We need to unite our voices and find common ground and not work against one another,” Gonzales-Brady said. “You can either sit back and complain, or you can step up and participate in the process.”
LAFCO handles jurisdictional boundary changes including incorporations, annexations, consolidations, latent powers expansions and detachments. The LAFCO board consists of two county supervisors, two city council members, two members from special districts and one public member. LAFCO commissioners have four-year terms.
Special districts include independent special districts, which have independently elected directors, and dependent special districts, whose members are the Riverside County Board of Supervisors or in some cases a city council. The boards of independent special districts choose the two special districts’ representatives on the LAFCO board. One of the Riverside County special districts’ commissioners is from the Western Region and the other is from the Eastern Region.
Both special district seats are currently vacant. Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District director Phil Williams passed away Nov. 20. Nancy Wright had been on the board of the Mission Springs Water District (Desert Hot Springs) but lost her Nov. 2022 re-election campaign. The Eastern Region commissioner elected will serve a term through May 6, 2024, while the elected Western Region commissioner’s term will expire on May 4, 2026.
Gonzales-Brady is one of six candidates for the Western Region seat. The others are Stephen Corona of Eastern Municipal Water District, Angela Little of Valley-Wide Recreation and Park District, Steve Pastor of Lake Hemet Municipal Water District, John Skerbelis of Rubidoux Community Services District and Larry Smith of San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency. Each class of commissioners has an alternate and Pastor is currently LAFCO’s alternate special districts member, so if he is elected, the alternate special districts member seat will become vacant and a subsequent election will choose that alternate commissioner. Ballots must be received by March 27.
The mission statement of LAFCO includes encouraging public involvement. “I think that’s a component that could be improved upon,” Gonzales-Brady said.
Sometimes that need for more involvement includes considering the situations of agencies other than the larger ones. “It would be a huge plus if there’s an emphasis on the part of LAFCO to encourage that engagement,” she said. “Listening is going to be a very important aspect as well.”
Gonzales-Brady was raised in El Monte and attended Arroyo High School before majoring in business administration at Pepperdine University. After she completed college she lived both in South Pasadena and in the Chapman Woods area of unincorporated Pasadena. “I always grew up on wide open spaces,” she said. “I always had a love for open space and land.”
That would bring her to Temecula in 2004. “I want to be on land,” she said.
Her parents bought land in Fallbrook in 1962. Her father had been a U.S. Customs agent who was in charge of San Pedro Harbor, and the plan was for her parents to move to Fallbrook after her father retired. “My dream was to move to Fallbrook and have horses,” Gonzales-Brady said.
Although her parents never moved to Fallbrook, Gonzales-Brady planted vines on the Fallbrook property. When she and her husband moved from Irvine to Temecula in 2004, she sold the Fallbrook property to Homes for Our Troops, which builds houses for severely-wounded veterans. Gonzales-Brady grows several red varietals on her De Portola Wine Trail property.
Gonzales-Brady had previous utility experience prior to being elected to the RCWD board. She worked for Southern California Edison for 15 years, including the Mission Power and Energy subsidiary which produced geothermal energy.
Her personal experience as a grape grower also contributed to her water background. “I had always been in some regards in the water world,” she said. “I never really dreamed that I would become such a part of water.”
A resource conservation district does not have regulatory power but is classified as a special district. Resource conservation districts were formed to control water runoff and prevent soil erosion. They are now also involved in watershed management, recreational area management, urban and agricultural irrigation and water use, water quality, forest land productivity, and public education for children and adults. Gonzales-Brady, who is a member of the Temecula Winegrowers Association and the California Farm Bureau Federation, was appointed to serve on the Temecula-Elsinore-Anza-Murrieta Resource Conservation District’s board before she ran for the RCWD office.
At one time, RCWD board members were elected in odd-numbered years. The Nov. 2017 election was for a five-year term, as the transition to even-numbered years would take place during that time.
“I was ready to do something in the service arena,” Gonzales‑Brady said. “It just started to become a real passion.”
She was encouraged to run for the RCWD board. “I got to thinking about it, and the rest is history,” she said.
The Rancho California Water District has at-large seats which are staggered. Four board positions were subject to the Nov. 2022 election. Gonzales-Brady had the highest vote total of the five candidates and was thus elected to a second term.
When Gonzales-Brady stresses transparency and public involvement she notes that customers should initiate participation when warranted. “The communication goes both ways,” she said. “I appreciate hearing about their concerns.”
Riverside County is in Region 9 of the Association of California Water Agencies. The Region 9 board has five members, and she is one of those. She is also on the board of the Southern California Water Coalition and the Urban Water Institute.
Gonzales-Brady is also involved in various equestrian activities. She and her husband have three children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
