Mar 13, 2019   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Three New Directors Seated on Metropolitan’s Board

Three new directors representing the Central Basin Municipal Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority have joined the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Robert O. Apodaca and Frank Heldman represent Carson-based Central Basin on Metropolitan’s 38-member board. They replace three-term director Phillip D. Hawkins and Leticia Vásquez-Wilson, who served as secretary of the Metropolitan board, respectively. S. Gail Goldberg succeeds Fern Steiner in representing the Water Authority. Steiner had served on the board since February 2009. All three were sworn in Monday, March 11.

Apodaca, a retired social services worker, returns to Metropolitan’s board for the third time. First elected to the Central Basin board in November 1998, he represents La Habra Heights, La Mirada, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs and Whittier. He currently serves as Central Basin’s board president.

A graduate of Woodbury University, Apodaca was an administrative coordinator for former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty. He also worked at the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers and was a field director to then-Los Angeles City Councilman Art Snyder. In addition, he was the community relations and government liaison for the city of Los Angeles' Project Heavy, an anti-gangs program, and was a partner with A&A Communications. He is a longtime member of the Association of California Water Agencies and the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster.

Heldman, who joined Central Basin Municipal Water District last month, represents the district’s large water users in its southeast Los Angeles County service area. The large water users purchase about 78 percent of water provided by the district.

With 32 years of experience in water operations for both municipal and private corporations, Heldman is director of operations for Liberty Utilities, a nationwide regulated water, wastewater, natural gas, electric and propane/air utility company with a regional office in Downey.

Prior to joining Liberty in September 2017, Heldman was the water utility manager for the city of Monterey Park for three years and assistant district manager for Golden State Water for 20 years. His experience includes securing competitive grant funding under Proposition 84, which provided funds for safe drinking water, water quality and supply; assisting with groundwater basin remediation; and managing staff for water treatment and distribution systems.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from the University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Chapman University.

With more than 20 years of city planning experience, Goldberg retired in February 2018 after eight years as the executive director of the Urban Land Institute in Los Angeles. Before joining Urban Land Institute, she was the director of the Los Angeles City Planning Department from 2006 to 2010. There she was responsible for directing policies and activities of the department, including the development, maintenance and implementation of the city’s General Plan and other special zoning plans. Before her position in Los Angeles, she spent 17 years with the city of San Diego’s Planning Department, where she was planning director from 2000 to 2005 and oversaw a process to update the city’s 20-year-old general plan.

Goldberg holds a degree in urban studies and planning from the University of California, San Diego. She serves on the board of advisors for the University of Southern California’s Center for Sustainable Cities and USC’s Price School Masters of Planning Program. She has served as a trustee of the Urban Land Institute and as chair of the San Diego/Tijuana Urban Land Institute District Council.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a state-established cooperative that, along with its 26 cities and retail suppliers, provide water for nearly 19 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.