Four candidates seeking two seats on embattled EPA Sanitary District board

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Two challengers are running against two longtime members of the embattled East Palo Alto Sanitary District’s board in next month’s election.

Over the past few years, the board has been in court over whether it illegally fired former employees. And its had a series of battles with the city government, developers and nonprofits over growth in the city. The council is now seriously considering whether to begin the process of taking over the district. The district has some $45 million worth of improvements both for current and future developments. If the improvements aren’t made, development would slow in East Palo Alto. Some in the district have said that unless developers pony up for the improvements, residents’ rates will rise dramatically.

The candidates

Challengers Ofelia Bello and Vanessa Smith are taking on incumbents Joan Sykes-Miessi and Dennis Scherzer.
Bello is currently the chair of the East Palo Alto Planning Commission and is the executive director of the nonprofit YUCA, or Youth United for Community Action. She is born and raised in East Palo Alto, but says the district needs “new, bold leadership” in her candidate statement.

If elected, she says she will look at all options available to the district to “plan, improve and if necessary, transform the district so it runs transparently, efficiently and in a fiscally prudent fashion.” She says the district can’t ignore the issues that have become apparent over the past few years.

“I will always keep in mind what is best for EPA and not for-profit developers or individual interests. The residents of EPA will be in the forefront of all of my decisions,” Bello writes in her candidate statement.
Smith works for EPACANDO, and is on the city’s Rent Stabilization Board. Like Bello, she was born and raised in East Palo Alto, having left to attend San Diego State University for her bachelor’s and the University of Leeds for her M.A. But having moved back, she has “committed myself to collaborating with my community to build an equitable, just and safe environment.”

If elected, Smith says she will “collaborate with my fellow directors and local planning bodies to promote goals around equity and inclusion, as well as to assure sound finance and operations.” She plans to create a “cohesive” relationship with other agencies in town.

Smith says her work with EPACANDO has given her an “understanding of the funding, infrastructure and project management aspects of real estate development and the need to ensure new development does not unfairly burden existing residents.”

Scherzer seeks 8th term

Dennis Scherzer is in his seventh term on the board. He was also the district’s general manager from 2000-2002. Scherzer was dismissed from the lawsuit, and worked to distance himself with the three board members embroiled in it. He’s defended the district during various meetings in front of the Local Agency Formation Commission, or SMC LAFCO, which studied whether the district still ought to exist.

Scherzer says he’s pointed out a section of the California Constitution that prohibits fees for new developments being passed onto residents. In his candidate statement, Scherzer says his position around development is that developers must pay to expand the current sewer system. He also takes credit in his ballot statement for coming up with a solution for the Light Tree affordable housing project from having to pay over $1.7 million in construction costs.

“Your vote enables me to use my 33 years’ experience in the wastewater industry to support our community and EPASD,” Scherzer says in his candidate statement.

Sykes-Miessi did not turn in a ballot statement or return the Post’s interview request. She is the current president of the board, and has been on the board since 2003. She is currently an intensive case manager social worker at UCSF Department of Psychiatry. She was one of the three board members who were defendants in the lawsuit against the district.