BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Santa Clara County’s flood control agency, Valley Water, wants to take the lead on addressing floods from the San Francisquito Creek, assuming responsibility from a collection of agencies that’s been working on the project for decades.
The Valley Water board voted Tuesday to send a letter to leaders of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority to discuss Valley Water taking a leadership role.
Residents ask for change
The letter was pushed by residents of Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighborhood, who are worried about a repeat of a 1998 flood when 1,700 properties were damaged.
“We very much need the resources of Valley Water of all kinds on this project — your engineering, construction expertise and financial resources,” resident Xenia Hammer told the San Jose-based Valley Water board.
Hammer was joined by residents Jeffrey Shore, Tom Rindfleisch and Hamilton Hitchings in asking Valley Water to step up.
They’re hoping Valley Water will build flood walls, widen the creek channel and replace the Pope-Chaucer Bridge that holds back water during storms.
The project has been in flux since flooding on New Year’s Eve 2022 happened in surprise locations.
Agency’s role questioned
Valley Water board member Nai Hsueh replaced board member Rebecca Eisenberg, a Palo Alto resident, on the creek authority in March 2023 and has questioned her agency’s role since then.
The creek authority has representatives from five agencies: Valley Water, a San Mateo County flood control agency and the cities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
Hitchings said it’s especially important for Valley Water to take the lead following the July 31 retirement of Executive Director Margaret Bruce, who led the creek authority for the last six years.
Hitchings and his neighbors spoke out after Hsueh proposed changing Valley Water’s goal for San Francisquito Creek. She said Valley Water should focus only on funding a project, replacing a goal to protect from a flood that has a one-in-70 chance of happening each year. But Hsueh backed off that proposal in response to resident outcry on July 14.
Eisenberg said she’s happy to hear that Valley Water will work collaboratively with the creek authority.
“This was not going in the right direction,” board member Richard Santos said.
Creek authority has missed audits
Board member Jim Beall said he’s concerned that the creek authority missed five years of audits, potentially impacting its eligibility for state and federal grants.
Hsueh said the creek authority is a small agency. It has four employees and a $5.3 million budget, funded by contributions from each member agency. Valley Water has 884 employees and an $811.1 million budget, funded by water rates and property taxes.
The Valley Water board voted 6-0 to send the letter to the creek authority.
Creek authority board
The creek authority’s board includes Palo Alto Vice Mayor Greer Stone, San Mateo County Supervisor Lisa Gauthier, Menlo Park Councilman Drew Combs and East Palo Alto Councilman Mark Dinan. Their next meeting is on Aug. 27.
Just because Valley Water takes a lead does not mean this project will suddenly get better. Valley Water is supposed to be involved now. Why did this enormous special district already abandoned existing flood project grants when the engineering staff was said to be spread too thin? What happened to the Pope Chaucer Bridge Hazard Mitigation Grant, for example? What about the South San Francisco Bay Flood Protection Project or the Palo Alto Flood Gate? Not to mention the fact that many creeks in Palo Alto appear to be polluted and need major cleanups.
The 100-year floods became 25-year floods after Stanford Shopping Center was paved in the 1950s, so Stanford should pay at least half the cost of whatever solution. The Crescent Park neighborhood should either be made into an assessment district to fund the project or condemned and restored to a seasonal wetland. It makes no sense to tax Barron Park (plus Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Los Altos) to save Crescent Park except Santa Clara Valley voters are on autopilot like Kyle Shanahan.