BBBY

What I'll push for

• Set the terms on data centers before someone else does

  Data centers are coming to Southern California and they consume real water for cooling. Orange County should decide what our supply is used for, on our own timeline, with disclosure requirements and cost recovery written in advance. We should be masters of our destiny here, not reacting to a siting decision after it's been made.

• Write policy for the river we actually have

  The Colorado River is shrinking, and the allocations underneath our imported supply assume otherwise. Our long-range planning, our reserve targets, and our position in state and regional negotiations all need to reflect that reality now rather than after the next shortage declaration.

• Harden our infrastructure against attack

  Water systems run on software, and the tools available to attackers have gotten dramatically better in a very short time. That means upgrading control systems and monitoring across the district, funding it seriously, and treating cybersecurity as core infrastructure spending instead of an IT line item.

• Treat this as a policy job, because it is one

  This board doesn't dig trenches. It decides how we use water and shapes how the county thinks about it — rates, recycling, conservation targets, and how honestly we talk to residents about the tradeoffs. Getting the attitude right is most of the work.