For 12 years, Gregg managed the San Benito County Water
District, helping bring structure to the agency while encouraging
local players to cooperate in solving water management
problems.
Hollister – The John Gregg era in San Benito County water dealings is over.
For 12 years, Gregg managed the San Benito County Water District, helping bring structure to the agency while encouraging local players to cooperate in solving water management problems.
In February, the 66-year-old Gregg suffered a minor heart attack that convinced him to retire a year earlier than expected.
“That event, as it turned out, wasn’t a major issue but it highlighted the fact that I need to make some lifestyle changes,” Gregg said.
Gregg reflected on his health and made a choice, he said, to retire and help transition the district into the hands of a successor.
“Change needed to be made, and I didn’t want to bear the responsibility of hanging around if I’m a health risk,” Gregg said.
San Benito County Water District Board Member Ken Perry, who represents San Juan Bautista, said the agency is better off now than when Gregg first arrived.
“He’s moved a long way toward getting this domestic water system on track,” said Perry, adding, “When he came here this district needed a lot of help, and he brought people together.”
Gregg’s replacement as manager, Lance Johnson, said he has known Gregg for decades through his work on the Central Valley Project in Contra Costa County.
“He did most excellent work here,” Johnson said. “And we have a great staff here thanks to him.”
Gregg worked his last day for the district Aug. 10, ending a career of almost four decades dealing with California water politics and managing local projects and agencies.
For 29 years, Gregg worked for the Contra Costa Water District, eventually running the agency’s operations. Toward the end of his stint there, he oversaw a $500 million project to hook Contra Costa County into the Central Valley Project – at the time the largest public works project ever undertaken in the county.
That project helped Gregg learn the importance of accountability and managing resources, he said.
As an incentive to keep him on board throughout the project, the district offered him an enhanced retirement package. At the end of his time in Contra Costa, Gregg was looking for something else, but didn’t know quite what that something else was.
“To me, I didn’t see myself as needing more big projects or a bigger project,” Gregg said.
In 1995, while perusing a research publication, he read an article about how smaller water districts were faced with the challenge of finding experienced managers. It so happens San Benito County, several counties south, was looking for a manager.
On July 17, 1995, Gregg began his 12-year career with the county’s water district.
He even remembers what day of the week it was when he left Contra Costa for his new job.
“On Friday, they just picked me up and dropped me into the spot,” Gregg said. “It was a kick … I didn’t know a soul.”
Soon, Gregg realized that the local district needed more structure and organization.
Water rates had been set arbitrarily, Gregg said, so he and his staff developed a rate base. The district’s accounting system did not conform to the state’s standards, so Gregg helped bring about compliance.
As Gregg progressed in his tenure with the district, it became clear there were not the necessary relationships between water distribution and wastewater agencies to address some of the problems facing the county, he said.
Management of the county’s water basin was not focused on where wastewater was headed, Gregg said.
“It doesn’t disappear,” Gregg said. “It becomes someone else’s water supply.”
And while Gregg got water distribution and wastewater agencies to start to understand their effects on one another, he believes more could have been done.
“We didn’t get past the individual and institutional issues to cooperate and really address the water supply and wastewater issue,” Gregg said.
Gregg said there could have been more done with wastewater recycling programs during his 12 years.
Looking forward, Gregg said county residents cannot ignore water issues. The future of water in San Benito County hinges on people and groups working together to provide residents and agriculture with a usable and quality resource, he said.
Solving how urban areas interface with the rural areas of San Benito County will be the greatest challenge, he said. Solutions may come from larger farming operations such as Natural Selection Foods, Gregg said.
“I think at some point the regional players have to be brought in,” Gregg said.
During the last decade, Gregg has become invested in San Benito County and its water future.
In retirement, Gregg plans to first resolve health issues, spend more time with his family, become more active in his church and renew relationships with his friends. Eventually, he would like be more involved with the San Benito Agricultural Land Trust and the San Benito County Resource Conservation District, he said.
As a private citizen, he’ll be more vocal about water issues the county faces, something he said he couldn’t do as manager of the water district.
“It becomes, for me, impossible to have a set of personal activities or goals that are any way different from your employer,” Gregg said. “I’m looking forward to be able to express John Gregg.”
