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A majority of the San Ramon Valley is now being represented by Luz Gómez who was appointed to the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s board of directors to fill the seat vacated last month by longtime director John Coleman.
Gómez, who previously ran for San Ramon City Council in 2020, was among the five candidates who joined the board on Tuesday afternoon for public interviews ahead of their vote that evening to appoint a replacement for Coleman on the board following his resignation on March 8.
“EBMUD is an agency that I have admired since my family’s arrival in Ward 2 over 40 years ago,” Gómez said in an announcement Wednesday. “We fell in love with EBMUD’s water from the first sip. Serving my community has been my life’s work and I’m honored to join such an esteemed Board and organization.”
The board kicked off public interviews at 4 p.m. after their regular meeting Tuesday, during which they interviewed the five candidates who were seeking to fill the vacant position, with Kurt Arends, James Cervantes, Mariah Lauritzen and former San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson among the contenders.
During deliberations following the series of interviews, EBMUD directors spoke especially favorably of Clarkson as well as Gómez, but ultimately voted unanimously to select Gómez to fulfill the remainder of Coleman’s term through the end of the year.
Gómez comes to the position amid a decades-long career in public health and community engagement, having led programs for the county public health department and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District as well as serving as District 1 county supervisor John Gioia’s chief of staff, according to Wednesday’s announcement.
More locally, she is the co-founder of the San Ramon Valley Climate Action Coalition and has served on the San Ramon Library Advisory Committee.
EBMUD directors pointed to Gómez’s apparent knowledge, enthusiasm, and drive to serve in the district amid her current attendance in the district’s Community Water Academy ahead of their vote to appoint her to the Ward 2 seat Tuesday evening.
Officials for the district also noted on social media Wednesday that Gómez’s appointment means that the board is currently composed of a majority of women directors for the first time in its 100-year history.
More changes could be on the horizon for the Ward 2 seat, however, which until this year had not seen turnover in the position or an open race for the seat in 33 years amid Coleman’s lengthy tenure.
Gómez’s current appointment to the seat will last for less than a year, with an open race for the position heading for November’s general election for a two-year term through 2026. On Thursday, she told Embarcadero Media Foundation that she intends to run for the full term this November.
