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San Ramon residents within the service area of the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District are guaranteed to have a voice representing their community on the agency’s Board of Directors following the upcoming November election in which voters will choose between two candidates for the seat.
Prior to 2020, the Central San Board of Directors were elected at-large, with the agency moving that year to begin the transition to district-based elections in which board members are now elected to one of five different districts based on their residency. Danville and a majority of the northern San Ramon Valley comprising District 4, with the area of San Ramon served by the agency comprising District 5.
Now two San Ramon residents – Planning Commissioner Jean Kuznik and IT consultant Bansidhar Giri – are competing for the District 5 seat representing the city specifically for the first time in the history of the sewer district that runs north all the way to Martinez and includes much of Lamorinda to the west.
“Like almost everyone in the City of San Ramon, I had no idea that a new seat had been created; that it had been designated for San Ramon residents in Central San,” Kuznik told DanvilleSanRamon.
Kuznik said that it was former mayor Bill Clarkson who first made her aware of the position, and who encouraged her to consider running for the seat in this year’s election.
While Kuznik boasts a total of eight years of experience on the city’s parks and planning commissions – the latter of which she was appointed to a second term on last year – the race for the Central San board marks her first political campaign for elected office.
“I always thought that someday it might be interesting to try to run for an office, and this one met a lot of those possibilities,” Kuznik said. “It was a seat in which there is no incumbent. Whoever ran would be on equal footing, and it’s one that most people are not that familiar with.
“I feel fortunate that I know some people in San Ramon who are familiar with running campaigns, and asked them a lot of questions, and felt like I could do this,” she continued.
Another factor in Kuznik’s decision to run for the seat came after consulting city attorney Martin Lysons on whether being elected to the seat would represent a conflict of interest in her role on the Planning Commission. It would not legally, according to Lysons, with Kuznik now tentatively planning to serve in both roles if elected to the Central San board, pending any decision to the contrary by the city.
Kuznik’s priorities if elected include looking towards future needs in the district, ensuring quality engineering and maintenance, environmental responsibility, leveraging technology, and community partnerships, according to her campaign website.
Personally, Kuznik told DanvilleSanRamon that her background in science and education prior to her time on the planning commission were also factors that sparked her interest in the position and bolstered her confidence in being the right person for the job.
“I just found that over the years I was really good at taking complicated things and finding a way to explain them in a way where people could follow what I was saying and get to the end point,” Kuznik said.
For his part, Giri said in an election preview hosted by Contra Costa Television that he was inspired to seek the position after attending Central San’s community academy with his son, which was also where he learned about the seat he is now running for.
“They showed us what they’re doing and how well they keep the bay safe for everyone, so during those conversations this director role came up, and they said San ramon is going to be a new division on its own and there’s going to be a director position open, so that’s how I came to know of it,” Giri said. “I was thinking on it quite a while, and then started thinking ok, let me start doing something to give back to society.”
A three-year resident of the city with a 25-year background in the corporate world, Giri said he would leverage his existing skillset and expertise if elected.
“My first priority would be take care of the stakeholders – that’s the public – how to serve them better,” Giri said. “I know we are doing a good job here in San Ramon but at the same time, what are the competing priorities?”
“Like if they are brought back to our desk, just analyze what is there because I have a technical background, we do a lot of technical jobs, so I do come across such situations in our professional life where we see this is the amount of money we have, these are the projects we need to do, how to kind of assess the risk based on what needs to be done for the public to serve the public,” he continued.
Giri also pointed to a water quality project he’d worked on as an undergraduate and graduate student, as well as a network of relevant contacts to consult with as strengths he would bring to the table if elected, as well as skills learned in his corporate career – a factor he said was the major distinction between himself and Kuznik.
More information on Kuznik’s campaign is availabl at jeankuznikforcentralsan.com.
Giri did not have a campaign site available and had not responded to a request for comment as of Monday evening. However, he said in the CCTV forum that he has been seeking to engage voters in-person at local events including his daughters’ sports games and the San Ramon farmer’s market.
