Sanjay Gaur

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Sanjay Gaur

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

High school

Santa Monica High School

Bachelor's

University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992

Graduate

Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, 2003

Graduate

University of California, Santa Cruz, 1994

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Sanjay Gaur ran for election to the West Basin Municipal Water District to represent District 4 in California. Gaur lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Gaur completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Sanjay Gaur earned a high school diploma from Santa Monica High School. Gaur earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1992, a graduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1994, and another graduate degree from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government in 2003.

Elections

2022

See also: Municipal elections in Los Angeles County, California (2022)

General election

General election for West Basin Municipal Water District District 4

Incumbent Scott Houston defeated Sanjay Gaur in the general election for West Basin Municipal Water District District 4 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Scott Houston (Nonpartisan)	63.4	31,392
		Sanjay Gaur (Nonpartisan)	36.6	18,119

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 49,511
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2022

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released October 3, 2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Sanjay Gaur completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gaur's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

California is in a major water crisis, which will have serious long-term consequences for our lives and communities. It is West Basin Water District’s responsibility to provide safe, reliable, and affordable water services. But West Basin has struggled with making sound decisions on water, financial, and hiring issues. Recently, the District spent over 60 million dollars to evaluate and ultimately reject an unnecessary and wasteful desalination project. The District also hired a General Manager with a conflict of interest and known sexual harassment issues who created a toxic work environment during his three-year term.

My life’s passion since 1994 has been to improve the management of water resources for both human use and the environment, while ensuring water is affordable. I have dedicated countless hours to understand the complex nature of these issues through my two master’s degrees in Applied Economics (UC Santa Cruz) and Master of Public Administration (Harvard) and my work. I have consulted over 100 water agencies around California and know the specific issues facing agencies in our state. I hope to bring a lifetime of passion and experience to West Basin’s board to improve the leadership and ensure our water resources are protected and affordable.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Affordability – The Water Board wasted over 65 million of our dollars to evaluate a desalination project that went nowhere. I will work hard to ensure our money is not wasted
• Reliability – We are entering into a mega-drought, and the old way of thinking is not sustainable. I have a plan that is financially responsible and expands our water supply.
• Effectiveness – The Water Board has made poor hiring choices that wasted valuable time and money. As a business owner and professional Water Resource Economist, I will secure the most water at the lowest cost for our community.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about the management of our shared water resources with a focus on financial responsibility, environmental sustainability, and the expansion / preservation of existing resources. I believe in utilizing data to make sound public policy decisions and keeping the public up to date on current water efficiency standards. Water agencies need to be a vocal presence in their communities and can be a valuable resource to their customers by providing timely information on water use, actively reducing water waste, and improving aesthetic water quality so that people can embrace using tap water instead of plastic water bottles. Aesthetic water quality refers to the taste, odor, color, turbidity, hardness/softness, etc. of our tap water – all of which are generally not health-related but strongly influence public perceptions of water quality. Lastly, we need to maximize the infrastructure we already have developed and work together with other local government agencies to minimize costs and maximize efficiency. I will work diligently to ensure West Basin runs efficiently and provides the greatest value to its customers.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2022 Elections

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Government

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Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

West Basin Municipal Water District District 4

Website

Facebook