JOB TITLE: Chief Executive Officer / General Manager
AGENCY: Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency
LOCATION: San Mateo, CA
FILING DEADLINE: August 13, 2024
SALARY RANGE: $280,000 - $333,000
THE POSITION
Reporting directly to the 26-member Board of Directors, who are in turn appointed by their respective agencies, the Chief Executive Officer/General Manager oversees, plans, organizes and directs all functions and activities of BAWSCA to achieve the desired results.
The incumbent will, among other things: lead the Board and the member agencies to achieve BAWSCA’s goal of a reliable supply of high quality water at a fair price; maintain close interaction with the Board and member agencies; serve as the spokesperson and face of BAWSCA with elected officials at all levels, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), regional and State agencies and the public; collaborate intensively and continually with external technical and strategic consultants and outside counsel; develop, direct and achieve desired results for the betterment of the 1.8 million residents it represents; ensure that San Francisco meets is contractual and legal obligations to BAWSCA’s member agencies; ensure that the SFPUC maintains and defends its water rights for all its wholesale customers; and oversee Regional Water System operational issues, water resources allocation, nearly $3 billion in capital improvement projects and over $300 million in annual wholesale water revenue paid by BAWSCA’s member agencies to San Francisco.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Leadership
- Propose BAWSCA’s goals and develop and implement strategies to achieve BAWSCA’s goal of a reliable supply of high-quality water at a fair price.
- Deliver results, including those in a work plan and budget approved by the Board.
- Maintain a positive identity for BAWSCA by achieving results, including perceptions of the Board, member agencies and their water customers, state legislators and their staffs, local federal legislators, labor leaders, business and community organizations, interest groups and the media.
- Provide leadership and management of BAWSCA’s activities.
- Communicate and work effectively with the Board.
- Effectively engage with staff, legal counsel, and external consultants and advisors to leverage expertise and experience.
- Engage member agencies to provide expertise and necessary input to BAWSCA including negotiating agreements among member agencies when needed and appropriate.
- Represent the water interests of BAWSCA’s members with San Francisco.
- Collaborate and negotiate with San Francisco and other organizations.
- Build support from local, state, and Federal administrative and elected officials.
- Maintain and cultivate relationships with allies and special interest groups.
- Act as BAWSCA’s external spokesperson.
Management
- Manage BAWSCA’s activities to achieve desired results.
- Prepare and implement the annual work plan and budget.
- Appoint, train and manage BAWSCA’s staff, and manage professional consultants.
- Administer the Water Supply Agreement between San Francisco and its Wholesale Customers (BAWSCA member agencies).
- Safeguard BAWSCA’s financial resources, including management of BAWSCA’s Revenue Bonds.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate will have a wide-ranging set of skills and experiences. There is no one set path to this role, but it is clear what the role requires:
Negotiation: First, the role requires honed negotiation skills. The incumbent will be constantly negotiating the disparate and potentially conflicting interests of its members as well as with the SFPUC, which owns and manages the Regional Water System.
Perspective: Next, the ideal candidate must understand the significance of this role. Through its enabling legislation, BAWSCA is charged by the State to represent the collective water interests of its members and their water customers. Additionally, BAWSCA is responsible for ensuring the Regional Water System continues to meet the needs of its members and their water customers. Through formidable connections developed over time, BAWSCA brings its legislative power to bear to deliver critical results and meet these obligations.
Finance Expertise: Further, the ideal candidate will have significant finance expertise and, in general, be able to interpret highly complex data to make wide-ranging decisions. The CEO is expected to oversee management of BAWSCA’s existing revenue bonds and BAWSCA’s financial auditing of over $300M each year in water revenues paid by its member agencies to San Francisco for water supply purchased. Being able to communicate with bond issuers, bond counsel, the SFPUC Finance Team and other professionals, the public and others is a must.
Water Resources Management: The next CEO/GM will also have strong familiarity, and ideally experience with, water resources management. Further, BAWSCA’s next leader must be able to have detailed and extensive discussions with engineers on all sides regarding technical and operational matters.
Political Astuteness/Problem Solving: The next BAWSCA CEO/GM must have highly developed skills in navigating politically fraught, complex, multi-party issues. Experience in dealing with regional and Statewide issues is strongly preferred. BAWSCA’s political power to effectively meet the needs of its 1.8 million residents relies on garnering and using the influence built over the two decades since BAWSCA’s inception, its close and successful relationship with the State legislature, and its ability to bring to bear the influence of all 26 members and other interested stakeholders. The next BAWSCA CEO/GM must excel in diplomatic, clear, concise yet persuasive writing necessary for legislative advocacy, successful negotiations and public relations.
Commitment: Finally, BAWSCA is seeking a candidate who can commit to BAWSCA for the long haul. BAWSCA recognizes the benefit long-tenured staff and leadership bring to the results the agency can deliver for the water customer. The organization desires a strong leader, who has the professionalism, levelheadedness and above all, the patience, to see through multiyear projects.
ABOUT BAWSCA
Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, BAWSCA plays a vital and unique role in the well-being of over 1.8 million residents of the San Francisco Peninsula, South and East-Bay regions. Its mandate is to safeguard high-quality water for its 26 constituent member agencies and the water customers they serve by representing their collective wholesale water interests as a part of the San Francisco Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System (Regional Water System). It is unique that these 1.8 million residents are dependent on a system that is wholly owned and managed by the City and County of San Francisco, with no elected representation from the 26 constituent member agencies or their water customers. Thus, in order to ensure that its constituents are assured of a structurally safe, reliable and equitable water system, BAWSCA was formed.
BAWSCA’s outgoing CEO/GM is retiring. After a long tenure of strong leadership, including the development of a highly skilled and effective staff, BAWSCA is in search of an outstanding and highly experienced member of the water community to ensure BAWSCA’s continued success as a results-driven organization.
For more details about this opportunity, please visit the job brochure at: https://koffassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BAWSCA-final-brochure-v8.pdf.
To be considered, please submit a resume, cover letter and five work-related references (who will not be contacted in the early stages of the recruitment) to: https://koffassociates.com/bawsca-ceo/. Resumes should reflect years and months of positions held as well as size of past organization(s).
For more information, contact:
Pete Smith
Phone: (510) 342.3233
Email: peter_smith1@ajg.com
www.koffassociates.com
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