Gail Goldberg Confirmed by Water Authority Board as Delegate to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
March 01, 2019
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors today approved S. Gail Goldberg as a delegate to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Goldberg was confirmed by the board along with three other current MWD delegates: Jerry Butkiewicz, Michael Hogan and Tim Smith.
“Gail Goldberg is highly qualified to serve as a delegate to MWD, with 20-plus years of experience leading the planning departments of San Diego and Los Angeles,” said Jim Madaffer, Water Authority Board chair. “Gail’s expertise and proven track record of leadership will benefit the San Diego region and its water ratepayers.”
Goldberg, a native Californian and San Diego resident, worked for 17 years in the City of San Diego Planning Department, serving as director from 2000 through 2005. During that time, she oversaw the update of the city’s 20-year-old General Plan. The result became an international model for urban revitalization and a strategy for achieving a vision known as the “City of Villages.”
Goldberg’s extensive land planning background includes serving as executive director of the Urban Land Institute, Los Angeles, from June 2011 until February 2018. She also served as planning director for the City of Los Angeles from February 2006 through August 2010. In that role, Goldberg oversaw the development, maintenance and implementation of all elements of the city’s General Plan and other special zoning plans.
Goldberg graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a degree in Urban Studies and Planning. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the University of Southern California Center for Sustainable Cities and the Price School’s Master of Urban Planning Program. She also serves on the advisory board for UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
In 2014, she was appointed by then-Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins to the California Strategic Growth Council, where she served for three years. Goldberg is also a past president of the San Diego Chapter of the Lambda Alpha Honorary Land Economics Society.
Goldberg will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Fern Steiner from the MWD’s board in January 2019. Steiner will continue to represent the City of San Diego as a director on the Water Authority Board.
The Water Authority’s 36-member board, representing 24 retail member water agencies and cities, holds its regular meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month January through October. The November and December meetings are combined. Board meetings are at the Water Authority’s headquarters, 4677 Overland Ave., San Diego. Board documents and webcasts of Board meetings are at www.sdcwa.org.