Primo Santini Appointed to PCWA Board of Directors

Auburn, Calif.- Longtime Lincoln civic leader Primo Santini was appointed Thursday (June 27) to serve on the Board of Directors of the Placer County Water Agency.

The former city councilman and two-term mayor was selected from a field of eight applicants on a unanimous 4-0 vote of the PCWA board.  He will serve the remaining 18 months in the four-year term of former District 2 director Alex Ferreira, who retired from the board June 6 due to health reasons.

Following Ferreira’s decision to step down, PCWA publicized and advertised the vacancy widely and attracted a slate of eight candidates described by Board Chairman Gray Allen as outstanding.  “You are all very well qualified and I believe you would all do a very good job,” Allen told the group of applicants.  “I hope that each of you continues your interest in public service.”

Applicants for the position submitted letters of interest and qualifications to PCWA and as part of the selection process.  Each was offered the opportunity to make a five minute presentation to the board.  

The selection marked the first time in PCWA’s 56-year history that a seat on the agency’s governing board was filled by appointment rather than election.  If Santini wishes to continue in office he must run for election in 2014.

Santini is a third generation resident of Lincoln who attended local schools and graduated from Stanford University.  He has owned and operated a Lincoln insurance agency since 1984.

He was elected twice to the Lincoln City Council, serving from 2000-08, and was the city’s mayor in 2003 and again in 2008.  He chaired the city’s General Plan update and represented the city in the creation of the Placer County Conservation Plan.

Santini said he was honored to be selected and pledged to “balance urban and rural water needs so that the character of Placer County is maintained for generations to come.”

He vowed that as a public servant he would be accessible to constituents, open minded in hearing their concerns, and fair minded in his deliberations.

Santini will participate in his first PCWA board meeting on Monday, July 8. 

Information on PCWA board meetings may be obtained through the Clerk to the Board at (530) 823-4850 or (800) 464-0030.