During Monday’s CPA-CPF Goleta Water District candidate forum, questions were accepted from the public. I submitted a simple question to each candidate: How many Goleta Water District board meetings have you attended in the past two years? I believed that the answer would give the public a good understanding of how engaged each candidate had been with the district.

I have attended almost every GWD board meeting for at least the past four years and knew the attendance record of each candidate. I was astounded when candidate Larry Mills stated that he had attended at least 20 meetings in the past two years. I recall his attendance at only (1) meeting.

After the meeting, I asked Mills why he gave such an answer when he and I know that he had not attended that many meetings. Mills told me he felt he had attended the meetings in surrogate because he had to listen to his wife’s stories after every meeting. Lynette Mills is currently a GWD board director.

If a candidate can’t answer a simple question honestly, do you think this person can be trusted to set district policies that will affect the future of your water district? I don’t.

Craig Geyer
Goleta