Joshua Basin Water District Board fill vacant seat and name new Vice President
After board member and Vice President Thomas Short resigned from the Joshua Basin Water District Board of Directors on August 6th, it left the remaining board members with the task of temporarily filling his District 1 seat as well as appointing a new Vice President. The four remaining members of the board did just that at Wednesday night’s meeting.
General counsel Jeff Hoskinson opened the action with some clarification on what the board could actually do to fill the seat, which had a deadline of roughly October 9th or 60 days from Short’s resignation. If the board were to appoint someone, it would be for roughly two months and then the board could appoint them or someone else for the four year term in December.
Jane “Spider” Fawke was listed in the agenda as the main candidate under consideration. Fawke was a park ranger for 14 years and has lived here in the hi-desert for the last ten. She told the board “I love the desert. As you can see, I’m a very committed person to nature and I decided it was time to step up and be more committed to people.”
Director Jane Jarlsberg appeared skeptical of the appointment, asking for clarification on Fawke’s interest in serving on the water board and expressing disappointment that she hasn’t been present at recent meetings.
“There’s so many things that are really important that I do feel, I wish you’d been attending some meetings and you kind of had a glimmer more than you may have now of the importance of the decisions that we’re making and how tough they are sometimes,” Jarlsberg said during Director comments.
Director Tom Floen had previously floated the idea of another temporary assignment in the seat while Fawke took some time to get to know the board and the issues they deal with.
“Do you think of yourself – when you come into a new environment – that you’re a leaf in the wind that’s going to blow this way and that way? Or do you have some foundational rules about how your thought processes go when it comes to some of these issues?” Floen asked Fawke.
“Well, obviously I would have to do a deep dive. This would be very new for me to be on the board, so I would have to do a deep dive and I would look at all the different angles. That’s what I’ve had to do all through both my careers in both business and as a ranger. You know, as well as I do, there are different angles to every story,” she replied.
Director David Fick had familiarity with Fawke and some of her conservation work. He also cleared up why she uses her preferred name of “Spider,” which she says is a nickname that kids gave her back in school.
“I’m very tall for a Brit. Brits are usually 5’4″, 5’6″, and I’ve been 6’2 since I was nine years old!”
President Stacy Doolittle defended Fawke’s lack of meeting attendance, saying things weren’t much different for her own appointment to the Joshua Basin Water District’s board.
“I just wanna say, in defense of the sharp but good questions that you were getting from Director Jarlsberg, I didn’t know anything when I arrived here… and there was plenty of times where I just said ‘pass, pass,’ and she’s right… we’re still learning things. It’s a very challenging job. It’s great for your brain, that’s why I like this job.”
After some discussion on possible alternatives, the board ultimately voted in Jane “Spider” Fawke for District 1, with all four members voting yes.
Immediately after she was sworn in, Fawke’s first vote came in the appointment of Director David Fick as Vice President of the board.
President Doolittle made a motion for the nomination, which was seconded by Fawke and passed with a 4-1 vote with only Director Floen voting no.
JBWD Board of Directors
David Fick
Jane “Spider” Fawke
Jane Jarlsberg
Stacy Doolittle
