City, water district face off
Mayor Liccardo: ‘It was very clear to us the information … provided to us was wrong’
SAN JOSE — City and water district officials sparred at a Wednesday meeting over the failure to warn residents before Coyote Creek flooded last month, with the mayor suggesting the city might hire its own experts if it couldn’t get better information from the regional flood control agency.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo reiterated at a Santa Clara Valley Water District board meeting Wednesday that the city relied on flawed data from the water district that showed the creek channels could handle more water before flooding.
“It was very clear to us the information that was being provided to us was wrong,” Liccardo said, adding that he takes “full responsibility” for the failure to warn residents.
Water district leaders said San Jose was provided ample warning and failed to act but acknowledged it didn’t commu-
nicate clearly with city officials.
“The technical data was misinterpreted or discounted by others, primarily because the communication was lacking between the agencies,” said Melanie Richardson, the district’s interim chief operating officer for watersheds. “The data we provided wasn’t useful in the decisions the city needed to make.”
While both agencies said they’re committed to “working together” to prevent similar disasters, flood victims Wednesday didn’t get many answers about why they received no notice about the quickly rising water. There were fewer than five victims at the meeting, though water district officials said they’ll hold public meetings next month closer to their homes.
Liccardo said the city’s emergency operations center director, David Sykes, made the ultimate decision about when to evacuate. As mayor, Liccardo said he has no authority to make the call to evacuate residents — though he said he’ll shoulder the blame.
“I took responsibility early on in this effort because I hoped that would create the space needed for folks to come to the table and problem-solve without pointing fingers and casting blame,” he said. “It appears my efforts fell short.”
Sykes and Liccardo continued to say Wednesday the city didn’t start evacuating residents Feb. 21 because they didn’t think the neighborhoods would flood right away. Liccardo said that if the city can’t rely on the water district’s data, it might need to hire its own hydrologists — though he doesn’t want to do that.
“Based on the channel capacity charts, we thought we had the capacity to manage that flow,” Sykes said. “Obviously, in retrospect, we were wrong.”
But one San Jose resident — who tried to warn residents and the agencies about the potential for flooding — says the city should have understood the threat and acted quickly to provide sandbags and evacuate residents.
“Mr. Sykes, I could have interpreted the chart much more accurately than your staff did,” Jeffrey Hare said during the board meeting Wednesday. “I could have told you exactly what could have happened.”
Both agencies acknowledged emergency communications between San Jose and the water district fell short.
Water district officials provided a timeline of events that showed at least nine phone calls and webinars with San Jose to discuss storm preparation and the flood threat.
But one water district board member said the water district needs to take more responsibility.
“I think we need to take some responsibility for the information we provided,” said director Linda J. LeZotte. “If we don’t take ownership of that, we’re not going to fix this.”
The agencies still disagree on where responsibility lies for Coyote Creek maintenance and cleanup. Water district officials said they’re responsible for cleanup on “improved channels” it owns — not natural ones like much of Coyote Creek.
In those areas, water district officials said they removed 84,000 cubic yards of sediment, 8,250 cubic yards of trash and debris, and 5 acres of instream vegetation.
The water district will hold several more public meetings to discuss the flood: 6 to 8:30 p.m. April 6 at the County Service Building 2, Auditorium, 1555 Berger Drive; April 12 at the Franklin-McKinley School District, Boardroom, 645 Wool Creek Road; and April 17 at Roosevelt Community Center, 901 E. Santa Clara St.