Darrell Beck New Water Board President

Lifetime Ramona resident Darrell Beck was named the new water board president at Tuesday's bi-monthly meeting.

Beck, who's served on the Ramona Municipal Water District Board for four years, was nominated by board members Kit Kesinger and Joe Zenovic and voted on unanimously. This is his second term.

Other positions were also chosen:

• Vice President: Joe Zenovic
• Secretary: George Foote
• Treasurer: Rex Schildhouse

Beck was also chosen as the Ramona Municipal Water District Director for California's Joint Power Insurance Authority (JPIA).

"Traditionally, it's been the board president," RMWD General Manager David Barnum told the board. "It's a non-paying position with limited duties."

The JPIA, Barnum said, is a way of keeping insurance costs down.

"It's pretty common among public agencies," Barnum said.

RMWD's human resources manager, Mike Callahan, was chosen as the JPIA alternate.

The board also voted to keep meetings at 2 p.m. and the new board members received an extensive presentation on the water district as a whole: sewer, water, finances, administration and fire.

Current ad hoc committees, which consist of two board members each, now include:

• Board of Directors Role During Emergencies (Beck and Schildhouse)
• Spangler/San Vicente/San Vicente Road (Zenovic and Foote)
• Santa Maria Upgrade (Beck and Zenovic)
• Santa Maria Recycles Water (Beck and Kesinger)
• Montecito (Kesinger and Schildhouse)
• Undocumented Sewer Legislative Code and EDU Charges (Beck and Zenovic)
• Ramona Air Center and Community Facilities District (Zenovic and Schildhouse)
• Poway Pump Station Power Reliability (Foote and Zenovic)

The next board meeting will be held at Jan. 22 at 2 p.m.