Rebecca Eisenberg, the Santa Clara Valley Water District's District 7 director, is seeking reelection this November while locked in an escalating legal and political fight with the very agency she serves. She faces Los Altos City Councilmember Pete Dailey in the Nov. 3 election, a contest unfolding against the backdrop of a 2024 board censure, a newly filed federal lawsuit, and a public meeting removal earlier this month.
Eisenberg was first elected to the board in 2022 after unseating incumbent Gary Kremen, according to The Mercury News. District 7 covers portions of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno and Los Gatos, among other communities, as Mountain View Voice reports. Dailey, a Los Altos city councilman and former mayor, has also served on the Santa Clara Valley Water Commission for four years.
A Censure That Still Shadows Her Campaign
On March 14, 2024, the Valley Water Board of Directors voted to censure Eisenberg for misconduct and approved additional disciplinary actions, according to a news release from Valley Water. The board voted 6-1 to censure her for mishandling confidential information and, separately, 6-1 to censure her for discriminatory harassment, abusive conduct and improper direction to staff, per the same release. The Mercury News, however, reported that the board voted 6-0 to censure Eisenberg and strip her committee assignments — a discrepancy neither account resolves.
The censure followed an investigation into complaints against Eisenberg. Valley Water's release stated that eight complaints were substantiated for discriminatory harassment, abusive conduct and improper direction to staff. Separately, Palo Alto Online reported that investigators substantiated nine of 25 total complaints alleging harassing or offensive conduct, a figure that diverges from the agency's own count. The board also approved removing Eisenberg from all roles and responsibilities representing the board and district in a 5-2 vote, per Valley Water's release.
The 2,000-Page Document at the Center of the Dispute
Part of the fallout stemmed from Eisenberg's removal of roughly 2,000 pages of an unredacted confidential investigation from Valley Water headquarters on Jan. 29, 2024, according to the district's release. Eisenberg has denied the underlying allegations of harassment, abuse and discriminatory remarks, according to Mountain View Voice, and has said the conversations characterized as abusive were mostly taken out of context. She told the outlet her comments about men building with concrete and men engineers were misconstrued, saying she was quoting from Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner's book on the history of water policy and dams.
Eisenberg has said she removed two executives she characterized as corrupt and believes her censure would not continue if she is reelected, because the people she quarreled with no longer work at Valley Water — adding that everyone who had complained about her has since left the district, according to Mountain View Voice. She also said her accusation of corruption against Rick Callender was accurate; a separate external investigation found substantiated claims that Callender sexually harassed Valley Water employees, per the same Mountain View Voice report.
Lawsuit, Then a Removal From the Podium
Eisenberg filed a federal lawsuit on Oct. 9, 2026, alleging whistleblower retaliation, defamation and emotional distress against Valley Water and former officials, The Mercury News reported. According to Mountain View Voice, the suit — filed by attorney Evan C. Nelson of Brothers Smith's Walnut Creek offices — raises whistleblower retaliation and 12 other claims against Valley Water, Callender and district counsel Carlos Orellana. The lawsuit alleges the retaliation followed Eisenberg's concerns about gender bias in committee appointments and what she describes as potentially concealed financial disclosures tied to a federal loan application, per the same outlet.
Four days after the lawsuit was filed, Eisenberg was removed from a Valley Water public meeting by security on Tuesday after refusing to yield the floor, according to The Mercury News. The case against Eisenberg remains ongoing, Mountain View Voice reports.
Flood Protection and Water Affordability Take Center Stage
Beyond the legal fight, Eisenberg has staked her campaign on affordability, sustainability, and community and flood protection, according to Mountain View Voice. She has said water affordability is essential and credits herself with stopping the proposed Pacheco Dam project, which she said would have increased residents' water rates fourfold. She said she is proud of her influence on the board despite the turmoil.
Valley Water itself manages an integrated water-resources system that includes clean water supply, flood protection and stream stewardship on behalf of Santa Clara County's 2 million residents, according to the agency. The district is divided into seven geographic territories, each with one voter-appointed director, and leads county stream maintenance and flood protection efforts.
Flood protection has particular resonance in District 7 because of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, founded in 1999 to focus on flood risk reduction and habitat restoration along the creek in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park — work rooted in a 1998 flood that damaged more than 1,700 properties, per Mountain View Voice. Eisenberg served as the JPA's vice chair in 2023 and says she was removed from that committee assignment because of her censure, though she maintains she has continued attending JPA meetings and representing her community. Valley Water's Bay-to-Highway 101 San Francisquito Creek project, covering about 1.5 miles with a $44.5 million construction cost, uses a horizontal, or “living,” levee designed to adapt as sea levels rise, according to the Valley Water project page, which describes it as the first step toward protecting more than 5,700 homes and businesses from creek flooding.
How Eisenberg Entered Politics
Eisenberg has said she had no intention of becoming a local politician until retired Santa Clara County Judge LaDoris Cordell suggested she run for the District 7 seat, according to Mountain View Voice. Kremen, the man she unseated, had previously been accused of bullying in an external investigation, per the same report. Eisenberg's resume includes serving as a parent representative on the Palo Alto Unified School District's local district advisory committee in 2018, a board director for the Palo Alto High School baseball team's parents association in 2023, and a community legal advisor for the North American African American Civil Rights Organization in 2024.
