Valley Water

This presentation is about Valley Water and its role in managing our water supply in Santa Clara County. You will learn about major projects, water saving tips, how the recent rains impacted the drought situation, and some of Valley Water’s many programs.
Barbara Keegan, Valley Water Director: District 2

Barbara Keegan is the current Vice Chair of the Valley Water Board of Directors. She represents District 2. She was born in Canada to Irish immigrant parents. At the age of twelve her family moved to California, and they subsequently became American Citizens. She first moved to San Jose in 1975 and has lived in District 2 for most of her life. Barbara and her husband currently reside in Willow Glen. Barbara is a third generation Civil Engineer and has lived in Canada, Ireland, the United States and Brazil. She attended San Jose State University where she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering. Barbara has a strong professional background in Civil Engineering which includes many years of experience in successfully delivering capital projects and resolving construction disputes. She was the second woman engineer to be hired by the City of San Jose’s Public Works Department where she worked for 19 years and rose to the level of Division Manager. Her Division was the largest in the Department and she directly supervised over 100 employees. Subsequently Barbara became the City Engineer/Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Sunnyvale. Barbara represented Sunnyvale on the Cities/County/Water District collaborative that dealt with land use authority adjacent to streams. The last two years of her career were spent as Construction Manager at Valley Water.
District 2 encompasses the central and southern parts of the city of Santa Clara and the central and western parts of the city of San Jose.

Mike Potter, Valley Water Office of Communications
Mike Potter has served as the Community Outreach Program Supervisor in the Office of Communications for Valley Water since November 2019. Mike worked previously at a large technology company where he was responsible for Local Government Affairs for 9 years. He led efforts in the City of San Jose and other large cities and local governments in the Bay Area and in California. He previously worked as the District Director for two different local members of the California State Legislature—Assembly Member Joe Coto from 2004-2010 and State Senator Byron Sher from 1996-2004.
Additionally, Mike has represented the downtown and east side of San Jose as an elected member of the governing board of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority for 13 years. He studied Political Science, Public Administration at San Jose State University which led to his interest in local government and work on numerous local political campaigns, including efforts for numerous elected officials and ballot measures. He is also a member of the Rotary Club of San Jose. Mike has lived in San Jose since he was a small child, graduated from Archbishop Mitty High School and resides in downtown with his wife, son and their corgi “Buddy.”