Acosta resigns from Triunfo board





The leadership makeup of the Triunfo Sanitation District has taken another twist following the announcement that longtime member Jim Acosta is resigning from the district’s board of directors.

Former Triunfo boardmember and Thousand Oaks City Councilmember Dennis Gillette has been appointed by the Ventura Regional Sanitation District to take Acosta’s place.

The Triunfo district provides potable and wastewater services to customers in Oak Park, Thousand Oaks, Bell Canyon and Lake Sherwood.

Acosta reportedly stepped down from the board due to time constraints. He is in his first year as president of the California Special Districts Association and travels often, according to Mark Lawler, Triunfo’s general manager.

Because Ventura Regional manages Triunfo, including its finances and contracts, critics of the two agencies have charged conflict of interest.

Acosta and Gillette are Ventura Regional board members. Lawler is both the Triunfo and VRSD manager.

Acosta, who had served on the Triunfo board since 1998, said he will retain his seat on the Ventura board. He’s been associated with VRSD since 1988. There are no term limits for appointed seats, Lawler said.

“VRSD can choose members based on state law,” he said.

Acosta had been criticised for serving on the Triunfo board since he lives in Saticoy.

The five-member Triunfo board is made up of only two elected seats, those belonging to Janna Orkney and Ron Stark. The other three seats, those of Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and Thousand Oaks City Councilmembers Tom Glancy and Dennis Gillette, are appointed.

Parks and Orkney tried unsuccessfully to change Triunfo’s board to an all-elected, at-large body. The other board members opposed the move citing concern about the possibility of Thousand Oaks- which has the most customers in Triunfo- not being adequately represented. Stark, Glancy and Gillete indicated support for an elected board by district.

“I think this makes it clear that having an all-elected board, elected at-large by all Triunfo rate payers, is the way to go,” Orkney said. “Otherwise, there will always be questions of fairness of representation, even with an all elected board elected by district.”

“Supervisor Parks represents the whole area served by Triunfo, as Ron Stark and I do,” Orkney said. “We were elected by the whole district to represent everyone.”


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