By Eliza Ridgeway

Three Los Altos residents are among 15 candidates vying for appointment to the open seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors. District spokeswoman Susan Siravo said the six members of the board of directors plan to appoint a seventh member by Aug. 8.

Mountain View resident Greg Zlotnick is leaving the board of directors halfway through his four-year term after taking a job with the water district. He held the seat for District 5, which represents Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto, Stanford and parts of San Jose. The candidate who fills his place will serve until the November 2008 election.

Los Altos candidate Joseph Diaz is already a member of the Lower Peninsula Flood Control and Watershed Advisory Committee, which assists the board with issues regarding flood protection and stream stewardship. Diaz is a former contractor and firefighter. Candidate John Ritchie, who served as a Los Altos planning commissioner in the 1990s, is an attorney. The third local applicant, farmer and developer John Vidovich, ran unsuccessfully in last year’s Los Altos Hills City Council race.

Zlotnick’s exit from the board stirred controversy, as water district CEO Stan Williams appointed him to the $184,000 position of “special counsel” without advertising the job or interviewing competing candidates. As a member of the board, Zlotnick served in a supervisory role to Williams and received only $236 per meeting in compensation.

The water district is the primary water supplier for Santa Clara County, providing water wholesale to local providers, including Purissima Hills Water District and Cal Water, which serve Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. The district also provides flood control and creek and stream stewardship.