Two New Directors Join Metropolitan Water District’s Board

Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors has welcomed two new directors representing the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA). Jerry Butkiewicz and Tim Smith, succeed directors Keith Lewinger and Elsa Saxod, who served on the Metropolitan board for nine years and nearly two years, respectively.

Butkiewicz has been a longtime labor union leader. He began his career as a U.S. postal clerk and member of the American Postal Workers Union in Phoenix. He and his family moved to California in 1980 and he worked at an Oceanside post office. Butkiewicz was subsequently elected president of the local American Postal Workers Union (APWU); from 1982 to 1995 he worked as the labor liaison at the United Way of San Diego County.

A Chicago native, Butkiewicz was elected secretary-treasurer of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, a post he held from 1996 to 2008. From 2008 until his retirement in 2016, Butkiewicz held a position as workforce readiness manager for Sempra Energy. He was appointed to the Water Authority’s Board of Directors in 2016 to represent the city of San Diego.

Smith has been an engineer in the water industry for 28 years and currently serves as an adjunct professor at San Diego State University teaching water courses in the civil, construction and environmental engineering department. He is the current president of the Otay Water District Board of Directors and was seated on the Water Authority’s board in 2017.

Smith began his career as an engineer for Black & Veatch and Parsons Corp., before shifting to the public sector as senior civil engineer for the Water Authority. He then worked as a principal engineer for Helix Water District.

A native of Columbus, OH, Smith earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in civil engineering from San Diego State University and is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and American Water Works Association.

In joining the 38-member Board of Director for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Butkiewicz and Smith will help govern the state-established cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people in six Southern California counties. The district works to assist its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource management programs.