Statement from Charley Wilson, Executive Director and CEO of the Southern California Water Coalition
At the Southern California Water Coalition, we agree that Californians across the political spectrum are feeling frustration with ideology that talks past real-world problems and a growing demand for government that simply works. The political center isn’t apathetic — it’s impatient. The silent majority isn’t disengaged because they don’t care; they’re disengaged because caring hasn’t produced results.
What energizes them is competence, predictability, and outcomes that improve daily life.
Water policy illustrates this better than almost any issue. For far too long, California has been trapped in process-heavy debates that reward delay, litigation, and obstruction, even as droughts, floods, and aging infrastructure intensify. Yet when voters are asked to support practical, results-oriented solutions — building new water storage, expanding water recycling, modernizing conveyance, repairing levees, or strengthening regional supply reliability — they respond across party and regional lines. A Central Valley grower, a Southern California homeowner, and an urban renter may disagree on many policies, but they all expect safe, affordable, and reliable water when they turn on the tap.
Californians have repeatedly demonstrated this pragmatism by approving multi-billion-dollar water bond measures with the expectation that those funds would deliver real infrastructure and real reliability. All too often, however, voters have watched those dollars be consumed by process — layers of planning, evaluations, environmental reviews, and studies — while promised facilities are delayed, downsized, or never built at all. That failure fuels public frustration and reinforces the sense that the system is better at pandering than producing water.
Make no mistake, a quiet rebellion is taking shape: a broad coalition is on the rise demanding systems that function and leaders who can deliver. In water, as in housing and energy, this is not about left versus right. It’s about results over rhetoric — and the growing resolve of Californians who are ready to hold government accountable at all levels for results.
The Southern California Water Coalition (SCWC) – established in 1984 – is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public education partnership dedicated to informing Southern Californians about our water needs and our state’s water resources.