Brett R. Barbre

Director Brett R. Barbre is the principal of Barbre & Associates, a public affairs company specializing in lobbying, water resource strategies, and media relations. He has represented clients at the local, state, and federal levels and has successfully worked and directed campaigns from the local water board to United States Senate races and everything in between. He successfully lobbied for and obtained multi-million-dollar contracts for numerous clients.

Director Barbre was elected to the Board of Directors of the Yorba Linda Water District in the November 2022 election, ousting an incumbent Director.

Director Barbre was previously elected to the Board of Directors of the Yorba Linda Water District and served from 1998 to 2000. In November 2000, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC), with nearly 70% of the votes cast. He was re-elected in November 2002 by a similar margin and was unanimously re-elected in 2006 and 2010 when nobody chose to run against him. In his final election of 2018, Barbre was re-elected with over 70% of the vote.

His primary goal in the water community is to ensure an adequate water supply for all of the needs in Orange County. He led the federal lobbying efforts to build a desalination plant in Dana Point and has actively pursued the approval and development of de-sal plants throughout southern California. He has utilized his expertise in lobbying on behalf of the MWDOC to help secure millions of dollars in local, state, and federal funds to build these projects and other water use efficiency projects to increase water reliability for Orange County and all southern California.

In 2009, Director Barbre was appointed to the 38-member Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which imports water from northern California via the State Water Project and from the Colorado River via the MWD owned/operated Colorado River Aqueduct. MWD delivers water to approximately 20 million residents and serves the largest population of any water district worldwide. He served as a member of the Finance & Insurance Committee, Engineering & Operations Committee, the Communications & Legislation Committee, and the Audit & Ethics Committee.

He has been a champion of pension reform and led the efforts at both MWD and MWDOC to establish an irrevocable Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) trust fund to pay down the benefits awarded in years past but were not funded. This means that future ratepayers will not have to pay for benefits awarded but not funded years earlier. He also championed the efforts for absolute transparency in providing web access for all compensation and expense records for Directors at MWDOC.

For over 30 years in Orange County public affairs, Director Barbre has been extensively quoted in most major newspapers in California, including the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register. He has appeared in such prominent national publications as the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Epoch Times, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, The Bond Buyer, and the Dow Jones News Wire.

Because of his expertise and background on Southern California water issues, Director Barbre has been invited to testify before various Congressional Committees in Washington, DC. He also regularly comments on water issues on various local and national public policy radio and television programs.

From 2017 to 2022, Director Barbre served on the professional staff of the Yorba Linda Water District (YLWD), the premier water and sewer agency in North Orange County, serving as the Assistant General Manager and General Manager.