{"id":14702,"date":"2025-03-03T11:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T10:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isleutilities.com\/?post_type=executive-exchange&#038;p=14702"},"modified":"2025-11-21T16:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:44:21","slug":"morbi-mollis","status":"publish","type":"executive-exchange","link":"https:\/\/isleutilities.com\/es\/executive-exchange\/morbi-mollis\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep 2: &#8220;If its installed, it had better be working&#8221; \u2013 The Secret To Building a Resilient Utility with Rob Thompson, General Manager, OC San, California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201cIf It\u2019s Installed, It Better Work\u201d: How OC San Built a Resilient, Low-Cost Utility<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Executive Exchange \u2014 Episode Feature with Rob Thompson, General Manager, OC San<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this episode of the Exec Exchange, host <strong>Dr. Piers Clark<\/strong> talks to <strong>Rob Thompson<\/strong>, General Manager at <strong>OC San (Orange County Sanitation District)<\/strong> in Southern California\u2014one of the largest wastewater agencies in the United States by population served. What emerges is a masterclass in operational resilience, disciplined asset management, and board alignment in a highly political environment.<\/p>\n<p>OC San serves <strong>2.6 million people<\/strong> across <strong>20 cities<\/strong>, plus several local districts and the County of Orange. With nearly <strong>400 miles of trunk sewer<\/strong> (ranging from 18 inches to 10 feet in diameter) feeding into <strong>two major treatment plants<\/strong>with a combined wet weather capacity of <strong>640 million gallons per day<\/strong>, this is not a small, niche system. It\u2019s a complex, high-stakes regional utility\u2014and yet it operates with <strong>low, predictable bill increases<\/strong> and an impressive record of reliability.<\/p>\n<p>So how did OC San get from firefighting to \u201cquietly competent\u201d resilience?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>From Firefighting Culture to Forward Planning<\/h3>\n<p>When Rob joined OC San 29 years ago\u2014from a technically rigorous, safety-obsessed oil and gas background in Arctic environments\u2014the culture was familiar to many utilities: reactive, heroic, and permanently on the back foot.<\/p>\n<p>Monday mornings began with: <em>\u201cWhat broke over the weekend?\u201d<\/em><br \/>\nOperators and maintenance teams were constantly scrambling to catch up. The system worked, but only through effort and sacrifice rather than design.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to today and the picture is completely different. OC San:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Has had <strong>no sewer spills caused by the utility since November 2022<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Has gone <strong>18 years without a water quality violation<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Routinely reports <strong>no weekend call-outs<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The shift didn\u2019t come from a single flagship project or a shiny technology deployment. It came from <strong>changing how the organisation plans, aligns and leads<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Governing Through Change: Making a High-Turnover Board an Asset<\/h3>\n<p>OC San\u2019s governance would give many utilities nightmares.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The utility\u2019s <strong>25-member board<\/strong> is made up of <strong>appointed representatives<\/strong> from 20 cities, local districts and the county \u2013 not specialists in water or engineering.<\/li>\n<li>Members include <strong>mayors, councillors, lawyers, IT specialists, government professionals, and the occasional rock band member<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Due to election cycles and term limits, OC San loses <strong>25\u201333% of its board every two years<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The leadership team has no say in <em>who<\/em> sits on the board. They are simply told: <em>\u201cThis is your board member now.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Instead of fighting that reality, OC San designed a system around it.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>The Strategic Plan: Plain English, Rolling, and Owned by the Board<\/h3>\n<p>At the heart of OC San\u2019s resilience is a <strong>strategic planning framework<\/strong> that is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Top-to-bottom aligned<\/strong> \u2013 relevant to everyone from the board chair to frontline maintenance workers<\/li>\n<li><strong>Structured around 15 core service areas<\/strong>, including:\n<ul>\n<li>Financial services<\/li>\n<li>Wastewater treatment<\/li>\n<li>Non-revenue water and chemicals of emerging concern<\/li>\n<li>Biosolids reuse<\/li>\n<li>Energy independence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Written in plain English<\/strong> \u2013 accessible to non-engineers and non-specialists<\/li>\n<li><strong>Continuously refreshed<\/strong> \u2013 not a static five-year plan gathering dust<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Every time the board changes, the first <strong>three months<\/strong> of the new members\u2019 term are spent on <strong>orientation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What OC San does<\/li>\n<li>Why it does it<\/li>\n<li>How each of the 15 strategic areas contributes to long-term resilience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Crucially, Rob emphasises that this is <strong>not staff lecturing the board<\/strong>. The plan is framed as the <strong>\u201cprior wisdom of the board\u201d<\/strong>. New members are invited to <strong>challenge, refine, and update<\/strong> it over the following months.<\/p>\n<p>The result? A <strong>rolling, living strategy<\/strong> that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Survives political cycles<\/li>\n<li>Avoids wild swings in direction<\/li>\n<li>Keeps the utility focused on long-term outcomes like <strong>100% water reuse<\/strong>, regional partnerships, and resilience investments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Asset Management With Teeth: \u201cIf It\u2019s Installed, It Better Work\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>If the strategic plan provides direction, OC San\u2019s asset management approach provides discipline.<\/p>\n<p>Rob\u2019s mantra is disarmingly simple:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIf something is installed, it better work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Behind that line sits a very deliberate management system:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dedicated asset engineers<\/strong> are assigned to each treatment area and watershed.<\/li>\n<li>There is <strong>clear ownership<\/strong> of critical assets \u2013 pumps, centrifuges, power, control systems and more.<\/li>\n<li>Redundancy is designed in (four pumps in duty, plus one or two standby), but <strong>standby assets are expected to be fully available<\/strong>, not cannibalised or left offline indefinitely.<\/li>\n<li>Supply chain and spares strategies are aligned to criticality: if an asset is critical, <strong>the parts must be available<\/strong>. \u201cWaiting on parts\u201d is not considered an acceptable steady state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rob\u2019s leadership style reinforces this. As Operations &amp; Maintenance Director, he personally:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Walked the plants <strong>every two weeks<\/strong> with operators and managers<\/li>\n<li>Asked direct questions about visible issues:\n<ul>\n<li><em>Why is this conduit hanging?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Why is this motor still tagged out?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Why hasn\u2019t this pump been returned to service?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Expected issues to be resolved quickly\u2014and did <strong>no<\/strong> expect to have the same conversation twice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s not glamorous. It\u2019s not digital-first. But it works.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Partnership, Reuse and Regional Thinking<\/h3>\n<p>OC San\u2019s resilience is not purely internal.<\/p>\n<p>The utility has built long-term, strategic partnerships across the region, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Working with <strong>Distrito de Aguas del Condado de Orange<\/strong> on <strong>groundwater recharge and advanced water reuse<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Partnering with <strong>Orange County Waste &amp; Recycling<\/strong> on <strong>food waste recovery<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Embedding reuse and circularity in its long-term direction, rather than treating them as standalone projects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These partnerships are explicitly reflected in the strategic plan, giving the board a clear line of sight from <strong>policy and investment decisions<\/strong> a <strong>regional outcomes<\/strong> like water security and resource recovery.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>What Other Utilities Can Take Away<\/h3>\n<p>For utilities and agencies facing their own mix of political churn, ageing assets and operational pressure, OC San\u2019s story offers some very practical lessons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Accept your governance reality\u2014and design for it.<\/strong> You may not control who sits on your board, but you can control how informed, aligned and engaged they are.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep strategy live, short and in plain language.<\/strong> Three pages people actually read beat 120 pages nobody opens.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tie asset management to accountability.<\/strong> If it\u2019s installed, it should be working, and someone should own that outcome.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make resilience visible.<\/strong> Sewer spills avoided and violations prevented are just as important as crises handled.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lead from the front.<\/strong> Leadership walks, asks hard questions, and reinforces standards through behaviour, not memos.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As Rob puts it, his advice to his younger self still holds for utility leaders today:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cDo the right thing. Be patient. Stay at it. It will work out.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To hear the full conversation and dig deeper into OC San\u2019s approach to board alignment, strategic planning and asset reliability, listen to the latest episode of the <strong>Exec Exchange<\/strong> con <strong>Rob Thompson<\/strong>, General Manager at OC San.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":14899,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-14702","executive-exchange","type-executive-exchange","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ep 2: &quot;If its installed, it had better be working&quot; \u2013 The Secret To Building a Resilient Utility with Rob Thompson, General Manager, OC San, California | Isle Utilities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/isleutilities.com\/es\/executive-exchange\/morbi-mollis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ep 2: &quot;If its installed, it had better be working&quot; 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