Glen C. Dake, a landscape architect and Los Angeles civic activist, took a seat on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California, it was announced on May 13.
Dake joins Paul Koretz, John W. Murray, Jr., and Jess E. Quionez as City of Los Angeles representatives on the 37-member Metropolitan board.
He succeeds Aaron A. Grunfeld, who had served since January 2006, and will serve on the board’s Finance and Insurance and Engineering and Operations committees.
Active in Southern California watershed and groundwater issues, Dake helped lead the 2000 campaign to pass Proposition O, a Los Angeles city bond that provided up to $500 million for storm water projects.
In 2001, Dake served on then-city councilman and current Mayor Eric Garcetti’s staff dealing with environmental issues. He also participated on the state parks and water bond campaigns for Propositions 12, 50 and 84.
Dake currently serves on the City’s Recycled Water Advisory Group and the Los Angeles County Green Building Task Force, and is on the boards of the California League of Conservation Voters, the Los Angeles Community Garden Council and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust.
In his work as California licensed landscape architect, Dake has worked on campus improvement projects at UCLA and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and recently completed a storm water capture design in the Upper Los Angeles River Watershed.
In addition to working on numerous community garden projects, Dake also provided oversight of documentation and improvements of historical cultural landscapes at Silver Lake
Reservoir and Barnsdall Park as well as an outdoor learning environment for High Tech High School in Los Angeles.
A native of Saratoga Springs, New York, Dake earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Cornell University.
The MWD is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people in six counties in Southern California.