How Transparent is the Santa Clara Valley Water District

What do public officials mean by "transparent"? Does that mean that consumers/ratepayers can find and easily understand what our taxes or fees are used effectively to provide us a reliable and minimum cost service or product? We need to keep in mind there are over "3,000" districts, in the state of California, the Santa Clara Valley District (SCVWD) is one of them.

Mr. Beau Goldie, CEO of SCVWD was recently interviewed by KNBC of San Francisco stated,.

There are several things besides the the Director's fee's which are not clearly published and more than Mr. Goldie indicates are transparent.

1. SCVWD has been contracting with TBWB Strategies, since 1998, to advise the district on "how to win, get 67% of the votes cast for Measure B the SCVWD second 15 year Parcel Tax extension. Over the 15 years of Measure B Parcel Tax the District will collect $548 million dollars or more from Santa Clara County Tax Payers. If as Mr. Goldie says the "district is transparent" where can I find how much is the district paying to TBWB and what exactly is TBWB providing?  Hopefully TBWB didn't write the Proposition B ballot text that was "two" words too long! I also hope the district didn't have them review it before submission, to be placed on the November Ballot.
2. So we're back to the question how much does the district pay TBWB and what do we get? All we can tell from the published financials is the office of the CEO costs roughly 12 million dollars last year and Mr. Goldie's salary was $265,000 where does the other 11.75 million dollars go? Does some go to TBWB I can't tell from the district's published financials?
3. SCVWD has over a dozen projects started based on the Parcel Tax currently in effect. It appears a large number of projects are incomplete? the completion goals/objectives readjusted or over budget or all of the three. There should be a clear, concise document that shows the start, milestones, budget and schedule slips and budget overruns. The district culture seems focused on publishing everything in "glowing terms" at the cost of the showing the real project progress and status.
4. We need to go to a different document to see the positions held by district employees and their compensation.  It's published by the California State and is a list of 796 employees salaries of SCVWD for the calendar year 2010. The average salary appears to be over $80,000 per year and the Mr. Goldie, CEO makes: $265,684 base salary in 2010 is he paid other bonuses or incentives and what is his salary for 2011 and 2012? Do SCVWD employees get car allowances? If so how many, how much and who?
5. It's important to remember that the Santa Clara Valley Water District exists to serve the taxpayers of Santa Clara County. It should also be remembered that: the district should clearly represent their actions, expenses and decisions. All such actions should be open, transparent and understandable to the taxpayers. It appears that as a taxpayer and county resident the SCVWD should work to,"quality service at minimum expense", rather than "quality service irregardless of expense".