Interview with Grady Gammage - Central Arizona Project

thing but it was different because I was sitting up there running the Board. I
could say yes, I thought we needed to make that concession and so I did. And I
could stare them down, the Board Members, and some of them got upset. But
the Staff could not have done that. They would have been yelled at by the
Board… you shouldn’t have done that. And I was able to say yes, I decided we
had to give in on that, so here we are.
Q. Is that the one of accomplishments you are proudest of while you were on the
CAP Board
A. Yes, yes, that was a huge deal. And we got a good deal. We got a really good
deal. I could if I looked back, this was the part I always meant to write up, was
the whole history of those negotiations and how it proceeded. Sort of what we
got and what we didn’t get. I never have done it. I used to have a talk I would do
in which I could go in to this in great length. If I looked up my notes I could
probably do that talk for you sometime and then we could write it up. I warn
though it’s mind numbing, the numbers and the complexity.
Q. Is there anything that you would have done differently looking back
A. One of the things I talk about a lot now, is I am still troubled by the extent to
which we make water policy and urban growth policy in completely separate
arenas and with completely separate actors and really quite separate
considerations. I would like to fix that, better. Now, I’m not sure I could have
done it as President of the CAP Board. In fact, I may almost be able to have
Interview with Grady Gammage
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