Clean Water Services provides sewer and water management services across a wide geographic patchwork – Banks, Beaverton, Cornelius, Durham, Forest Grove, Gaston, Hillsboro, King City, North Plains, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin, portions of Lake Oswego and Portland, and parts of Clackamas and Multnomah counties – serving more than 600,000 people in the urban portions of the Tualatin River Watershed. That footprint, and the criticality of its systems, leave little room for governance missteps: ratepayers ultimately underwrite the agency’s operations, and any perceived laxity in expense discipline can quickly become a reputational and political risk with financial consequences.