As chairwoman of the California Water Resources Control Board, Marcus has the unenviable task of trying to please an array of competing interests in a state that has battled drought. She says she has tried to be “sensitive to what the legitimate interests were of the other people in the circle.” 

Someone who likes to make enemies would be hard-pressed to find a more perfect job than running the agency that tells folks in parched California that they can’t water their lawns.