The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a downtown-based water wholesale cooperative, selected local water official Gloria Gray as its new chair. Gray, who has represented the West Basin Municipal Water District on the 38-member Metropolitan board since 2009, will serve a two-year term beginning Jan. 1; she will succeed Randy Record, who has held the post since May 2014. Gray is the first African-American to lead the board and only the second woman to do so in the district’s 90-year history.