The composition of the board of directors shall be as follows:

(a) There shall be a total of nine directors. A person may only be a candidate for one director.

(b) Six of the directors shall be qualified for office by being persons who hold title to land within the district or persons authorized to vote in elections by landowners, as provided in Section 37913. Each director shall be elected by landowners within the district as provided by Article 1 (commencing with Section 35003) of Chapter 1 of Part 4, except that each voter shall be entitled to cast one vote for each acre owned by the voter within the district. If the voter owns less than one acre, the voter shall be entitled to one vote and any fraction shall be rounded to the nearest full acre.

(1) For the purposes of election of the six directors described by this subdivision, landowners within the district shall be divided into three classes as follows:

(A) “Large landowners,” meaning holders of title owning a total of 400 acres or more.

(B) “Medium landowners,” meaning holders of title owning a total of 40 acres or more but less than 400 acres.

(C) “Small landowners,” meaning holders of title owning a total of less than 40 acres of land.

(2) Of the six directors elected pursuant to this subdivision, large landowners shall elect two directors, medium landowners shall elect two directors, and small landowners shall elect two directors.

(3) Candidates for the six directors elected pursuant to this subdivision may be within any landowner class.

(c) Three of the directors shall be elected by registered voters within the district at large.

(d) (1) All directors qualified under subdivision (b) shall reside within the district, within two miles of the district boundary, or within the boundaries of the City of Paso Robles, the Atascadero Mutual Water Company, the Templeton Community Services District, the San Miguel Community Services District, or the San Luis Obispo County Service Area 16.

(2) All directors qualified under subdivision (c) shall be registered voters residing within the district.

(Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 350, Sec. 1. (AB 2453) Effective January 1, 2015.)