Alicia Mestas

Alicia Mestas serves as a key procurement professional within The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, supporting the agency’s mission to secure, treat, and deliver reliable water supplies through strategic acquisition of critical support services. In her role, she manages the procurement lifecycle for non-engineering, operational-enabling contracts, ensuring alignment with regulatory compliance and sustainability goals. Her acquisitions typically focus on professional services that enhance administrative efficiency, environmental stewardship, and facility operations, bridging technical infrastructure needs with governance and planning functions. Mestas collaborates with a diverse array of service providers specializing in environmental consulting, facilities management, and administrative support. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she maintains consistent working relationships with firms offering water resource planning, operational analytics, and compliance advisory services. Her contracting approach emphasizes performance-based outcomes, requiring vendors to demonstrate technical competence, regulatory familiarity, and proven experience in public water sector environments. She prioritizes clear scope definition, rigorous evaluation criteria, and contract oversight to ensure accountability and service quality. Alicia’s procurement patterns reflect a strong preference for open competition, with 100% of her acquisitions conducted without set-aside designations. This indicates a focus on selecting the most qualified providers based on technical merit and value, rather than socioeconomic classifications. While she does not routinely deploy 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB set-asides, her contracting practices remain fully compliant with federal and state small business participation requirements, allowing eligible firms to compete on an equal footing. Her primary NAICS focus areas include Facilities Support Services, Environmental Consulting Services, Marketing Consulting, General Management Consulting, and Certified Public Accounting services. These reflect a strategic emphasis on optimizing agency operations through professional expertise in sustainability planning, financial oversight, and organizational efficiency—critical enablers for a large-scale public water utility navigating complex infrastructure modernization and regulatory demands.