Election could undo power seized by new majority on Central Basin water board

A week after a new majority seized control of the Central Basin Municipal Water District’s board and fired its embattled general manager, the results of Tuesday’s election could upend the fledgling regime.

Voters, forced by redistricting to choose between two longtime activists on the board, ousted Martha Camacho-Rodriguez, the board’s newly installed president, and returned board member Leticia Vasquez-Wilson, according to semi-official election results. Simultaneously, they reelected board member Juan Garza and selected newcomer Gary Mendez, a 21-year veteran of the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees and current member of the Whittier Union High School District board, to join the governing body.

Mendez, the seventh member of a board routinely split down the middle on key issues, could serve as a deciding vote once seated in early December. In an interview, he said he wants to get the district to move past the bickering and return its focus to water issues.

“I’m going to be the adult in the room,” Mendez said.

Central Basin Municipal Water District is a public water wholesaler with few of its own employees. It serves nearly 2 million people from 24 cities and unincorporated areas in southeast Los Angeles County, with its boundaries stretching from La Habra Heights in the east to Carson in the west and from Signal Hill in the south to Montebello in north. The board is made up of seven members, four of whom are elected and three of whom are appointed by the agency’s customers. The state Legislature forced the appointees on the agency following a scathing state audit that found questionable contract practices in 2016.

Constant turmoil

Mendez will join the panel during a particularly tumultuous period in a water district infamous for its constant turmoil.

This year’s board meetings have often devolved into stalemates and shouting as one faction, led by Garza and Camacho-Rodriguez, attempted to agendize controversial topics, including the firing of now-former General Manager Alex Rojas, against the wishes of the other, led by board member Arturo Chacon, who until recently served as the board president and, under the district’s administrative code, had the final say over board agendas.

Eventually, the board, through a special meeting that circumvented Chacon and is likely to spark legal challenges, voted to remove Chacon’s title and to fire Rojas without cause on Nov. 1, just days before the election.

Rojas had been on leave for most of 2024, pending the outcome of two administrative investigations related to an ongoing criminal case against him. The District Attorney’s Office charged Rojas more than two years ago, alleging he took $400,000 in bribes from a company called Del Terra while serving as superintendent in the Bassett Unified School District in La Puente.

Despite the charges, Central Basin initially allowed Rojas to continue leading the district because the case was believed to be unrelated, until a civil case, filed by Vasquez-Wilson, discovered a secret connection between a Central Basin contractor, Capstone Partners Group, and Del Terra.

The administrative reviews, the final of which concluded in October, found even more links to Del Terra and alleged Rojas boosted his own compensation by more than $75,000 without proper approval. Rojas has denied any wrongdoing and the criminal case has yet to progress past the initial arraignment.

Del Terra worked on projects at Rio Hondo while Mendez was on the board, but Mendez, who served from 1999 to 2000, had left by the time Del Terra’s owner was charged in 2022. Mendez said Del Terra and other small firms partnered with larger construction management companies as part of an initiative to encourage participation by minority-owned companies.

The college district faced criticism in 2023 for continuing to work with Del Terra despite the allegations against it in Bassett and other school districts.

New member a water ‘nerd’

Due to its reputation, other politicians warned Mendez to avoid Central Basin, but he said he intends to join with an open mind and plans to spend his early days in office listening and learning so he can make informed decisions. As he has at other agencies, Mendez will advocate for the importance of decorum and good stewardship of taxpayers’ money, he said.

“It’s our primary fiduciary duty to look after the finances of the institution,” he said.

Mendez, a karate sensei and self-described water “nerd,” experienced firsthand the importance of water conservation while working with limited supplies as a ranger on Catalina Island, he said. He hopes use his lengthy experience with public agencies to constructively redirect the board back toward water whenever possible.

“That’ll be my purpose, to try to get stuff through among the chaos,” he said. “I’m excited.”

Lot of work to do

Garza, now heading into his second term, said the board has a lot of work to do and must get a “true handle on the state of our agency.” District employees do not have access to key financial accounts and the district has yet to complete annual audits for fiscal years 2022, 2023 or 2024 after its auditor, Harshwall & Co., quit, claiming it could not finish the job because of missing records and “ongoing mismanagement.” Efforts to hire a new auditor have been stymied by the board’s stalemates over the agenda.

As a result of the missing audits, Moody’s, which gives bond credit ratings, removed its rating of Central Basin completely.

Garza described the need to clean up Central Basin’s administrative code — its constitution — as essential. During the Nov. 1 special board meeting, the board voted to have staff bring back recommendations for amending the code to remove the president’s sole authority over agendas.

He also pointed to the need to make progress on long-gestating projects with its partners, such as Metropolitan Water District’s Pure Water Southern California plan, which would recycle wastewater to produce 150 million gallons of purified water every day.

“Now that we have this new path that we’re going down at Central Basin, the hope is that we can start having more constructive decisions in regards to the pivotal water projects ahead of us,” he said. “This friction has held us back.”

Must steer in right direction

Vasquez-Wilson took a similar stance, saying the board has “a lot of housecleaning to do.” The two reviews of Rojas’ administration “turned up a lot of issues that the board has to address,” she said.

“Hopefully, everyone will come together and look at the facts and steer the agency in the right direction,” she said. “The agency can no longer continue to operate in the fashion that it has been operating.”

She blamed Rojas for “instigating” issues between board members and accused him of using district resources to harass those who opposed him. She pointed to the lawsuit she filed alleging that Rojas interfered with her rights as an elected official through intimidation and coercion. Though she opposed the board’s recent special meeting and did not attend along with Chacon and boardmember James Crawford, she has vocally supported firing Rojas for years.

The board’s next general manager, who will be found through a selection process expected to start in the near future, should be someone who is ready for the “work that needs to get done,” she said.

“It’s going to take cooperation on everybody’s side to make sure we’re focusing on our purpose, which is to bring our community the cleanest water at the most affordable rate,” she said. “That’s why we were established.”