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MWD WATCH - We live in an era of unprecedented assaults on public servants. From teachers to election administrators to postal workers to environmental scientists, talented professionals face hostility and threats to their livelihoods just for doing their job.
It’s bad enough when false or trumped-up attacks come from unhinged residents or outsiders with an ax to grind. It can be more injurious, and more corrosive to democracy, when those attacks come from within government itself, from public board members with the duty to protect the mission and reputation of a public agency, not betray them. Or from an agency board chair, whose duties include defending the agency director, not tormenting them, and setting a high standard of ethics, not breaking them.
On Tuesday evening, June 11, the board chair of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) Adan Ortega appeared to commit a gross miscarriage of governance. Immediately on the heels of a regular board meeting that Tuesday, he suddenly called a special meeting of the board for Thursday morning, June 13, in L.A. with the explicit purpose of punishing, and possibly firing, the talented and widely respected general manager of the regional water agency, Adel Hagekhalil.
The board chair was aware Hagekhalil was boarding a plane that evening to Singapore to be a featured speaker at an international conference of water professionals and thus would be unable to attend and advocate for himself at the June 13 special meeting.
Hagekhalil was also about to be the subject of a glowing profile in the L.A. Times. This fact may have vexed the board chair for its focus on Hagekhalil’s talent, sustainability policies, and progressive reforms in an agency plagued by sexual harassment and adversarial relations with tribes and communities long denied a voice in water and land use. Such favorable exposure is a breath of fresh air, and an asset for the agency, not an excuse for pettiness or spite.
On June 13, the worst fears of insiders and onlookers alike came to pass. Despite an hour of public testimony at the special meeting by more than 20 colleagues from diverse backgrounds about positive firsthand experience with Hagekhalil, he was put on leave. Instead of accolades for how he was representing Southern California on the global stage at the Singapore water conference, Hagekhalil was suspended, without due process or an ability to speak. Why? A letter revealed at the eleventh hour from the disgruntled CFO alleged managerial disagreements.
Was the letter itself an inside job? With rhetoric that bootstrapped the CFO’s resentment over being excluded from the general manager’s “inner circle,” the letter made requests for a legal “remedy.” Did the general counsel at MWD consult on the letter? Did any attorneys inside the agency advise the CFO on how to craft the letter or how to use it in conjunction with the board chair to damage Hagekhalil’s standing in the agency?
Now, eight weeks since the suspension of Hagekhalil, the evidence of machinations inside MWD emit the stink of impropriety.
Ortega’s private consulting is under scrutiny as are his close ties to Cadiz Inc. The discredited company aims to profit hugely from pumping and piping out groundwater in the Mojave Desert on which the desert ecosystem, tribes, and tourist economy depend. Ortega himself filed a statement in federal court supporting Cadiz for a permit the Trump Administration wrongly granted the company. He even cited his MWD board role as a credential in that statement. Cadiz spends heavily on lobbying, and Ortega’s top two paying clients are key supporters of Cadiz. Cadiz states in its 2023 annual report that getting permission from MWD to move water through the Colorado River Aqueduct that MWD manages is critical to its business goals and corporate profits. How much does this apparent conflict of interest taint Ortega’s role as board chair?
Community organizations also detect the stench of foul play. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote to the MWD board on July 8 to protest the mistreatment of the general manager and retaliation against some of his many allies since the special meeting. “Board members and leadership have questioned the sincerity of those publicly announcing their support for Mr. Hagekhalil, allegedly going so far as to threaten and reprimand them for their support of the first Muslim Arab-American General Manager” of the MWD, states the CAIR letter.
The very next day, on July 9, Ortega sent a letter to the board. It announces an “investigation into various allegations against the General Manager.” But why scrounge for dirt in July, after Ortega in June took the hasty, headlong action to suspend Hagekhalil?
The letter reads like the launch of a fishing expedition. In one telltale sentence, it seems to give away its purpose of collecting gossip or innuendo about Hagekhalil that could be used as post-facto rationale for punishing him: “If you have information or are approached by individuals reporting to have information related to the ongoing investigation, please contact … or refer individuals wishing to submit reports.”
Is this the first time MWD board chair Adan Ortega has used a board position to target a director and perhaps advance his own interests at the expense of the organization?
In the period between 2007 and 2009, Ortega reportedly gained control of a nonprofit board called Amigos de los Ríos. The respected environmental organization engages youth and community volunteers in creating ecologically harmonious and sustainable landscapes. Amigos de los Ríos popularized the vision of protecting parks, interconnected green spaces, and water sources around the San Gabriel Valley called the Emerald Necklace. It has also worked hard with local governments and other partners to achieve that vision.
When contacted about the crisis of public trust engulfing MWD after governance missteps by its board chair Adan Ortega, two different top sources at Amigos de los Ríos who were contacted separately had the very same reaction: “He’s doing it again.”
In 2009, Ortega reportedly parlayed youth participants from an Amigos de los Ríos project in El Monte to advocate not for the environment, but rather for the preservation of jobs at a local manufacturer accused of polluting the air. An L.A. Times photographer that year captured Ortega as the hired “spokesman” for Gregg Industries, a steel foundry in El Monte subject to $5 million in upgrades at its work site under a settlement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The foundry closed. Like decades of airborne contaminants, the jobs drifted away. But Ortega may have found a lucrative niche in consulting: Getting paid by environmentally stained companies to advocate for their interests, despite evidence of harm or degradation of health and safety affecting surrounding residents.
Is history repeating? What’s happening at MWD under the stewardship of board chair Adan Ortega is alarming and unacceptable. The appearance of conflicts of interest, grave errors of governance, failures of due process, discrimination, and retaliation is ugly and indefensible. Angelenos deserve better. Adel Hagekhalil deserves better. And he deserves his job back.
Only when we insist that every stakeholder agency in MWD and every oversight body at every level follows the facts, including the unseemly money trails of financial interest and paper trails of internal sabotage and intimidation, will we get this mess cleaned up. Maybe then we can have a regional water agency where a world-class leader like Adel Hagekhalil can do his job without victimization or vengeance. Maybe then we can have local government in L.A. and California truly worthy of trust.
This July 9 memo to the public agency board members of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), a public agency of local government, from the board chair suggests a fishing expedition to find justification after the fact for the suspension on June 13 of respected MWD general manager Adel Hagekhalil.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime leader for LGBTQ+ human rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns appear in national news outlets including USA Today and in top daily news outlets of more than 20 states. A resident of Eagle Rock, he is also president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), the largest grassroots Democratic club in California, with more than 1,100 members.)
Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HansPJohnson
