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By Brian Hews
Interim Central Basin (CB) General Manager Elaine Jeng, whose own hiring continues to be questioned by several CB board members, suddenly fired two long-time and dedicated CB employees this past Monday, exposing the Commerce-based water agency to yet another employee-filed retaliation lawsuit.
Neither employee had a mark on their records nor had been “written up” for bad behavior.
The timing of the entire process was extremely suspect. The two employees were in charge of CB’s nomination process for appointed CB Boardmember seats, receiving and recording ballot nominations for cities and water purveyors for the last sixty days.
Currently, there are two seats open, the deadline to file for the seats was 5 p.m. this past Monday, July 22, the same day Jeng suddenly fired the employees.
Jeng sacked the employees at around 1 p.m., immediately after a contentious CB Board meeting and four hours before the nomination deadline, putting her in charge of the nomination process.
By terminating the women, who were technically the “custodians of the electoral process,” Jeng violated the rights of the purveyors and cities inside CB boundaries to be represented on the CB board as required by AB1794.
But Jeng did not stop there; after the firing, according to sources, Jeng disabled CB’s email system. But that proved to be an ill-advised move.
Before the deadline, but after Jeng disabled the email system, an email was sent to nominate a candidate. LCCN has obtained that email which was sent at 4:50 p.m. by Pico Rivera officials nominating James Enriquez.
Alarmed by the lack of response, the Pico Rivera officials informed CB that they would deliver the nomination via FedEx, stamped Monday, to the Tuesday July 23 meeting where the nominations were scheduled to be opened.
Tuesday’s meeting commenced, but with the two women gone, Jeng opened and read the nominations.
Two Open Seats
There are two open CB Board seats, both are appointed, not elected: a “City” seat, where all cities within CB boundaries appoint a candidate and an “At-Large” seat, where all water purveyors within CB boundaries appoint a candidate.
Two candidates were nominated for the City seat: Angel Quintero and James Enriquez. Ballots will now be sent out to all cities within CB boundaries for a vote to appoint either Quintero or Enriquez.
Three candidates were nominated for the At-Large seat, including Noe Negrete and former Lakewood Mayor Ariel Pe. Negrete is a former CB Director with years of water-related experience.
James Enriquez should have been the fourth candidate nominated by Pico Rivera for the At-Large seat but Jeng prevented Pico Rivera’s email from being received and then doubled-down, blocking Enriquez’ approval at Tuesday’s meeting.
Jeng waited for the very last ballot on Tuesday to read the Enriquez’ nomination, delivered via FedEx. Jeng stated, , “The last one I will read is from Pico Rivera. The [James Enriquez] nomination was delivered here this morning, so it did not make the deadline and will not be counted.”
Officials from Pico Rivera told LCCN Wednesday that they will send a letter to Ms. Jeng and Central Basin protesting Enriquez’ exclusion.
For now, since the two women were fired, it is now Jeng’s responsibility to call the candidates asking if they want to run for the seat, and if they do, to send in resumes showing they qualify with required water-related experience. Under CB’s Administrative Code, Jeng should have made the calls yesterday.
LCCN has learned that, as of today, Enriquez, Negrete, and Quintero have not been called by Jeng.
In addition, LCCN has learned that Pe’s candidacy will be questioned, and rightfully so.
The requirement for an At-Large or City seat is a minimum of five years’ water related experience and that a candidate “shall be employed by or representative of the entity that puts forth their nomination to be eligible for nomination.”
According to social media posts, Pe owns a promotional company that prints T-shirts and hats. Pe’s water related experience, according to his Linkedin, is four years [not five] on a water advisory committee in Lakewood.
In addition, there will be conflict of interest questions. Pe printed promotional materials for Juan Garza’s wife Mayra when she ran for a Bellflower Unified School District seat; and LCCN has been told that Garza assisted Pe with his losing Lakewood City Council campaign.
Jeng has been silent on the alleged nomination interference. LCCN sent two emails asking Jeng to confirm or deny that she disabled the email system without a response.
