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December 11, 2024
By Brian Hews
Central Basin (CB) General Manager Elaine Jeng may not be the tool some CB Directors want her to be, or maybe she was not properly vetted by then-President Michael Gulatieri and VP Juan Garza when she was hired earlier this year.
At its upcoming December 12 meeting, Central Basin’s Administrative and Finance Committee (AF), whose members are Juan Garza, Jim Crawford, and Nem Ochoa, will, under the advice of Burke Williams Sorenson attorney Victor Ponto, consider the implementation of a lengthy and expensive search for a new General Manager.
The AF agenda item reads, “The Central Basin Municipal Water District Board of Directors placed its General Manager on administrative leave in February 2024. On November 1, 2024, the Board terminated the employment with General Manager Alex Rojas and directed the General Counsel to commence the effort to recruit for a General Manager using the services of a professional search firm.” [sic]
The agenda item failed to mention that the November 1 firing of Rojas was not just a breach of law, but also a violation of both a 2015 California State Audit Mandate and Central Basin’s Administrative Code.
The Audit mandated that if the Board wanted to fire the CB GM, it needed six votes. Rojas’s personal employment contract also mandated a 7/8 vote of the Board, which is also six given the current board configuration.
Yet only four CB Directors were present at the November 1 meeting, and two of them were recently appointed, Golden State Water GM Nem Ochoa and Vernon Civil Engineer Joanna Moreno; and both knew about the audit mandate and Rojas’s employment contract along with Juan Garza and Martha Camacho-Rodriguez who also voted to fire Rojas.
Ponto proposed “the scope of work for the professional search firm,” a costly proposition given that a search firm charges upward of $100,000 plus a percentage of the negotiated salary of the person hired.
Other steps included “Meet with the Board of Directors, stakeholder groups, and staff, as directed by the District to facilitate the development of an appropriate candidate profile and list of priorities for the new General Manager; Development of a customized recruitment strategy and timeline; Job profile creation, including qualification, skills, and attributes desired in a General Manager; Nationwide recruitment outreach and advertising; Candidate sourcing, screening, and assessment; Coordination of interview panels, candidate interviews, and related logistics; Background checks, reference verifications, and due diligence; Negotiation assistance in securing a contract with the selected General Manager candidate; Regular progress reporting to the Board of Directors and District staff.”
Ponto “advises” that a Request for Proposal be released on December 17, 2024, with a submission deadline of January 17, 2025, and hiring of the search firm by January 27, 2025.
The AF Committee cannot vote to hire a search firm; it only recommends a course of action to the CB Board. The item is then voted on and must be passed by a majority, currently four votes.
Sources are telling LCCN that Director Crawford likely will not support the search, Garza and Ochoa did not return an earlier email.
