MONEY GRAB: Central Basin Directors Juan Garza, Nem Ochoa, Joanna Moreno, and Gary Mendez.
April 19, 2025
With water sales declining, water pumps malfunctioning, and revenue-generating projects on hold, the Central Basin Administration and Finance Committee, whose Chair is Director Juan Garza and includes members Gary Mendez, Nem Ochoa, and Joanna Moreno, has a lot of work to do.
But what did they address at their last A & F meeting? Giving themselves additional chances to sponge off the public dole, voting on an item in committee to add more paid meetings to CB’s already long list.
CB Directors earn nearly $300 for every meeting they attend.
Director Garza was the only director to respond to LCCN emails asking about the meetings. Garza wrote, “It’s clear that our board has not considered, added, or [sic] authorized more paid meetings.”
Yet a check of CB’s website shows the new list of meetings has already been uploaded. And the item from the agenda (below) clearly contradicts Garza’s email.
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Termed Out Directors Voting for More Meetings
According to the state’s Water Code and the CB Administrative Code, the terms of A & F members Ochoa and Moreno ended more than seven weeks ago, on February 28, 2025. Yet, they remain on the CB Board and several CB Committees, illegally voting for items, such as increasing meetings, that benefit directors and contractors. All of Ochoa and Moreno’s votes could be refuted later, with attorneys citing a lack of voting authority.
(While cities and water purveyors inside CB’s footprint are crying foul about Ochoa and Moreno, no Los Angeles daily newspapers are calling attention to their violations; no elected official in Los Angeles is questioning the abuse of power and conflicts of interest. Meanwhile, Ochoa and Moreno’s superiors, David Schickling of Golden State Water and Vernon City Manager and former city of Whittier Manager Brian Saeki, ignore the fact that their employees are blatantly violating the State’s Water Code.)
The reasons for adding items to the list are unknown, and no directors have lodged any complaints about the list, which has been in use since early 2021.
The changes will only affect elected Directors Garza, Mendez, Chacon, and Vasquez, yet appointed Directors Ochoa and Moreno, ignoring the obvious conflict of interest, voted to move the item to the CB Board. The move will likely result in the CB adopting the new list; Ochoa, Mendez, Moreno, and Garza are the directors in the majority and vote together 99.99% of the time.
A Big List Already
The CB Staff report indicated 56 meetings were compensable before October 25, 2021. After October 25, 2021 the CB Board, led by then-President Art Chacon, amended the list to reduce it to 24 approved meetings. At the time, President Chacon told LCCN, “We don’t need more meetings on the list, we are public servants, it seems that some directors are forgetting that.”
On March 6, 2024, the new majority, with Michael Gualtieri as president, added meetings back onto the list; Garza voted for the increase, and immediately began cashing checks.
Then, Gary Mendez was elected in November 2024, and two months later, without any water experience on his resume, he was appointed Vice President. Mendez immediately proposed adding more meetings, which included “inspections and tours of facilities.” There are many such “facilities” just in Los Angeles County.
A review of records indicates that CB Directors rarely attend facility tours, instead opting for one annual tour of the Hoover Dam.
The additional meetings seemingly benefited only certain directors, namely Garza, who owns a public relations firm, and Mendez, a teacher.
Added was:
Just as questionable are paid meetings that were not removed from the list. Directors can call a meeting at any time with the CB GM and receive payment, including for lunch meetings. Directors can also call a meeting with CB’s General Counsel and get paid.
“Maybe the committee should put the word emergency in those meetings so it is not abused. Usually, items can wait until our monthly board meetings rather than having off-site meetings with only certain board members,” said Chacon.
This is not the first time Garza has taken advantage of attending meetings for big-dollar payments.
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(The vote to place Rojas on leave violated his employment contract and the California Water Code. A case pending in Los Angeles Superior Court will likely (LCCN contends it will) reinstate Rojas as General Manager.)
According to CB’s checks register, beginning in February 2024, Garza had cashed the largest meeting checks, totaling $2,656 in February, $3,246 in March, $2,655 in April, $4,722 in May, and $1,475 in June. In five months, Garza racked up $14,754 in paid meetings.
Garza also received a monthly car allowance of $397, totaling $ 4,832, and $200 for his cell phone, totaling $ 2,400. All told, Garza took $17,739 in five months for meetings, a car, and a cell phone, averaging $3,500 per month.
And that is not all the public agency money Garza is taking; he cashes a $5,000 check every month as the Executive Director for California Cities for Self-Reliance-JPA, a consortium of five L.A. County cities that advocate for cardrooms within their city boundaries.
Then in May, Garza was hit with a $49,000 tax lien filed against his house by the FTB related to his public relations firm. Questions swirled within the industry, asking how Garza, earning money from CB, the JPA, and his public relations firm, could get slammed with such a large lien. And it only took the FTB a little over a year to file the lien, lightning speed according to one CPA.
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Graza recently paid the lien off, but will not respond to questions asking how he came up with the money. According to online records, his house in Bellflower had ample equity, but Garza chose to rack up thousands in interest, waiting nine months to pay the lien.
By law, the Franchise Tax Board must charge interest on unpaid taxes. This interest is charged from the due date until the date it is paid, is adjusted twice a year, and compounds daily. In addition to the interest, a delinquent penalty rate is also charged. The rate is 5 percent of the total unpaid tax, plus an additional 0.5 percent for each month or part of a month after the due date that the tax remains unpaid, up to a maximum of 40 months.
All told, Garza likely owed nearly $60,000 when he paid off the lien.
Between the time the lien was filed against Garza and the recent payoff, Gary Mendez was elected to the CB Board. Without asking a single question after Mendez was appointed VP (without any water experience), Mendez voted to pay CB lawyer Victor Ponto $134,000.
Just a few weeks later, Garza paid off his lien.
Now, Garza and Mendez are looking to sponge even more from the agency with the additional meetings.
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