Avoiding the Pitfalls of the Past

By Richard Schwartz

Past problems in the West Basin Municipal Water District include ethics abuses, problems in minority subcontracting, conflict of interest, and lack of respect for members of other agencies.

Ethical conduct by directors of the water district has been a problem for some time. To address this problem, the board has created a code of conduct. You may view this at West Basin's Code of Conduct. This code is similar to ethics codes in other industries, such as aerospace/defense. Unlike the aerospace/defense industry, ethics violators can not be fired or disciplined. The code of conduct provides no sanctions (short of criminal prosecution) for violators. And two of the five directors have been prosecuted, convicted, and face prison time!

• Directors Expense Abuse

  Who can be a director of the water district? Serving as a water district director is a lot of work. There are numerous meetings to prepare for and attend, and there is a large amount of legal, financial, and technical information to be mastered. One can not hold a regular eight-to-five job with a paycheck. One's family life may be disrupted. Without some compensation to offset expenses, only a few public spirited and politically ambitious plutocrats would be able to serve. The public would not be represented. That is why directors are allowed expenses for attending meetings, for transportation, for medical care, for communication (cell phones, fax, etc.) and other costs of serving.

  However, abuse of the directors expenses has been an ongoing problem. It is unfortunate that past exposure of this problem seems to be linked to efforts to achieve political goals. For example, in the election of Novermber 2000 (in which I placed second out of six candidates) Easy Reader exposed alleged abuses by one of the directors. They published a chart showing the expenses paid to each director. But what they did NOT report was that at the meeting immediately following the election, several of the directors submitted NINE MONTHS worth of expenses. Reach your own conclusion on this by visiting the Easy Reader, and also see Sacramento Bee Water Baron series. It is too bad that a potential public watchdog would discredit itself in this way.

• Kickback/Extortion

  Since 2002 two of the five elected directors have been indicted for corruption. As this is being written, one has plead guilty, and is now replaced by an appointed director. The other indicted director was tried and convicted by a jury, but is appealing his case. Note that my opponent was NOT one of them! These cases are reported at Trial Nears in Corruption Scandal and U.S. Department of Justice Indictement Announcement.

• Other Corruption

  Other forms of corruption are addressed in the code of conduct. I have no specific incidents to cite, but something must have happened to cause these to be speifically mentioned in the board's code of conduct.

  • Favoritism in hiring and promotion, discrimmination, and other problems.
  • Improper personal use of district facilities
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Brown Act violations (private meetings not accessible to the public)
  • Relations between the directors and the West Basin Municipal Water District staff
  • Improper political activities

Keep in mind that the budget of the West Basin Municipal Water District is hundreds of millions of dollars per year, the opportunity and temptations are great, and public scruitiny is very slight. Directors are frequently political creatures not accustomed to working to high ethical standards. This is a condition inviting ethics abuse. My proposal to post meeting minutes on the web in a searchable and transferrable format NOT as a .pdf file! will help by making it easier for watchdogs to search and sort the information as they try to uncover wrongdoing.

Minority Contracting

We need to assure that, in accordance with existing stated policy, the district actively pursues contracts with minority suppliers whose workforce is representative of the demographic composition of the district. Not because to do otherwise may be illegal, but because it is the right thing to do.

Disrespectful Treatment

We must hold all members of the the water community to the same standards, regardless of ethnicity, personality, or politics. What ever substantiation of expense is demanded of one director must be demanded of ALL. Respect for the electorate implies respect for the elected (until there is convincing evidence that something is wrong).