Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper
[img]2766|right|The Roybal Three: [l-r] Leticia Vasquez, James Roybal, and Bob Apodaca are trying to fire GM Tony Perez [below] and remove current Board President Phil Hawkins.||no_popup[/img]Chaos has officially broke out at the dysfunctional Central Basin Water District as multiple Board meetings have been scheduled, cancelled, and then scheduled again by the “Roybal Three,” Directors Leticia Vasquez, James Roybal and Bob Apodaca, to fire current GM Tony Perez and remove current Board President Phil Hawkins from his office.
Sources tell us that morale at the besieged Commerce agency is said to be at an all-time low.
Today’s1:30 meeting was called for on Tuesday to “discipline and dismiss” current Mr. Perez. President Hawkins, disgusted with the one agenda item aimed at firing Mr. Perez, added agenda items to the meeting.
Later in the day, the 1:30 meeting was cancelled by the Roybal Three and moved to 2:30 with an additional agenda item of removing Mr. Hawkins as president.
This is believed to be in retaliation for calling a second meeting exposing the corruption of the Roybal Three and their alleged intent on destroying the agency.
When told of the meeting, the firing of Mr. Perez, and the removal of Mr. Hawkins, County Supervisor Don Knabe told the newspaper, “Frankly, the behavior and dysfunction at the Central Basin is absolutely out of control. I am concerned about their ability to perform their primary function – maintaining water availability and services to the constituents we represent. So today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved my urgency motion to request a comprehensive state audit of the Central Basin and put a contingency plan in place for another agency, or even our own Public Works department, to take over.
‘Outrageous Behavior’
“We cannot put more than 2 million people in 24 cities and unincorporated southeastern Los Angeles at this kind of risk because of the outrageous and bungling behavior of this Board.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Apodaca abandoned the dysfunctional group, voted to remove Mr. Roybal as Board President and supported fellow Board Member Arturo Chacon in nominating Mr. Hawkins as president. As a result, the agency enjoyed a brief period of stability, yet continued to suffer from previous poor policy decisions made by the misguided former majority.
But the temporary accord did not last for long.
At its regular Monday meeting, the Roybal Three used the District policy of three Director calls to set a Special Meeting for the purpose of conducting an “evaluation” of the performance of Mr. Perez.
After a marathon 2½-hour closed session, a meeting that Director Chacon and President Hawkins left, the three board members who participated in the review recessed and announced that the remainder of the evaluation be continued at another special meeting today.
After the meeting, Ms. Vasquez and Mr. Apodaca told another news agency they “denied any intention of firing the general manager.”
However, today’s 2:30 agenda meeting specifically states “Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release.”
Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Chacon did not participate in Monday’s evaluation segment of the closed session meeting stating that the evaluation was illegal and that due process had not been followed.
According to Mr. Hawkins, “when Tony Perez comes back and sues us for not honoring the terms of his contract and for not following a legitimate process, Art and I once again won’t be to blame for the Roybal Three stupidity.”
He Has the Credentials
General Manager Perez, an accredited engineer with a distinguished 22-year career at the Metropolitan Water District, was hired in April 2013 and was awarded a five-year contract with Central Basin.
He became the first General Manager with engineering credentials to run the besieged water wholesaler in more than two decades.
He is credited with orchestrating the largest water sale in the agency’s 60-year history to former rival the Water Replenishment District and for stabilizing the District’s shaky finances.
He recruited two respected senior management-level staff members, and he was in the process of laying the groundwork for a major recycled water project in the City of Huntington Park that would provide the agency with a solid revenue stream for years to come.
However, Mr. Perez also faced the reality of navigating the waters of corruption and controversy surrounding the Roybal Three.
According to former Central Basin candidate and Norwalk Planning Commissioner Scott Collins, “Perez was walking a daily tightrope dealing with Apodaca’s perversion with sexually abusing women which resulted in Central Basin’s insurance recently settling a well-established case of sexual battery for $670,000.” Mr. Collins added, “If you were Perez, could you work with a man like Apodaca, knowing two other Central Basin Directors actually witnessed him sexually assaulting his own stepdaughter on District property?”
According to Mr. Hawkins, his decision to hold a second special meeting was driven by his desire to expose the true reasons why the Roybal Three were plotting to fire the General Manager. “My meeting’s agenda listed three items that highlight the real reason Tony’s head is on the chopping block,” Mr. Hawkins said. “ Under my direction as Board President, I directed the General Manager to look into three issues which included the leaking and forging of federal subpoenas of which Leticia Vasquez is the prime suspect, the potential criminal fraud committed by James Roybal while he collected payment from Central Basin for attending meetings while also collecting a salary from the L.A. Unified School District and abusing the terms of his lengthy Teacher Jail incarceration, and finally, how much the District was spending on Leticia Vasquez’s frivolous Qui Tam case.”
Mr. Hews may be contacted at http://www.loscerritosnews.net/2014/09/23/central-basin-water-general-manager-tony-perez-waterboarded-by-the-roybal-three/
