Hews Media Group-Community News exclusively reported on Jan. 7 that Los Angeles-based attorney John W. Harris of Harris and Associates – a friend of Central Basin Municipal Water District Director Leticia Vasquez – massively overbilled the Lakewood-based Water Replenishment District over a two-year period.
We obtained records indicating Mr. Harris’s small firm billed the District for $2.7 million.
Adam Kargman, Mr. Harris’s attorney at the time, sent a detailed letter with proof of the overbillings to Water Replenishment District President Rob Katherman, vice-president William H. Murray, Board members Sergio Calderon, Albert Robles and Lynn Dymally, along with General Manager Robb Whitaker and Chief Financial Officer Scott Ota.
In one month, January, 2014, Mr. Harris padded Mr Kargman’s time, adding 51 bogus hours to his bill, amounting to $14,000 in overbilling.
An investigation was initiated with Mr. Harris entering into a “settlement agreement.”
Central Basin General Manager Kevin Hunt and Mr. Nossaman’s Central Basin attorney Alfred E. Smith II had “no idea” about Mr. Harris’s overbillings. They chose Mr. Harris as one of three finalists for Central Basin’s autonomous “ethics investigation counsel.”
Both found out that Thursday when we published the overbilling story online at loscerritosnews.net and in our print newspaper the next day.
Yet Mr. Hunt, Mr. Smith II, Central Basin President Bob Apodaca, vice president James Roybal and director Ms. Vasquez ignored the documented proof that Mr. Harris overbilled and allowed him to interview for ethics investigation counsel on Friday, Jan. 8.
“These are just allegations,” Mr. Roybal said during the interview. “You are innocent until proven guilty.”
Ms. Vasquez echoed Mr. Roybal’s statement. She urged the board to interview Mr. Harris.
“Do you really think Central Basin just ‘found’ Harris and Associates out of the blue?” asked a longtime Central Basin observer. “If you think that, I have a bridge to sell you. Vasquez and Roybal are tied to him. Vasquez’s husband (attorney Ron Wilson) is good friends with Harris.”
Our further investigation into Mr. Harris’s past has revealed additional connections, somehow missed – again — by Messrs. Hunt and Smith II, between Mr. Harris, Ms. Vasquez, and Mr. Roybal.
This, after both directors claimed they had no further connections to Mr. Harris at the Jan. 8 board meeting.
In 2012, Water Replenishment District director Rob Katherman started a political action committee called Coalition for Clean Affordable Water.
In an interview, Mr. Katherman confirmed he was actively involved in the PAC that helped Ms. Vasquez and Mr. Roybal get elected to the board in 2012.
Many in the industry questioned Katherman’s motives in starting the PAC. Some said the Water Replenishment District was attempting to “take over” Central Basin.
The PAC “raised campaign contributions and produced campaign materials that led to the successful election of recalled Lynwood City Council member and Mayor Leticia Vasquez and James Roybal to the Central Basin board,” Mr. Katherman said.
An examination of campaign donations revealed that Mr. Harris and his law firm gave the PAC $1,000.
Ms. Vasquez and Mr. Roybal knew Mr. Harris had given money to the PAC yet interviewed him anyway for a position.
Mr. Hews may be contacted at loscerritosnews.net
