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BY BRIAN HEWS
The Central Basin Board has accepted the resignation of the law firm of Olivarez Madruga Lemieux O’Neill LLP; Central Basin’s new law firm will be Anthony Willoughby and Associates.
The resignation comes in the wake of a raucous Jan 30 meeting.
For the past two months, the combination of Vice Chair John Oskoui, and Director Dan Arrighi, along with Chair Bob Apodaca, have delayed crucial votes and pushed for former GM Kevin Hunt’s rehiring in order to keep the majority on the Board.
This while Hunt was fired after an HMG-LCCN investigation found him personally contracting with other cities, which was a violation of his employment contract.
If the three managed to hire Hunt, they would have illegally appointed another board member, using Garcia’s bill, to retain the majority.
Sources have told HMG-LCCN that Hunt secretly conducted a vote, and there were ballots from local water purveyors cast for a new board member, without the other board members knowing.
Apodaca, Oskoui, and Arrighi tried in vain to rehire Hunt, with Arrighi saying several times we must appoint a new board member from Santa Fe Springs.”
Apparently the three already knew who was going to be appointed by Hunt if they were successful in getting Hunt back.
But they were unsuccessful, and now with the new board with Leticia Vasquez as Chair and Art Chacon as Vice-Chair they will be relegated to the minority until the appointment of a new board member.
“These guys are bad for Central Basin, like Garcia’s bill,” said Vice Chair Chacon, “nothing has happened for the past two months because of the appointees and we have crucial votes, as witnessed by them walking out of the January 30 meeting before it was completed. They’re appointees, they don’t live in the area, they don’t care about the community nor the people in the community.”
