Interim Central Basin GM Blocking Valid Board Appointments

August 8, 2024

By Brian Hews

Two weeks ago, Los Cerritos Community News exclusively reported that Interim Central Basin (CB) General Manager Elaine Jeng, whose own hiring should be scrutinized, suddenly fired two long-time and dedicated CB employees, exposing the Commerce-based water agency to yet another employee-filed retaliation lawsuit.

Neither employee had a mark on their records nor had been “written up” for bad behavior.

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Did the Central Basin GM Interfere With the Agency’s Nomination-Election Process?

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The timing of the entire process was extremely suspect. The two employees were responsible for CB’s nomination process for appointing CB Board members per AB1794, receiving and recording ballot nominations from cities and water purveyors.

The deadline to file for the seats was 5 p.m. July 22, the same day Jeng suddenly fired the employees.

Jeng sacked the employees at around 1 p.m., immediately after a contentious CB Board meeting and four hours before the nomination deadline, putting her in charge of the nomination process.

Two Open Seats

There are two open CB Board seats, both are appointed, not elected: a “City” seat, where all cities within CB boundaries nominate a candidate, and an “At-Large” seat, where all water purveyors within CB boundaries nominate a candidate.

Under the state’s Water Code, the candidate must have a minimum of five years of water-related experience and must have been nominated by the entity they worked for or consulted with in the past year.

When it all shook out, Angel Quintero was the only nominee for the At-Large seat, and James Enriquez and Ariel Pe were nominated for the City seat.

Per AB1794, the nominees should have received phone calls from Jeng asking if they wanted to run and requesting their qualifications in writing.

But, according to sources, Jeng never called. She was evidently busy starting the process of blocking the appointments, “making up rules as she went along,” as Director Leticia Vasquez later told Jeng.

Should Take Directors’ Seat Now

One patently blatant block is Quintero’s appointment.  He is the lone nominee for CB’s At-Large seat. Per CB Administrative Code, Quintero should have been sworn in immediately on July 25.

Jeng later justified blocking the Quintero appointment saying that the purveyors filled out Quintero’s nomination ballot incorrectly, despite the fact she conducted a question-and-answer meeting with purveyors at the end of May.

But it is a spurious argument given Quintero is the only nominee in the category and is a well-known long-time water-related professional from Huntington Park.

Former Director Michael Gualtieri, who recently retired, qualified in the same manner as Quintero and was immediately appointed to his seat.

Should Be Eliminated Now

In contradiction to her actions towards Quintero, Jeng is not citing incorrect ballots to block or eliminate former Lakewood Mayor Ariel Pe, a nominee in the “City” category.

According to sources, Pe does not qualify under the state’s Water Code. He does not work for any of the cities that nominated him and does not have the required five years of water-related experience.

But he is a good friend of CB Director Juan Garza.

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Ariel Pe (far left) with Juan Garza at the MWD. From Pe’s Linkedin profile where Pe lists his employment as Rojas Public Affairs.

Ariel Pe owns Labwerkz Print, in 2020 he printed promotional material for Garza’s wife for her BUSD campaign.

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Should Take Directors Seat Now

With Jeng allowing an unqualified Pe to stay on the ballot, she is effectively blocking the nomination of another highly qualified candidate, Santa Fe Springs Director of Public Works/City Engineer James Enriquez.

If Jeng rightly eliminated Pe, Enriquez, like Quintero, would be the only “City” nominee and would be appointed immediately.

Unauthorized Meeting to Delay Appointments

Jeng waited nine days after the July 22 ballot deadline to call  an unauthorized Zoom meeting on Thursday August 1, “to move and reset the nomination process to August 16.”

Jeng invited CB Board members yet did not send out a public notice of the meeting, as required by the Brown Act, only brazenly writing in an invitation email that “Directors comments will be limited.”

Jeng started the meeting by saying she “received feedback” from cities/purveyors “unaware of the ballot process” despite the aforementioned purveyor meeting she conducted.

“We are going to put together an additional form to be filled out [by the entities nominating a candidate] specifying all the qualifying information of the nominee,” Jeng said.

But that was already being done.

Since AB 1794 passed in 2016, CB staff has called or communicated with the nominee and their employer to certify that they are eligible—as is customary during any employee background check done by any competent human resource department in the country.

But remember…. on July 22, hours before the ballot deadline would trigger the appointment process, Jeng suddenly fired the two employees responsible for the certification process, leaving no one to call and certify the ballot information.

After hearing about the new form, a representative from Huntington Park, who nominated Quintero, asked, “So I should disregard what I sent in and send it again?”

“Yes,” said a laughing Jeng, “we are going to make it easier for you. Those who made nominations, those will continue to be valid, but you [the nominating entity] will have to satisfy the written certification. We will create a new form for you and it has to contain all the required information  for it to be considered.”

The redundant new form would be simple, basically asking for a resume and a pay stub to prove employment. It could have been easily produced for dissemination during the Aug. 1 Zoom meeting, which several purveyors attended, but it was not.

It was Thursday, August 1. During the meeting, Jeng said she would have the new forms sent by Monday (Aug. 5) or Tuesday (Aug. 6) “at the latest.”

LCCN has been told that as of this morning, Aug. 8, the candidates have yet to receive the form from Jeng.

Director Leticia Vasquez, who, along with Directors James Crawford and Thomas Bekele [who resigned May 20], was on the call, asked Jeng to state “for the record” her authority to hold the meeting and extend the nomination period.

Stumbling after the question, Jeng said, “Um, the Administrative Code places the authority to administer the purveyor appointment with the General Manager. Absent [a General Manager], I am hired as Interim to fill that spot.

“What section?” Vasquez asked.

Well,” said Jeng, “I don’t have it right now, but I can certainly follow up on that.” Jeng never produced the Section for Director Vasquez.

Now, James Enriquez and Angel Quintero, who qualify and should be sworn in as CB Directors immediately, filling crucial posts so the agency can operate correctly, must wait until August 16.

With Jeng’s questionable extension, this could produce new nominees where there were none before which would delay the appointment process another 60 days and deprive CB ratepayers of a correctly operating agency.

All under the guise of  “incorrect ballots,” which were never incorrect to begin with.