Gary Mendez
April 29, 2025
By Brian Hews
Los Cerritos Community News has obtained a letter, dated January 10, 2025, from the L.A. County Office of Education General Counsel, addressed to the Dr. Russell Castaneda Calleros, President of the Board of Trustees Whittier Union High School District, and Monica M. Oviedo, Ed.D., Superintendent of the WHSD, concluding what LCCN has been writing about since his election; that Gary Mendez is holding incompatible offices.
Mendez is both a WUHSD Trustee and a Central Basin (CB) board member, having won his WUHSD seat in 2022 and subsequently won the CB seat in 2024. After he won the CB seat, LCCN opined on the incompatible office situation; sources are telling LCCN that the opine triggered LACOE’s investigation into Mendez.
In the letter to WUHSD, LACOE General Counsel Vibiana M. Andrade wrote, “The Board of Trustees of the Whittier Union High School District requested a legal opinion from the Los Angeles County Office of Education General Counsel on whether the offices of School Board Trustee and Director, Central Basin Water District are incompatible offices.
“Our conclusion is that these offices are incompatible.
“This conclusion is based on the overlapping geography, the underlying functions of the school district and water district, conflicting roles or clash of duties, the multiple opinions issued by the Attorney General involving identical or similar facts, as well as the Attorney General publications.”
According to the letter and sources at WHUSD, Mendez has been fighting his removal from WUHSD since January 10, just days after he was sworn in as CB Director. Sources at CB have told LCCN that CB GM Elaine Jeng and attorney Victor Ponto have also been helping Mendez.
The incompatible office rule was established in 1940 and holds that “the acceptance by a public officer of another office, which is incompatible with the first, thereby vacates the first office.” This rule was codified into Government Code section 1099.
1099 reads in part, “A public officer…shall not simultaneously hold two public offices that are incompatible. Offices are incompatible when certain circumstances are present.”
In Mendez’ case, the pertinent section of 1099 reads, “Based on the powers and jurisdiction of the offices, there is a possibility of a significant clash of duties or loyalties between the offices.
Additionally, the California AG has repeatedly found the office of the school district trustee to be incompatible with the position of water district director.
In 2002, the California AG determined that the offices of trustee of a school district and director of a municipal water district were incompatible. A water district sells water, determines the rates, and can withhold water during a shortage.
The California AG found that “a significant clash of duties and loyalties may… arise in such matters as the Water District setting the wholesale water rate that will be passed on to the School District…also in determining the need for restrictions on water usage during times of a water shortage…”
The same potential for a significant clash of loyalties exists between CB and the WUHSD. WUHSD’s territory is inside the boundaries of CB and CB provides a large amount of the WUHSD’s water requirement.
Additionally, CB sets the rates for the water that the WUHSD sells to other local agencies through its own operations.
For instance, if a rate issue between CB and WUHSD came before the CB board, acting as a CB Board member, Mendez would advocate for the highest water rate, while as a trustee for WUHSD, he would argue for the lowest rate, potentially leading to conflicts of interest.
In its opine, LCCN questioned why, when someone like Mendez runs and wins a public office knowing there is an incompatible office situation, the elected official must vacate the first office, in this case, Mendez’s trustee seat on WUHSD.
Why not the public office that caused the incompatibility in the first place, in this case, Central Basin?
Questions into Mendez went unanswered.
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