May 6, 2025
By Brian Hews
At Central Basin’s April 28 meeting, an agenda item to approve starting the process of hiring a general manager was called for a vote, but only three directors voted yes, which wasn’t a majority since two directors did not attend.
Just seven days later, a “majority” called for a special meeting; one of the agenda items was the general manager item that was voted down at the last meeting.
There is some question as to whether adding the general manager agenda item follows the Ralph M Brown Act rules for open meetings or Central Basin’s Administrative Code, but in any case, the agenda item does violate California Government Code section 5496(b) and 3511.1 (a) and (d).
5496(b) states, “A legislative body shall not call a special meeting regarding the salaries, salary schedules, or compensation paid of a local agency executive, as defined in subdivision (a) and (d) of Section 3511.1.
3511.1(a) states, “”Compensation” means annual salary, stipend, or bonus, paid by a local agency employer to a local agency executive.
3511.1(d) states, “Local agency executive” means any person employed by a local agency … who meets any of the following requirements: (2) The person is the head of a department of a local agency.
The special meeting agenda item reads, “REVIEW OF GENERAL MANAGER POSITION DESCRIPTION AND COMPENSATION STUDY.
“RECOMMENDED MOTION: That the Board review and approve (1) the recommended position description; and (2) the recommended salary parameters for the General Manager position.”
After they approve the “salary parameters” (which is a given because Director Joanna Moreno, who missed the last meeting, will be present), the board will consider two proposals from recruitment firms, which are companies that get paid to search for high-level employees.
Recruitment firm fees are extremely high, generally between $50,000 and $100,000 as a fee, along with the firm tacking on a percentage of the final salary package.
The board meeting is May 8 at 10:30 a.m. at Bristow Park, located at 1466 S. McDonnell in Commerce.
Emails into board members went unreturned.
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