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MWD UNDERWATER - Leave it to a water-agency board drowning in conflicts of interest to worsen its situation further with two new self-inflicted wounds.
On the same day the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) board in Southern California threw $142 million dollars of taxpayer money down a hole up north in the Stockton area that’s yet to be dug, one member of the board had to answer, but refused to apologize for, a racist insult.
The slur, by MWD Board Member John Morris, cut to the core of a scandal the board has inflicted on itself by acting precipitously in June to suspend its respected general manager Adel Hagekhalil amid a complaint widely viewed as contrived.
On December 10, the MWD board voted to censure John Morris under the agency’s anti-discrimination policy for calling the agency’s chief of staff a “camel jockey.” Mohsen Mortada, an immigrant from Syria 37 years ago, was the target of the slur. The censure vote will block Morris, a representative of San Marino and an encrusted presence on the MWD board for 34 years, from representing the agency or from being reimbursed for travel.
Careful observers of the debate over censuring Morris noted that several MWD board members, including Marsha Ramos (representing Burbank), Cynthia Kurtz (representing Pasadena), and Carl Douglas (representing L.A.) seemed uncomfortable with holding Morris accountable for his racist remark and instead sought to deflect attention onto questions of process or to delay action.
Reluctance by several board members to censure Morris marks a curious contrast with a rush to judgment in June against Hagekhalil based on a spurious allegation of harassment by a disgruntled underling upset over shifting duties. On June 14, when MWD board chair Adan Ortega knew that Hagekhalilwas on a plane to Singapore as a featured speaker at an international water conference, Ortega called a special board meeting with the announced aim of taking personnel action against Hagekhalil based on the leaked allegation. Recent reporting has spotlighted Ortega himself as a source of the leaked allegation.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called the sudden suspension of Hagekhalil in June and board votes in August and October to prolong his suspension “discriminatory.” In a stern letter of warning this fall, CAIR mentioned the slur by Board Member Morris.
The CAIR letter also describes 2 additional anti-Arab slurs by MWD board members that underscore a climate of hostility that has bearing on Hagekhalil, a pre-eminent and trailblazing Arab American engineer and 30-year public servant in L.A. The same board members, including Morris, associated with the anti-Arab slurs took part in the board decisions in June to suspend Hagekhalil without warning and to extend his suspension in the two successive votes by board members.
Aggravating the optics of a water agency out of touch with its diverse constituents in Southern California was the board’s decision at the same December 10 meeting to spend $142 million more on a $20 billion project to build a 45-mile water tunnel beneath the delta region southeast of the San Francisco Bay, despite stern objections from indigenous leaders.
The water tunnel is a threat to vulnerable fish and marine species and devastating to the unique environment in the delta. Local residents, environmental advocates, and tribal leaders have successfully fought the scheme for decades even as its proposed price tag has soared above $20 billion. Ratepayers of the MWD in Southern California face a daunting request to cough up half of that astounding total price tag, or $10 billion.
Among the warnings from MWD stakeholders that board members brushed aside in their vote was a message from East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), representing more than 1,100 club members in the Greater Eastside of L.A. and adjacent communities. “The water solutions we need in Southern California are conservation, efficiency and leak/loss prevention, capture, storage, and treatment,” EAPD commented. “A delta tunnel is NOT on this list. Squandering money on such an unnecessary, exorbitant, and long-delayed scheme cheats the taxpayers. Spending on a delta tunnel robs current and future Californians of the water solutions that truly make our lives better and our infrastructure safer and sustainable.”
Demand by Californians for commonsense governance that serves the common good is only deepening. So is the ditch into which several members of the board of the Metropolitan Water District have misdirected governance of the agency, sidetracking its priorities, staining its reputation, and hitting consumers in our wallets.
At least 15 organizations that work for environmental justice, including the Sierra Club and East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), urged the MWD board to reject another hasty decision to spend $142 million on the delta tunnel project. The 45-mile tunnel scheme has languished on a drawing board for more than 60 years and now has a total price tag of $20 billion.
In addition to citing the anti-Arab slur by MWD Board Member John Morris, an October 2024 letter by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) highlights 2 other bigoted remarks targeting Arab Americans by MWD board members.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime leader for LGBTQ+ human rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns appear in national news outlets including USA Today and in top daily news outlets of more than 20 states. A resident of Eagle Rock, he is also president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), the largest grassroots Democratic club in California, with more than 1,100 members.)
