MWD chair Gloria Gray is asked to end dual candidacy for water board and city council
Campaigns violate state conflict of interest law, says activist. First, an invitation to readers of SoCalWaterWars.
Note: The date and time for the MWD mentioned within this story has been corrected.
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And speaking of transparency, Gloria Gray, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is being called out by Conner Everts of the Southern California Watershed Alliance over a serious conflict of interest issue (Everts, a former water buffalo and a preeminent California water activist, has written guest columns for SoCalWaterWars).
Everts is concerned that Gray is for running for two elected offices that he says are incompatible under state law because they cover overlapping jurisdictions. Serving in both positions would be a conflict of interests, he says.
He explains the details in his letter to the chairwoman, presented below.
The offices in question are the Board of Directors of the West Basin Municipal Water District (for re-election) and the Inglewood City Council (first-time candidate).
Gloria Gray, director at West Basin Municipal Water District and Chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors. She is running for reelection to West Basin and for election to the Inglewood City Council. Snapshot taken from West Basin Water District website
Everts hopes that the issue will be brought up at the MWD Board of Directors meeting at 12pm this Tuesday (Oct. 11, 2022). See the agenda here.
Note, please, agenda items 21-1596 and 21-1553 that “Authorize waiver of Metropolitan Administrative Code Section 2201 regarding term limits for Board Chairwoman Gray” and seek the “Nomination and Election for Board Chair for two-year term effective January 1, 2023”, respectively.
Gray has served for the two allowed terms as board chair, going back to 2018.
The public can attend the meeting either in person or by Zoom connection (download the agenda packet below for instructions).
The letter (some links were added by me):
October 6, 2022
Gloria Gray, Chair
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
700 N. Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012-2944
Sent via email to: chairwomanoftheboard@mwdh20.com
Dear Chairwoman Gray,
I heard at the MWDOC forum yesterday that you are running for both the West Basin Municipal Water District Board of Directors and Inglewood City Council.
I was not aware of your dual candidacy on the upcoming November ballot. You said you were told that you could serve in both of these offices, and that you are a hard worker and also willing to continue to serve in a third office as Chair of the MWD Board of Directors.
I appreciate and admire your work ethic but believe you have been wrongly advised about holding these offices at the same time. Given that the City of Inglewood is a retail customer of West Basin, there will inherently be a clash of duties and loyalties under Government Code §1099(a)(2) if you are elected to both offices, with the result being forfeiture by operation of law of your seat on West Basin. The same inescapable conflict would apply if you are elected to city council and appointed to MWD as West Basin’s board representative.
I am well aware of this because there is an almost identical local case involving a board member of the Water Replenishment District who also was elected to city council in Carson. You may know Albert Robles, Jr., who also was later appointed Mayor of Carson but ultimately removed from his WRD seat by a public interest lawsuit. You can easily Google this case, but here’s a link to People ex rel. Lacey v. Robles, 44 Cal. App. 5 804 (2020): https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16409881574384612799&q=People+ex+rel.+Lacey+v.+Robles+2020)&hl=en&as_sdt=20006&as_vis=1
This also has happened at Central Basin Municipal Water District, where water board seats were given up for concurrent city council seats.
Leaving aside the merits of whether the requirements of MWD’s Administrative Code should be waived to allow you to serve a third term -- personally I don’t think they should be as a matter of public policy as I expressed to the Executive Committee last month -- will you please clarify, by response to this letter and posting today to the MWD website, what your intentions are in seeking both of these elected offices in light of the fact that you cannot simultaneously serve in both?
This is important information for both West Basin and City of Inglewood voters to know before they go to the polls.
Also, it is important for MWD board members to know before they vote to waive the provisions of the MWD Administrative Code and/or cast a vote for you to continue as board chair. MWD board members are being asked to waive the Administrative Code only to potentially elect a Board Chair who would lose eligibility to serve on MWD less than one month later.
In closing, I appreciate your years of public service to West Basin and the MWD board of directors and regret that you have been poorly advised in seeking two legally incompatible offices.
However, it is not too late to change course based on the law and avoid a seemingly unnecessary controversy about this at next week’s MWD board meeting.
Thank you very much for your consideration in protecting the public interest.
Sincerely,
Conner Everts
Executive Director, Southern California Watershed Alliance
cc: MWD Board of Directors
MWD General Counsel Marcia Scully