SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the Metropolitan Water District board placed its general manager on administrative leave Thursday amid claims of harassment and a hostile work culture, some environmentalists saw a campaign to put a conservationist at the helm of one of the largest water agencies of California to overthrow.
“You’re starting to see the biggest reformer we’ve had at the Met in a long time, if not ever, getting fired,” Bruce Reznik, executive director of LA Baykeeper, an environmental group, said in an interview Friday. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I would be crazy not to say that this raises serious concerns.”
Katano Kasaine, Met’s CFO, said in the 13-page letter to chairman Adán Ortega that she did not take her accusations against Met chief executive Adel Hagekhalil lightly.
“During my nearly three decades of public service, I have encountered toxic work environments, but none as hostile and dysfunctional as Metropolitan,” she wrote.
But that hasn’t stopped environmentalists from suspecting that larger political forces were at play behind the board’s decision to place Hagekhalil on leave while it not only investigates Kasaine’s claims, which were first reported Wednesday by POLITICO, but also other claims that the board has so far denied. detail.
The Greens see Hagekhalil as a crusader who has helped Met — California’s largest urban water utility, which serves about 19 million people in and around Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego — curb insatiable demand for water imports, including through water recycling and storage and a property tax increase to fill the budget gap left by reduced water sales. They say the allegations are serious and need a full and independent investigation, but they also fear he could be captured by those who want to keep the water flowing.
“I just want to make sure the board members vote on a personnel issue in their presence, and not question another policy at the agency,” Reznik said.
Environmentalists also felt that Hagekhalil was turning its back on a related flashpoint: a decades-old proposal to divert water supplies from Northern to Southern California through a tunnel, instead of the existing canals and pumps that kill endangered fish and are sensitive for pumping restrictions.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, a staunch opponent of the tunnel, said she felt Hagekhalil was listening, even though he never shared his position publicly and the Met has not yet decided whether to pursue the next phase of the wants to support the tunnel project. the project.
She questioned Kasaine’s role as treasurer of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority, a joint authority made up of the public water agencies, including Met, which is funding the preliminary planning of the tunnel.
“I feel sad that I have to go there, but that’s because I constantly see that anyone who thinks about water is displaced, replaced, excluded and silenced with new ideas, and this has been happening for a long time,” says Barrigan. Parrilla said in an interview. “Instead of just being able to look at this with the kind of solidarity that there should be with women, I keep questioning everything.”
Kasaine did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication. Met spokesperson Rebecca Kimitch said in an email that Met finance staff have provided in-kind support to the Delta Authority since its inception in 2018. “They have been assigned by Metropolitan to serve in the role and receive no personal benefits for serving in the role,” she said.
She also said that the decision to place Hagekhalil on leave “will not impact the initiatives and policy direction our board is taking to guide Metropolitan” and that it will “allow time to investigate various matters, which are not based solely on the issues raised by one individual.”
“We will continue to work diligently to address the challenges of climate change by carefully evaluating all potential investments to increase the reliability of water supply for the communities we serve,” she said. “It is a mistake to assume that the state of our policy agenda and partnerships are based on one person. All future investments will be decided by our board.”
Ortega said environmentalists did not have to worry so much about losing an irreplaceable ally.
“Heal the Bay co-awarded Adel and me for their ‘Walk the Talk’ award just three weeks ago,” he said in an interview Thursday shortly after the board’s vote. “He and I clearly agreed on this vision. The board has been very supportive of this.”
He also said the current investigation was not nearly as politically charged as the power struggles over Hagekhalil in the past. When Hagekhalil was being considered for the top job in 2021, Orange County representatives opposed to Angeleno rise sought to address minor grievances filed against him at previous jobs in L.A.’s sanitation department, he said.
“His selection was very politicized and there were people who went out of their way to find cases,” Ortega said. “What’s happening now is nothing like the kind of things people were trying to tackle against him.”
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