Several weeks ago, PublicCEO reported on the affairs of the Central Basin Municipal Water District (CBMWD) and Board Director Bob Apodaca’s alleged misconduct.
After CBMWD General Manager Antonio Perez filed complaints against Apodaca with the LA County DA’s Office and the FPPC in response to the findings of an October 3 Ethics Committee hearing, the board has decided to suspend all operations of the Ethics Committee.
According to Board President Roybal—who earlier attempted to cancel regularly-scheduled Ethics Committee meetings—the move is simply to create a “temporary hiatus” to give staff time to fine-tune the district’s ethics and complaints policy.
Director Phil Hawkins, who also sits on the Ethics Committee, opposed the suspension on the grounds that he didn’t think “the timing is good.”
Central Basin Municipal Water District board president James Roybal, board director Robert Apodaca.
Hawkins and director Art Chacon initiated complaints against Apodaca for violating California state conflict-of-interest rules and Roybal for allegedly leaking information to the press.
Roybal believes the move was politically-motivated.
“That’s the point of this… to take away the political aspects,” Roybal stated.
Read more at the Whittier Daily News.