LA's top water chief on leave after harassment claims — and environmentalists see a conspiracy

SACRAMENTO, California — When the board of the Metropolitan Water District placed its general manager on administrative leave Thursday amid claims of harassment and a hostile work culture, some environmentalists saw a campaign to topple a conservationist at the helm of one of California's largest water agencies.

“You start to see the biggest reformer that we’ve had at Met in a long, long time, if not ever, getting axed,” Bruce Reznik, the executive director of LA Waterkeeper, an environmental group, said in an interview Friday. “I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I'd be crazy if I didn't say it raised serious concerns.”

Katano Kasaine, Met's CFO, said in the 13-page letter to board Chair Adán Ortega that she didn't take her accusations against Met's general manager, Adel Hagekhalil, lightly.

“Throughout my nearly 30 years of government service, I have encountered toxic work environments, but none as hostile and dysfunctional as Metropolitan,” she wrote.

But that didn't stop environmentalists from suspecting there were bigger political forces at play behind the board’s decision to place Hagekhalil on leave while it investigates not only Kasaine's claims, first reported Wednesday by POLITICO, but other claims that the board has so far declined to detail.

Greens see Hagekhalil as a crusader who's helped Met — the biggest urban water agency in California, supplying some 19 million people in and around Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego — curb its insatiable demand for water imports, including by supporting water recycling and storage and an increase in property taxes to fill the budget hole created by reduced water sales. They say the allegations are serious and need a full and independent investigation, but they're also worried he's getting railroaded by those who want to keep the water flowing.

“I just want to make sure the board members are voting on a personnel matter in front of them, and not relitigating a policy at the agency,” Reznik said.

Environmentalists also felt like Hagekhalil had their back on a related flashpoint: A decades-old proposal to reroute water deliveries from Northern to Southern California via a tunnel, instead of the existing canals and pumps that kill endangered fish and are prone to pumping restrictions.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, the executive director of Restore the Delta, a fervent opponent of the tunnel, said she felt like Hagekhalil was listening, even though he never publicly shared his position and Met hasn't yet decided whether to support the next phase of the project.

She questioned Kasaine’s role as treasurer of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority, a joint powers authority made up of the public water agencies, including Met, that are funding the tunnel’s preliminary planning.

“I think it's sad that that's where I have to go to, but that's because I constantly see anyone who is thinking about water with new ideas being moved, replaced, excluded, silenced, and this has happened for a long time,” Barrigan-Parrilla said in an interview. “Instead of being able to look at this only with the kind of solidarity that should be there with women, I’m left questioning everything.”

Kasaine didn't respond to requests for comment by publication time. Met spokesperson Rebecca Kimitch said in an email that Met finance staff have provided in-kind support for the Delta authority since its 2018 creation. “They are assigned by Metropolitan to serve in the position and receive no personal benefits for serving in the role,” she said.

She also said the decision to place Hagekhalil on leave "will have no bearing on the initiatives and policy direction our board is taking to guide Metropolitan" and that it "allows time to investigate various matters, which are not exclusively based on the issues raised by one individual."

"We will continue working diligently to address the challenges of climate change by carefully evaluating all potential investments to increase the reliability of water supplies for the communities we serve," she said. "It is a mistake to assume that the state of our policy agenda and collaborations are based on one person. Any and all future investments will be decided by our board."

Ortega said environmentalists didn't need to worry so much that they might lose an irreplaceable ally.

“Heal the Bay co-awarded Adel and I their ‘Walk the Talk’ award just three weeks ago,” he said in an interview Thursday just after the board vote. “He and I were in definite alignment on this vision. The board has been very solid behind that.”

He also said the current investigation was nowhere near as politically loaded as past Met board power struggles over Hagekhalil. Back when Hagekhalil was being considered for the top post in 2021, Orange County representatives opposed to the Angeleno's rise sought out minor grievances filed against him at previous jobs in LA's sanitation department, he said.

“His selection was very politicized, and there were people that went out of their way to go find cases,” said Ortega. “What’s happening now is nothing like the kind of cases that people were trying to stick on him.”

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