The Santa Clara Valley Water District board allows an
unprecedented ethical lapse to continue hiring a board member to an
exclusive $184,000-per-year position
The latest Santa Clara Valley Water District management farce is the outrageous and supremely arrogant hiring of a board member into a newly created $184,000-per-year position.
Stan Williams, the water district’s CEO, ignored his own attorney’s advice when he decided to hire board member Greg Zlotnick to a newly created job without seeking other candidates and without telling Zlotnick’s fellow board members. Meanwhile our water board representatives – Sig Sanchez and Rosemary Kamei – have done nothing to right this sinking ship burdened by an unprecedented ethical lapse.
The outcry over the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s stealth, noncompetitive process to hire a board member for a new, lucrative position shines a bright spotlight on long-festering problems at the agency.
It’s beyond cronyism.
As the water district’s first-ever special counsel to the CEO for strategic planning, the job that Williams created for Zlotnick, he “will oversee policy regarding the San Francisco Bay delta,” according to reporter Christopher Quirk’s recent article.
Here’s what Debbie Caudle, a water district attorney, told Williams in a memo: “While it is true that the unclassified policies allow you to use whatever process you wish to hire unclassified employees, that policy has not and will not insulate you from charges that this decision was politically influenced or otherwise unfair, regardless of the director’s qualifications for the position.”
Caudle was exactly right, but Williams, incredibly, defends his hiring decision, citing Zlotnick’s credentials and experience, and his hiring process, saying it’s been standard practice in the water district for the last three decades.
At least two water district board members have criticized the process but agree with Williams on his decision to hire Zlotnick.
Well, why wouldn’t they? Perhaps there’s a $184,000-a-year job waiting for them at the end of the rainbow.
Without an open search and a transparent and honest process, it’s absolutely irrelevant whether Zlotnick is the best candidate for the job. The hiring is an abrogation of public trust.
Of course, if Zlotnick and Williams – pressured by board members – agree to rescind the job offer and conduct a comprehensive search some measure of trust could be restored. But don’t hold your breath.
Zlotnick is now one of more than 30 senior managers at SCVWD. How many do other water districts need? How does SCVWD compare?
It’s long past time to lose the insular, staff-driven status-quo at the water district board room and instead begin an era of transparency in which business is conducted openly, tough questions are asked by board members of staff, intelligent, well-researched answers are consistently delivered, and most of all, in which the best interests of ratepayers, not agency staff, are board members’ top priority.
