California’s biggest water agency places leader on administrative leave
The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California acted after a senior official accused Adel Hagekhalil of harassment, retaliation and creating a hostile work environment.
SACRAMENTO, California — The board of California’s biggest water agency voted Thursday to place its general manager, Adel Hagekhalil, on administrative leave after a senior employee accused him of cultivating a toxic work environment.
The 38-member board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies some 19 million Californians in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, also voted to promote chief operating officer Deven Upadhyay to lead the organization on an interim basis.
The decision came after Metropolitan’s chief financial officer and assistant general manager, Katano Kasaine, accused Hagekhalil of harassing her, retaliating against her for sharing her concerns about the budget process and creating a hostile work environment, in a letter obtained by POLITICO.
Board Chair Adán Ortega, in an interview with POLITICO, said there were “multiple factors“ that went into the decision to place Hagekhalil on leave, including other ongoing investigations into claims against him. “I can’t tell you what all those investigations are about,“ he said. “They all relate to the general circumstances that exist right now because of an investigation process that was prescribed by law.“
Kasaine’s 13-page letter, sent to Ortega late last month, accused Hagekhalil of creating a “shadow leadership team” with highly paid consultants and aides, mostly from the city of Los Angeles, Hagekhalil’s previous employer. “Throughout my nearly 30 years of government service, I have encountered toxic work environments, but none as hostile and dysfunctional as Metropolitan,” she wrote.
The board authorized an investigation into Kasaine’s claims on Tuesday, Ortega said. He said he expects the multiple investigations, conducted by unnamed outside investigators, to resolve within 90 days.
Hagekhalil said in a text message that he was out of the country for the next several weeks but looked forward to returning to the agency.
“I’ve always treated our MWD staff with complete respect, professionalism and kindness. Always. I stand by my record of reforming the agency’s workforce policies and creating a healthy, supportive and inclusive work environment,” he said in a text on Thursday.
“Any investigation of these unsubstantiated claims will reveal that they are false, and I look forward to returning to my work at MWD to serve our staff and our community as soon as possible,” he added.
Hagekhalil has served as general manager since being appointed by the board in 2021 in a close vote. During his tenure, he sought to boost the system’s long-term resilience with water recycling and storage, negotiate cuts in the use of dwindling Colorado River supplies, and steer the agency through a budget hole because of conservation. Upadhyay, an agency veteran, has worked at Metropolitan since 1995, except for a 3-year stint at the Municipal Water District of Orange County.
Dozens of environmentalists, staff members and tribal representatives spoke for over an hour before the board entered closed-door discussions, primarily in support of Hagekhalil.
“MWD is at a crossroads,” said Bruce Reznik, the executive director of LA Waterkeeper, an environmental group. “The old way of doing business, the old model for water doesn’t work in our climate change reality, and I know MWD is wrestling with these very challenging issues, and I think Adel and his team have done an amazing job of starting to tackle that.”
Some also questioned the timing of the letter, leak and meeting.
“This is something that needs to be very confidential, very private, and due process needs to occur,” said Mark Gold, the director of water scarcity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “By airing this in the public and having it in the news, that due process has been tainted in a major, major way, and that’s just incredibly unfortunate.”
Ortega said the agency would continue Met’s development of a long-range financial plan for climate change, as well as its recent efforts to improve ties with communities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and tribes.
“There will be no deviation in the policies,” Ortega said. “Those things do not hang on one person.”