The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted Thursday to place General Manager Adel Hagekhalil on leave while the agency investigates harassment allegations made against her by its chief financial officer.
Chief Financial Officer Catano Cassine made the allegations in a confidential statement. Letter The complaint, which was leaked to the board and published by Politico, said Hagekhalil harassed, humiliated, and marginalized her and created a hostile work environment.
MWD Board Chairman Aidan Ortega Jr. announced the decision after a closed-door meeting, saying the board voted to place Hagekhalil on administrative leave immediately and temporarily appoint Assistant General Manager Deven Upadhyay as interim general manager.
“This board is determined to work together and quickly to protect everyone,” Ortega said. “My hope is that in the coming months, under DeWayne’s leadership, we will find some common purpose, we will understand the urgency of the policies and the tasks before us.”
In an interview after the meeting, Ortega said there were “multiple investigations” underway. He declined to comment on other probes and said Hagekhalil would remain on administrative leave for 90 days.
“We’re anticipating it will take about that long to complete the investigation,” Ortega told the Times.
Ortega began the meeting by announcing that the board had decided to launch an investigation earlier this week. He voted to allow confidential matters discussed at Tuesday’s meeting to be discussed publicly, and he criticized the publication of the letter.
“The person who released this sensitive document knows that the board and we as individuals are bound by law not to disclose closed session proceedings and related documents,” Ortega said. “They were trying to take advantage of this. But I’m not going to let them do that. At the very least, by releasing the document, that person has tried to establish a narrative that is potentially damaging to the general counsel, the chief financial officer, this board and this agency, and they know that.”
Ortega said the board took action to launch the investigation “in order to avoid leaks that had already occurred.” He said he and other board members believe both Hagekhalil and Kassine “are entitled to due process as prescribed by law.”
Thursday’s special meeting was scheduled while Hagekhalil was traveling to Singapore for a water conference. According to the board meeting Agenda, The closed session also included a review of Hagekhalil’s performance as well as a discussion of possible discipline or termination. Ortega said “no reportable action was taken” on these two issues during the closed meeting.
Board members voted unanimously to place Hagekhalil on administrative leave, with one member abstaining and several board members absent.
In his letter, Cassine said that in 30 years of government work, “I have encountered toxic work environments, but none as hostile and dysfunctional as Metropolitan.”
“Despite my tireless dedication and excellent performance ratings, coming to work has also become incredibly stressful. I am constantly scrutinized, sidelined and humiliated for standing up against issues that are not in Metropolitan’s best interest,” Cassine said in the May 27 letter, which was released by the district after the leak.
Hagekhalil, responding to the allegations via a text message, denied any wrongdoing.
“I have always treated my MWD employees with the utmost respect, professionalism, and kindness. Always,” Hagekhalil said. “I stand by my record of improving the agency’s workforce policies and creating a healthy, supportive, and inclusive work environment. Any investigation into these unfounded claims will reveal they are false, and I look forward to returning to my work at MWD to serve my employees and our community as soon as possible.”
He said the claims were about “disagreements over management decisions.”
“When I began at MWD, I expanded Cataño’s responsibilities on an interim basis, and as CFO, he has had a key leadership role in MWD’s recent actions, including overseeing the agency’s adoption of a two-year budget and the development of a long-term financial plan,” Hagekhalil said.
MWD is the nation’s largest wholesale supplier of drinking water, serving cities and agencies that supply drinking water to 19 million people in Southern California.
Ortega lamented that with the release of the letter, “the confidentiality they had to maintain to set the matter straight has now been discarded for the benefit of an undisclosed individual who, counting on our silence, thought he could deceive the press.”
“Therefore, the individual who released the document should not be considered a whistleblower, but rather those who listen to him should question his motives and the personal gain he seeks by violating the rights of others and attempting to discredit our agency,” Ortega said, reading from a prepared statement. “While I cannot disclose the extent of our ongoing deliberations today, or guarantee outcomes on behalf of the board, I want to assure our employees that we will continue to work in a transparent manner to bring safety, harmony and protection of rights to all who work here so we can get on with the job of bringing water to Southern California.”
Many people spoke out at the meeting, expressing support for Hagekhalil and demanding a fair investigation.
“Due process has been corrupted on a massive scale,” said Mark Gold, director of water crisis solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “This is a private issue that you should investigate and keep as private as possible.”
Gould also said that Hagekhalil “lives and breathes this more than anyone else in this agency.”
Hagekhalil leads the agency at a time when there are many major challenges, including: Addressing the Colorado River water shortagecountry building plan Largest wastewater recycling facilityand Governor Gavin Newsom’s views on the MWD Board Plan to build a $20 billion water tunnel In the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta.
Hagekhalil first Worked for the City of Los Angeles Leading programs focusing on sewers and roads. He was appointed General Manager of MWD in 2021. bitter power struggle among board members. He earns $503,942 a year as general counsel and chief executive officer, leading more than 1,900 employees and overseeing more than $2.2 billion in annual expenditures.
Hagekhalil has said that he wants Transformation of district Making the region’s water supplies resilient to the impacts of climate change.
“This is at a time when MWD is at a crossroads,” said Bruce Reznick, executive director of Los Angeles Waterkeeper, who has supported Hagekhalil’s efforts at MWD. “The old way of doing business, the old model for water, does not work in our climate change reality, and I know MWD is grappling with these very challenging issues. And I think Adele and her team have done an amazing job tackling this.”
Some of Hagekhalil’s supporters questioned why the matter was brought before the board while he was traveling, and suggested that making the complaints public appeared to be a deliberate conspiracy.
Kassine wrote in the letter that she was “defamed, harassed, intimidated and excluded from her core responsibilities.” She said Hagekhalil’s “preference for male colleagues/employees over me sowed the seeds of gender discrimination and humiliation.”
He also criticized Hagekhalil’s hiring of a team of trusted, highly paid advisers, calling it “an entire shadow leadership team” that has more power than those holding official positions.
Kassine said Hagekhalil informed her she would no longer have responsibilities overseeing the district’s human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
“Taking away these key services from me without justification or reason is highly suspicious and leads me to believe this is retaliation for speaking out about key concerns,” Cassin wrote in the letter.
Several speakers during Thursday’s meeting said the matter requires a thorough and impartial investigation.
Ellen Mackey, chair of the staff union’s women’s caucus, told the board that given the current situation, “we don’t have facts, only allegations.”
Some environmental advocates said they suspected there was a connection between the emergence of the allegations against Hagekhalil and his efforts to take the district in a new direction by developing a climate adaptation plan, investing in local water sources and redesigning MWD’s financial model.
Charming Evelyn, who chairs the Sierra Club’s water committee in Southern California, said Hagekhalil has brought positive changes to MWD, and that has put him in conflict with the district’s “old guard.”
The California Water Impact Network, an advocacy group, said in a press release that it’s likely Hagekhalil’s efforts could lead the board to ultimately vote against the proposed Delta Conveyance project, leading to an “attempted rebellion” by tunnel supporters among the district’s board members and staff.
The group said Kassine currently serves as treasurer of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority, the body created to finance the tunnel project.
Max Gomberg, a board member of the California Water Impact Network, alleged the move against Hagekhalil appeared to be a “political show of strength” to advance the tunnel project.
Leaders of indigenous tribes and other environmental groups also expressed concerns.
Crystal Moreno of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians said the allegations should be independently investigated, “We also ask that the investigation take into account the suspicious and concerning timing of these allegations and the board’s quick attempt to remove Adell without any investigation while he was out of the country.”
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, a group opposed to the tunnel project, said the timing of the allegations and claims is “equally problematic.”
“Both are entitled to a thorough, fact-based investigation with transparent findings and due process,” he said.
