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The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is considering the findings of a seven-month investigation into accusations against General Manager Adel Hagekhalil — a process that has revealed competing claims of discrimination and exposed deep divisions among leaders of the state’s largest urban water supplier.
The board met twice in closed session this week to consider the findings of five completed investigations, which have not been made public. Board members then voted to continue Hagekhalil’s leave of absence until their next meeting Wednesday.
Hagekhalil was placed on leave in June in response to allegations by the agency’s chief financial officer, Katano Kasaine, who accused him of sexism and alleged he had harassed, demeaned and sidelined her and created a hostile work environment. Hagekhalil has denied the accusations, insisting he did nothing wrong.
During a public portion of Tuesday’s MWD meeting, Hagekhalil told board members he was pleased with the results of the investigations, which he said exonerated him, and that he was eager and prepared to return to his job.
“While I have not engaged in any misconduct, I have learned from this experience and understand how I can do better, and certainly, I will take to heart any feedback,” Hagekhalil said. “I will handle this situation with grace and humility. I look forward to engaging in a healing process. I will ensure that our workplace is safe, supportive, inclusive and productive.”
The Metropolitan Water District board extends the leave of absence of General Manager Adel Hagekhalil while an investigation of harassment allegations continues.
Some of the accusations against Hagekhalil were aired publicly when Kasaine’s complaint to the board was leaked to the media in June.
Kasaine wrote in her May 27 letter that she has been “maligned, harassed, bullied, and sidelined from my core responsibilities.” She said Hagekhalil’s “preference for male colleagues/staff over me has continued to sow the seeds of sexism and belittling.”
She also criticized Hagekhalil’s hiring of a team of trusted, highly paid consultants, calling it “an entire shadow leadership team, wielding more power than those holding official titles.”
Hagekhalil denied those claims.
The board members deliberated in private for several hours, discussing the findings of the investigations and how they will proceed. The agenda said they would consider possible “discipline/dismissal/release” of an employee.
Board members made no comments about their discussions as they adjourned the meeting.
Later, board member Fred Jung said he hopes the district will resolve the matter before next week’s meeting.
“I think there is some heavy negotiating that has to be done,” Jung told The Times in an interview. “There is some risk of potential generous litigation otherwise.”
“I feel that in the agency’s best interests, and its employees and our public, I think this has gone on long enough, and we have a window right now to bring about some sort of off-ramp to all of this,” Jung said. He declined to discuss specifics or comment on what form that resolution might take.
Discrimination concerns
The Metropolitan Water District delivers water to cities and agencies that supply 19 million people across Southern California. As the district’s top manager, Hagekhalil has played a central role in efforts to transform the agency and shift its mix of water supplies to help Southern California adapt to worsening droughts intensified by climate change.
Hagekhalil’s lawyer, Kerry Garvis Wright, told the board Tuesday that the general manager has been treated unfairly since he was placed on administrative leave, and has been subjected to false claims. She said he has “suffered enormous and irreparable reputational harm as a result of the district’s actions.”
Garvis Wright warned the board that “any adverse action by the board against Mr. Hagekhalil will not withstand legal scrutiny,” and said there was “powerful evidence of racial and ethnic discrimination, which of course is unlawful.”
The MWD’s general manager was placed on leave amid an investigation into complaints. Adel Hagekhalil says the accusations against him are unfounded.
Hagekhalil is the district’s first Arab American general manager. His lawyer and supporters have said they are concerned that anti-Arab sentiments among some board members could affect their handling of the investigation.
While Hagekhalil was on leave, one board member, John Morris, was censured by the MWD board for making a racist remark about another district employee, calling him a “camel jockey.” The agency’s officials said that case did not directly involve Hagekhalil. But as part of the censure, the board barred Morris from taking part in deliberations and votes regarding the Hagekhalil investigation.
Some civil rights advocates have also raised concerns about potential discrimination in the investigation.
Amr Shabaik, regional legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, urged the board to reinstate Hagekhalil and said, “We want to again ask that this discrimination and harassment be addressed and remedied.”
Any decision the board reaches could be challenged in court. The MWD meeting agenda said the board also privately discussed two additional claims that involve “significant exposure” of the district to potential litigation.
One of those claims was an Oct. 18 letter to the board from Dawn Collins, an attorney representing Kasaine. She described Kasaine as a “whistleblower who has been subjected to retaliation” and said the leak of her letter was meant to send a message to those who dare to challenge “the unethical and unlawful pattern of conduct at the highest levels” of the MWD.
The letter released by the MWD was partially redacted. It included a copy of a discrimination complaint that Kasaine filed with the state in October. In it, Kasaine described herself as a Black woman of African origin, and alleged she was subjected to an ongoing “pattern of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation based on her race, gender and national origin.”
Kasaine has not responded to requests from The Times to speak about the matter.
Some say probe exposed ‘toxic culture’
Since Hagekhalil was placed on leave, Deven Upadhyay has served as interim general manager. As the investigation has continued, the board voted twice to extend Hagekhalil’s leave of absence, most recently in October.
Hagekhalil previously worked for the city of Los Angeles leading programs focusing on sewers and streets. He was appointed the MWD’s general manager in 2021 after a power struggle among board members.
The district is led by a 38-member board of directors. Each board member is appointed by one of the MWD’s 26 member agencies, which include cities and water suppliers.
During more than three years in the job, he said he has focused on reforming the agency.
“As an outsider, I brought new leadership, new ideas, and some new people onto the staff. However, change is never easy. Unfortunately, some saw change as a threat and filed frivolous complaints and claims regarding these reforms,” Hagekhalil said during the meeting Tuesday. “This has been a difficult time for me and my family, and for others at this agency. It is time to turn the page and move forward.”
MWD head Adel Hagekhalil wants Southern California to adapt to climate change, becoming more resilient and more self-reliant on local water sources.
The sidelining of Hagekhalil occurred at a time when the MWD’s leaders have been involved in major efforts such as preparing a climate adaptation plan and developing a large water recycling facility. The MWD board also voted last month to spend about $141 million for planning work on the state’s proposed water tunnel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
During this month’s devastating fires in Southern California, MWD officials have been working with Los Angeles and other local agencies to route water supplies where needed.
Before board members began discussing the matter in closed session Tuesday, they listened to comments from about 40 people who spoke in support of Hagekhalil, as well as several others who spoke against him.
Former L.A. City Councilmember Paul Koretz praised Hagekhalil as “close to perfect” as a manager, and said he believes the reason the board has taken many months to complete the investigations is that the dispute over his tenure is closely linked to divisions over water policy within the agency.
“I think if this was a clear-cut case, and the charges were clearly real, you would have made this decision in less than seven months,” Koretz said.
“Clearly, this is a very divided board,” Koretz said. “The people that want the body to be more reform-minded and sustainable will probably vote to keep Adel. The ones that don’t, by and large, I believe, will vote to remove him, and that should be an incredible embarrassment for this body.”
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, who leads the nonprofit group Restore the Delta, which advocates for protecting the estuary, called Hagekhalil “the best leader presently for Southern California, when climate resilience clearly needs to be your top priority.”
“Politics and power agendas need to be set aside,” Barrigan-Parrilla said. “He is the change and leader that you need to continue.”
When fire hydrants ran dry, the L.A. Department of Water and Power struggled to get water where needed. The utility’s operations chief explains the decisions as the fire spread.
Those who criticized Hagekhalil during the meeting included Rickita Hudson, the board’s executive secretary. She said that she has endured a “hostile work environment” and that the general manager’s “style is hostile.” She did not provide details.
“How many more claims have to be made public for this community to say, he is not the leader for Metropolitan?” Hudson said. “He may have been a better leader at L.A., but not Metropolitan.”
Others said they support Hagekhalil and have broader concerns about the water district’s internal culture.
Caty Wagner, water campaign manager for the Sierra Club, said she is most concerned that a board member recently felt comfortable uttering a racist remark out loud.
“The ability to trust the board, for the public, has declined,” Wagner said. “[MWD] needs a serious reset and some deep reflections.”
Board member Mark Gold said Hagekhalil is a “good and decent person” who has done exemplary work and achieved significant accomplishments while spearheading water initiatives — and that the issues revealed by this investigation process are deep-seated in nature, go beyond Hagekhalil, and need to be addressed.
“The toxic culture that Adel inherited has been nothing short of alarming,” Gold told board members Tuesday. “We have a longstanding history of sexism and racism that exists to this day. I’ve never witnessed a culture where there was so much undercutting, accusations and disputes filed.”
He recommended a series of “corrective actions” for the MWD, such as assessing the organizational structure to adopt changes that can “reduce the conflict risks.”
The MWD should also develop a staff culture improvement plan, he said, and change the existing procedures for resolving disputes.
“This is so much more than about one individual,” Gold said. “What has been exposed during the last seven months has been that we have an organizational culture that is hugely problematic, and we owe it to our customers and everybody else to really try to remedy that.”
