Special to The Vanguard
LOS ANGELES, CA – After the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) Board on Dec. 10 approved $141.6 million in additional funding for the Delta Tunnel Project — a government boondoggle that will cause enormous harm to Tribes, environmental justice communities and salmon and Delta fish populations — the Southern California water agency got in the news again over a racist remark by a board member.
On the same day as the Delta Tunnel vote, the MWD Board voted to censure a board member, John Morris, the city of San Marino’s representative, for making a racist remark toward an Arab American staff member in late 2023. The staff member, General Manager Adel Hagekhalil, is now on administrative leave.
“The action came after an independent Equal Employment Opportunity investigation found Morris made a disparaging statement toward a staff member on the basis of race or national origin, in violation of Metropolitan’s Administrative Code,” according to a MWD press release.
In addition to censuring Morris, Metropolitan’s board voted to cease funding for Morris’ travel on behalf of the district, prohibit him from representing Metropolitan at any events, and require him to receive counseling. In one year, the board’s EEO ad hoc committee will consider whether to allow Morris to again fully participate in Metropolitan’s board activities, according to MWD.
“Metropolitan cannot and will not tolerate racist comments from its leaders. While we are not able to directly remove a director from our board, we have taken the measures we can to demonstrate that we absolutely do not tolerate this type of behavior,” said board Chair Adán Ortega, Jr.
As part of its action, the board also prohibited Morris from participating in deliberations and votes regarding the EEO investigation of General Manager Adel Hagekhalil. The Morris investigation did not involve General Manager Hagekhalil, Ortega said.
In a press statement, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) welcomed the censure of the board member for making the racist remark toward an Arab American staff member last year.
CAIR-LA also called on the MWD Board of Directors to address broader concerns of Islamophobic and anti-Arab sentiment from sitting board members.
“The MWD Board of Directors voted to censure board member John Morris after an independent Equal Employment Opportunity investigation into an anonymous complaint found he used the derogatory term ‘camel jockey’ to refer to an Arab American staff member, Adel Hagekhalil, during a board event in December 2023,” according to CAIR-LA.
SEE: Metropolitan board of directors censures board colleague for racist remark
CAIR-LA previously sent two letters, one in July and one in October, to the MWD Board of Directors expressing concerns of broader discrimination after they put the company’s first Muslim Arab American general manager, Adel Hagekhalil, on administrative leave.
“Hagekhalil alleged that he was subjected to discriminatory actions and behavior from MWD board members and faced retaliatory complaints and investigations in an alleged attempt to undermine his position,” CAIR stated.
In the letters, CAIR-LA called on the board to address the potential discrimination against Hagekhalil and ensure he was not treated unfairly because of his protected categories.
In a statement, CAIR-LA Legal Director Amr Shabaik, Esq., said, “While we welcome this decision from the MWD Board of Directors to censure Morris as a step in the right direction, it does not necessarily indicate that all the issues and all the concerns have been addressed, including allegations that other sitting board members have expressed Islamophobic, anti-Arab, and anti-immigrant sentiment.
The board must thoroughly investigate and address the broader claims of harassment and bigotry and take active steps to ensure that MWD employees are not subjected to discrimination, regardless of their background.”
Likewise, Hagekhalil’s lawyer, Kerry Garvis Wright, claimed at Tuesday’s MWD Board meeting that anti-Arab sentiment is a larger issue for the board, according to the LA Times article by Ian James: www.latimes.com/…
“While Mr. Hagekhalil has always had a positive relationship with the board as a whole, we have recently learned that certain directors charged with deciding his fate have made overtly anti-Arab and Islamophobic statements,” Garvis Wright said.
“That such anti-Arab and Islamophobic sentiment is held by these directors is, of course, itself deeply disturbing and frankly sickening. Knowing that these same directors are being permitted to decide whether Mr. Hagekhalil will continue to serve the district, in the face of what are otherwise bogus complaints, is shocking and wrong,” she said. “The board must take immediate corrective action.”
