Orange County Register

Phantom resignation letter presumes appointment to empty seat; election would be too pricey, district says

July 14th, 2009, 3:00 am · 7 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

Bakall, on a milk carton

The first resignation letter was not quite ready for prime time; one could argue it was a wee bit embarrassing.

Written just days after the Orange County Grand Jury scolded water districts for  regularly bypassing direct democracy - essentially gaming the political process so that water powerbrokers are handpicked by other water board members (via appointment) rather than actually being elected by the people -  one Ergun Bakall wrote his first letter of resignation to the Municipal Water District of Orange County (bold provided by yours truly):

“It is …my intent to resign from the Board of Directors of MWDOC effective November 1, 2009 or sooner as I am no longer living in the District,” says the letter, dated June 26. “This will hopefully provide you sufficient time to appoint my replacement to represent Division 6.” (first-letter-of-resignation)

Perhaps Bakall missed the grand jury report?!

So Bakall wrote another letter, dated June 30, changing the date of his resignation to be effective immediately, and omitting the (impolitic?) reference to the appointment process. (second-letter-of-resignation ).

So is an election imminent? The wise reader will not hold his breath. On Wednesday, MWDOC’s board will hash out how to fill Bakall’s seat.

“Staff has contacted the Orange County Registrar of Voters to determine the potential cost of holding a ‘Stand Alone Election,’” says the agenda. “Thus far, the Registrar’s office has indicated an approximate cost of $698,040 - $786,399 ….  it would be more cost effective to appoint a Director for Division 6 to serve Director Bakall’s unexpired term (through December of 2012).”

And if past is prologue, whoever is appointed will run for election in 2012, and win, and stay on the board for many, many years. (More than half of Orange County’s water lords have gained office this way.)

MWDOC, for the record, is parched Orange County’s all-important water importer, and Bakall was one of its representatives on the powerful Metropolitan Water District of Southern California board in Los Angeles. Our recent story about how Bakall was no longer living in Orange County, and how a Met plane picked him up near his Riverside County home to whisk him to a switch-flipping ceremony in Temecula, apparently aided his decision.

Who might the contenders be?

• For starters, there’s Glenn Acosta, who hammered on Bakall’s residency in the November election but lost to him nonetheless. “I applaud Mr. Bakall for doing the right thing here and resigning,” Acosta wrote in a statement. “At a time when water is scarce, there shouldn’t be any distractions from the water agencies’ efforts to ensure that Orange County has water. Both the Municipal Water District of Orange County and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California go through a lot of planning and engineering to improve water reliability and supply. A lot of dedicated and bright professionals work hard for the people of Southern California. Hopefully, with this distraction behind us, we can focus on meeting the water needs of Orange County.”  (Acosta, though, is on the board of the  Trabuco Canyon Water District, one of the rebellious southerners threatening to secede from the MWDOC union unless it cuts back its budget, so he may not be very popular with the MWDOC board).
• There’s also buzz being made about former Tustin Mayor Jeff Thomas, credited with being ”the first to expose Ergun’s phantom residency, and even went to court on the issue.” 

And the jockeying is already under way to decide who will replace Bakall on the powerful Met board up in Los Angeles. We’ll keep you posted!

More Watchdog: 

• Sheriff finds “missing footage” in jail beating lawsuit
• Why OC sheriffs attended Michael Jackson’s funeral
• Stuck with decades-worth of spent nuclear fuel? Sue!
• ‘What a bargain!’ (Or, the quarter-million-dollar water exec update)
• Thousands of public pools in California are still unsafe
• LWV calls police on rebel Mike Curtis after he refuses to leave meeting
• Is toll road agency shielding a criminal? Spooked driver in ‘whodunnit?’ says yes
• Watchdog roundup: Paintings, doctors, livers, for sale…?
• Anaheim police chief’s gun disappears. Twice.
• Dog fancier objects to ‘gonad police’ and Snip-the-Roamers bill
• A quarter-million dollars: Average compensation for water district GMs
• Seniors’ recall election may end up in court - before it even happens!
• Why TrueBallot won’t conduct LWV election, in its own words
• LWV’s take on why TrueBallot won’t be election czar
• State slaps water district with $204,000 fine
• ‘Mandatory spay-neuter doesn’t work!’ Or…does it?
• High-flying water board member resigns amid turbulence
• Controversial pet spay-neuter law gets closer to governor’s desk
• California’s $3 billion stem-cell experiment suffers from appearance of self-dealing
• Showdown on statewide spay/neuter law for pets slated for Tuesday
• Airplane whisks OC water official to ceremony in, er, Riverside
• OC air marshal - fired for revealing bad plan - is denied whistleblower protection
• Some water officials use office for personal gain, report says
• Tax prep giant must stop deceptive ads and pay more than $1 million
• Fair gets slapped for promotional cartoons
• No, San Onofre is not closing down any time soon!
• County pays $250,000 in sheriff car accident
• Charitable giving down more than $6 billion as economy tanks
• Saddleback College defends senior fitness classes
• Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?
• All systems go for contentious, first-ever, recall election in Laguna Woods Village
• LWV weighs in with official statement on first-ever recall election
• Candidate OKs $10 million for execs of bankrupt bank
• Secret extremist agenda: To outlaw dogs as pets, says spay/neuter law critic
• Grand jury: Street’s big bet ‘imprudent’
• As OC Fair graduates from cattle drive to film production, some are outraged
• OC Fair executives accept gifts worth thousands
• Great Park tries to keep contamination info under wrap
• Drought-induced building freeze not necessary - yet, officials say
• Is ’severe drought’ just a chance to hike water rates? Residents wonder 

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Posted in: Elections • Special districts • Water
 

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 7 Comments

• Alan says:

  July 14, 2009 at 6:15 am

  The solution does not have to be a nearly one million dollar election that comes back to the wallets of everyone served by the District.

  I would like to urge an informal ballot be sent to people served by the District asking them for “imformal” input in the appointment process with a brief 100 word summary from both people being considered to replace the outgoing member.

  Of course the Board does not have to listen to a thing the people say and how they would like the Board to vote it will give them an idea of what people feel and desire for them to do in replacing the board member.

  … and can be done for much less money while obtaining a better result then a special election that people have to take time out of their evening to vote with a very low turnout.

  Post Reply
• Dalia says:

  July 14, 2009 at 7:53 am

  Elections are the will of the people. Either have an election or appt the runner up. Anything else is not the will of the people.

  Post Reply
• imacobru says:

  July 14, 2009 at 9:35 am

  I volunteer, at full Water District Salary and benefits, to fill the seat and accept all appointment. I will promise to only use the District’s Aircraft if flying outside the State or a greater distance than 100 miles from my appointed place of prime residency…whever that may be. I would like my pay and other reimbursable expenses deposited directly into my personal account starting immediately.

  Now exactly what is it I will be doing???

  Post Reply
• Myles Long says:

  July 14, 2009 at 11:38 am

  I’ll take it..

  Post Reply
• giskard says:

  July 14, 2009 at 12:09 pm

  Gerald Buck are you listening?

  Post Reply
• Alan says:

  July 14, 2009 at 12:17 pm

  NEWS FLASH - According to the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting the replacement will be done by appointment without any input for the People served by the Board.

  Recommendation: (1) Acknowledge resignation of Director Bakall (effective July 2, 2009); (2) receive recommendation from President Clark regarding the process for appointing a new Director for Division
  6; and [b](3) Review, discuss, and take any necessary action on
  the process for appointing a replacement.[/b]

  This appears to be the action recommended by the President of the Board, Wayne A. Clark who has served on that Board for thirty (30) years.

  Post Reply
• cynthia says:

  July 15, 2009 at 1:52 pm

  i have a good idea…
  stop appointing crooks— and then force the “appointers” to step down!

  i just took a trip up central california—

  do you know where all the water comes from geniouses??

  here’s some clues— it travels down hill and MOUNTAINS

  it comes from the north and the DELTA

  it’s first come first served….

  so WE are paying for ALL the problems before it gets to us!!

  it’s controlled by “different districts” but all comes from the same source before it gets polluted!!!!

  from Sacramento (emerald city) up northword…. it’s is a virtual (and almost vertical!) WONDERLAND of GORGEOUSNESS and UNTOUCHED LAND!

  tell the govenors (past included) to stop allowing monopolies of our public utilites and let the feds step in….

  the state is beyond help at this point.

  id rather have feds than…
  water and flood controlees (appointed)
  utilities (appointed)
  energy dirty– exxon mobil TEXAS

  please give us some old fashioned regulation and take the fricken
  trillion dollar oil industry out of office in california
  cuz that is exactly where they are now—
  and i dont see them trying to help out now that they have totally screwed 2/3 + of MY STATE
  GET OUT NOW

  Post Reply