Rick Callender will succeed Norma Camacho as CEO of Valley Water.
After a quarter-century ascending the ranks, the agency’s chief of external affairs will assume the top job on July 11. The veteran water official will make $326,352 a year in his new role, in which he’ll oversee a district tasked with providing water and flood protection to the Santa Clara Valley.
As CEO, Callender will oversee an agency with an annual budget of more than $600 million, as well as major capital projects, including Anderson Dam’s seismic overhaul and the $1.3 billion expansion of Pacheco Reservoir in conjunction with the San Benito County and the Pacheco Pass water districts.
Callender comes to the position with decades of experience in local politics and public service. The South Bay native served as president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP from 2000 to 2008, resigning to focus on law school. In 2012, he was appointed as the second vice president of the California-Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP.
The Valley Water veteran’s promotion Tuesday by the Board of Directors followed a public comment period in which a dozen or so allies lauded his leadership.
“He’s been part of the creek cleans ups, and he’s been there for us during the floods,” San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP President Rev. Jethroe Moore said. “When we had problems and concerns, we took it to Rick and Rick answered his community, and the community has great respect for him much like we have for Norma … We’re so glad to see you’re moving in a way that sponsors the diversity that we’re always talking about.”
Valley Water conducted a nationwide search for Camacho’s replacement using the Los Gatos-based recruiters William Avery & Associates. The firm winnowed it down to 56 applicants, nine interviewees and four finalists, according to Director Tony Estremera.
However, Callender’s hire exposed a rift on the district’s seven-member board, with Tuesday’s 4-3 vote split along gender lines. Estremera, Gary Kremen, John Varela and Dick Santos cast the affirming votes, while all three women—board President Nai Hsueh and colleagues Linda LeZotte and Barbara Keegan—fell on the opposing side.
“I have to vote my conscience,” Keegan said, without elaborating. “I vote no.”
The other two women were similarly circumspect from the dais.
But sources who spoke to the trio ahead of the vote say their reasons involved a preference for a less political CEO with more public works-project management expertise—as well as allegations of harassment, which the executive disputes.
Though none of that was articulated on Tuesday, a scathing letter the next morning shed light on how Callender’s allies perceived the opposition.
Morning After
The email fired off at 8:28am today. It appeared to make good on a warning from Rev. Moore, who mentioned at the public hearing a day prior something about how board members resisting Callender’s promotion would be held accountable for their votes.
In his barbed missive, the NAACP president compared Keegan and LeZotte to Amy Cooper, the white woman who went viral as the latest embodiment of the “Karen” meme by calling 9-1-1 on an African-American birdwatcher in Central Park. “I am disappointed to have to write this letter,” Moore began. “However it appears that we have a clear case of ‘managing while black’ occurring right here in Silicon Valley.”
The reverend called on Valley Water to investigate “likely unethical and likely illegal behaviors” of Keegan and LeZotte (notably, not Hsueh), whom he accused of “releasing incomplete confidential personnel information to members of the public and media, and lobbying external people during the course of a confidential hiring process.”
“White women’s fear turning into black men being attacked is nothing new,” Moore continued. “Simply look at what's in the news right now. We live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are targets and able to have their rights attacked.”
The NAACP leader invoked the name of George Floyd—an unarmed black man killed by two Minneapolis police officers—and “the larger national dialogue on racism” as sharing a common thread with the votes against Callender’s promotion.
Moore accused Keegan and LeZotte (again, no mention of Hsueh) of conspiring with a former Valley Water director, Joe Judge, to sabotage Callender’s shot at the CEO job.
Keegan and LeZotte declined to comment on the letter.
Kremen, for his part, echoed Moore’s argument about the opposition being all about race. In a phone call today, Kremen touted how he “voted with three men of color” for Callender’s appointment, referring to Estremera, Varela and Santos. “The people who voted against him were the same people who didn’t support Norma Camacho, our Asian Latinx former CEO, who did an awesome job,” he added about his female colleagues.
In actuality, Camacho was named interim CEO in March 2016 after the firing of Beau Goldie and promoted to CEO in August 2017 through unanimous votes by the board, of which Keegan, LeZotte and Hsueh were members at the time.
In a text message Tuesday, Callender said that as much as he would like to clear the air surrounding past litigation, he can’t because he’s muzzled by a secrecy pact with Valley Water that prevents him from saying anything about “the period of 2005 to 2013, which includes a confidentiality clause.”
That eight-year span involves a different case than the one that the women on the board reportedly have concerns about. While Moore’s letter cites the Judge case, in which the ex-director was accused of racially discriminating against Callender, it makes no mention of a lawsuit filed by Jessica Collins.
Past Complaints
Though Collins wound up dropping her claims against Callender in 2010, the allegations are a matter of public record.
The case dates back to 2009, when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) granted her the right to sue Callender for sexual harassment, assault, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In her lawsuit, Collins said that from September 2007 to February 2008, Callender subjected her to unwanted advances and comments. The come-ons allegedly escalated in fall 2007 when the pair attended a conference in Chico, where Collins said “Callender kept insisting on buying drinks and hanging out,” and tried to kiss her.
After that incident, per the complaint, Collins recounted how “Callender would be very nice to her for a period of time, paying her compliments both personally and professionally, building up to a point when he would make an advance, whether it be through inviting her to Napa or texting her to have drinks.”
After rejecting his overtures, Collins said Callender’s demeanor turned “hostile.”
In February 2008, Collins reportedly filed an internal complaint with the district’s equal employment opportunity unit. After a three-month investigation, in which more than 20 people were interviewed, investigators recommended Callender’s termination, according to Collins’ legal complaint. The decision was ultimately left up to then-Valley Water CEO Olga Steele, who opted against firing him.
Collins still works for the district and has declined previous requests for comment. Callender said he remains silent about the case because of a nondisclosure agreement.
When asked for a copy of said document, the water district released an eight-page agreement that references Judge but not the Collins case. According to the agreement, Callender filed a discrimination complaint in 2011 against Judge and the district, which the DFEH closed, re-opened and then re-closed over the ensuing year. Valley Water board minutes show that the DFEH complaint Callender filed against Judge, at least, ended “with no relevant findings” against the former District 2 director.
The NDA goes on to describe how the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a concurrent claim against Judge and the district, which led Callender to ask for an 11-point settlement June 2012. Months later, in December that same year, he filed a new complaint accusing the district of discrimination based on age, race and sex as well as harassment and retaliation.
Per the secrecy agreement, the conflict ended with a no-fault settlement in which Callender was paid $27,500 as compensation for “alleged emotional distress.” He also received a promotion from unclassified manager to deputy administrative officer—but no attendant bump-up in pay or benefits.
Moore said he worked closely with Callender during the time of the Judge and Collins complaints and chalked up the allegations against him as motivated by discriminatory associations between black men and “criminality and hypersexuality.”
In a phone call today, Moore told San Jose Inside that he doesn’t believe Collins. He dismissed her sexual harassment complaint as being part of a “witch hunt” led by Judge to oust Callender all those years ago. “They try to find something on him to bring him down or try to get rid of him,” Moore said. “They’ve been trying to get rid of him for years on fraudulent information.”
Moore said calls by LeZotte and Keegan to have Callender undergo a criminal and civil background check—his 1998 conviction from a parking lot altercation was publicly reported—fall into a longstanding pattern of racially charged harassment.
“That has never been done with any other internal candidates,” the NAACP leader wrote in his open letter, “including with the current CEO ... Does it sound to you like a different standard has been applied to Mr. Callender?”
I am going to formally congratulate Callendar. He deserves a shot. He really does have the experience and he might be exactly what is needed. Let us really step back let Callendar prove himself. Keegan and Lazotte are allies of people like Teresa ONeill who have little desire to back people of color. Calendar may rise or fall, but he has to be given an opportunity. Jethro Moore is another guy who has been a hero. Phonies like ONeill or Haggsg who go out of their way like Lazotte and Keegan to block people of color need to go. I say give Callendar a real shot.
Congratulations, Rick. You’ve worked hard for this position and have an opportunity to reform an agency that’s been known for dysfunction. I hope you’ll bring in some new and independent talent. Start by replacing Melanie Richardson, who disappeared when she was needed during the flood and failed to recuse herself during conflicts with her husband’s firm’s contracts. And Mike Potter, who other than being Mr. Cindy Chavez, has no qualifications for the job.
“That has never been done with any other internal candidates,” the NAACP leader wrote, “including with the current CEO … Does it sound to you like a different standard has been applied to Mr. Callender?”
Definitely a different standard was used. Whether it was because Rick is a Black man with a Latino first name (Enrico), or was it Jessica Collins unsubstantiated accusations? These are the only two take-a-ways this article has allowed my little brain to muster. Perhaps one of these points of obvious contention were too much for the three women which have been voted into office of director by their respective constituents.
If this Jessica Collins dropped her complaint, then one has to assume she wasn’t really on good footing in filing the complaint in the first place. That leaves race or color or Rick being other than what those three dissenting board members think a CEO should look like.
However, as an employee for twenty years in good standing with the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Rick’s invaluable experience was given absolutely no credence in the votes attributed to the three women.
When will we see that people of color have value as much as any person? When will we recognize that people regardless of skin pigmentation, race, gender, religion, or age have substantive value? As well that what makes us all human is beyond the definitions expressed in these aforementioned protected classes.
As the vote took place along gender lines is interesting. Should a man or a women ever be free of accusations made, but unsubstantiated? Apparently the women think not.
Metoo# can be used for good (Harvey Weinstein) or bad, (Al Franken). Let’s be smart enough to know the difference. Bandwagons are for the band, let’s use our own brains for once when it comes to voting.
I hope the the entire board can be onboard with their newly elected CEO and let him show the board what he can achieve for the District which he is so passionate about. Again, congrats Rick!
BRILLIANT PLAY! Use NAACP to play race card and spin any questions about your past as discrimination.
I’ll give him $1,000 right now if he can name 10 creeks in Santa Clara Valley off the top of his head.
Is that a prerequisite for the job? Or only a phony $1000 bonus? The guy was a government relations person; he wasn’t out in the creeks with waders. Stay classy and relevant with your invaluable comments on these boards, Glat.
Yeah, you’re right. Let’s all stick to making everything about race and talking only about race all the time.
How can you conclude 2 nay votes were racially motivated and ignore the 3rd one? Did the letter truly only address 2 of the negative votes? Was the third nay ok because it wasn’t a white woman who cast it?
For me there is only one overriding issue—will Mr. Callender turn off the Golden Spigot, or will it be business as usual?
> Callender comes to the position with decades of experience in local politics and public service. The South Bay native served as president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP from 2000 to 2008, resigning to focus on law school. In 2012, he was appointed as the second vice president of the California-Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP.
Let’s be serious folks.
This is NOT the resume of an “executive”.
It is the resume of a political activist.
And, by the way, what was the outcome of his “law school”? Did he graduate? Did he pass the bar exam? Did he ever practice law? What kind of law?
Or did he just join the swarm of marginally employable drones with law degrees who land somewhere doing something which really doesn’t require a law degree anyway?
> As CEO, Callender will oversee an agency with an annual budget of more than $500 million, as well as major capital projects, . . .
A political activist with a half billion dollar budget? It’s not going to end well.
> But sources who spoke to the trio ahead of the vote say their reasons involved a preference for a less political CEO with more public works-project management expertise, . . .
Well, YESSS!
If Callender were REALLY executive material, he would recognize that the organization is very divided and HE is the fault line of the division. He should understand that no amount of HIS leadership is likely to make things better, and that the interests of Valley Water are best served by him withdrawing as CEO.
There’s a credible sexual harassment case that should disqualify him from this promotion. Our own Kavanaugh. https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Jessica-Collins-v-Enrico-Callender.pdf
https://sjoutsidethebubble.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/factcheckrequiredsm.jpg
There was no Kavanaugh sexual harassment case.
“Though Collins wound up dropping her claims against Callender in 2010, the allegations are a matter of public record. The case dates back to 2009, when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) granted her the right to sue Callender for sexual harassment, assault, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Barbara Williams shows us a “Credible Sexual Harassment Case” filed July 2009, however Jessica Collins dropped the case. So what makes the case credible? When someone drops a case prior to being adjudicated then the case is without merit.
If y’all want to publicly lynch a Black Man for aspiring to a top level job with adequate pay and within the bounds of Santa Clara County in 2021 the appears your goal has been achieved.
However, you fall short on a couple of things. Mostly the FACTS. Perhaps it is his pay scale that upsets the dissenter. If he were paid along the lines of a middle class white executive say $100,000.00 per year, would there be as much of an outcry? I think not.
The other than black folks here seem to constantly keep the black person from moving into their other than black neighborhoods. With $326,000.00 per year salary, Rick can move into any of your neighborhoods. So keep an eye out for Rick and family, he may be coming to a neighborhood near you. It never ceases to amaze me how intolerant our society has become in only the last 3-1/2 years, or was it always there lurking behind the bushes and now with a White Nationalist in the “White” House y’all feel empowered somehow.
A little history. Abe Lincoln was the first Republican President. He called the Official Residence “The Executive Mansion”. It wasn’t until much later that a Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt, renamed The Executive Mansion to the “White House”. When you think of the racism back in the time of Roosevelt against blacks by whites then perhaps you will understand that at that time by so renaming the official residence to the White House that blacks were not welcome there. Also, it meant that no person other than White would occupy the White House. That is until Obama became our President. But did Obama rename the official residence to the Black House? No, of course not. When you have ridiculed Rick enough, please cut him down from your tree and lay him to rest so that he may get on with the job of Top Executive for our “Valley Water”.
> A little history. Abe Lincoln was the first Republican President. He called the Official Residence “The Executive Mansion”. It wasn’t until much later that a Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt, renamed The Executive Mansion to the “White House”. When you think of the racism back in the time of Roosevelt against blacks by whites then perhaps you will understand that at that time by so renaming the official residence to the White House that blacks were not welcome there. Also, it meant that no person other than White would occupy the White House.
https://sjoutsidethebubble.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/factcheckrequiredsm.jpg
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington_dinner_at_the_White_House
Oh, sure. Wikipedia.
What a joke!
Wikipedia bans more sources than Pravda.
It’s a wonder that Wikipedia knows anything about anything.
If you ever want to NOT KNOW something, wikipedia is your “GO-TO” source.
One stop shopping for ignorance!
P,S. If I were you, I wouldn’t advertise that I use wikipedia as my source of knowledge for anything.
P.P.S. I use wikipedia all the time to score points with mind-numbed progressives because they don’t know any better.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/05/26/wikipedia-co-founder-sites-neutrality-is-dead-thanks-to-leftist-bias/
“Wikipedia Co-Founder: Site’s Neutrality Is ‘Dead’ Thanks to Leftist Bias”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/07/15/wikipedia-owners-back-down-on-ban-of-veteran-administrator-following-editor-revolt/
“Wikipedia Owners Back Down on Ban of Veteran Administrator Following Editor Revolt”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/12/20/wikipedia-blacklists-epoch-times-gateway-pundit-for-russiagate-criticism/
‘Wikipedia Blacklists Epoch Times, Gateway Pundit for Russiagate Criticism”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa9qvv/wikipedia-banned-breitbart-infowars
“Wikipedia Bans Right Wing Site Breitbart as a Source for Facts”
Applies double to wikipedia:
https://sjoutsidethebubble.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/factcheckrequired.jpg
https://sjoutsidethebubble.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/factcheckrequired.jpg
Bubble, I rest my case. Breitbart and Infowars need to be banned as a viable news source. Mostly every platform has banned Alex Jones.
Wikipedia did the right thing by banning Fake News and conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact. I would suggest that you change the channel from Fox News as well. It will help that you can discern facts for yourself rather than be a bot for the sake of foreign adversaries’ agendas. Think for yourself instead of being a mouth piece for those that wish to sew discord amongst our population.
I was on the Zoom meeting call to support Rick who I have known since college.He’s taught me one thing for sure FACTS! Congratulations Rick well deserved.
> Breitbart and Infowars need to be banned as a viable news source. Mostly every platform has banned Alex Jones.
I’m always amused by the inverted logic of people who tell me what they DON’T read and DON’T know and imagine that it makes them look informed.
Maybe if you reduced your reading down to zero, dyed your hair gray, and wore a tweed jacket with elbow patches who could convince yourself you were a college professor.
The current CEO is very well verse in politic, leveraging his friends at NBC News to pressure for the position. He’s a politician and NOT a technical person. Valley Water’s executive hires or promotions at all levels are directly related to the political background of the board of directors…voice sound the same, Hispanic last name, etc. The same pattern …Camacho, Alvarez. This is a corrupt, incompetent and cowardly agency as one resident puts it. Decades of dam failures, unsafe unreliable water supply and flood control. Shame on them to blame SJC for the recent Coyote Creek flooding. NO Accountability!
Enough is enough after decades (2x 15 years) of misused, mismanaged taxpayers’ hard earned $$. Decades of Under delivered, over budgeted, defect deliverables. They sure know how to fool voters over and over again. Exhorbitant executive and management pays, bonuses, lifetime full medical and retirement for employees + family. Under the current setup, each employee collects hundreds of thousands of $$ (sickleave cashout) if not upward $.5 million in the case of executive and upper management, upon exiting Valley Water. The pays and benefits are guaranteed regardless of economic conditions, while taxpayers cannot short a dime on property tax or risk foreclosure!! How long can taxpayers continue to bear such enormous costs? Not sustainable.
Anderson Dam/Reservoir is not a $576-millions project as proposed. It’s a billion $$ problem. This reservoir along 9 other reservoirs owned by Valley Water and Almaden Lake are saturated with and continually collect carcinogenic mercury contaminants that the Valley Water has bandaid/masked the problem for decades. Regulatory agencies have notified Valley Water potential dam failures and mercury ladden waters decades back during ex-ceo Stan Williams era. But Valley Water has been operating as usual one ceo after another. Valley Water has spent taxpayers’ hard earned $$ on lavish political campaigns, trips, propaganda, lobbying, and exhorbitant pays and benefits instead on projects it promised to deliver. By private business standard, Valley Water would have been in jail and refunded taxpayers’s funds it collected all these decades of reckless and mismanagment. Time to break up Valley Water’s monopoly game!! Vote them all out! Vote NO more taxes!