John Morris (Photo – Kevin Mapp, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California)
Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors voted in December to censure their Board colleague John Morris, the City of San Marino’s representative, for his use of a racist term at a Board event in late 2023.
By News Desk
The action came after an independent Equal Employment Opportunity investigation found that John Morris made a disparaging statement toward a staff member on the basis of race or national origin, in violation of Metropolitan’s Administrative Code.
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 fully participate again in Metropolitan’s board activities.
“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.
City of San Marino
Metropolitan does not have the ability to dismiss any of its directors. Rather, each of its 26 member agencies chooses their own Board representative through their own processes.
The City of San Marino was notified of the investigation’s findings about their representative and was sent a letter regarding the Board’s censure of John Morris.
CAIR-LA
The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) welcomed the censure of a Metropolitan Water District (MWD) Board Member for making a 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.
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.”
Leave a Reply