These 2 secretaries blew the whistle on suspected corruption in Rialto water district

Crystal Escalera felt both a sense of duty and trepidation as she typed out a four-page letter to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office detailing the alleged misdeeds of her boss, General Manager Clarence Mansell Jr., and other officials at the embattled West Valley Water District in Rialto.

“I would like to request whistleblower protection and alert the District Attorney’s Office/FBI of contract fraud, misappropriation of public funds and harassment being carried out at the West Valley Water District,” began the Jan. 17, 2019, letter from Escalera, a secretary for the district’s Board of Directors for a little more than two years.

Her letter and another strikingly similar complaint to prosecutors from former water district board Assistant Secretary Patricia Romero echo allegations from 16 water district managers who issued a no-confidence letter in December demanding that Mansell be fired for dishonesty and cronyism. Dozens of personnel complaints, some of which detail similar allegations, have been filed with the district since Mansell took the helm in July 2018.

The D.A’s Office has neither confirmed nor denied receipt of the letters from Romero and Escalera, nor whether it is actively investigating. Romero included Escalera’s letter in a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September 2019.

“Any complaints regarding allegations or improprieties by public entities are investigated by our public integrity unit, for consideration of the filing of criminal charges, if warranted,” office spokesman Michael Bires said in an email. “For the protection of all parties involved, we are unable to comment on the status of an investigation, as well as whether or not we have received any complaints.”

Romero said she has never been interviewed by an investigator or prosecutor at the D.A.’s Office regarding her complaint.

Path to litigation

The letters obtained by the Southern California News Group provide the first glimpse into the origins of a February 2019 lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Romero, board member Clifford Young, and former water district Chief Financial Officer Naisha Davis against Robert Tafoya, the district’s general counsel, and other attorneys and consultants working for the district.

The lawsuit details questionable hires and improper contracts costing water district ratepayers about $1 million, which the plaintiffs are demanding be returned to district coffers by the defendants.

In addition to Tafoya, other defendants named in the suit include Clifton Albright and his law firm, Albright, Yee & Schmit; special counsel Martin Kaufman and the Kaufman Law Firm; and consultant Robert Katherman.

Alleged co-conspirators in the case include Mansell; Michael Taylor, a retired Baldwin Park police chief who serves on the water district board; former Assistant General Manager and Baldwin Park Councilman Ricardo Pacheco; and board member and Fontana school police Officer Kyle Crowther.

Suspicious activities

Although Escalera is not a plaintiff in any lawsuits against the district, her letter outlines a timeline of alleged suspicious activities involving Mansell, his executive assistant, Melissa Blount, and Pacheco, along with alleged intimidation and harassment by Taylor.

Mansell, Blount, Pacheco and Taylor did not respond to requests for comment. Tafoya said in an email the district has not been contacted by the District Attorney’s Office or any other law enforcement agency regarding hiring decisions or improper handling of contracts.

Escalera declined to discuss her letter to the D.A.’s Office or comment for this story, but her writings indicate that soon after Mansell became interim general manager in 2018, the district began generating consultant contracts at an alarming rate, raising suspicions of cronyism.

“The majority of these consultant contracts are for friends, former co-workers, or affiliates of Baldwin Park,” says the letter addressed to the D.A.’s Public Integrity Unit. “I fear these contracts will deplete the district’s $50 million reserve fund, put the district in financial jeopardy and cause distrust of the public.

“The contracts have no legitimate purpose and appear to be a payment that one can reasonably believe will be paid back as a kickback. I feel intimidated into signing these contracts without proper checks, balances and feel I have a fiduciary duty to alert the District Attorney’s Office.”

Escalera singled out Mansell, Taylor, Pacheco, Tafoya and Blount as allegedly involved in the “misallocation scheme.”  Blount, hired by the district in August 2018 at $41.01 an hour, previously worked with Mansell at Veolia North America, which provides drinking water and wastewater treatment services for the city of Rialto.

Questionable contracts

On Blount’s first day of work at West Valley, Mansell told her to report to the purchasing department and instructed staff to train her how to write contracts, process invoices and handle accounts receivable, Escalera’s letter says. Davis, the district’s CFO, became aware of the situation only when the purchasing staff notified her Mansell had requested unlimited access to the district’s accounting system. She confronted him during an executive staff meeting a week later.

“Ms. Davis openly expressed her concerns of having an executive assistant have the same financial access as the chief financial officer … and made Mr. Mansell aware that this decision was a violation of internal controls that may be an issue in our next audit,” Escalera wrote. “However, Mr. Mansell told her that this was ‘the new process’ and that ‘as the GM I can make that change.’ “

Mansell sent an email to staff members on Oct. 4, 2018, designating the purchasing department as the district’s point of contact for all payment invoices from vendors and contractors. “Centralizing the receipt of invoices from several points” into one clearinghouse would improve district operations, he said in the email obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Others insisted accounts payable — not purchasing — should be handling the invoices for West Valley, which serves about 82,000 customers in Bloomington, Colton, Fontana, Rialto, unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County, and Jurupa Valley in Riverside County.

Sidestepping board authority

The Board of Directors is required to vote on all contracts over $25,000, while Mansell has authority to approve and sign contracts below that amount without board approval. No-bid contracts issued by the district have become a primary source of complaints by district employees, management and board members, and also have come under scrutiny by local and state auditors.

Mansell instructed Blount to generate all new consultant contracts following her training in the purchasing department, Escalera said in her letter to the D.A.’s Office. “I witnessed consultants beginning work and receiving payment before a contract was fully executed. Insurance requirements were also waived for several consultants that were friends,” she wrote.

Mansell then removed the contracts from the purchasing department and filed them in Escalera’s office. “I am instructed to allow the chief financial officer to look at the files in my presence, but the contracts are not to leave my office,” Escalera said in the letter. “In contrast, Ms. Blount continues to take contracts that were complete from my office back to her office for review. This makes me uneasy and only later did I realize that changes were being made during this time.”

Escalera said she confirmed with Tafoya, the water district’s lawyer, that he had not reviewed all of the contracts she had been asked to sign despite assurances to the contrary from Mansell. “I told Ms. Blount that I was not comfortable signing any more contracts without legal counsel’s signature after speaking to Mr. Tafoya,” she wrote.

Escalera said it also appeared signature pages were being extracted from previously signed contracts and inserted into revised ones.

Additionally, she said, Pacheco requested that a check be issued to consultant Daniel Rodriguez for work completed before an agreement was even in place.

“That is a clear violation of district policy,” she wrote wrote to the D.A.’s Office. “I have not personally seen any work product produced by Mr. Rodriguez nor has any other executive manager at West Valley Water District.”

In July 2018, the district entered into a contract with Rodriguez’s company, Canyon Country-based Los Angeles County Public Safety and Security Services, LLC. Rodriguez, a reserve officer for the Baldwin Park Police Department, has acknowledged that he knows Taylor and has worked with him. Pacheco is a Baldwin Park city councilman.

Steps toward reform

In response to questions from the Southern California News Group, the water district said newly elected board President Channing Hawkins has prohibited Mansell from authorizing any new contracts without his approval. “The current board has increased scrutiny to ensure all contracts have deliverables, scope of services and timetables,” the district said in a statement.

Clifford Young began to see contracts stacked in Escalera’s office and asked during a November 2018 board meeting for all consultant agreements signed by Mansell. Escalera provided the contracts to Young and then, on Dec. 15, 2018, a few minutes before midnight, received a terse, unnerving phone call from Taylor, who at the time was president of the board, that left her shaken.

“Dr. Taylor reprimanded me for not letting him review the contracts before they were sent and commented that I am a ‘smart girl and know what’s going on,’ ” she wrote in the letter to the D.A.’s Office. “He then told me that I am to report to him anytime I speak to Dr. Young. I was very bothered by this conversation and felt very intimidated by President Dr. Taylor’s request.”

Escalera said the intimidation became even more profound on Dec 17, 2018, when Mansell told her that Romero would be moved to the district’s Customer Service Department. The letter alleges Mansell confided in Escalera that Taylor was not comfortable with Romero having access to documents and information, adding her transfer was a political decision.

District officials insist Romero was transferred after a potential conflict of interest was identified, and claim they have not received any reports of alleged intimidation involving Taylor.

A second complaint

Two weeks prior to Escalera’s letter, Romero sent her own complaint to the D.A.’s Office raising similar alarms about contracts and intimidation.

“From October 2018 through December 2018 there has been approximately 23 contracts drafted and executed by the Executive Assistant Melissa Blount, GM Clarence Mansell, Legal (Counsel) Robert Tafoya averaging to the amount of $300,000,” Romero said in the three-page letter. “Ms. Blount has been under the complete direction of (Mansell) and continues to produce contracts for plans unknown.”

Romero told the Southern California News Group she went public with her allegations because she has a “fiduciary duty to the public and the employees of the district.”

“I am bound … to be a good steward of the public trust and funds,” Romero said in a statement. “The public and employees are being misled by corruption and lies.”

Romero also contends district officials are robbing employees of their “First Amendment right to free speech” by prohibiting them from talking to the news media.

“Employees are being isolated and singled out. Employees are being intimated and stricken with fear. This needs to be corrected and the public needs to be aware of the situation,” Romero said.

Sour grapes?

Top officials at the water district, including Mansell and Taylor, have denied allegations of corrupt practices, attributing it up sour grapes by board member Clifford Young, who served as board president before Taylor and was removed from that position in October 2018 on a 3-2 board vote.

Young’s removal came amid multiple complaints about his alleged authoritarian leadership style. He was accused of being emotionally unstable, running the district with an iron fist, berating employees who questioned his decisions and demands, and misappropriating public funds.

From 2017 to 2019, the district paid more than $219,000 for a trio of investigations into Young’s conduct.

Young’s critics also have attacked Romero’s credibility, noting that she lives with Young and is taking sides.

Romero said met Young in 2017 while volunteering on his re-election campaign. In 2018, Young and his wife took her in when she became a victim of domestic violence, and she has been living with them ever since, she said.

“I had no other place to go at the time,” Romero said. Since moving in with the Youngs, Romero claims she has been subjected to extensive ridicule that she equates to “being terrorized.” Tafoya, she said, even announced the her living arrangement during a public meeting in June 2019.

Numerous complaints

Board member Greg Young, who is of no relation to Clifford Young, said there have been numerous complaints by employees about Mansell and his hiring practices, especially involving purchase order contracts to friends and former colleagues, which he says have fallen on deaf ears.

“I am not sure what the D.A. is or is not doing, but there were numerous contracts made by Mansell to friends of his and friends of Mike Taylor and Robert Tafoya. Most of these were hidden from the board,” Young said.

He said Mansell, to avoid the need for board approval, creates a “chain series” of purchase order contracts within his $25,000 discretionary threshold.

“So it is very common to see a lot of these vendors with questionable ties getting one contract for $24,000, and once that is exhausted, they get another contract for $24,000,” Young said. “It creates a chain of contracts that in sum exceed the authority he has, and is circumventing the board and public scrutiny.”

Board members recently stripped Mansell of his responsibility for all hirings, promotions, job recruitment, internal transfers and performance evaluations, assigning those tasks to a new interim human resources manager. Additionally, the district began live streaming public meetings on Facebook and YouTube in the interest of accountability and transparency.

For Young, the reforms aren’t enough.

“If the district is to ever move forward with the confidence of the public and the employees,” he said, “Clarence Mansell’s tenure as general manager must end.”

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