Politics
Top manager of California's largest water supplier accused of sexism and harassment
The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to place General Manager Adel Hagekhalil on leave Thursday while the agency investigates accusations of harassment against him by the agency’s chief financial officer.
Chief Financial Officer Katano Kasaine made the allegations in a confidential letter to the board, which was leaked and published by Politico. She said Hagekhalil has harassed, demeaned and sidelined her and created a hostile work environment.
MWD Board Chair Adán Ortega Jr. announced the decision after a closed-door meeting, saying the board voted to immediately place Hagekhalil on administrative leave and to temporarily appoint Deven Upadhyay, an assistant general manager, as interim general manager.
“This board is determined to act with unity and swiftness in order to protect everybody,” Ortega said. “My hope is that under Deven’s leadership in the coming months, that we will find some common purpose, that we will realize the urgency of the policies and the tasks that confront us.”
Ortega said in an interview after the meeting that there are “several investigations” underway. He declined to comment on the other investigations, and said Hagekhalil will be on administrative leave for up to 90 days.
“We’re calculating that that’s the amount of time it will take to complete the investigations,” Ortega told The Times.
Ortega began the meeting by announcing that the board had decided earlier this week to open an investigation. He called a vote allowing him to publicly discuss confidential matters discussed during that Tuesday meeting, and he criticized the release of the letter.
“The person who released this sensitive document knows that we as a board and as individuals are constrained by law not to reveal closed-session proceedings and related documents,” Ortega said. “They were trying to take advantage of that. But I’m not letting them. At minimum, by releasing the document, that person has tried to set a narrative that is potentially harmful to the general manager, the chief financial officer, this board and this agency, and they know it.”
Ortega said the board acted to start the investigation “in order to avoid the leak that happened anyway.” He said he and other board members believe that both Hagekhalil and Kasaine “deserve the due process prescribed by law.”
Thursday’s special meeting was scheduled while Hagekhalil was traveling in Singapore for a water conference. According to the board meeting agenda, the closed session included a review of Hagekhalil’s performance as well as a discussion of potential discipline or dismissal. On those two items, Ortega said, there were “no reportable actions” during the closed meeting.
Board members voted unanimously to place Hagekhalil on administrative leave, with one abstention and several board members absent.
Kasaine said in her letter that throughout 30 years of government work, “I have encountered toxic work environments, but none as hostile and dysfunctional as Metropolitan.”
“Despite my tireless dedication and outstanding performance ratings, it has become incredibly stressful to even show up for work. I am constantly scrutinized, sidelined, and demeaned for standing up against issues that are not in Metropolitan’s best interest,” Kasaine said in the May 27 letter, which following the leak was released by the district.
Hagekhalil responded to the accusations in a text message, denying any wrongdoing.
“I’ve always treated our MWD staff with complete respect, professionalism and kindness. Always,” Hagekhalil said. “I stand by my record of reforming the agency’s workforce policies and creating a healthy, supportive and inclusive work environment. Any investigation of these unsubstantiated claims will reveal that they are false, and I look forward to returning to my work at MWD to serve our staff and our community as soon as possible.”
He said the claims are “disagreements on management decisions.”
“When I started at MWD, I increased Katano’s responsibilities on an interim basis, and as CFO, she has had an important leadership role in recent MWD actions, including overseeing the agency’s adoption of a two-year budget and development of a long-range financial plan,” Hagekhalil said.
MWD is the nation’s largest wholesale supplier of drinking water, serving cities and agencies that supply 19 million people across Southern California.
Ortega lamented that with the release of the letter, “the confidentiality that they were to enjoy in order to correct matters, has now been compromised for the benefit of an undeclared individual who, depending on our silence, thought that they could deceive the press.”
“Thus, the person who released the document should not be considered a whistleblower, but should be questioned by those listening to him or her about their motives and the personal gain they would like to achieve by violating the rights of others and trying to taint our agency,” Ortega said, reading from a prepared statement. “While I can’t reveal the extent of our continuing deliberations today, or guarantee outcomes, on behalf of the board, I want to assure our workforce that we will continue to act in a transparent way to bring security, harmony and protection of rights for everyone who works here so we can do the work of bringing water to Southern California.”
Several people spoke at the meeting, expressing support for Hagekhalil and calling for a fair and impartial investigation.
“Due process has been tainted in a major, major way,” said Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s a personnel issue that you need to investigate and keep private as much as possible.”
Gold also said Hagekhalil “lives and breathes water in this agency more than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Hagekhalil has led the agency at a time of major challenges, including negotiations aimed at addressing shortages of Colorado River water, plans for building the country’s largest wastewater recycling facility, and the MWD board’s consideration of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to build a $20-billion water tunnel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Hagekhalil previously worked for the city of Los Angeles leading programs focusing on sewers and streets. He was appointed MWD’s general manager in 2021 after a bitter power struggle among board members. He earns $503,942 a year as general manager and chief executive, leading more than 1,900 employees and overseeing more than $2.2 billion in annual spending.
Hagekhalil has said he is seeking to transform the district to make the region’s water supplies resilient to the effects of climate change.
“This is at a time when MWD is at a crossroads,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director of Los Angeles Waterkeeper, who has supported Hagekhalil’s efforts at MWD. “The old way of doing business, the old model for water, doesn’t work in our climate change reality, and I know MWD is wrestling with these very challenging issues. And I think Adel and his team have done an amazing job of starting to tackle that.”
Some of Hagekhalil’s supporters questioned why the matter was brought to the board while he was traveling, and suggested the public airing of grievances appeared to be a calculated ambush.
Kasaine wrote in the letter that she has been “maligned, harassed, bullied, and sidelined from my core responsibilities.” She said Hagekhalil’s “preference for male colleagues/staff over me has continued to sow the seeds of sexism and belittling.”
She also criticized Hagekhalil’s hiring of a team of trusted, highly paid consultants, calling it “an entire shadow leadership team, wielding more power than those holding official titles.”
Kasaine said Hagekhalil has told her that she will no longer have oversight responsibilities leading the district’s human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
“Taking these core services from me without any justification or reason is highly suspect and leads me to believe it is retaliation for speaking up on key concerns,” Kasaine wrote in the letter.
During Thursday’s meeting, many speakers said the matter demands a thorough and impartial investigation.
Ellen Mackey, chair of the employee union’s women’s caucus, told the board that as the situation stands, “we don’t have facts, just accusations.”
Some environmental advocates said they suspect a link between the surfacing of allegations against Hagekhalil and his work leading efforts to take the district in a new direction by developing a climate adaptation plan, investing in local water sources and revamping MWD’s financial model.
Charming Evelyn, who chairs the Sierra Club’s water committee in Southern California, said Hagekhalil has brought positive changes to the MWD, and that has put him in conflict with the district’s “old guard.”
The California Water Impact Network, an advocacy group, said in a press release that the possibility that Hagekhalil’s efforts might lead the board to eventually vote against the proposed Delta Conveyance Project “has led to an attempted mutiny” by supporters of the tunnel among the district’s board members and staff.
The group noted that Kasaine currently serves as treasurer of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority, the entity that was created to finance the tunnel project.
Max Gomberg, a board member of the California Water Impact Network, charged that the move against Hagekhalil appears to be a “political power play” designed to push through the tunnel project.
Leaders of Indigenous tribes and other environmental groups also voiced concerns.
Krystal Moreno of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians said that while the accusations should be independently investigated, “we also ask that the investigation include the questionable and concerning timing of these allegations and the board’s swift attempt to remove Adel without any investigation while he has been out of the country.”
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of the group Restore the Delta, which opposes the tunnel project, said the allegations and the timing of the claims are “equally problematic.”
“Both deserve a thorough and fact based investigation with transparent findings and due process,” she said.
Politics
Less than half of DOGE-terminated contracts can be publicly tracked, only about a quarter of grants: watchdog
With Elon Musk’s departure from the agency, there’s debate roiling over how effective the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE), has been in its mission.
In a report released just two days prior to Musk stepping down, financial watchdog Open The Books published a report finding it is likely impossible for the average American taxpayer to track the savings associated with the contracts and grants that were terminated by the DOGE team.
According to Open The Books’ analysis, which mined all the data published on DOGE’s official website, the average American taxpayer would likely only be able to confirm 42% of contracts and 27% of grants through an independent review of public federal spending databases.
“This doesn’t mean these targets aren’t real, it simply means it’s very hard for taxpayers who want to see additional savings to find proof and evidence of savings,” Open The Books points out in its analysis, shared in a report the group released Tuesday.
‘BUREAUCRATIC AND WASTEFUL’: DOGE SNIFFS OUT EYE-POPPING SPENDING ON BIDEN DEI EFFORTS IN KEY AGENCY
Elon Musk (LEFT) has been a controversial figure in the Trump administration, with many of his critics arguing he has wielded too much power in the Trump administration. (Getty)
“Because taxpayers don’t have access to real-time transparency and a real-time look at the Treasury Payment System, it’s still too difficult for even a highly motivated Joe Taxpayer to confirm the savings claims DOGE is making,” the analysis, released ahead of Elon Musk stepping down from running the agency, continued. “It’s also far too easy for critics to sew [sic] doubt and confusion.”
DOGE says on its website that the group’s work up to this point has provided the American taxpayer with $175 billion in “estimated” savings from the elimination of contracts, grants and leases, as well as through renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion and other mechanisms.
However, DOGE’s estimated savings have been contested by watchdog groups and budget experts. Such critics have posited that the inclusion of already canceled contracts, double-counting or misrepresentation of contract values, and the unaccounted cost burden that could be imposed on the government when it has to re-hire folks down the line, or revamp its productivity, due to DOGE cuts, have led to inflated savings estimates.
Nate Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, has accused DOGE of “overestimating contracts by a factor of two,” according to CBS News.
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But White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital that DOGE has produced “historic savings” for the American people.
“DOGE is working at record speed to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, producing historic savings for the American people,” Fields said. “The DOGE Wall of Receipts provides the latest and most accurate information following a thorough assessment, which takes time. Updates to the DOGE savings page will continue to be made promptly, and departments and agencies will keep highlighting the massive savings DOGE is achieving.”
“DOGE’s job is to identify, not enact, savings targets. It’s up to Congress to do the heavy lifting,” Open The Books said in their analysis about DOGE savings. (Fox News Digital)
“DOGE and Elon Musk have done the country an incredible service by identifying savings targets,” added Open The Books CEO John Hart. “Having worked on the last major deficit commission with the late Senator Tom Coburn, we would have been elated to have had Musk in our corner. Now it’s up to Congress to not only turn DOGE’s recommendations into durable savings but to go beyond DOGE’s scope and truly tackle our long-term debt and deficit crisis.”
Open The Books highlighted two “common sense” standards to help establish an “intellectually honest” approach to understanding the true impact of government cuts, such as those being recommended by DOGE.
The first is the “durable standard,” which asks whether a proposed cut can be easily reversed.
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“Describing something as ‘durable’ does not mean it is permanent or irreversible; it simply means it is hard to reverse,” the Open The Books’ analysis stated. “The most durable budget cut in our constitutional system would be passed by Congress, signed into law by the president and be clearly constitutional, or unassailable in a court challenge. Budget cuts become less durable when they lack any of these three elements.”
The second is called a “duty standard,” which illuminates the power behind certain cuts based on who is trying to impose them.
“In our constitutional system, the founders gave the job of budget savings to three branches but primarily to Congress,” Open The Books points out. “DOGE’s job is to identify, not enact, savings targets. It’s up to Congress to do the heavy lifting. And We the People have a responsibility to be informed and hold our elected officials accountable.”
WHITE HOUSE SENDING $9.4B DOGE CUTS PACKAGE TO CONGRESS NEXT WEEK
White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on Mar. 9, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Open The Books ultimately concluded that due to various limitations associated with publicly available data on government spending and revenue, in particular a lack of real-time access to the government’s Treasury Payment System, it is still too difficult for even the most motivated average American citizen to either confirm, or deny, the savings claimed by DOGE.
Elon Musk officially stepped down from his role as DOGE chief Thursday evening, as his position of “special government employee” in the Trump administration was limited by law to a few months. Amid the transition, Musk criticized Republicans’ spending bill that was passed ahead of Memorial Day in the House, indicating he was “disappointed” it would increase the federal deficit.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk told CBS News in an interview that will air in full on June 1.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday sharply limited the reach of environmental impact statements in a victory for developers.
The justices said these claims of the potential impact on the environment have been used too often to delay or block new projects.
“A 1970 legislative acorn has grown over the years into a judicial oak that has hindered infrastructure development under the guise of just a little more process. A course correction of sorts is appropriate,” said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, speaking for the court.
He said procedural law has given judges and environmentalists too much authority to hinder or prevent development, he said.
“Fewer projects make it to the finish line. Indeed, fewer projects make it to the starting line. Those that survive often end up costing much more than is anticipated or necessary,” he said. “And that in turn means fewer and more expensive railroads, airports, wind turbines, transmission lines, dams, housing developments, highways, bridges, subways, stadiums, arenas, data centers, and the like. And that also means fewer jobs, as new projects become difficult to finance and build in a timely fashion.”
The decision could loom large in California and the West because the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has taken a broad view of environmental protection and the scope of impact statements.
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1970s was the first of a series of landmark environmental laws. It required federal agencies to prepare a report assessing the likely impact of projects that will be funded or approved by the government.
“The goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it,” Kavanaugh said.
In a unanimous decision, the high court ruled for the developers of a proposed 88-mile railroad in northeastern Utah, a spur line which could carry crude oil that would be refined along the Gulf Coast.
The project needed the approval of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board which produced 3,600 pages of analysis on the potential impact.
In blocking the proposal, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals cited its potential to spur more drilling for oil in Utah and more pollution along the Gulf Coast. The judges said these “upstream” and “downstream” impacts of the railroad must be considered before the new rail line is approved.
Seven counties that favored the development appealed to the Supreme Court and argued that the potential environment impact should be limited to the building of the railroad itself.
Kavanaugh and the court agreed. “The board did not need to evaluate potential environmental impacts of the separate upstream and downstream projects,” he said.
The court’s three liberals — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — concurred in the decision but did not sign on to Kavanaugh’s opinion.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, a Colorado native who is friends with some of the leading developers, did not participate in the decision.
Elon Musk is beginning the process of stepping down from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO posted on X on Wednesday night that his time as a special government employee is coming to an end and thanked President Donald Trump for the opportunity to cut down on wasteful spending.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk wrote in his post. The White House confirmed to FOX that Musk’s post is accurate and offboarding will begin Wednesday night.
Musk has been the public face of DOGE since Trump signed an executive order establishing the office on Jan. 20. DOGE has since ripped through federal government agencies in a quest to identify and end government overspending, corruption and fraud.
ELON MUSK SAYS HE ‘FULLY ENDORSES’ TRUMP AFTER GUNFIRE AT PENNSYLVANIA RALLY
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has officially stepped down from his role helping lead DOGE, which had long been the plan as a special government employee. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
He was officially hired as a “special government employee,” which is a role Congress created in 1962 that allows the executive or legislative branch to hire temporary employees for specific short-term initiatives.
Special government employees are permitted to work for the federal government for “no more than 130 days in a 365-day period,” according to data from the Office of Government Ethics. Musk’s 130-day timeframe, beginning on Inauguration Day, was set to run dry on May 30.
DOGE is a temporary cross-departmental organization that was established to slim down and streamline the federal government. The group itself will be dissolved on July 4, 2026, according to Trump’s executive order.
Musk and Trump have both previously previewed that Musk’s role was temporary and would end in the spring.
“You, technically, are a special government employee and you’re supposed to be 130 days,” Fox News’ Bret Baier asked Musk during an exclusive interview with Musk and DOGE team members in April. “Are you going to continue past that or do you think that’s what you’re going to do?”
MUSK NOT LEAVING YET, WRAPPING UP WORK ON SCHEDULE ONCE ‘INCREDIBLE WORK AT DOGE IS COMPLETE’: WHITE HOUSE
Elon Musk was hired as a special government employee, which only permits 130 days of employment, when he was chosen to lead DOGE. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that timeframe,” Musk responded.
Trump hinted at Musk’s departure in comments to reporters on March 31 when he was asked if he wants Musk to remain in a government role for longer than the predetermined 130 days.
“I think he’s amazing. But I also think he’s got a big company to run,” Trump said in March. “And so at some point he’s going to be going back.”
“I’d keep him as long as I can keep him,” Trump said. “He’s a very talented guy. You know, I love very smart people. He’s very smart. And he’s done a good job,” the president added. “DOGE is, we’ve found numbers that nobody can even believe.”
More recently, Musk said during a Tesla earnings call on April 22 that he will take a step back from his work as DOGE’s leader.
DOGE CHAIN OF COMMAND REVEALED IN COURT FILING, SHOWING MUSK IS NOT THE BOSS
“I think starting probably in next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk said during Tesla’s earnings conference call. “I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, the remainder of the president’s term just to make sure the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back, which it will do if it has the chance. So I think I’ll continue to spend, you know, a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.”
Elon Musk jumps on state as he joins former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“But starting next month,” he added, “I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.”
Amid Musk’s work with DOGE, Democrats and activists have staged protests against the tech billionaire and his companies, including working to tank Tesla stocks.
Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, but is not an employee of the United States DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief, according to a court filing in March that shed additional light on the internal workings of the office.
WHO IS DOGE’S NEWLY IDENTIFIED ADMINISTRATOR AMY GLEASON? ‘WORLD-CLASS TALENT’
“Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House,” Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration included in a court filing.
President Trump has spoken highly of Elon Musk’s work with DOGE since he was chosen to lead the new agency on Jan. 20. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Gleason previously worked for the United States Digital Service, which was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama as a technology office within the Executive Office of the President. Trump signed an executive order in January that renamed the office to the United States DOGE Service, establishing DOGE.
Though Musk has been the public face of DOGE, he “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself” and is working as a senior advisor to the president, a White House official said in a separate court filing back in February.
SENATE REPUBLICAN DOGE LEADER JONI ERNST FACES FIRST DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER IN 2026 RACE
Musk emerged as an ardent supporter of Trump at the height of the election cycle over the summer, officially endorsing Trump after the first assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
President Trump survived an assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania in July. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk posted to X shortly after the attempt, accompanied by footage of Trump raising a fist and shouting “Fight, fight, fight!” after he was left bloodied by the assassination attempt.
Musk hosted Trump on X for an expansive interview while on the campaign trail
Across Musk’s tenure as a special government employee, Trump has praised the tech billionaire for his efforts to streamline the government and cut it of overspending, including during his first address to a joint session of Congress since his second inauguration.
“Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that,” Trump said in March during his address, quipping that Democrats were even grateful for Musk’s work at DOGE.
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