Sewer official who got $875,000 payout gets contract with city of San Mateo

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Dan Child, who was paid $875,000 to resign from the Redwood City-based sewage processing agency Silicon Valley Clean Water, has landed a job as a consultant for San Mateo’s sewer system rebuild project.

San Mateo hired Child even though the circumstances of his departure from Silicon Valley Clean Water in May 2018 are unclear. The Post asked the sewer agency for a separation agreement of another employee that might shed light on why Child was paid to resign.
Silicon Valley Clean Water decided to release the document to the Post. Then Child filed a lawsuit to stop the Post from getting the document.

Attorneys for the Post intend to intervene in the lawsuit in order to get a judge to rule whether the document should be released.

Complaint about Child

The other employee, who has not been identified publicly, had filed a complaint about Child. It appears that the employee was paid a certain amount of money as part of an agreement to resign. But the agency has refused to say how much this employee was paid or release the employee’s separation agreement. The Post contends both the amount the employee was paid and the separation agreement are public documents.

Child claimed in his lawsuit that his reputation would be “irreparably” damaged if the separation agreement of the other employee becomes public.

$1.4 million contract

Two months after Child left Silicon Valley Clean Water, his consulting business entered into a four-year, $1.4 million contract with the city of San Mateo.

Child’s scope of work with the city involves reviewing the city’s billion dollar plan to replace the city’s sewer system and build a new wastewater treatment plant, according to city spokeswoman Samantha Weigel.

San Mateo does not have any records about the circumstances under which Child left Silicon Valley Clean Water, Weigel said.

Child will only be paid once the work in his contract is completed and has invoiced San Mateo, said Public Works spokeswoman Kellie Benz.

Silicon Valley Clean Water is a joint powers authority owned by the cities of Redwood City, Belmont, San Carlos and Menlo Park’s West Bay Sanitary District. It operates a plant in Redwood City that treats the sewage from the four entities.