BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto’s representative on the Valley Water board, who was removed from a board meeting on Oct. 13 for refusing to yield the floor and shouting at other board members, has been kicked out of a meeting before, according to a new report.
Board member Rebecca Eisenberg was removed by security guards during a closed session on Jan. 29, the report said.
Eisenberg is running for re-election on Nov. 3.
Board member Tony Estremera warned Eisenberg multiple times at the meeting to calm down, but she kept “screaming, threatening people with liability and lawsuits, very angrily shouting, interrupting and going off topic,” the report said.
Estremera called for security. Before they arrived, Eisenberg accused former District Counsel Carlos Orellana of lying to the board.
When Orellana defended himself, Eisenberg reportedly said, “Well then, you must be the most incompetent lawyer.”
Bribery claim
“The only reason you ever win in court is because you pay off judges,” Eisenberg said, according to the report.
Orellana said that everyone at the meeting was stunned.
“Are you accusing me of bribing judges?” he asked.
“You heard what I said,” Eisenberg responded, according to the report.
Orellana said that he couldn’t possibly catalog every negative interaction he’s had with Eisenberg, but her accusation that he bribed judges was “the tipping point.”
Orellana’s attorney emailed Eisenberg a cease-and-desist demand on March 11 “asking that she refrain from making further defamatory statements about him,” the report said.
“They are all true,” Eisenberg replied.
Eisenberg published a blog on March 14 saying that she has no clue where Orellana got the idea that she accused him of bribing judges.
“Given the novelty of that accusation to me, perhaps that claim is best viewed as an admission,” she wrote.
Valley Water hired attorney Kym McCourt to investigate Orellana’s complaints about Eisenberg.
Five witnesses
McCourt said it’s likely that Eisenberg accused Orellana of bribing judges, given that five witnesses corroborated his account.
“Eisenberg’s accusation of (Orellana) bribing judges is entirely consistent with Eisenberg’s pattern of disrespectful, accusatory, and insulting behavior toward (Orellana) at board meetings,” McCourt wrote in the report.
Orellana said Eisenberg accused him of committing securities fraud at a meeting on March 24 and of violating the law and his ethical duties at a meeting on April 29.
After that meeting, Orellana said Eisenberg yelled at him and pointed her finger at him.
“I was so concerned for my safety that I asked security to accompany me back to my office and then out to my car,” Orellana told McCourt.
Orellana resigned in June.
The board reviewed McCourt’s report on Eisenberg at a meeting on Tuesday. Estremera had security guards escort Eisenberg out after she went over her five-minute time limit to read a statement.
“You’re done now — and out of the building, not in the back to harass people,” Estremera said.
Tension
Board member Richard Santos said he felt calm without Eisenberg in the room.
“The tension is gone,” he said.
Eisenberg has filed a federal lawsuit against Valley Water, alleging that she’s been retaliated against for opposing a dam project and exposing gender bias.
Eisenberg said McCourt’s report was released to harm her re-election bid against Los Altos Councilman Pete Dailey.
Be the first to comment