A judge has ruled in favor of the Santa Clara Valley Water District in its lawsuit against one of its directors, Rebecca Eisenberg of Palo Alto, who took thousands of pages of an internal documents district’s offices.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Ellen E. Williams on Tuesday (Sept. 3) ordered Eisenberg to return a roughly 2,000-page report on allegations against her to Valley Water officials within five days.
In January, the board of directors, including Eisenberg, was allowed to view 2,000 confidential pages related to the investigation — including supporting documents and interviews with employees — in a secure room at the district’s offices at 5750 Almaden Expressway in San Jose. The directors could not take photos or copies of the sensitive materials, and were told the documents couldn’t leave the room.
Eisenberg grabbed the documents and took them to her car, and then she drove away, surveillance photos showed.
Eisenberg has said previously that as a director, she is entitled to review the report along as she does not share its contents with anyone. Eisenberg said she has not discussed or publicized any of the report’s contents, which was an assurance she signed under oath.
“This lawsuit is an intentional abuse of ratepayer funds,” she said. “They are suing me for a risk that doesn’t exist. It is an irrational risk that I would share these (documents). There is no evidence to support it and they know that. They just don’t want me to have these documents.”
Valley Water spokesman Matt Keller said the agency has paid $143,694 pursuing this lawsuit, in addition to the $587,497 spent on the probe against her.
The report cited 25 complaints against Eisenberg and found that nine of them were substantiated.
In one case the report covered, Board Chair Nai Hsueh told Eisenberg she didn’t know what the Latin term ad hominem meant. Eisenberg was “shocked” by that, and said, “English isn’t your first language so I want to make sure you understand.”
Eisenberg told investigators she was not demeaning Hsueh on the basis of race or national origin, but instead was “accommodating (Hsueh’s) language barrier,” the report said.
Eisenberg also leveled eight accusations of discrimination, harassment, abusive conduct or retaliation against Chief Executive Rick Callender, General Counsel J. Carlos Orellana and the district, though the agency’s hired investigators determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support her claims.
Eisenberg said the investigation is just retaliation by Callender and Orellana in response to concerns she raised about sexism at the agency.
The case number is 24CV436448 in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Same investigators that absolved Gary Kremen of SEXUAL harassment but found he had BULLIED employees? Public employees making six figures have never had thinner skins.
“though the agency’s hired investigators determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support her claims.”