Judge throws out property owner’s lawsuit against private water company

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by an East Palo Alto property owner who said the leaders of a water company held sham elections to maintain their power and enrich themselves.

Property owner Shannon Pekary filed his lawsuit nearly a year after the December 2024 election, even though he was concerned about election interference well before then, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Michael Mau said in a ruling yesterday. 

Pekary’s claims had a nine-month statute of limitations, and he won’t be allowed to refile his lawsuit, Mau said.

Pekary alleged that three directors — Fidel Alas, Niambi Lincoln and Alberta Mitchell — “have demonstrated a pattern of collusion” going back to 2017 at the Palo Alto Park Mutual Water Company.

The water company is one of three in East Palo Alto, serving 600 households and an estimated 2,900 residents.

Proxy voting

Property owners get one vote for every 2,500 square feet of land they own, according to the bylaws. They can vote by proxy, meaning they submit a form designating someone to vote on their behalf so they don’t have to attend the election meeting in person.

Pekary said that he should’ve won the election, but one-third of his proxy votes were invalidated by the incumbents.

The reasons for invalidating the votes were “inaccurate, vague and not consistently applied,” Pekary said in his lawsuit.

For example, votes were thrown out because the property owner didn’t include their address, but Pekary said the water company could’ve looked up addresses.

Pekary claimed that residents have dealt with contaminated and cracking wells because of mismanagement.

Directors get free water and $100 for each board meeting they attend, the lawsuit said.

Pekary previously sued directors over their election in December 2019. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Marie Weiner ruled in his favor and ordered four directors to step down, including Lincoln and Alas.

“The defendants manipulated the outcome by selectively excluding a few proxies from the voting calculations,” Weiner wrote in her decision.

But the directors appealed, and the appeals court said too much time had passed and allowed them to stay on the board.

Lincoln is the mother of East Palo Alto Councilman Webster Lincoln, who wasn’t named in the lawsuit. She is both the treasurer and the general manager for the water company.