IID Master Project Labor Agreement Review
What exactly got dumped on us by a board that prioritized special interests ahead of the public interest?
Group accuses IID of Brown Act violations in passing PLA
I.V. Press
By MICHAEL MARESH, IV Press Staff Writer Dec 24, 2020
Link to Article: Group Accuses...
EL CENTRO — A group that opposed Imperial Irrigation District’s passage of a 10-year project labor agreement says the district committed multiple Brown Act violations in pushing the measure through.
United Desert Communities of Imperial and Riverside Counties (UDC) was founded in fall 2019 with the professed goal of educating the public on the impact of IID’s efforts to negotiate the PLA, which the former board of directors passed Dec. 1.
The group retained the El Centro law firm of Sutherland & Gerber, which served notice to IID on Wednesday of the alleged Brown Act violations.
In a letter to IID general counsel Frank Oswalt, UDC’s attorney Katherine Turner requested that the letter be accepted as a writ to order the PLA’s approval overturned. She also requested a board meeting to discuss a response to the notice.
“This letter is a formal request to appeal this if there is any appeal available within the IID administrative remedy,” she wrote. “Please inform me of any available administrative remedies within seven days of this letter,” dated Dec. 16.
The IID board has called for a special meeting for next Tuesday to discuss the PLA and other items.
IID Division 2 Director JB Hamby said he agrees with certain parts of the letter pertaining to violations of the Brown Act.
Outgoing IID President Norma Sierra Galindo said a reason for the Dec. 1 vote was to allow the architect of the PLA, former Division 4 Director Erik Ortega, to have a vote on what could turn out to be his legacy. The meeting was the last for Ortega and former Division 2 Director Bruce Kuhn, who voted against the measure.
In her letter to Oswalt, Turner listed six reasons why the agreement was in violation of the Brown Act.
For one, she wrote that the backup for the agenda item does not identify the parties subject to the agreement and the side agreement lists only one union — International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 47.
She also wrote IID failed to provide the public thousands of pages of reference in the backup for the agenda, which is required if the information is given to the directors.
She said if the directors did not review the thousands of pages they then voted on the item without the adequate information.
Conflicts of interest, Turner wrote, must be disclosed at the beginning of the meeting, and no disclosures were made by any of the directors.
Brown Act Demand Letter UDC
Union Response Letter to UDC
IID Special Meeting Agenda 12/29/2020
Letter to the Editor:
Desert Review 12/24/2020
Organization of local businesses fights IID's PLA decision
Link to Article: Organization of...
United Desert Communities of Imperial and Riverside Counties (UDC) was founded in the fall of 2019 with the initial goal to educate the public on the impact of the Imperial Irrigation District’s (IID’s) intended action to contract for a 10-year Project Labor Agreement (PLA). That concern was not based on pro-union or anti-union sentiment. It was based on a strong belief that the moneys paid to local companies’ existing employees working on IID projects under the terms of a PLA would leave the two communities with little to no chance of those employees having access to their benefits.
A major educational effort was launched in September 2020. While UDC believes the campaign was effective, the action of some members of the IID Board following the election, including those not re-elected, led the UDC to recognize that three members of the board had decided that they would vote for the PLA, regardless of facts placed before them. The facts had been provided to each one from the initial contemplation of the Board to adopt a long-term PLA. Multiple requests were made to the Board to have a workshop with local companies and to direct IID staff to conduct a Financial Impact Study of the planned action. Those requests were ignored.
UDC has now retained a respected and experienced local attorney that served notice to IID on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 of multiple Brown Act violations. Under the terms of the Brown Act, IID has 30 days from the date of the notice to cure the violations. During the December 15 public IID Board meeting, being aware of the forthcoming letter notification by UDC, IID General Counsel provided a primer course of action to remedy some of the noted violations identified by the UDC’s counsel.
Also identified in the UDC’s counsel notice to IID was an intent to file a Writ, ordering that approval of the PLA on December 1, 2020 by a 3/2 vote be overturned. IID has seven days to respond to the UDC’s notice. IID responded on December 22, 2020 with an advice that IID has no internal appeal or administrative remedies available. Without an internal IID process in place, UDC must seek a resolution through the judicial system.
UDC had hoped to preclude these actions which will simply burden the ratepayer with greater legal cost. We, however, are truly fighting for the working families of Imperial and Riverside County with actions and proof of the true cost of a PLA to both the local employees of working families and to the ratepayers.
Signed,
Alan Huber
Brown Act Demand Letter UDC
Union Response letter to UDC
IID Special Meeting Agenda 12/29/2020
New Imperial Irrigation Board seated amid tensions over labor agreement
Mark Olalde Palm Springs Desert Sun 12/11/2020
Link to Article: New Imperial...
Sparks were flying even before the Imperial Irrigation District's newly elected directors were sworn in, and questions remain as to how the board's two newest faces will fit into the powerful, five-member panel.
Community activist Javier Gonzalez's and 24-year-old JB Hamby's tenure got off to a rocky start on Dec. 4, as both skipped their official swearing-in ceremony because the district barred them from bringing guests due to COVID-19 precautions. Instead they held their own event in front of several dozen supporters, overseen by a superior court judge, on the steps of the Imperial County courthouse, which Hamby said was legally allowed under the California Water Code.
In response, IID changed the time of its swearing in so Hamby and Gonzalez could have guests at one event and still make theirs. Still neither attended.
Board President Norma Sierra Galindo, who in past weeks has vacillated between publicly sparring with the new directors and saying that she looks forward to working collaboratively with them, apologized for the confusion. She said it wasn't her goal to antagonize the incoming directors "who deserve the recognition and laudatory commendations.”
The new, full board is expected to sit together for the first time in a public meeting on Dec. 15. The directors also will select their officers at that meeting in what could become a contentious affair.
An eleventh-hour vote
The IID board's direction has wide-ranging implications for Southern California, as the water district had more than $600 million in operating expenses in fiscal year 2019, is the largest water user on the Colorado River, and delivers electricity to more than 150,000 metered customers.
But on Dec. 1, before the new board could be seated, Galindo pushed forward with an important vote that drew the ire of several board members and both incoming directors. In a 3-2 decision, IID approved a project labor agreement, or PLA, which is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement between the district and labor.
With the PLA vote on the horizon, the story of the campaign had become about money, as unions tried to seat sympathetic directors. Organized labor poured tens of thousands of dollars into the race via direct contributions and independent expenditures that favored long-time Director Bruce Kuhn, Director Erik Ortega and Ryan Childers, Hamby's opponent in the general.
That money ultimately got them little, as all three candidates lost. After unseating Kuhn in the primary, Hamby cruised to victory in the general, securing nearly two-thirds of the votes in Division 2. With slightly north of 52% of the votes, Gonzalez eked out a closer win over Ortega in Division 4.
Now, several board members may look for ways to somehow strip the PLA, which remains in effect for a decade and applies to any construction project worth more than $750,000.
"Ramming through a 10-year-long agreement less than 72 hours before a new board is seated demonstrated a complete disregard to Imperial Valley voters who sent a mandate for change on Election Day," Hamby said in an email to The Desert Sun.
He added, "One of my first responsibilities is to find out what exactly the outgoing board dumped on the lap of the new one — which is exceedingly unclear at this time."
Galindo, though, said it would not be right for IID's board to stop doing its job and taking votes just because new directors were to be seated.
PLAs prioritize union labor, but Gonzalez said he believes most of the contractors in his division aren't unionized. While he said he generally supports organized labor, he wanted more input on the agreement before the vote.
"Bring it back and put it to public hearings," he said.
Gonzalez said the way the vote was handled also could determine whom he supports for board president. “Maybe we’ll pick the kid,” he said with a laugh, alluding to Hamby. “I just don’t like the way I saw they rammed (the PLA) through.”
While opponents said the PLA would raise costs on contractors who wanted to bid on IID projects, its supporters argued that it would benefit local workers.
"I'm for this agreement because for once it raises the bar in the Imperial Valley instead of lowering it," Ortega said, adding that if the agreement were to be adopted, "IID will be acting to promote basic equity for workers and their families for the next decade and, I hope, for generations after that."
The vote was wrapped in controversy, not just because it happened shortly before two new directors were to be seated.
When asked for his vote, Director James Hanks said, "Absolutely no because we brought forth many suggestions, concerns and not one letter, not even the damn typos in that contract have been corrected or changed."
Eric Christen, executive director of anti-PLA advocacy group the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, had been trying to stop IID from signing the PLA, and he alleged that the board didn't have a chance to review all the contracts wrapped up in it. He also argued that Michael Vlaming, who was brought on to negotiate the agreement with IID, had conflicts of interest due to his other work on labor issues.
“I’ve seen a lot in 20 years plus of doing this but that was actually a first,” Christen said of the speed at which the PLA was pushed through.
IID disputed Christen's allegations.
Frank Oswalt, the district's general counsel, said in a statement, "The agreements were collected by the unions and provided to IID by November 25, ahead of the vote."
As to Christen's charge that Vlaming had a conflict of interest, Vlaming said in a statement, "Unequivocally no. This accusation is false." He went on to say that he and his firm had not received any payments from unions.
What's next for IID
Christen said his organization and local contractors are unlikely to give up the fight over the PLA easily. He's also not the only one looking to capitalize on the newly seated directors.
Vincent Battaglia, who founded Renova Energy and is perennially locking horns with IID, gave several thousand dollars during the election to support Hamby and Gonzalez. While they declined to meet with him during the campaign, he still hopes to sway them on his attempts to give board representation to electricity ratepayers in Riverside County.
If the board is to find common ground to begin its new term, agreement is likely to come from a shared desire to fiercely defend the Imperial Valley's water rights from perceived threats from urban areas. It's a typical refrain from the directors, and Hamby especially hammered home the point in the lead-up to the election.
“When you’re elected to this board, you go home worried every evening about this organization,” Hanks said at IID's attempted swearing in. “We’re under constant attack.”
Clarification: This story was updated to clarify the number of IID's electricity customers.
Mark Olalde covers the environment for The Desert Sun. Get in touch at molalde@gannett.com, and follow him on Twitter at @MarkOlalde.
Brown Act Demand Letter UDC
Union Response letter to UDC
IID Special Meeting Agenda
IID Approves Labor Agreement on Split Vote; Some Unhappy with Decision
Calexico Chronicle December 2, 2020 Elizabeth Varin
Link to Article: IID Approves...
Projects bid by the Imperial Irrigation District may soon have some new rules in place. But it was far from a unanimous decision.
The district Board of Directors voted 3-2 in favor of the project labor agreement presented at its meeting Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 1, the same agreement that garnered nearly four hours of debate during a special meeting Nov. 23.
A project labor agreement is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement with one or more labor groups that establishes employment conditions for specific construction projects.
The district’s agreement is a 10-year agreement that covers any construction projects estimated to cost more than $750,000.
President of the Board Norma Sierra Galindo, Vice President Alex Cardenas, and outgoing Director Erik Ortega voted for the agreement, while outgoing Director Bruce Kuhn and Director Jim Hanks voted against it.
Kuhn said he would have been in favor of the agreement if the threshold had been raised.
“I’m still not against the PLA,” he said. “This thing could be made equitable for all with the stroke of a pen, and it could work for the non-union small contractors that have been faithfully taking care of the district for years on the smaller contracts. The bigger contracts, they’ve been union companies and God bless them. The bigger projects, the impact will be negligible.
“With the stroke of a pen, literally, if we raised that threshold from $750,000 to somewhere more like $1.5 to even $2 million, that would allow the non-union contractor who have served the district faithfully for years and years and years to get a little bit of what they’re about to lose,” he added. “I don’t back down from supporting the PLA, and I’m not trying to serve two masters here, but I think it would be a hell of a lot more equitable if that threshold had been put at $1.7, maybe $2 million. That would have taken care of about 90 percent of that small stuff.”
Hanks had other worries about the agreement, such as it being too vague in some areas.
“To me we are being asked to approve an agreement that will create barrels of litigation,” he said. “The language is vague and non-specific, leaving the door open to manipulation and (to) challenge what is in the contract.
“Individual board members should be commended on their concern for quality of life, but not for employees from out of the district and not for union groups. That is not our mission,” Hanks added. “I’ve supported more PLAs than any board member in the history of IID. On a case-by-case basis where ratepayers interest was the driving force because of the site, scope, threats, and timeline demands of a project. And I still would.
“Personally, I have lost confidence in management’s duty of care and it’s ability to lead,” Hanks said. “Count to three and block opportunities to voice dissenting opinions from fellow board members and the public have now replaced policy.”
Other directors disagreed.
Ortega, who was on the committee that negotiated the agreement, said he is in favor of moving forward with the agreement as presented.
“I’m for this agreement because for once it raises the bar in the Imperial Valley instead of lowering it,” he said. “The contractors do not really believe a PLA will raise the cost of projects at the IID. They’re opposed to it because they’re afraid of it, that it will raise their cost, and they should be honest about it.
“We’ve heard a lot about equity this year at the IID, and I’m sure that it will become a continuing theme in the years to come,” he added. “I won’t be on this board after today, but if this agreement is adopted, the IID will be working to promote basic equity for workers and their families for the next decade. And I hope for generations after that.”
Brown Act Demand Letter UDC
Union Response letter to UDC
IID Special Meeting Agenda 12/29/2020