The water district’s governing board plans to explore a
”
revolving door
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policy and other hiring practices after one of its members
quietly secured a lucrative job with the agency.
Gilroy – The water district’s governing board plans to explore a “revolving door” policy and other hiring practices after one of its members quietly secured a lucrative job with the agency.
On Tuesday, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors formally accepted the resignation of Gregory Zlotnick and agreed to explore the district’s hiring practices sometime after Aug. 7, when his replacement is expected to be appointed. Though Zlotnick announced his resignation in late June as representative of areas stretching from Palo Alto to San Jose, his colleagues on the seven-member board only learned last week that he had accepted a $184,000-a-year job as in-house counsel for the district.
The appointment to the district’s roster of 30-plus senior staff was made by chief executive officer Stan Williams. He chose Zlotnick, first elected to the district board of directors in 1996, to fill a specially created position of special counsel to the CEO for strategic planning. In this position, Zlotnick will oversee policy regarding the San Francisco Bay delta, where the district gets about half its water. Williams neither publicized the job nor interviewed other candidates for it, saying Zlotnick was the best man for the position. He could not be reached late Tuesday for comment.
“I have the greatest confidence in Stan that he made the greatest possible choice he could have for the position,” said board member Larry Wilson. “But yeah, we have to take a look at what happened and the aftermath of that to see if he did things the right way.”
In particular, he said the district needs “to take a close look at the revolving door issues.” He acknowledged that many government agencies have policies limiting the ability of employees to cross into the business world and start lobbying their former agencies for contracts or favorable legislation. He added, however, that Zlotnick’s jump from the board to the agency represents a different type of issue.
In addition to the revolving door issue, the board may also review the hiring powers of the district’s CEO.
“While it is true that the unclassified policies allow you to use whatever process you wish to hire unclassified employees, that policy has not and will not insulate you from charges that this decision was politically influenced or otherwise unfair, regardless of the director’s qualifications for the position,” warned Debbie Cauble, an agency attorney, in a June 19 memo to Williams.
Sig Sanchez, a 27-year veteran of the board and a former Gilroy mayor said he had no problems with William’s decision to hire Zlotnick, who has served for a decade as the district’s legislative point man in Sacramento and Washington.
“I don’t disagree with the action he took, but I disagree with the way he did it,” Sanchez said. “In fact, had he been smart, he would have told the board what he was planning and I’m sure that the board would have reacted favorably.”
Sanchez said “there’s no harm in exploring” revolving door and other hiring policies.
Zlotnick, who did not return a request for comment Tuesday, starts his new job Thursday. In addition to his salary, the former director will receive a $450 monthly car allowance.
As a district board member, Zlotnick earned $236 per meeting, with the capacity to earn up to $28,320 annually. He also racked up tens of thousands of dollars in expenses in the course of lobbying on behalf of the district and traveling to conferences across the country. In 2003, those costs amounted to $44,614 – nearly half the expense budget for the seven-member board.
Zlotnick’s new position is financed by funds from vacant positions at the district, rather than new spending in the water district’s recently approved $364 million budget. Zlotnick sat out a portion of budget hearings in June when board members discussed Strategic Initiatives – an $8.2 million pool of funds that includes funding for his position.
Rosemary Kamei, South County’s representative to the agency, was elected vice-chairwoman of the board Tuesday by fellow board members. Kamei, who is on vacation and missed the meeting, could not be reached for comment.
