Crazy Things I have to Tell Valley Water
Most of you know that I was asked to run to replace a corrupt incumbent on the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board the November before last. In an outcome that surpised me as much as it did anyone, I beat that 2-term incumbent by winning 55% of the vote at the polls. I won virtually every precinct, even though he outspent me by … unquantifiable amounts.
I knew by its reputation and by the multiple Santa Clara County Grand Jury Reports that Valley Water was a profoundly unethical government agency. It is called, with no sarcasm, the Golden Spigot. That said, I did not and could not have imagined the extreme levels of egregious misconduct happening at this Agency, mostly by the CEO, but also by most of my Board Colleagues.
In a series of posts, I will start to show you some of the things I have uncovered. Ultimately you will see how I have all necessary evidence to prove that this Agency intentionally lied on their official applications for State Prop 1 funding as well as on its application for Federal EPA WIFIA loans. They were awarded half a billion dollars in State funding (and burned through more than $24M of it with nothing to show for it) and so far have been awarded $93 million in federal funding (that they currently disclosed). All of this money was obtained under false pretenses.
I will get to that. But first, I’ll start small.
Today I post the email I was required to send the Clerk, CEO, and several of my colleagues when I finally discovered why I have not been receiving email from constituents since I was elected: Valley Water has been misdirecting my email to the former Board Chair.
Here is the email:
From: Rebecca Eisenberg
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2024 3:32 PM
To: Michele King <MKing@valleywater.org>; John Varela <jvarela@valleywater.org>
Cc: Rick Callender <rcallender@valleywater.org>; Nai Hsueh <NHsueh@valleywater.org>; Barbara Keegan <BKeegan@valleywater.org>
Subject: Please stop misdirecting my email to John Varela through incorrect links on the website
All:
Over the course of the past year, I have repeatedly commented to the Clerk and the Chair that I am not receiving my email. I have told then, and the rest of you, that constituents constantly tell me that I do not respond to their emails. Each time I have told them that I do not receive their email, even when they send to me and not to board@valleywater.org — which most know by now is not a way to reach me, despite what the website says.
Thanks to a friend and constituent, I finally understand why I have not been receiving my emails. You have been misdirecting my emails to John Varela on my official bio website page, and also on the primary Board page.
At this URL:
https://www.valleywater.org/how-we-operate/board-directors/rebecca-eisenberg-district-7
Scroll down to see where my email address is listed, and click on the reisenberg@valleywater.org link at the end of the sentence: “Director Rebecca Eisenberg may also be contacted by email at: reisenberg@valleywater.org.” Clicking on that link actually sends an email to John Varela. See the URL to which it is linked: https://outlook.office365.com/mail/deeplink/compose?mailtouri=mailto%3Ajvarela%40valleywater.org
That same misdirect is also found on the primary Board web page:
Click on my email address towards the bottom of the page, and it directs to John Varela’s email address: https://outlook.office365.com/mail/deeplink/compose?mailtouri=mailto%3Ajvarela%40valleywater.org
This misdirect exists on all platforms and has been repeated on MacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.
I expect, today, the following:
- Valley Water immediately fix the email links on the Valley Water page.
- John Varela immediately forward to me all emails he received that were directed towards me. These may date back to the time I was sworn in. He had no right to these and should have informed me months ago.
This is an easy fix for anyone with access to the website, which I believe Clerk Michele King has. As an exempt employee, she is not owed overtime for fixing a Valley Water mistake over the weekend — especially one that has been allowed to stand, despite my months of asking why I don’t receive my email, for so long.
I look forward to this being fixed by end of day so that my email no longer will be intercepted without authorization to do so. While my email is public per the Brown Act, you are NOT allowed to deprive an elected official of the ability to receive emails directed to her.
For that reason, I again demand to see the emails sent to Board@valleywater.org. It is corrupt to prevent me from seeing emails sent to me at the time they are received by Valley Water. Additionally, you are lying to web visitors by telling them that emailing board@valleywater.org will reach the Directors. You do not specify that the emails first will be reviewed and at the CEO’s discretion, deleted, and you also do not specify that the emails will be withheld from the Directors for up to 10 days. The well-accepted definition of emailing someone clearly states that emailing a recipient means that the recipient will receive the email immediately, and not after it has been intercepted. Although other Directors are welcome not to be interested in the email sent to all of us, I have told you for more than a year that I take constituent email extremely seriously. And now that I know that email directed to me has been mis-directed to John Varela instead, at this point you have no ability to claim (as you did before) that I have been receiving my emails.
I don’t care who caused the problem, so please don’t do another $600,000 investigation over it (or any “investigation” about it). Instead, please promptly fix your bad choices and mistakes.
Rebecca Eisenberg
Rebecca Eisenberg, Esq.
Director, District 7
Santa Clara Valley Water District
Addendum №1:
Response from the Clerk:
From: Michele King <MKing@valleywater.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2024 4:00 PM
To: Rebecca Eisenberg <Reisenberg@valleywater.org>; John Varela <jvarela@valleywater.org>
Cc: Rick Callender <rcallender@valleywater.org>; Nai Hsueh <NHsueh@valleywater.org>; Barbara Keegan <BKeegan@valleywater.org>
Subject: RE: Please stop misdirecting my email to John Varela through incorrect links on the website
I believe this unintentional error has been corrected.
MICHELE L. KING, CMC
CLERK OF THE BOARD
Office of the Clerk of the Board
Santa Clara Valley Water District
Addendum №2
This response from the CEO:
— — — — Original message — — — —
From: Rick Callender <rcallender@valleywater.org>
Date: 2/10/24 11:52 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: Rebecca Eisenberg <Reisenberg@valleywater.org>, Michele King <MKing@valleywater.org>, John Varela <jvarela@valleywater.org>
Cc: Candice Kwok-Smith <ckwok-smith@valleywater.org>, Nai Hsueh <NHsueh@valleywater.org>, cyu@plylaw.com, Barbara Keegan <BKeegan@valleywater.org>, Cecil Lawson <Clawson@valleywater.org>, Tina Yoke <TYoke@valleywater.org>, Carlos Orellana <COrellana@valleywater.org>
Subject: RE: Please stop misdirecting my email to John Varela through incorrect links on the website
Director Eisenberg.
Here are ITs findings. See below
R
The email link for your district “Rebecca Eisenberg, Director District 7 reisenberg@valleywater.org” is an email link that translates to: Reisenberg@valleywater.org There is no redirection from valleywater.org web pages. The email linked to your email address is: Reisenberg@valleywater.org
The email address is the same for the main board page and Director Eisenberg’s specific page: Reisenberg@valleywater.org
The HTML markup is as follows:
<li>Rebecca Eisenberg, Director District 7 <a href=”/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#abf9cec2d8cec5c9ced9ccebddcac7c7ced2dccadfced985c4d9cc”><span class=”__cf_email__” data-cfemail=”83f1e6eaf0e6ede1e6f1e4c3f5e2efefe6faf4e2f7e6f1adecf1e4">[email protected]</span></a></li>
There is no redirection from valleywater.org and the html listed above will work consistently regardless of the platforms mentioned in Directoer Eisenberg’s email.
In other words, he denied that there ever was a misdirection, even though the Clerk admitted there was misdirection and that the misdirection had been corrected. After I told him that the Clerk admitted there was an error and that the error was corrected, the CEO then said this:
From: Rick Callender <rcallender@valleywater.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2024 7:48 AM
To: Rebecca Eisenberg <Reisenberg@valleywater.org>; Michele King <MKing@valleywater.org>; John Varela <jvarela@valleywater.org>
Cc: Candice Kwok-Smith <ckwok-smith@valleywater.org>; Nai Hsueh <NHsueh@valleywater.org>; cyu@plylaw.com <cyu@plylaw.com>; Barbara Keegan <BKeegan@valleywater.org>; Cecil Lawson <Clawson@valleywater.org>; Tina Yoke <TYoke@valleywater.org>; Carlos Orellana <COrellana@valleywater.org>
Subject: RE: Please stop misdirecting my email to John Varela through incorrect links on the website
I stand by the IT analysis and my personal experience when it was evaluated. Have a good day.
R
This man, who controls a $10 billion agency, can never admit a mistake, even a small mistake that is easy to correct. What is the pathology for such a personality defect?
