Central Basin Municipal Water District board of directors declined to take action to terminate the employment of its general manager during a meeting held July 19.
The agency first took up the issue of whether to terminate the employment of Alex Rojas, during a meeting scheduled July 5. The board tabled the matter until the 19th.
Some of the board members became concerned that a company was hired by the water agency, Capstone Partners Group, that had ties to a man that is under criminal investigation alongside Rojas.
Rojas was charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office in August 2022 and is facing 18 counts , including money laundering, bribery, perjury and embezzlement. His co-defendant, Luis Rojas, runs the Del Terra Group, a Pasadena-based construction management firm with clients throughout the state.
According to the charging documents, it is alleged that, from 2015 to 2017, Luis Rojas’ sister paid more than $400,000 to a consulting firm owned by Alex Rojas while he served as superintendent of Bassett Unified School District. During that time, Alex Rojas signed off on at least $1 million payments to Del Terra for work that allegedly never occurred, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The two men are not related.
Related: Central Basin hired company secretly tied to general manager’s co-defendant in bribery case
Despite the criminal charges against Alex Rojas, and the optics of the hiring of Capstone, enough votes weren’t tallied to terminate his employment with the agency.
“The inaction and outright negligence by the Central Basin Board majority to safeguard the treasury of this public water district is shocking. What public agency in this county would keep a general who has manipulated a bidding process to award a contract to a company secretly funneling money to their co-conspirator facing an 18-count criminal indictment including bribery, embezzlement, perjury, and conflict of interest?,” said board member Leticia Vasquez-Wilson. “Central Basin General Manager Alex Rojas will continue in his normal role. This is equivalent to the fox guarding the hen house.”
“I support a forensic audit and an investigation into the process used to award Capstone its contract, however, how can we expect an honest forensic audit and investigation with Alex Rojas continuing in his role as general manager? It’s a joke! It’s Alice and Wonderland at Central Basin,” said Vasquez-Wilson.
