Alejandro Rojas, then El Rancho’s assistant superintendent of business, gives a presentation in front of the Board of Education on July 23, 2019 in Pico Rivera, CA. Central Basin Municipal Water District’s embattled general manager sidestepped internal controls while evaluating and overseeing a construction management contractto a man accused of paying him $400,000 in bribes, according to a confidential investigative report obtained by the Southern California News Group.
“Dr. Rojas has not seen a copy of the confidential report and so cannot comment on it,” Missakian said. “For now, suffice it to say that he did nothing improper in connection with the Capstone contract. I understand that several members of the board and the staff have already expressed concerns about misstatements in the report and the validity of many of its so-called findings.”the investigation
Investigators determined Capstone’s proposal lacked required information, such as how many employees it had, where its offices were located, and whether it would pay prevailing wages. The district’s rules for the process stated any proposal that did not include “all items of the ‘proposal requirements’ will not be considered,” and, according to CRI’s report, it should have been disqualified as a result.
The $24,950 overpayment was paid to Capstone as a deposit for a roof repair and was never credited in subsequent billings, the investigators stated. Rojas reportedly encouraged employees to delete emails regularly, despite the district’s administrative code requiring retention for a minimum of three years. The report states Rojas told the investigators in an interview that he deleted emails that were not “his” projects and that “emails are only records if you keep them.”
Jaramillo, Capstone’s owner, reportedly used a Del Terra email address in emails that included Rojas on at least two occasions. Two of Capstone’s employees had worked for Del Terra in Bassett, according to the investigation.