Central Basin Municipal Water District is a public water wholesaler with few of its own employees. It serves nearly 2 million people from 24 cities and unincorporated areas in southeast Los Angeles County, with its boundaries stretching from La Habra Heights in the east to Carson in the west and from Signal Hill in the south to Montebello in north. The board is made up of seven members, four of whom are elected and three of whom are appointed by the agency’s customers.
At the time, Rojas had only been on the job for a few months and had fired most of Central Basin’s employees as part of restructuring. He leaned on his remaining employees’ expertise to vet the qualifications of the teams in the proposals, he said. Vasquez-Wilson, who once pushed for Rojas’ hiring, alleges Rojas and his supporters on the board have turned Central Basin into a “criminal enterprise.”
Viramontes managed the engineers and other subcontractors that were sent out to cover the various jobs requested by Central Basin, according to Jaramillo. The three-count criminal complaint in that case alleges contributions were made under the names of Jaramillo and Del Terra employee Jerry Quemada. During that investigation, the District Attorney’s Office stumbled on the alleged payments made to Alex Rojas, which he failed to report on his financial disclosures.Checks obtained through the court case showed Capstone was paid at least $790,000.