Report 2021-104 Recommendation 19 Responses

Report 2021-104: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California: Its Leadership Has Failed to Promote Transparency or Ensure a Fair and Equitable Workplace (Release Date: April 2022)

Recommendation #19 To: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

To ensure that its ethics office is independent, as required by state law, by October 2022 MWD should revise its administrative code to:

- Prohibit interested parties from participating in the office's investigation process, except when necessary to provide information or otherwise respond to allegations.

- Establish the best practices highlighted in this report for protecting the independence of the ethics office, such as ensuring that the ethics officer has sole authority to interpret MWD's ethics rules and that the ethics office can obtain advice from outside legal counsel.

6-Month Agency Response

The Board of Directors adopted amendments to Metropolitan's Administrative Code that address ethics-related recommendations in the state audit report, (Board Letter 7-8, dated August 16, 2022.) The updated Administrative Code expressly:

-Prohibits Metropolitan directors, officers, and employees from participating in ethics investigations except when necessary to provide information or otherwise respond to allegations.

-Prohibits Metropolitan directors, officers, and employees from interfering in ethics investigations.

-Establishes the Ethics Officer as the sole authority for interpreting Metropolitan's ethics rules.

-Grants the Ethics Officer authority to obtain independent legal counsel.

-Authorizes the Ethics Officer unrestricted access to information without waiver of privileges.

Additionally, the Board of Directors amended the Administrative Code to clarify the role of the Legal Department in contracts administered by the Ethics Office. (Board Letter 7-12, dated October 11, 2022.)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

We verified that MWD made the changes to its administrative code that it describes in its response.

60-Day Agency Response

At Metropolitan's May 2022 Audit and Ethics Committee meeting, Ethics Office staff presented an overview of the State Audit findings and recommendations relating to the Ethics Office and an implementation plan for addressing the audit recommendations.

Since the May 2022 meeting, Ethics staff has been reviewing Metropolitan's Administrative Code and identifying provisions that will require amendments to comport with the audit recommendations. Based on this review, staff is drafting proposed revisions to existing ethics-related provisions in the Administrative Code as well as new provisions to add to the Code.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2021-104

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.