THE BOSS of Santa Clara County’s largest water supplier is stepping down — and officials will keep paying him for a year without disclosing what they discovered in a misconduct probe against him.
Valley Water CEO Rick Callender is resigning effective March 1 after more than a year-long investigation into misconduct allegations by an employee, which one board director has said involves sexual harassment. The board of directors announced Callender’s resignation at a special meeting Friday, but said nothing about the status of the misconduct probe or what they found. Officials have not disclosed the nature of the employee misconduct complaint.
The board voted 6-1 — with Director Rebecca Eisenberg dissenting — to retain Callender as a “special advisor” to the board, with his current salary and benefits for a year. Callender was making more than $600,000 in total pay and benefits as of 2024, according to Transparent California. Valley Water will also reimburse Callender $65,000 in attorney fees.
Callender will still have access to his Valley Water email address. Any assignments related to his special advisor role will be determined by Board Chair Tony Estremera. Callender is barred from contacting Valley Water staff or accessing the agency’s facilities without prior approval.
The board had nothing to say Friday about the instability surrounding the investigation into Callender and his prolonged absence. Instead, Estremera — reading prewritten remarks from the dais — lavished praise on Callender as the only African American CEO of a major flood protection agency in the U.S.
“This will be the only statement I will be making,” Estremera said at the meeting. “As CEO, Rick Callender led Valley Water through extraordinary operational and fiscal pressures, including the COVID 19 pandemic, inflationary constrants and complex regulatory demands of continuing to deliver measurable results to the community.”
Callender: Worked to ‘lead with integrity’
Callender did not respond to a request for comment. But in a statement circulated by Valley Water, he said was proud of his work at the agency.
“I worked every day to lead with integrity, equity, transparency and a relentless focus on outcomes for the community. I’m proud of the foundation we’ve strengthened, and I leave knowing Valley Water is positioned to keep delivering for the people we serve,” Callender said in the statement.
After the meeting, Valley Water officials said the investigation has concluded, but they’re in the middle of editing the report for confidentiality and privacy.
“While the primary investigative work has reached a point of substantial conclusion, the comprehensive review is transitioning into a final phase of procedural refinement,” spokesperson Matt Keller told San José Spotlight. “All relevant documentation is undergoing a process of final reviews to ensure full alignment with established confidentiality standards and statutory privacy mandates. We anticipate that these records will be available for public accessibility in the immediate foreseeable future, pending the completion of these essential administrative safeguards.”
Critics decried the Friday decision as unusual, secretive and a waste of taxpayer funds.
“I think that the public and the many victims of the CEO are likely to perceive the actions made by my colleagues today as extraordinarily unethical and possibly illegal.”
Valley Water Director Rebecca Eisenberg
“This is an extremely non-standard agreement and extraordinarily biased towards an executive who has been determined, after multiple investigations done by the employer, to have engaged in serious misconduct, both in terms of sexual harassment as well as unethical actions,” Eisenberg told San José Spotlight. “I think that the public and the many victims of the CEO are likely to perceive the actions made by my colleagues today as extraordinarily unethical and possibly illegal.”
The protracted length of the probe — and the cost to taxpayers of keeping Callender on extended paid leave — has been a source of frustration for some of the agency’s 850 employees, who in late 2024 threatened to make the complaints a more public issue until they were addressed.
Salam Baqleh, a spokesperson for the union representing Valley Water workers, said management has not shared the outcome of the investigation with them.
“We are disappointed by that,” Baqleh told San José Spotlight. “Our members, and indeed all of Valley Water’s employees, have the right to be free of harassment and to feel safe in their workplace. Allegations against the highest ranking person in the agency are extremely concerning, and lack of follow-up to those who made the allegations is extremely discouraging and we fear could cause employees who filed the complaints to choose not to come forward in the future. We urge Valley Water to provide more transparency regarding this issue, particularly given that it involves a substantial use of rate payer funds.”
On paid leave for more than a year
In light of the decision, the board of directors on Tuesday will consider a one-year extension of interim CEO Melanie Richardson’s agreement to steer Valley Water through its leadership vacuum.
Callender went on leave in December 2024, four days after the Valley Water Employees Association — the labor union representing most of the agency’s employees — publicly demanded an unnamed executive be placed on administrative leave over an employee’s misconduct complaint. The union cited fears of retaliation against the employee due to the unnamed leader’s stature and power within Valley Water. Union representatives threatened to keep speaking publicly about the misconduct complaint until the executive stepped aside.
In November, Director Richard Santos said portions of the investigation were ongoing, but he and other directors had started to see the findings. At the time, union representatives voiced outrage at how long the probe had taken while Callender continued to be paid.
Callender was originally supposed to return to work between late March and early April last year. But the board voted last March to extend Callender’s paid leave indefinitely.
Outside of Valley Water, Callender serves as president of the NAACP of California-Hawaii State Conferences. Following reports of Callender’s troubles at Valley Water, a colleague who worked under Callender at the statewide NAACP filed a March 20 lawsuit against him over alleged emotional abuse. The lawsuit claims Callender discreetly pushed the NAACP to ask for a public money sponsorship from Valley Water while he was in charge of both organizations.
Callender became the first Black man to lead the agency in May 2020. Three women directors voted against his appointment at the time, citing allegations of sexual harassment he faced in 2008.
Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.