A board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) has been hit with an official reprimand after calling an Arab-American colleague a ‘camel jockey.’
The state-established agency is cooperative that provides water for 19 million across six counties, with cooperation from 26 separate cities.
John Morris, a board member representing the city of San Marino, made the remark during a visit to a facility in the California desert, the district discerned – after the subject of the racial barb, Chief of Staff Mohsen Mortada, overheard and reported it.
He was not speaking directly to Mortada when the comment was made. Mortada detailed the incident in a letter, which has not been released.
He did not name the board member at the time, but officials have since confirmed the incident was what led to the reprimand. It came in the form of a censure, which will see Morris’s funding for travel indefinitely cut off following a 38-member vote.
Mortada, an American citizen who emigrated from Syria in 1987, did not file a formal complaint after the incident in question, but was later interviewed by an investigator, Adán Ortega Jr., chair of the MWD board, said.
‘Metropolitan cannot and will not tolerate racist comments from its leaders,’ the district head told the LA Times Thursday of the decision, which will not nix the longtime, elderly board member.
‘While we are not able to directly remove a director from our board, we have taken the measures we can to demonstrate that we absolutely do not tolerate this type of behavior,’ he added.
John Morris, a board member representing the city of San Marino, made the remark during a visit to a facility in the California desert, the district discerned – after the subject of the racial barb, Chief of Staff Mohsen Mortada, overheard and reported it
Mortada, an American citizen who emigrated from Syria in 1987, did not file a formal complaint after the incident in question, but was later interviewed by an investigator, Adán Ortega Jr., chair of the MWD board, said
Morris has been a board member since 1990, and involved with the state’s water industry for more than 60 years.
During a Tuesday meeting called to address the relatively under wraps scandal, the district’s 37 other board members by and large agreed that Morris’s remarks, proven to have been made during their probe, unacceptable.
‘It’s not OK,’ said Gail Goldberg, the board’s vice chair, speaking as Morris sat in his usual seat.
‘We have to think about the integrity of the organization and what our values are,’ she added.
Morris, meanwhile, spoke briefly at points, but never once offered up an apology – something that caused some other members to express disdain.
The vote, meanwhile, was almost unanimous, the agency said it would now be notifying the city of San Marino of the decision.
Only Adry Kassakihain abstained, before declaring he was troubled by Morris’ lack of remorse.
‘I don’t know if Mr. Morris said what he said as a punchline to a joke, or if it was something he said in the passing moment, but the term itself applied to any other minority group… said in even the most innocuous way, would not be tolerated,’ he said.
During a Tuesday meeting called to address the relatively under wraps scandal, the district’s 37 other board members by and large agreed that Morris’s remarks unacceptable
The board member who represents Glendale added how it’s deplorable that people with Middle Eastern backgrounds continue like Mortada to be ‘targeted and picked on’, particularly in a professional setting.
After the vote, he added how ‘stronger actions [were still] essential to demonstrate that we as the Metropolitan leadership unequivocally embody these principles of equity and justice.’
‘We need to address instances like this directly, openly and decisively,’ Kassakhian declared, as he and the rest of the board remain unable to take harsher action legally
‘MWD has done a lot of work to try and address these types of issues, and I think this incident shows how fragile the work is and how much more we can do.’
Ortega went on the echo those concerns – before revealing that he was using his power as the district’s boss to remove Morris as vice chair of one important subcommittee.
He added that he will only appoint him to other committee sparking, when required under the agency’s prewritten rules.
‘Mr. Morris never verbalized an apology, and he was given multiple opportunities,’ Ortega said. ‘We need to recognize that there were individuals here that were denigrated and that an apology is due to them.’
Morris, meanwhile, has longstanding ties to his state’s water industry that go past his 60 years of service, with his family working in the California water industry and some 150 years, going back five generation.
Morris (pictured here several years ago) has longstanding ties to his state’s water industry that go past his 60 years of service, with his family working in the California water industry and some 150 years, going back five generations. He has not been pulled from his position
‘At the time of my birth, my granddad was national president of the American Water Works Association,’ he said in an interview in 2011.
‘My first summer internship was as a laborer with the Pasadena Water Department, which my grandfather founded.’ Both of his sons are also in water/wastewater consulting business as well.
As for future action, The San Marino City Council told the Times it will ‘consider and take the appropriate course of action’ in the coming days.
The city manager’s office added how it ‘strongly condemns the use of racially motivated speech and biases against any individual anywhere at any time.’
