Oroville Dam: Threats, racism, cover-ups inside the bombshell suit against DWR

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Oroville – A lawsuit filed Wednesday by the city of Oroville against the state Department of Water Resources is chock-full of allegations, ranging from acts of racism and sexual harassment to deferred maintenance because of pressure from the State Water Contractors to keep costs down.

The city is seeking reimbursement for incurred expenses as a result of the Oroville Dam spillway crisis, including lost sales tax revenue, overtime for public safety personnel assisting with the evacuation on Feb. 12 and damage to roads.

No dollar amount was included in the filing but a lead attorney representing the city estimated damages would total between $500 million and $1 billion.

The city is being represented by Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy, LLP and Cota Cole and Huber, LLP.

See some highlight accounts in the 792-page lawsuit with exhibits below. The words “lawsuit” and “complaint” are used synonymously.

ALLEGATIONS OF RACISM

• An African-American employee reported that a noose was hung in a meeting room used daily by DWR staff to harass him in 2010 or 2011. It remained there for 2-3 months in plain view of supervisors, until he took it down himself, the worker alleged.

“As but another example of the atmosphere of workplace harassment, the same African-American DWR employee at the dam found a doll hanging in his locker. It is believed that DWR has hired no more than one or two African-Americans at the Oroville Dam over the past 20 years.”

• In another instance, a white employee told an African-American staffer that the job was not “like picking cotton,” the complaint alleges. This was in or around 2010.

“A DWR supervisor, Maury Miller was present and heard the racist comment, but took no action when confronted, stating ‘I heard nothing.’”

The same African-American employee was called by a racial slur, but DWR management took no action to address it, the lawsuit alleges.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS

• One of the few female staffers working at the Oroville Dam was constantly harassed by male supervisors and their peers and asked out on dates by one manager, the lawsuit alleges.

“She was exposed to graphic images, including a CPR mannequin posed in a sexual position at one of her work sites. DWR employees described a woman’s conference attended by a female employee as a ‘Dyke conference,’ and regularly referred to female employees as dykes. When employees spoke up on behalf of the victims of harassment, they were at times physically threatened by other DWR employees outside of the work site.”

INSUFFICIENT MAINTENANCE

•In 2013, Michael Hopkins, then a DWR utility craft worker, observed cracks in the spillway, some as wide as eight feet. The spillway slabs were designed to be several feet in thickness, but in some spots, they were just 3-6 inches thick.

“Hopkins was part of a spillway repair crew in 2013. The crew was instructed to drag a 20-foot chain across the entire length of the concrete spillway, and listen for ‘hollow sounds.’ One member of the crew who was assigned to listen for hollow sounds was legally deaf, and it became the subject of jokes …

“She informed the supervisor in charge of the repair, Gregg Ahlers, ‘this isn’t going to work,’ to which Ahlers responded that she should get back to work. During the 2013 ‘chain-drag test,’ hollow-sounding areas were marked with spray paint.”

According to Hopkins’ observations, some of the 20-by-20 foot slabs sounded completely hollow.

“The crew chipped out rough areas with air hammers and then inserted steel rods into the concrete and filled the holes with ‘Quikrete.’ Supervisor Ahlers instructed the crew to ‘make it look pretty.’”

• Another member of the spillway crew that year and in 2012 stated that repairs also included drilling holes in the spillway concrete and inserting rebar and a Sika concrete repair epoxy, the lawsuit alleges.

“The employee noticed that the Sika epoxy used for the job was expired and alerted his supervisor. The supervisor instructed him to use it anyway. A supervisor had purchased the epoxy from a friend, and knew the expiration date was long past. This was but one example of the daily cover-ups.”

• Department staff noted other problems, including a large crack in the main spillway gate, poor patch jobs and drains clogged with vegetation and debris — all brought to supervisors’ attention but often overlooked, the lawsuit alleges.

“On many occasions, this branch would mark projects or tasks as complete when they had not even been started, and reports were filed indicating that they were done. As a result of these reckless practices, necessary maintenance was never performed. For example, incomplete projects to clean the spillway drains and seal the spillway gates were intentionally marked ‘done’ when they were not. Supervisors knew of this.”

STATE WATER CONTRACTORS’ INFLUENCE

•Maintenance policy was dictated by the State Water Contractors starting with Lester Snow, DWR’s director from 2004 to 2010, the lawsuit alleges, citing the word of “former high-level executives.” The suit says it is “well known” that the contractors lobbied for deferred maintenance, in order to lower their own costs.

“As a result of the undue influence exerted by the State Water Contractors, necessary maintenance at the Oroville Dam has been deferred and/or put off altogether. As one example, State Water Contractors vetoed a project to conduct a seismic evaluation of the Oroville Dam, as suggested by a DWR structural engineer who was concerned about the stability of the dam. Snow also appointed unqualified and inexperienced persons to high-level positions within DWR, based solely on their personal or political connections.”

OTHER CORRUPT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

•The lawsuit also alleges that the department has two sets of accounting books.

“DWR’s ‘official’ accounting system is maintained on an SAP server. However, DWR also maintains a second set of books at a data center located at 1416 9th Street in Sacramento. This second set of books reflects DWR’s actual finances. It is alleged that the books show that DWR often expended funds that had been earmarked for one project on various other projects. This was reported to DWR senior management.”

•Supervisors and other employees have at times stolen state equipment and supplies, including at least one supervisor who regularly stole gasoline from the Oroville field division, the complaint alleges.

“It is reported that another DWR maintenance supervisor, Chuck Saiz, was denied a promotion after it was discovered that he had stolen state property, including asphalt and tools, from Oroville Dam worksites. Saiz has also encouraged a crony system at Oroville Dam, offering overtime work to the employees whom he considers to be close friends. This was in direct violation of DWR’s official overtime policy. The word and the joke among staff was that DWR supervisors were the ‘water mafia.’”

Contact reporter Risa Johnson at 896-7763.

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