The board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the agency that supplies water and flood protection to about 2 million people across the county, voted 6-0 on Tuesday to accept an outside investigator's report on director Rebecca Eisenberg and scheduled an Oct. 27 meeting to consider extending her censure and other limits on her conduct.
The vote came after security escorted Eisenberg out of the meeting, the second time since July she has been removed from a district board session, the Mercury News reported. Eisenberg, a Palo Alto attorney seeking a second four-year term on Nov. 3, kept speaking past the five minutes each director is allotted, saying her colleagues had a vendetta against her.
Chair Tony Estremera told her to leave and asked whether police were needed.
The report and the lawsuit
The investigation, commissioned by the board in April and carried out by attorney Kym McCourt, concluded that Eisenberg had shown "a pattern of disrespectful, accusatory and insulting behavior" toward former district counsel Carlos Orellana, according to the Mercury News. Eisenberg declined to be interviewed for it. A 2024 investigation had already led the board to censure her and strip her committee assignments.
A day earlier, Eisenberg said she had filed a federal lawsuit against the district, former CEO Rick Callender and Orellana, alleging whistleblower retaliation, defamation and emotional distress. She has said she was targeted for opposing the now-canceled Pacheco Pass reservoir and the district's settlement with Callender, who resigned in March after an investigation found he had sexually harassed two employees.
At Tuesday's meeting she called the findings "make-believe accusations" and said the dispute "will be decided in federal court." She has said she has spent $300,000 of her own money on legal costs fighting the district.