Report 2021-104 Recommendation 11 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 #11 To: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
To help ensure equity and consistency in its disciplinary process, by October 2022 MWD should implement a written, formal process that outlines the steps that it must follow and the factors it must consider when deciding whether and how to issue discipline. MWD should also develop a recordkeeping policy that documents the disciplinary process so that it can demonstrate that its process is thorough and consistent.
6-Month Agency Response
In order to ensure equity and consistency in its disciplinary process, Metropolitan implemented disciplinary procedures. Employees have been notified about the disciplinary process and their rights under that process.
The Employee Relations unit is also implementing a new case management system that tracks all cases including the level of discipline.
- Completion Date: October 2022
- Response Date: October 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented
MWD provided newly adopted procedures that document a formal approach to conducting and determining discipline, including the key step of comparing similar cases in order to ensure equity in the discipline issued. The procedures also require MWD staff to document the rationale for the discipline it administers or for deciding not to issue discipline. Finally, the procedures include a recordkeeping policy. If followed, these processes will help address the inconsistencies and apparent threats to fairness we identified during our audit.
60-Day Agency Response
In order to ensure equity and consistency in its disciplinary process, Metropolitan has established an internal process called "EEO Roundtable," which requires Employee Relations and EEO staff to meet with interested parties to determine the appropriate level of discipline with specific details documented for record keeping purposes.
The Employee Relations unit is also implementing iSight, a new case management vendor, that tracks all cases including the specifics for level of discipline. In the meantime, this information will be tracked in paper form and stored in the disciplinary file.
- Estimated Completion Date: 9/30/2022
- Response Date: June 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
MWD did not provide documentation substantiating the steps it refers to in its response beyond the timeline referenced in our evaluation of Recommendation #10. We will reevaluate the status of this recommendation in October 2022 to assess what formal steps MWD has taken.
All Recommendations in 2021-104
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.