Report 2021-104 Recommendation 20 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 #20 To: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

To better protect those employees required to reside in employee housing from the issues threatening the safety and habitability of this housing, by October 2022 MWD should:

- Improve the detail and consistency of its current procedures for responding to maintenance requests. These enhanced procedures should detail when MWD will handle a request on its own and when it will address a request as part of a larger effort, and they should establish clear and reasonable time frames for each scenario.

- Establish procedures for more reliably tracking the length of time it takes to respond to housing issues and regularly report its performance on these issues to the board, including any measures it has taken to improve this performance.

- Develop a contingency plan for comprehensively addressing its long-term issues with housing—such as installing prefabricated homes or renovating existing units—in case its current plan for replacing employee housing is delayed.

6-Month Agency Response

Metropolitan established the Desert Housing and Recreation Commission, a collaborative effort of the Office of the General Manager, management, employee bargaining unit, and residents to identify high priority issues and immediate enhancements. The General Manager designated a staff person who visits desert sites weekly to help resolve issues. Metropolitan continues to renovate houses and enhance the residential experience while final design for the District Housing and Property Improvement Program is completed.

Metropolitan established procedures to ensure that residential work requests are completed timely. Work requests may be submitted via an electronic form or mobile application. Metropolitan established a priority matrix that defines five priority levels and the estimated completion timelines.

The Board unanimously approved final design of the District Housing and Property Improvement Program (board letter 7-11, dated September 13, 2022) adding $8.5M to an existing contract. Metropolitan's Board is scheduled to consider awarding a construction contract for the new housing and other facilities in September 2023. If the September 2023 construction award is delayed, a contingency plan will be activated.

Metropolitan will continue to refurbish existing houses. Sixteen houses were refurbished during the 12 months ending September 2022. Additional manufactured homes will be used to replace houses that cannot be refurbished. Options and alternatives to accelerate the delivery of new houses will continue to be developed.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

MWD provided written procedures that detail how and with what level of priority it will respond to housing maintenance requests. These procedures also establish time frames for responding to requests and tracking MWD's performance in doing so. MWD also provided its initial report to a committee of its board on the number of total and backlogged requests, which took place in December 2022. Finally, MWD created a contingency plan that it also reported to a committee of its board. Although high-level, that plan specifies the number of alternative housing units MWD would need at each site and indicates that it would be triggered by a delay in the expected timing of a September 2023 construction contract. It is our expectation that MWD and its board will continue to assess the need for the actions outlined in the plan, as well as the specifics contains, as it moves forward with its planned replacement of existing housing.

60-Day Agency Response

To improve the safety and habitability of its district housing, Metropolitan updated its workorder workflow process to include a Communication Plan which describes how and when residents will be updated during the planning, scheduling and completion of work. Residents will be notified if their request is either: a) not approved b) included in a larger, village-wide effort c) exceeds the State of California Public Contracting code threshold and requires formal bidding. The workorder priority matrix will clearly define expected timelines for completion for different workorder scenarios.

Metropolitan's Real Property Management Group conducted resident check-in conversations with all residents to provide updates and seek feedback regarding the Housing and Recreation Management and Housing and Property Improvement Project.

Metropolitan's senior management is conducting onsite Townhall meetings at all villages in June 2022 and meeting with tenants and bargaining units. The purpose of the Townhall meetings is to provide updates and seek feedback from residents regarding housing/recreation management and housing and property improvements. Meetings were held on June 8, 2022 and are scheduled on June 22, 2022.

Informational materials were provided to ensure employees understand how to use the new Resident Portal mobile app to submit service tickets and receive communication updates from Real Property staff.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

MWD provided a draft of its updated procedures for responding to employee maintenance requests, which introduce specific timeframes for completing required work as well as the notification requirements MWD mentions in its response. Full implementation of this recommendation will require MWD to also develop criteria for what requests will be handled as part of larger housing projects and for reporting on its handling of maintenance requests to its board. It will also require MWD to establish a contingency plan for its planned replacement of employee housing units.

All Recommendations in 2021-104

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.