$500K exit approved for Bay Area CEO days before past surfaces

Santa Clara County’s primary water agency, Valley Water, announced that longtime CEO Rick Callender has resigned. The departure was revealed before the findings of an investigation were released, corroborating multiple allegations that he violated district workplace and ethics policies, including those involving sexual harassment. 

Valley Water manages an integrated water system serving about 2 million Santa Clara County residents in the heart of Silicon Valley. Days before his resignation, the agency’s board voted 6-1 to retain Callender as a special adviser for one year, allowing him to keep his $512,886 salary. 

In a Feb. 20 release, Callender, who joined the agency in 1995 and became its first African American CEO in May 2020, framed his departure as a retirement. “With deep gratitude and respect, as Black History Month draws to a close, I write to formally announce my retirement from Valley Water, effective March 1, 2026,” he wrote in a Feb. 14 letter to the board.

In a statement, board chair Tony Estremera lauded Callender for leading the agency for years.

“His tenure is defined by integrity, transparency, and mission-driven leadership focused on safe, reliable water and responsible stewardship of our resources,” Estremera wrote in the statement released on Feb. 20. “At no time was Mr. Callender disciplined or forced to resign or retire due to any reported investigations.”

District 7 Director Rebecca Eisenberg, the lone dissenting vote, told SFGATE that, since she was not a part of the separation agreement that allegedly included a provision restricting board members from publicly disparaging Callender, she was willing to speak out.

“They agreed they would not say anything that would cast him in a negative light,” Eisenberg said. “I will not give up my integrity.” Board members Richard Santos and Shiloh Ballard referred SFGATE to Valley Water’s Feb. 20 statement, while multiple emailed requests for comment sent to the remaining Valley Water board chair and other board members were not returned before the time of publication. 

Eisenberg argued that the board’s vote violated the district’s own employment contract provisions and was an “abdication of ethics,” noting that it was a disservice to residents and ratepayers to continue to pay Callender post-resignation. 

“His contract clearly states that if he is found to have engaged in immoral or unethical conduct, he can be terminated for cause,” Eisenberg said. “For cause is only in extreme situations. This is an extreme situation.”

The findings are detailed in two investigative reports prepared by the law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, and released on Feb. 25 by Valley Water. The reports stem from complaints filed in late 2024 by three district employees. 

The legal team reviewed text messages, social media exchanges, photographs and other records before concluding that Callender engaged in conduct that violated both the agency’s anti-discrimination, harassment and retaliation policy and its ethics and business conduct policy.

The workplace misconduct report details allegations that Callender sent late-night texts to subordinates, including one message reading, “Showered yet? Just playing.” In another message, he reportedly wrote, “I’ll believe it when I smell it.” 

Other allegations made in the misconduct investigation included repeated comments on an employee’s appearance and personal life. Investigators found that Callender told her a dress “fit nicely,” suggested multiple times that they should get married and asked her whether she was dressing up to impress someone “on the side” or make her partner jealous. He’d asked if she had ever “been with” an African American man. 

The report also found that he told the same employee that there was a rumor that they were having an affair and “helped spread this rumor by disclosing it to other personnel.” He also had sent this employee inappropriate photos, including one centered on his clothed lap and another photo of a woman in a bikini, the report said.

Investigators wrote that even if some comments were made “in jest,” threats to terminate the employee were “malicious.” They ultimately concluded that Callender had engaged in “severe or pervasive conduct” that violated the district’s “prohibition on sexual harassment” and created a hostile work environment.

Meanwhile, in a separate ethics investigation, the same legal team examined claims that Callender directed staff to use district time and funds for NAACP-related matters, where he is the president of the NAACP’s California-Hawaii chapter. Investigators allege that he deleted Meta Messenger conversations in a way that raised records-retention concerns. Under the ethics policy, employees’ actions “must always be made in the public’s interest and not for personal gain” and the policy prohibits using district funds or staff time “for non-Valley Water purposes.” The investigation did not find clear evidence that Callender violated the district ethics policy “as it relates to the NAACP.”

Callender’s tenure within the civil rights organization has also been the subject of ongoing litigation. Two lawsuits filed in March and June last year accuse Callender of creating a “hostile work environment” and exhibiting a “sustained pattern of discriminatory and retaliatory conduct toward Black female executive committee members, officers, and staff.” 

Both lawsuits are still pending. 

Callender told SFGATE that the probe was “not fair,” alleging that key witnesses were not interviewed and that evidence was “mischaracterized.” In a separate statement to SFGATE, the NAACP’s Silicon Valley and San Jose chapter refuted the allegations of harassment and ethical misconduct, arguing the investigation was tainted by “bias.”  

The most recent investigation is not the first time Callender’s conduct has been under review at the Valley Water board. Around five years ago, three women on the board voted against Callender’s appointment, according to the San José Spotlight. At the time, they cited sexual harassment allegations dating back to 2008. A female Valley Water employee sued the agency in 2009 and Callender individually, alleging that Callender had made “unwanted sexual advances” and created a hostile work environment. 

The lawsuit, reviewed by SFGATE, also alleged quid pro quo harassment, saying that the employee feared her career advancement depended on her “willingness to tolerate or accept his unwelcome sexual harassment.” After she reported the conduct, she alleged retaliation and said his conduct caused “severe emotional distress.” 

The lawsuit was later dropped, according to the San José Spotlight. According to 2012 files obtained by SFGATE, Callender later sought to have investigative materials removed from his personnel file. 

In an emailed statement, Callender said that no such documents existed. “There are no complaints of sexual assault dating back to 2008, nor have I had any such claims leveled against me.”

Eisenberg said she had repeatedly requested access to the investigative report and was told it didn’t exist, before she eventually obtained the complaint. She said that an outside investigator at the time had recommended Callender’s termination.

“The investigator confirmed her allegations,” Eisenberg said. “Instead of being fired, he was actually promoted.”

Salam Baqleh, a union representative at Valley Water, told SFGATE that the findings reflect long-standing concerns about leadership under Callender. “I would describe it as a culture of fear and intimidation,” Baqleh said.

Baqleh said union leadership urged the board in November and December to place Callender on leave after complaints surfaced in late 2024 but were “ignored” until additional allegations emerged. 

During a virtual town hall held this week, Baqleh said workers were “horrified, disgusted, angered” by the board’s decision to retain Callender as a paid adviser and that he was given a “horrible sweetheart deal.” With the chat function disabled, employees responded with emojis — including chickens, tomatoes and circus tents — as board members informed them that Callender was getting a sizeable exit package, despite the investigation’s findings. Baqleh noted it was contradictory to the company’s “zero tolerance for harassment policy.”

“Tell us what zero tolerance for harassment actually means,” she said. “Because to us right now, it means you get an extended contract at $500,000 or $600,000.”

Employees are now calling on the board to reconsider Callender’s advisory agreement and bar Callender from returning to district properties. “I would love to see them rescind this deal,” Baqleh said. 

“They should absolutely not allow our ex-CEO to step foot onto our properties,” she said, adding that workers do not want him “intimidating victims whose allegations were found to be true.”

Employee surveys conducted in recent years have shown recurring concerns about trust in leadership and workplace culture, according to Baqleh. 

Eisenberg noted that the agency’s response to misconduct complaints has followed “pretty much the same song” over the years.

“He gets complained against, the investigation confirms, and then he claims racism,” Eisenberg said, rejecting Callender’s long-standing assertion that complaints against him were racially motivated. “Sexual harassment is not about sex. It’s about abuse of power.”