LVWD to Appoint Board Member as New GM

The embattled utility and service provider in the Mission Valley that recently fired Jack Alayyan amid an alleged sexual harassment complaint has another controversy on their hands.

According to sources, Lower Valley Water District is set to try to appoint a sitting board member to fill the paid position of General Manager, replacing Alayyan.

This move is controversial because most boards across El Paso have rules restricting board members from becoming employees of their board for a period of time because of cronyism and conflicts of interest.

The Lower Valley Water District does not have term limits and conducts their own elections unlike every other political subdivision in the County that relies on the County of El Paso to conduct their elections. As a result of a lack of term limits, there are board members that have been there since the founding of the entity.

The board meeting set for Thursday at 6:30pm will be held at their main office on the Clint Cut-off.

According to their agenda, they will be appointing board member Gerald Grijalva as the General Manager. That will be a permanent selection, not an interim. There is no indication as to what, if any, employee search was done to fill the vacancy prior to this appointment.

The Board will also act on selecting a board replacement for Mr. Grijalva.