Valley Water CEO Rick Callender sexually harassed employees, investigation finds

Rick Callender, the CEO of a major water utility in Silicon Valley, sexually harassed two female employees for years, an investigative report released Tuesday concluded, including sending inappropriate photos, making comments about his sexual or romantic activities, and pressuring them with after-hours jobs, including coming to his house to water his plants and going to shark games with him.

Callender, who has led the Santa Clara Valley Water District since 2020 and serves as president of the California-Hawaii NAACP State Conference, announced Friday that he will leave his $520,000-a-year job on March 1. He has been on paid administrative leave since December 2024, when the allegations first surfaced.

Under the severance agreement approved by a 6-1 vote Friday by the county’s elected board, he will continue to lead the community for another year with the same salary and benefits as an adviser to board chairman Tony Estremera.

The county board, following a closed-session meeting Tuesday, released a 30-page summary of the 10-month-long investigation completed last September by the Cerritos-based law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo.

The company interviewed a number of witnesses, Callender and three women who filed complaints against him saying that he did not behave well.

“The caller has engaged in serious or widespread misconduct that violates the District’s sexual harassment law,” the report concluded.

Callender, 55, sent the district a written response to the report on Dec. 16. The board reissued it Tuesday. In it, his attorney, Lori Costanzo of San Jose, said he denies all the allegations, called the investigation flawed, and threatened to sue the county, the state agency that provides drinking water and flood control to the 2 million residents of Santa Clara County.

“Many of the allegations are based on overt racial stereotypes and stereotypical images of African American men,” Costanzo wrote. “Mr. Callender’s actions at all times were consistent with applicable laws, Valley Water policies, and ethical standards.”

The foreign law firm said it is not cooperating.

“Callender frequently gave evasive, contradictory and sarcastic responses,” the investigative report noted. “Combined with the explanations of certain events that do not fit a rational explanation and the refusal to admit any impropriety of his behavior, we have found a suspect of honesty.”

The union that represents most of the 880 employees of the center fired the board on Tuesday.

“This is a deal of love,” said Salam Baqleh, vice president of the Valley Water Employees Association. “Instead of protecting our members, the board has deliberately decided to hire Rick Callender for another year at the top position at an incredible salary. Our union is deeply saddened by this action.”

Estremera, the chairman of the board, did not say anything about this issue at the meeting of the institution on Tuesday.

In an interview Friday, he said the settlement agreement with Callender was designed to save the county and its ratepayers money in the long run.

“You can allow everybody to sue everybody instead of providing services to the public,” Estremera said. “We have to balance that. Do we want to spend the next five years in litigation as part of these separate conflicts? We’ve been trying to find a balance.”

Three women filed complaints, starting in October, 2024. Their names and the names of witnesses were revealed in the investigative report released on Tuesday.

The former, who worked closely with Callender, accused him of sexual harassment, abusive behavior and creating a hostile work environment, among other things. He said personally, in texts and Facebook Messenger messages, he made inappropriate comments about the sexual or romantic activities of a woman and other district employees; about the appearance of co-workers; about his sexual and romantic actions; about making sexually suggestive comments to him, despite the fact that he knew she was already in a long-term relationship.

In one instance she sent him a photo of her bare thigh, focusing on the crotch. In April 2020, he said they should get married because he didn’t contact her. He also sent her pictures of other women he was courting or dating, the report found. At one point she asked if she had ever “been” with an African American man and talked about her personal life and abuse.

On July 25, 2023, Callender asked a woman, who was looking after him, to water his tomato plants at his home while he was on vacation. When she agreed, he hugged her, making her uncomfortable. After he returned from vacation, the report found, he went to cancel the electronic key app to enter his house, but Callender said he would continue to enter his house because “you don’t know.”

The investigators said that although the woman waited for a long time to report what happened and sometimes appeared to be joking about it, most of these allegations are believed because she is worried about losing her job.

The second woman who filed the claim did not work directly for Callender. However from Spring 2023 and November 2024, he repeatedly pressured her to attend San Jose Sharks games, even though she said she was not interested, and involved inappropriate comments and texts.

At one point, at 10:12 p.m., he sent her a message that said, “Have you been beaten?”

In another incident, on July 21, 2023, he texted her at 8pm asking what she was doing that night. When he said he didn’t plan, he replied: “I’m looking forward to finally getting (this woman’s) happy hour invite.”

In one incident Callender sent her a picture of an expensive bottle of whiskey from Costco with the message, “You want a bottle of this…”

The third woman’s complaint said she filed a sexual harassment claim years ago against Callender but improperly added herself to the review board for her promotion. He didn’t get the job. His claims that he did it in retaliation “may not be true,” investigators concluded, calling it a “clear conflict of interest.”

Another investigation conducted last year that was also released Tuesday found that Callender used county employees to work on NAACP-related projects, and used county facilities to carry out NAACP activities.

Also Tuesday, the county board named Melanie Richardson, interim CEO, to serve another year, at a salary of $511,000 while it searches for a new CEO.