It was a chaotic hour-and-a-half of accusations from board members to board members, at last night’s videoconference meeting of the Morongo Valley Community Services District Board of Directors. The situation began when Director Kristina Brook asked the board to vote on whether a situation with Director Matthew Campos, allegedly desiring to becoming the District’s next director of operations, constituted a conflict of interest. Campos called the accusation “ludicrous” and stated that he had no desire to be the next director of operations for the district. With meeting listeners able to control their own microphones, the meeting eventually spiraled out of control. Reporter Andrew Dieleman tells us what happened…
As the discussion of a possible board conflict of interest progressed into an argument, accusations of mistrust, undermining authority, and even blackmail were made among Directors Kristina Brook, Matthew Campos, Johnny Tolbert, and President Gayl Swarat. During the 90 minutes of arguing, Brook gave Campos the ultimatum of either recusing himself of anything to do with the job of director of operations or having the alleged conflict of interest go to a board vote. Campos threatened to resign from the board; however unstoppable interruptions from the public prompted the board in a 3-2 vote to end the meeting early without a single action item being voted on.
Board President Gayl Swarat responded to public interruption during the meeting, reminding listeners that two positions in the Morongo Valley CSD Board will be open during the November election for anyone who wishes to run.
