In an unprecedented move, the Otay Water District voted Monday to censure Director Hector Gastelum for Tweets in which many say he expressed anti-Muslim sentiment.
The 4-1 vote, with Gastelum being the only one against the censure, does not give the OWD the ability to remove Gastelum from office, but rather serves as a public reprimand for the board member.
However, OWD President Mark Robak does have the authority to remove Gastelum from sitting on any committees.
Directors do not collect a salary, they are paid $100 on a per diem basis for each day of attendance at meetings. Directors cannot exceed a total of 10 meetings in a calendar month. They also are entitled to health and welfare life insurance benefits.
Directors Mitch Thompson, who has publicly called for Gastelum’s resignation in a Star-News opinion editorial, and Tim Smith brought the resolution forward, stating that Gastelum’s anti-Muslim Tweets violated the agency’s ethics policy.
“This is more about values than about water business,” Thompson said. “It’s about a public agency and what it stands for. I just don’t think he is promoting the public welfare by sending anti-Muslim Tweets and Facebook posts.”
The resolution to censure Gastelum states that “the board of directors finds it necessary and prudent to publicly acknowledge that director Gastelum’s public behavior is reprehensible and intolerable.”
The resolution continues to say “…Director Gastelum’s comments to the media, on social media, and at the board meeting on March 1, 2017, have demonstrated that he is not impartial and responsible to the people he represents and he has not conducted himself in a manner above reproach.”
In February, Gastelum posted a series of Tweets in which he called for more countries to be included in President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. The Tweets also refer to Muslims in those banned countries as “subhuman” and “scum.”
In other tweets, he called Muslims rapists and murderers.
More than a dozen speakers spoke at Monday’s OWD meeting, all voicing their displeasure with Gastelum and calling for his resignation.
Speakers like Kilian Colin, 29, a Muslim and Jewish-American, vowed to show up at every OWD board meeting until Gastelum is out of office.
“The censure is the only thing that satisfies us now, but the only thing that will make us not come back here again is when he resigns or he gets recalled so he can resign by force,” Colin said. “I hope he resigns as soon as possible. His political career is over forever.”
Others like Jorge Del Castillo, 21, appreciate the water agency’s censure but said in reality it will not do anything.
“I’m glad they did that but just like everyone else I don’t feel it does enough,” Del Castillo said.
“I think it’s just empty words that kind of tries to put a lid on Hector but there is no way for him to comply, so that is why I am here asking for his removal from office,” he said.
Gastelum,42, repeatedly has said he will not resign.
If Gastelum were to resign, the board of directors then has to decide if they want to replace him with a special election or appointment. Thompson said a special election can get costly so he would prefer appointing someone to fill the open seat.
The Republican won his Otay Water board seat in November, defeating longtime Otay Water board member Jose Lopez with 56 percent of the vote.
Gastelum said his controversial tweets were taken out of context. He said his tweets included links to a story about how Sweden has received more than 100,000 immigrants and only 500 of those are working and it has become the rape capital of the world. He said he was calling on American politicians and legislators to protect America from that “scum.”
Gastelum had issued an apology but many people like Colin did not accept his apology because he felt it wasn’t genuine.
“If you don’t want to accept the apology, I’m sorry, it’s on you,” Gastelum told protestors Monday. “But I offered multiple apologies, I’ve said multiple times that I’m not painting everyone in the same light, I’m not painting everybody with the same brush.”
In a statement, Gastelum said he stands by his Tweets.
“I exercised my constitutionally protected right of free speech when I posted my comment. I was very specific in the type of conduct I was condemning and my outrage was targeted against the perpetrators of sexual assault/rape, throwing homosexuals from roofs, pedophilia and terrorism,” the statement reads. “Further, I extend an apology to anyone who hurt their feelings by misinterpreting the content of my tweet (and hyperlink), I reached out to the Imam numerous occasions to have tea, to no avail.
“There is nothing malicious or disqualifying about my comments and I believe it is time to move on, as I am exclusively focused on serving the good people of Chula Vista and our Otay Water customers and employees.”
Fayaz Nawabi with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the organization would continue to put pressure on Gastelum until he resigns or is removed from his elected position.
Nawabi said the next steps include speaking at next week’s Chula Vista City Council meeting where the council will look into removing Gastelum from any advisory boards that relate to Chula Vista.
Nawabi said CAIR would continue to call for Gastelum’s resignation at OWD board meetings. Lastly, he said, they will launch a recall effort if Gastelum does not resign by June.
