Abercrombie

The Castaic Lake Water Agency (Agency) acquired the Valencia Water Company (Valencia) through its power of eminent domain. Petitioner Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE) sued, claiming, among other things, that the acquisition was void under Government Code section 1090 and the Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA) (§ 81000 et seq.) because one of the Agency’s 10 directors— respondent Keith Abercrombie (Abercrombie) — was Valencia’s general manager at the time the acquisition was being negotiated. The trial court rejected SCOPE’S conflict of interest claims on the pleadings, concluding that the Agency’s enabling legislation (Stats. 1986, ch. 832, § 5, p. 2843, Deering’s Ann. Wat. — Uncod. Acts (2008 ed.) Act 130, § 15.2, subd. (d), p. 202 (Act)) authorized a Valencia employee like Abercrombie to serve on the Agency’s board of directors once his status as an employee was disclosed; this provision, the trial court reasoned, excepted Abercrombie from the conflict of interest statutes — expressly from section 1090 and implicitly from the PRA.

This appeal presents three questions: (1) does the express exception to section 1090 in the Agency’s…