Steve Collins of desal notoriety went to San Francisco last week for a sworn deposition with attorneys from California American Water, and the resulting transcript is a bizarre conversation revealing deep tension between just about everyone.
The deposition was taken in the course of a lawsuit filed in April by the Monterey County Water Resources against Marina Coast Water District in San Francisco Superior Court.
The lawsuit hinges on whether Cal Am and the county Water Resources Agency unfairly backed out of their end of the agreements forming the failed desalination project, or the project collapsed due to reasons beyond their control—namely, the criminal charges against Collins, a former Water Resources Agency board member who pleaded no contest to charges including conflict of interest for his role in the desal project.
Attorney Bob Moore of the firm Allen Matkins was representing Cal Am, and questioned Collins at the law firm's offices. It's no secret that Collins has been champing at the bit to tell his version of events, and he tried to again on Aug. 5 at the law office.
The transcript captures no tone, but it sounds like Collins and Moore disdained each other, offering up snide remarks throughout.
Some highlights of the deposition transcript, a copy of which was obtained by the Weekly, follow below:
- Collins keeps a folder of documents he calls "the conspiracy file."
- The feds might be coming. Collins offered up copies of 112 documents to Moore; he declined to offer up one he identified as privileged, "a confidential file entitled 'Federal Bureau of Investigation.'
- "I have been so ordered on Friday by the United States Attorney to not discuss any federal case, any potential indictments, or anything of that matter that could be coming up here in the not-too-distant future," Collins said. "This is all of my personal correspondence with the FBI and criminal investigators of the Internal Revenue Service and I have no intention of giving it to you."
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The court reporter repeatedly scolds Collins for interrupting Moore. Moore keeps scolding Collins for not answering his questions, and instead opining on the failed desal project.
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Collins said Mark Fogelman, an attorney representing Marina Coast Water District, advised him there was no conflict of interest in also working for Marina Coast.
- On Jan. 8, 2010, former Marina Coast general manager Jim Heitzman emailed Collins this message: "RMC is bringing Steve Collins onboard to help with some of the financial aspects and in helping close the deal."
- Moore asks who exactly Collins was repping in his job to "close the deal." He wonders if he was actually working for Marina Coast, under direction of consultant Don Evans, and not the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. Then he wonders if maybe it was RMC in charge.
"Who were you actually—who was directing you and what you were doing; Lyndel Melton or Don Evans?" Moore asks.
"The Monterey County Board of Supervisors," Collins responded.
- Moore asks Collins about his unusual billing practices for RMC—which sound similar to the billing practices he allegedly deployed at Ocean Mist Farms for accounting work, and for which he pleaded no contest to grand theft charges. He apparently created invoices based on time spent working, but fabricated the precise line items to fill up the appropriate number of hours. "Why would you go to the trouble of writing out which you did on April 6th but are not billing for, and leave out every single item of that date you are billing for?" Moore asked.
- Collins tells Moore he is earning a living today mostly by consulting for Nader Agha, who's pitched a rival desalination project to Cal Am's, on fish farming. "Nader Agha is my primary source of billing," Collins says. He also says he's an executive producer for a comedy called Mind Over Mindy, being filmed in Chicago for 2015 release.