By The Bakersfield Californian
What on earth is a Bakersfield city councilman doing in the middle of a water fight in Oildale? And I mean smack in the middle.
Russell Johnson, who represents Ward 7 waaaaaay to the south of Oildale, has been raking in between $1,500 and $2,000 a month doing “PR” for North of the River Municipal Water District.
That’s one problem but it’s not all.
Johnson, whose company is called Common Sense Consulting, also was one of the key players in a mailer that came out in mid-October that I believe skirts the edge of a public agency trying to influence an election. But we’ll come back to that.
First, $2,000 a month is a lot of scratch for a tiny public agency with only six employees that’s already been dinged for excessive spending to toss around on public relations. Johnson justified his pay saying he helps with NOR’s online newsletter (five so far this year) and had helped coordinate three water awareness outreach events.
Good work if you can get it, I suppose.
Second, and more importantly, Johnson represents the City of Bakersfield and sits on its Water Resources Board. His work for NOR could present a conflict of interest. (It wasn’t long ago that Bakersfield and NOR nearly came to legal blows when NOR was poised to be the middleman in a deal to get the City of Shafter more water.)