Following allegations he shared partially nude photos with a former staffer, Valley Water board chair Gary Kremen requested an ethics investigation to determine whether other alleged incidents of illegal sexual harassment occurred with water district staff.
Kremen dropped out of the county assessor’s race Feb. 26 in response to the controversy and will resign his Valley Water board position for 60 days while the investigation is conducted. According to a statement from Kremen obtained Thursday by the Town Crier, the investigation and appointment of vice chair John Valera to the position of acting chair will be discussed at Valley Water’s March 22 board meeting.
According to reporting from San Jose Spotlight, which broke the initial story, Valley Water sources confirmed more than a dozen internal complaints were lodged against Kremen. One complaint obtained by the news outlet read, “Chair Kremen’s bullying treatment of staff at board meetings and in face-to-face interactions has already torpedoed morale across the organization. Make no mistake that the new allegations against him will erode any remaining confidence in his leadership.”
In his statement, Kremen provided further context about his relationship with the former “part-time clerical assistant” who leaked the images to San Jose Spotlight. Kremen said the staffer was asked to select photos of Kremen and his family for “professional use” from his iPhone photo library, which he uploaded to a Dropbox folder. The Dropbox, which contained every photo and video from Kremen’s phone dating back to 2007, included more than 20,000 photos, which he did not review before uploading, Kremen wrote.
Kremen said he and the assistant “parted ways due to a disagreement over a situation in the Middle East. I lost my temper in the argument, which I have apologized for.” In previous statements, Kremen acknowledged a dispute with the assistant over the Israel-Palestine conflict. Kremen said he removed access to the Dropbox folder, “but not before the former assistant had made unauthorized copies of the private photos.”
Kremen accused the former staffer who saved copies of the images and leaked them to the press of “at best a betrayal of trust, and at worst revenge porn.”
“My partner and I are confident that as the truth comes to light, the public’s trust in me will be restored,” he wrote. “In the meantime, I ask for everyone’s patience.”
The Town Crier reached out to Kremen and his partner, Essy Stone, but received no response.
