![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/eisenberg-678x381.png\" "\\"eisenberg\\"\/")
\nRebecca Eisenberg, Palo Alto’s representative on the Valley Water board of directors<\/p>\n
\nRebecca Eisenberg, Palo Alto’s representative on the Valley Water board of directors<\/p>\n
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Palo Alto\u2019s representative on the Valley Water board, who was removed from a board meeting on Oct. 13 for refusing to yield the floor and shouting at other board members, has been kicked out of a meeting before, according to a new report.<\/p>\n
Board member Rebecca Eisenberg was removed by security guards during a closed session on Jan. 29, the report said.<\/p>\n
Eisenberg is running for re-election on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Board member Tony Estremera warned Eisenberg multiple times at the meeting to calm down, but she kept \u201cscreaming, threatening people with liability and lawsuits, very angrily shouting, interrupting and going off topic,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Estremera called for security. Before they arrived, Eisenberg accused former District Counsel Carlos Orellana of lying to the board.<\/p>\n
When Orellana defended himself, Eisenberg reportedly said, \u201cWell then, you must be the most incompetent lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bribery claim<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason you ever win in court is because you pay off judges,\u201d Eisenberg said, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Orellana said that everyone at the meeting was stunned.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you accusing me of bribing judges?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou heard what I said,\u201d Eisenberg responded, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Orellana said that he couldn\u2019t possibly catalog every negative interaction he\u2019s had with Eisenberg, but her accusation that he bribed judges was \u201cthe tipping point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orellana\u2019s attorney emailed Eisenberg a cease-and-desist demand on March 11 \u201casking that she refrain from making further defamatory statements about him,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are all true,\u201d Eisenberg replied.<\/p>\n
Eisenberg published a blog on March 14 saying that she has no clue where Orellana got the idea that she accused him of bribing judges.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the novelty of that accusation to me, perhaps that claim is best viewed as an admission,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Valley Water hired attorney Kym McCourt to investigate Orellana\u2019s complaints about Eisenberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five witnesses\u00a0<\/p>\n
McCourt said it\u2019s likely that Eisenberg accused Orellana of bribing judges, given that five witnesses corroborated his account.<\/p>\n
\u201cEisenberg\u2019s accusation of (Orellana) bribing judges is entirely consistent with Eisenberg\u2019s pattern of disrespectful, accusatory, and insulting behavior toward (Orellana) at board meetings,\u201d McCourt wrote in the report.<\/p>\n
Orellana said Eisenberg accused him of committing securities fraud at a meeting on March 24 and of violating the law and his ethical duties at a meeting on April 29.<\/p>\n
After that meeting, Orellana said Eisenberg yelled at him and pointed her finger at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so concerned for my safety that I asked security to accompany me back to my office and then out to my car,\u201d Orellana told McCourt.<\/p>\n
Orellana resigned in June.<\/p>\n
The board reviewed McCourt\u2019s report on Eisenberg at a meeting on Tuesday. Estremera had security guards escort Eisenberg out after she went over her five-minute time limit to read a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re done now \u2014 and out of the building, not in the back to harass people,\u201d Estremera said.<\/p>\n
Tension<\/p>\n
Board member Richard Santos said he felt calm without Eisenberg in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tension is gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eisenberg has filed a federal lawsuit against Valley Water, alleging that she\u2019s been retaliated against for opposing a dam project and exposing gender bias.<\/p>\n
Eisenberg said McCourt\u2019s report was released to harm her re-election bid against Los Altos Councilman Pete Dailey.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rebecca Eisenberg, Palo Alto’s representative on the Valley Water board of directors BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHTDaily Post Staff Writer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-501179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}