Metropolitan welcomes two new directors to Board of Directors

Attorney Carl E. Douglas will represent city of Los Angeles, water leader Garry Bryant will represent Foothill Municipal Water District

Two new directors representing Foothill Municipal Water District and the city of Los Angeles were seated today on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Longtime water professional Garry Bryant succeeds Richard Atwater, who represented Foothill on Metropolitan’s 38-member board since April 2014. Attorney Carl E. Douglas follows Heather Repenning, who represented Los Angeles on the board since December 2019.

“Throughout their careers Director Bryant and Director Douglas have shown their unwavering commitment to justice, advancing diversity, and driving positive change in our communities,” said Metropolitan board Chair Adán Ortega, Jr. “I’m confident that their presence on the board will enhance Metropolitan’s leadership in these important areas as we strive to address affordability and equitable supply reliability.”

Bryant has served on Foothill’s Board of Directors since 2011, chairing its engineering and operations committee and serving on the personnel committee. He also served on the Las Flores Water Company Board of Directors for more than two decades and is the current board secretary.

Bryant retired from Metropolitan as a principal project controls specialist in June after 21 years with the district. During his tenure in the Engineering Services group, he played a key role in budgeting and cost reporting for many of the group’s capital investment plan projects and led the project controls team in handling Metropolitan’s operation and maintenance, capital and reimbursable projects. Before joining Metropolitan, Bryant served as the facilities business manager at California State University, Los Angeles.

Bryant earned a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Douglas is the founding partner of the Los Angeles-based, private practice Douglas/Hicks Law, specializing in personal injury, civil rights, and criminal law matters. He has been acknowledged by the Los Angeles/San Francisco Daily Journal, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, and the John M. Langston Bar Association for his courtroom successes.

He previously was the managing attorney at the law offices of Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Douglas also represented plaintiffs in state and federal courts in diverse civil litigation. Prior to joining Cochran’s office, Douglas was a trial attorney at the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Los Angeles and worked at the Federal Communication Commission in Washington, D.C.

Douglas earned a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

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