The San Jose Spotlight reports an anonymous whistleblower calling himself "John Public" commented at a Valley Water meeting on June 28 and released a video on YouTube, which is no longer available, claiming the district's vaccination policy is discriminatory. Valley Water requires all workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption.
As of July, nearly 99 percent of Valley Water's 851 employees are vaccinated, spokesperson Matt Keller told San Jose Spotlight. CEO Rick Callender said in a statement last week that with COVID infections still high, the public health emergency necessitates upholding the vaccination policy. As of Thursday, the seven-day rolling average of new reported infections in the county is 939, down from last month's average of about 11-hundred on June 28.
Calendar told the Spotlight that while he understood some employees disagreed with the vaccination policy, "it is necessary during this time to follow the science and our public health leaders, not just for us, but for the people we serve."
The whistleblower wrote a letter arguing that the district had forced many to leave their jobs and was coercing those who remained.
Valley Water has decided to pursue a 100-percent employee vaccination rate, after the county suggested businesses and government agencies implement mandatory vaccination requirements. Last fall, the water district required unvaccinated staff to test weekly.
