Riverside water company staff testify for restraining order against potential shareholder

Four employees of Riverside’s Gage Canal Company, which distributes water, testified Aug. 22 that Jason Hunter caused them anxiety and fear during his attempts to join the company’s Board of Directors, and that they needed a workplace restraining order against Hunter.

Hunter is a frequent commenter at Riverside city council meetings, the chairperson of Riverside’s Neighbors Better Together, and a whistleblower in the corruption case of former Riverside Public Utilities General Manager David Wright. He says that the workplace violence restraining order is a poor attempt to discourage him from joining the board and looking into the company’s business practices. Four staff members testified for the restraining order. By next Friday, two Gage Canal board members and two shareholders will have testified in opposition.

The company obtained the temporary workplace restraining order against Hunter on March 27. Riverside Superior Judge Daniel Ottolia will rule on whether to keep the restraining order after hearing the testimony of Hunter’s remaining witnesses on Aug. 29.

Hunter has attempted to attend multiple company meetings, either as the guest of a member of the company's board of directors, or after an existing shareholder initiated a stock transfer.

"In my mind, I was a shareholder, because the discretionary action (of an existing shareholder transferring me their share) has been made," Hunter told me by phone.

Gage Canal General Manager Benjamin Alms testified that there are 14,055 shares of the company, and that the city of Riverside owns 8,000, about 61%. Gage Canal Board Member Carl Pongs, who will testify for Hunter Aug. 29, said outside the courtroom that Riverside sells water from Gage Canal to other cities. 

Alms testified that he was worried Hunter might bring a knife, and that he was threatened by Hunter’s insistence to not leave a shareholder meeting until a law enforcement officer convinced him to leave. 

June Monroe, the Gage Canal attorney, asked Alms why he was afraid of Hunter. 

“He is bigger than me. His emotions,” Alms replied. 

In redirect, Hunter’s attorney, Chad Morgan asked the same question.

“He refused to leave. What’s next?” Alms asked.

“You tell me. What’s next?” Morgan replied.

“I don’t know. He might bring a knife,” Alms said.

Morgan asked why Alms would think Hunter would bring a knife, and if Hunter made any threatening statements. Alms said that Hunter’s refusal to leave until a park ranger got involved was threatening.

“Yes, that is threatening to me,” Alms said.

Shareholder Larry Brock testified that he attempted to transfer his share to Hunter on Jan. 8, 2024, but that his request was denied because the company didn’t want Hunter to try to “straighten out their business practices.”

Brock testified that he wanted Hunter to represent him to set the treatment of minority shareholders. 

“I have a pump system, and they would not ever tell us when the water would be out, and if I had my pump running, we could destroy the pump. They wouldn’t email. They wouldn’t let us know when they were cleaning the canal inside. I’d have a pump running, and it would draw the sludge up into the pump, and I had to clean the pump. The meetings that I went to, those questions were being raised, and there was nothing that ever happened. I was willing to give Jason a share so that he could perhaps get on the board,” Brock said. 

The technical reason Brock’s share transfer failed was because of the Gage Canal Company’s bylaws, which prohibit individual share owners from transferring shares. But multiple people had been allowed to transfer shares in violation of that rule before Brock tried to transfer his share, Brock testified.

Hunter visited the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Jan. 9, 2024, a day after Brock initiated the share transfer. Staff did not recognize Hunter as a shareholder. In response, Hunter told the staff to make a citizen’s arrest if they believed he was trespassing. He agreed to leave talking with an officer who was brought in by staff.

Hunter visited the Gage Canal office with shareholder Richard Moslenko on Jan. 5, 2025. Moslenko will testify Aug. 29. Moslenko entered the office to transfer his share to Hunter. In accordance with the bylaws, he had made a company. The share was never transferred.

Gage Canal bookkeeper Amy Lopez said she did not like that Hunter waited in his car while Moslenko attempted to initiate the share transfer.

“I felt like I was being ambushed,” Lopez testified.

On Jan. 14, Hunter again attempted to attend the annual shareholder meeting. He went to the sign-in table, staffed by Lopez and Administrative Assistant Katie Heggenberger, introduced himself, and attempted to sign in, Lopez and Heggenberger testified.

“I felt like it was extremely aggressive, and it put us on edge…it makes me feel anxiety-ridden,” Lopez said.

“It doesn’t sound right. Who would tell him he was a shareholder?” Heggenberger asked.

“He introduced himself to me,” Heggenberger said. 

“I said he wasn’t a shareholder,” she continued.

“He said, ‘I’m Jason Hunter. It’s nice to meet you,’” Heggenberger said.

“How did that make you feel?” Monroe, the Gage attorney, asked.

“Anxious, and intimidated…He was basically calling me a liar because I’m in charge of (share transfers),” Heggenberger said.

Lopez said that Hunter was putting his hands in and out of his pockets, making her worried he had a weapon. She became worried that she was being followed home. She testified that she later saw Hunter recording a meeting from a window. 

Hunter attempted to attend additional board of directors meetings on Feb. 11 and March 11.

Peter Wohlgemuth, who sits on Gage Canal’s Board of Directors for Riverside, testified for Hunter. He said that the board was not informed of the restraining order petition being filed, and that he did not notice any outrageous or loud behavior from Hunter during the meetings Hunter attempted to attend.