Given that Gleason has repeatedly made statements in those meetings that are misleading, misdirection, or outright lies, you'll excuse me for not taking his comments at state value. Data should be shown.
I'm not saying you have to believe him - I'm pointing out the case they've outlined (from the beginning no less, not in response to some journalist) to lay out their path.
So now we're going to add conspiracy charges to people as well... since they have now convinced the CFO to participate to create a procurement policy, knowing it's violation of decades of law, incorporate it into the budget proposal, strongarm all the disgruntled employees to NOT be whistleblowers, and everything was a master plan to grift less than a million dollar deal to some GOP lackey that Gilzeen alone had a few months overlap on the Ethics committee with?
That's a ton of work for a very little amount of gain.
A policy does not override a statute. From the CFTOD enabling act:
Occam razor here... you think the district staff went out of their way to write a policy (in void of one) and do so knowingly in violation of law they have been bound to for decades? Or is it... the interpretations here may not apply as strongly as some believe?
The "CFO" is not a CFTOD appointee... she's been with the district for a long long time. Your own cite contains enough exceptions to drive a semi through...
" if the district does not use its own resources to undertake any construction work, the board of supervisors must let contracts for the projects of the district, either as a whole or in sections, with public advertising and the receiving of bids, all on such terms and conditions as the board may deem appropriate"
This is only part of a larger deal for one... second.. "all on such terms and conditions as the board may deem appropriate". AKA the 'catch all' for creating exceptions.
Or do you believe the district's head of finance and procurement is a newly unleashed devil just happy to be free to ignore all the rules under the new leaders?