AS HE has maintained since being charged in fall 2011, former county water board director Steve Collins told a judge last week he is not guilty of dozens of felony and misdemeanor charges.

Collins on Jan. 11 pleaded not guilty before Monterey County Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler, who ruled in November 2012 that prosecutors had presented sufficient grounds for him to stand trial on charges he submitted fake invoices to a consulting client and broke state conflict-of-interest laws when he lobbied for an engineering firm to get a contract to run a new regional desal plant even while he served in an official capacity with authority over the $400 million plant.

County prosecutors contend Collins — who declined to comment after his arraignment — committed fraud against Ocean Mist Farms by charging too much and submitting  invoices for meetings he never attended.

He is also charged with receiving $160,000 from RMC Water and Environment — the consulting company that won a $28 million contract to manage the now-defunct regional desalination project — as he was lobbying for the plant to be approved and participating in meetings to decide whether it should be.

Also at the court hearing last week, the judge appointed a public defender to represent Collins, who had previously been represented by Michael Lawrence and Juliet Peck.

During his preliminary hearing in November, Butler said “there is sufficient cause to believe [Collins] is guilty” and ordered him to stand trial.

Collins has long maintained he did nothing wrong and said he never over billed Ocean Mist. He also said numerous county officials, including County Counsel Charles McKee and former county water board general manager Curtis Weeks, knew of his dual roles in the regional desal plant and told him there was no conflict.

Collins, who has no prior criminal record, could spend numerous years in prison if found guilty of the charges.

Another hearing on the matter has been set for Feb. 2 in a Salinas courtroom.