By Joel Hastings
The board of directors of the Madera Irrigation District special meeting was called to order at 2:30 p.m. by President Dave Loquaci. This was a special meeting in lieu of the regularly scheduled session canceled earlier in the month. It followed a 30-minute closed session from which there was no reportable action. Loquaci led the Pledge and with no conflicts of interest, public comment was invited but there was none.
SGMA
Convening as the board of the MID GSA, the group heard Assistant GM Dina Nolan give an update saying that meetings with the other six GSAs in the subbasin continue with a facilitator, focused particularly on reaching agreement on the domestic well mitigation program.
She said other projects are moving along with recharge basin number 11 under construction. Locations for new monitoring wells are also being considered.
Regular Meeting
Resuming as the MID board, GM Tom Greci introduced the two summer interns, college students in ag engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Paul Horta and Artemio Villa spoke about their backgrounds and expressed appreciation for the opportunity to work this summer in the District.
Greci reporting for the Madera-Chowchilla Water & Power Authority said that the vibration detected had caused a shutdown of one of the pumps on June 16 but that it has now been brought back online. The interruption and repair does not require any changes in the budget for the year.
He said the District will have an exhibit at the Madera Fair this year and directors are invited to sign up for a shift. He congratulated Vice President Brian Davis on his reelection to the ACWA board.
He concluded with an update on the water season. He reminded the group that the original projection had been to continue water deliveries through the second week of August. He said with the full supply and some reduction in demand, it appears that the season can extend to August 19. President Loquaci said he was pleased that growers were using all the District’s allocations and that the goal had been to set a price that allowed that… the fundamental purpose of the organization.
Audit Report
At 2:47 by prearrangement, Kip Hudson of Hudson & Company, CPAs in Fresno, presented the audit report for the Districts 401a retirement plan for the year ending December, 2024. His report was dated June 27, and he said there was a clean opinion with no material weaknesses or misstatements and no disagreements with management. Plan assets
amounted to $2.5 million. Contributions from the District and employees amounted to $547,802 and investment income totaled $267,685. Benefits paid to participants amounted to about $80,000 and plan administrative expenses were $25,000. Hudson’s report took only a few minutes and there were no questions for him. The board acted to approve and accept report with a roll call resolution. The complete report is included in the board packet for this meeting.
The District maintains a life insurance program for employees through Sun Life. The company had presented administrative changes and a new web-based management system that required a new plan. The benefits and the District costs remain the same and the board adopted the new plan. Assistant GM Nolan thanked Controller Jennifer Furstenburg and her staff for carefully reviewing the full details to insure that there were no material changes in the plan.
The board acted to approve an agreement with PG&E for their use of water to generate power, an arrangement dating back to 1977. While it has been put in place annually in recent years, GM Greci said that PG&E had recently contacted him saying they want to renegotiate the arrangement. Greci said he would keep the board informed of course but in the meantime approving the current program was appropriate.
The End
In the final item of business, the board adopted a new personnel policy. The District will offer an incentive payment to long term and senior staff who provide advance notice of their intent to retire to leave the company. The goal is to help in transition, recruitment and training of replacements for those in key positions. The payments are $250 for three months notification, $500 for six months and $1000 for one year. Payment will be made as the employee departs on the planned schedule.
While there were no formal reports from board members, the consensus was that the weather has been phenomenal, compared with last year’s brutal heat. The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m. Director Carl Janzen was not present, and the next regular meeting will be August 19.
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Madera Irrigation District – 12152 Road 28 ¼ Madera, CA 93637 559/673-3514
Staff: General Manager -Thomas Greci, Assistant GM – Dina Nolan
Board: Dave Loquaci, president; Brian Davis, vice-president, Brandon Bishel, Tim DaSilva and Carl Janzen
HISTORY: From www.madera-id.org The Madera Irrigation District (MID or District), founded in 1920, encompasses an area of approximately 139,665 acres. MID operates a primarily gravity irrigation distribution system with approximately 300 miles of open flow canal systems as well as 150 miles of large diameter pipelines.
The District has a Central Valley Project (CVP) repayment contract with United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) providing up to 85,000 acre feet (AF) of Class 1 and 186,000 AF of Class 2 water per year from the Friant Division (Millerton Lake). The CVP water is released from Millerton Lake through the Friant Dam, and then conveyed through the Madera Canal for delivery into the District’s service area. The District also entered into a CVP repayment contract with the USBR for the yield from the Hidden Unit (Hensley Lake). Under the Hidden Unit contract, the average annual supply available to the District is approximately 24,000 AF per year.
DWR SGMA # 5-022.06
