By Don A. Wright
The board of directors of the Consolidated Irrigation District met at its Selma headquarters on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. The CID boardroom is the same as always. They keep the snacks and the coffee well-guarded behind the directors’ table. Lot of old faces and some new ones. The Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency met
before the Irrigation District board, although they are the same directors. I’m glad I got there early as it ended up being pretty full. Like folks standing out in the lobby.
The GSA Meeting
Chairman Ray Moles called the meeting to order at the scheduled 1:00pm time. The minutes were approved as was the consent calendar. Attorney Lauren Layne and General Manager Phil Desatoff said they are keeping an eye on AB 828 that will exempt small communities and certain other land uses or wetlands from Groundwater Sustainability Agency policy. The problem is this bill adds on another twist to SGMA that wasn’t included in the original law. The biggest danger to SGMA is uninformed legislators trying to recreate it in their image. The CKGSA adjourned at 1:10pm. 
The Meeting
The regular CID meeting was called at 1:11pm and Director Tom Chandler asked to pull some items from the consent calendar. If I understood correctly they dealt with budget items. The rest of the items were approved. Moles asked about chemical expense and part
of the expenditures were made in 2023 with the use planned for 2024. That made it look more costly last year and cheaper this year. Director Tony Lewis suggested the entire chemical list needs to be put up to a competitive pricing for the $400,000 spent annually.
Chandler asked why the SGMA expense was so much higher than budgeted. Assistant GM Mike Carbajal said there was a $500,000 emergency construction repair and some of the other expenditures will be reimbursed. Desatoff said there was other money spent on developing recharge basins. He said he could have the SGMA costs itemized.
Chandler asked Layne about common use agreements with cities within CID’s boundaries. She explained the cities and the districts have properties and facilities that can overlap; such as a bike lane that crosses a canal. It’s a mix of easements and agreements that prevent the parties from interfering with each other.
Next the board was asked to approve resolution No. 2024-01 to amend the district employees retirement plan. Layne said she’d reviewed it and it was in agreement with what the district and the unions had agreed to. The board adopted the resolution.
GM Report
Desatoff gave the board a water report. There are three canals running in the district in accordance with the Kings River agreement. He said there are 610,000 a/f in storage at
Pine Flat. He said there is a possibility of a flood release should there be a really big storm but at this time there isn’t any such confirmed storm. The Army Corps of Engineers has a model it follows that includes reservoirs upstream. There will be a Kings River Water Association meeting soon and there will be more information then.
CID has a proactive recharge policy and has been keeping track of land available for recharge basins. Desatoff said the district has been waiting for grant money to arrive before it purchases any more land. There was some discussion about the desired characteristics, i.e. land near canals and other considerations of a real estate and soil type nature. The district also has land for sale that could fund other acquisitions.
Director Paul Sihota asked about the splitting of the parcel and Carbajal said as a public agency CID can do so. Carbajal would know about this. His former job was director of public works for the City of Fresno.
Flood Recharge
Desatoff said there hasn’t been a meeting lately. He’s working with Layne to assemble a recharge program for district landowners. The meeting has been ad hoc and open to the public. A Kings Subbasin wide meeting will be held soon but it isn’t open to the public. Why? It’s managers only, not even attorneys, so under the Brown Act it isn’t subject to a public airing. The ad hoc committee is open to the public but isn’t a venue to reach agreement on intra-GSA unity. One of the big issues is groundwater pumping restrictions. Desatoff said he won’t be agreeing to changes until the board approves and the public notices go out.
Grower Jon Reiter said the concerns of the other GSAs seem to be more focused on the receiving districts’ recovery than the pumping taking place in CID.
Public Hearing on the Budget Â
Right at 2:00pm a public hearing on the CID budget was opened. Desatoff said Water Master Walt Frost is planning on retiring and an Assistant Water Master needs to be hired. The hourly employees rates needs to include some union negotiations. Chandler suggested cutting that portion out of the budget pending negotiations. Layne said the union negotiations can’t be discussed in open session but this gives staff direction and can be amended.
I was curious why CID is holding a public hearing on a budget. They are the only district I attend that does so. Layne said in agreement with the 218 election that passed a couple of years ago CID voluntarily agreed to provide this extra transparency. It’s not a legal requirement.
Last year between the flood water and the sandy soil CID recharged more than 300,000 a/f and increasing that amount is the goal. It is possible CID could not only exceed all SGMA requirements but provide groundwater for its growers to pump above that. The board approved.
Closed Session
The meeting went into closed session for four existing legal cases, one significant exposure, one real property negotiation and one personnel matter. That was that in Selma. Go be good.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2024 by Don A. Wright
CONSOLIDATED IRRIGATION DISTRICT – 2255 Chandler St, Selma, CA 93662 Telephone; 559/896-1660
CID covers 145,000 acres mostly in South Central Fresno County. Surface water supplies: Kings River  CID is its own GSA
General Manager – Phil Desatoff, Assistant GM – Michael Carbajal, Attorney – Doug Jensen, Water Master – Walt Frost, Controller – Gail Hoffman
Board of Directors – President Ray Moles, Tony Lewis, Vice President Tom Chandler, Greg Thonesen, Paul Sihota
