By Don A. Wright
The board of directors of the Consolidated Irrigation District met at its Selma headquarters on January 8, 2025. I need to take a minute up front during the GSA meeting to rectify an omission on my part from last month’s report. Attorney Lauren Layne graciously brought homemade fudge to the meeting and shared with everyone. Thank you very much Lauren. Also, CID does provide snacks and they are keeping it sensible. There were almonds, pistachios and raisin as well as Cheetos. I don’t
mind when I go to a meeting and there are no snacks or meals served. But if you are going to serve snacks you need to include more than just peanuts and such items not grown in California (although I’m not sure where Cheetos are grown.) Do like Consolidated and feature products grown in the San Joaquin Valley.
GSA Stuff*
One matter discussed in the GSA meeting was the State Water Resources Control Board’s decision to postpone the Kaweah Subbasin probation hearing. It won’t be held this month. There are reasons to believe the State Board may have a hearing in the future and take the subbasin out of probationary consideration. That would be good.
Another big matter for the Central Kings GSA is funding. CID has (like everyone else) rising costs. Inflation is part of it, deferred maintenance, the district’s share of operation and maintenance costs for Pine Flat Dam. That O&M cost is rising 40 percent over the next few years. Water rights fees from the state are going up eight percent annually. And there is the insane transition to electric fleets by 2027. That’s an entirely other bag of poisonous snakes.
The biggest cost is now that CKGSA’s Groundwater Sustainability Plan has been approved – it has to be implemented. It’s pretty clear a Prop 218 Election is going to be necessary.
Layne informed the board it may be best to take the current Memorandum Of Understanding and form a Joint Powers Authority between CKGSA, CID and the counties of Fresno, Kings and Tulare. CID’s and therefore CKGSA’s boundaries include land in all those counties. For some reason state codes have it down as a conflict of interest for CID and GKGSA to contract with themselves under an MOU but not under a JPA. Also, a MOU can’t charge fees in white areas and other special districts like a school district or municipality but a JPA can. Di minimus users would still be exempt.
The Meeting
After the Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency meeting which started at 1:00pm, Chairman Ray Moles called the regular CID meeting to begin at 2:25pm. The first item was public comments followed by recognition of any additions or deletions of the agenda and disclosure of possible conflicts of interest by the directors. This was followed by the consent calendar which covers minutes and bookkeeping items.
Director Paul Sihota pulled the item dealing with accounts payable and his questions were answered by Assistant General Manager Michael Carbajal to his satisfaction and the consent calendar was passed.
The next item was correspondence but there wasn’t anything to talk about so it was a short report. Had there been something to talk about they would have. This board is inquisitive and that’s a good thing.
GM Report
General Manager Phil Desatoff gave his report saying CID has 21,000 a/f in storage at Pine Flat. There hasn’t been any definitive news on the Kings River watershed so that is the water report. He did mention meeting with Weather Tools at the recent ACWA convention in Palm Springs and was interested in the concept of the improved, modern, accurate long-range forecasting for both weather and reservoir infill.
There was no need for a SGMA update. CID is actively purchasing property to expand its recharge capacity.
Procurement Policy
Layne explained if CID doesn’t have its own procurement policy in place it has to follow state guidelines. Amongst other things the policy will set an expenditure limit and formal notice for bids. Sometimes you want to follow state guidelines like when purchasing a
pickup maybe. CID isn’t required to have procurement policy but it needs one. I believe the state policy limit is $10,000. Now if CID wants to hire or pay more than that on goods or services it has to go through a formal process, if I understood correctly. Raising the figure to $100,000 was the decision and that should save a bunch of red tape.
Desatoff said Carbajal has been looking into grants. Sometimes the application can cost up to $20,000. He would like approved. Carbajal said there is a US Bureau of Reclamation Water SMART grant open until March. There will be a webinar on the subject next Wednesday, January 15th. Carbajal said this can be more complicated than many grants. There is a 50 percent matching requirement so there will be some out of pocket. This grant can fund
infrastructure but not studies. So, you can buy meters but not a geo-hydro investigation. It sounds like if CID is involved in the Water SMART grant growers would be in a better position to collect from the US Department of Agriculture’s EQUIP grants.
Emergency Declaration
The Fowler Switch Check Structure that was discussed in length last month had its emergency status extended. Superior Construction of the Tulare Lake Bottom is working away and has about another month and a half to wrap it up per contractual terms. There is a good deal of incentive for the contractor considering all the pond work that could be theirs if a good note is struck with CID. Good for them.
There were no board reports and the Prop 218 has been covered. That was all for open session.
Closed Session
The meeting went into closed session at 3:15pm for six items; a trifecta of lawsuits, real property negotiations and personnel matters under the Brown Act. The next scheduled meeting is for Wednesday, February 12th, 2025. Got to get used to writing 2025, something I and millions of others have to adjust to this time of year, every year. It’s not as bad as it used to be back before plastic cards largely replaced my checkbook. Go be good to yourselves and each other.
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*I was tempted to subtitle this portion of the report “GSA Folderol” but since I’ve never used the word in writing, I didn’t know how to spell it. I didn’t realize it has an “L” in it. Also, this is serious stuff to the good folks who have to comply with the law. Even though the law came from Folderol HQ in Sacramento.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2025 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, Attorney – Doug Jensen, Water Master – Walt Frost, Controller – Tonya Ruiz
Board of Directors – President Ray Moles, Tony Lewis, Tom Chandler, Greg Thonesen, Paul Sihota
