By Joel Hastings
Vice President Brian Davis called to order the public meeting of the Madera Irrigation District board of directors at 2:05 p.m., following an hourlong closed session. Among the five directors, President Dave Loquaci was absent from the meeting held at the District offices on the south side of Madera. After the Pledge, it was announced there was no report from the closed session, no changes in the agenda and no conflicts of interest.
With public comment invited, Eric Rodriguez introduced himself as a small farm advisor with support from DWR and UC Extension based in Fresno. Davis welcomed him to the meeting. Next, Brian and Joey Franzia said they farm several thousand acres in the District and have appreciated the District workers helping them repair and replace turnout facilities on some of their property. They also said they were interested in working with the District on recharge projects. Their business card says they are owners of Panther Rock Wine Company in Napa, and they told this reporter before the meeting they have farming operations throughout the Central Valley in a number of water districts. Davis replied that the District looks for opportunities to work with landowners.
GSA
The board moved into the GSA portion of the meeting with Assistant General Manager Dina Nolan reporting about meeting with researchers from Stanford University who are studying the impact of recharge on groundwater quality. As part of this effort, they are also looking to determine the best approaches to recharge basin maintenance, which Nolan said could be helpful as the District continues to build more.
The Meeting
Returning to the MID board meeting, the directors approved the consent agenda which includes minutes for January and February meetings, monthly financial reports for December, January and February and a listing of surplus equipment. Included was the warrant list of bills to be paid from January 16 through March 28 totaling $3,891,041.27. Surplus equipment included older computers, cell phones, two pickups and an F-550 Ford truck.
O&M
Charles Contreras presented his Engineering, Operations and Maintenance Department report… detailed as always with lots of photos of projects underway and accomplished. He spent time talking about extensive training, especially to extricate a worker from an enclosed space, in a pipeline for example. General Manager Tom Greci said he had observed this work up close and was impressed by staff and the trainer. Training with three or four workers from Chowchilla Water District too, MID now has six or seven well trained
workers with all needed equipment stored in a trailer ready for emergency use. Contreras said that the Madera Fire Department does not have personnel with this training, so it’s important that MID can provide emergency rescue for its workers.
One of the other big projects was the replacement of 11 concrete panels each measuring 13 ft by 20 ft in a portion of the Madera Canal that needed to be completed before the water season started.
GM Report
In his General Manager’s report, Greci explained that the District “campus” has a variety of buildings, some old, some remodeled for new uses. He said working with staff to maintain and repair facilities, it has become clear that an overall plan is needed to provide the facilities necessary into the future. To that end, he said that with board support, he recommends an RFP be issued for architectural services to put together a facilities plan for the long term. He said fortunately, the footprint at the headquarters location has plenty of space. The board consensus was to proceed.
Greci continued saying that the power plants on the Madera Canal owned jointly with Chowchilla WD, have been prepared for the water season. The jointly owned entity is the Madera-Chowchilla Water & Power Authority and Greci said it is ready for the water flows created by the upcoming season.
He said that he and Nolan had participated in several public meetings with local organizations talking about the work of the District, including a session with the Farm Bureau’s young farmer organization. He said the District’s recently developed introductory video was useful here and will also be shown at the request of ACWA at its next conference.
He pointed out the upcoming Friant Water Authority annual meeting slated for May 29 in Fresno. He said the public is invited and he urged all to attend, saying it is an opportunity to learn about not only Friant activity but also water updates across California. There is no charge, but a reservation is necessary, available at www.friantwater.org
With a few minutes left before a 2:45 p.m. scheduled call with the auditors, Greci gave a brief water report, confirming that 100 percent Class 1 water will be available with the possible addition of Unreleased Restoration Flows (URF). To take advantage of URF water, the District must accept not only those flows but also use its small amount of carry over water still behind Friant. In that case, orders
will begin soon, and flows could begin early May. Greci said he also hopes that additional water might be purchased from neighboring districts. Director Carl Janzen asked how long the season might go and the reply was possibly into early August, when harvest creates a significant drop off in orders.
The Audit
With that, the board heard on Zoom from Kip Hudson whose CPA firm, Hudson & Company, Inc., in Fresno had performed the independent audits of the 2023 and 2024 financials. In his report, which he called “fairly brief,” he pointed out highlights in the balance sheets, the income statements and the statements of cash flows. He said there are no material weaknesses on internal controls with no adjustments needed and that there had been no disagreements with management. The report took about ten minutes. With a smile, Director Janzen complimented Hudson on the graphs in the report which he said were much easier to read than last year. He also noted that there are now some 22 districts in Friant, not the 16 mentioned in the audit report. Davis thanked Hudson for his report and asked for a motion to accept the resolution to approve the reports. The statements are public record and can be examined at the District offices.
Water Delivery
Attention went back to the key topic for the meeting – water delivery dates and prices. Water orders will be accepted immediately, and deliveries will begin about April 28, depending on location.
Greci said the staff recommendation is for a rate of $98 / AF for water delivered to original District lands. If water becomes available for subordinate lands, the price will be $196 / AF. This year the District will be making every effort not to spill water during deliveries so that
operational management water will be suspended. The price for wheeling additional water to lands within the District will be the same price of $70 / AF plus a 15 percent loss. The price for wheeling to land outside the District will be $180 / AF plus 15 percent.
Regarding terms, payments for water are due upon receipt of the monthly invoice with due dates of May 30, June 30, July 31, August 29 and September 30, 2025. Water service will be terminated if payment is not received by 4 p.m. on the due date. All pricing changes will occur at the first meter reading.
There were no comments from the directors. From the public, Joey Franzia asked if the District could help find water that could be wheeled to their land. Local grower Tom Coleman said he wanted the thank the board and staff and he feels these rates are very fair. The resolution to accept these rates and delivery dates was approved unanimously at 3:00 p.m. (Editor’s note: The District issued a news release soon after the meeting confirming these arrangements.)
The board next considered the updated employment agreement with Contreras. His performance evaluation had been conducted in a closed session at an earlier meeting. His new base salary is $189,000 per year with a cost of living increase added in for the next three years. Greci thanked him for his exceptional work, focused on safety and the maintenance and culture of the District. He recommended approval of the agreement, and the board unanimously agreed.
The board set dates for the board of equalization meeting at its regular board session on June 17 with appeals to be heard on June 20, both meetings set for 2 p.m.
LAFCo
The final agenda item was consideration of recommendations to be made to the Madera County Local Agency Formation Committee (LAFCO) which is looking for guidance when it considers a request for the formation of a new water district. AGM Nolan said that there had been meetings with Chowchilla WD and Triangle-T WD. Suggestions include the following:
- when a new district is to be formed, there should be unanimous support from existing districts;
- the new district as a public benefit might be required to invite adjacent landowners to join;
- the new district should have plans to be able to serve all district members;
- if it intends to become a GSA it should have a GSP or an agreement for joint coordination with other GSAs in the county;
- a proposed district should be prepared to reimburse current GSAs for the costs of updating all documents for necessary changes including staff time, legal counsel and consultants.
One suggestion was that the landowners involved might want to consider a water mutual organization, not requiring the same legal status as a district. Local grower Phil Janzen who was attending the meeting added that he’s a member of the land owners group in Chowchilla, and they can support these points. A letter along these lines will be drafted for board review and then for submission to LAFCO.
Directors report conclude the meeting. Director Janzen said he had attended the recent Friant board meeting, complete with the ethics training as required by CDFA every two years. He had attended several other meetings and the ACWA Region 6 nominating committee. Directors Brandon Bishel, Tim DaSilva and Vice President Davis had no comments, and the meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
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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
