By Joel Hastings
The open meeting of the Madera Irrigation District board of directors was called to order by President Jim Erickson at 10:32 a.m. on Monday, December 2, 2024. All directors were present except for Carl Janzen who was on Zoom from the ACWA meetings in Palm Springs. There was nothing to report from the closed session that had been held in the previous hour and public comment was invited but there was none at the meeting or online.
The GSA board meeting was convened with Assistant GM Dina Nolan giving an update. She said that planning pipeline replacement using the one million dollar NRCS grant was underway, a three-year program. Work continues on the coordination agreement for the GSAs covering the Madera Subbasin and a domestic well mitigation program. A public workshop is scheduled online at 12 noon for the joint GSP amendment for the Subbasin GSAs.
The Meeting
Reconvening as the ID board, Erickson led the Pledge. The consent agenda was approved which included approval of the minutes of the regular October 15 meeting and the financial reports for September and October. Also included was the warrant of bill payments for October and November totaling $3,071.239.80.
Also included were minutes of a special meeting held November 15 at which the Board approved of the purchase of some 36 acres of farmland in trees near Fairmead. It lies adjacent to the District and a District canal. The trees will be pulled and a holding basin will be constructed. This will not only serve ag water users but also support groundwater recharge in the area which has suffered domestic wells going dry. The purchase price was $550,230 and closing arrangements were to begin.
General Manager Tom Greci reported that in addition to Janzen at the ACWA meeting, Director Brian Davis would be attending later as well. He pointed out the Mid-Pacific Water Users Conference will be held January 29-31, 2025.
He continued saying that repairs continue for the dynamo at the Madera Chowchilla Water & Power Authority facility. It had been determined that five of the dozen bolts holding the impeller had snapped, creating a very noticeable vibration causing the shutdown. He said before the crane could be brought in to lift it, the drop shoot floor had been replaced with lots of rebar and concrete to provide stable footing. He credited the MID and Chowchilla Water District staff for working successfully to get that done promptly. The piece will be taken to a machine shop for repair and then reinstalled, a three week process.
He said that the heavy rains in Northern California had filled reservoirs, getting the winter off to a good start.
New Business
Under new business, the board approved a five-year consulting agreement for independent financial auditing services with Hudson & Company, Inc., of Fresno. Controller Jennifer Furstenburg said that an RFP had been issued on October 7 with a due date of November 6. Three proposals had been received, but two were rejected practically out of hand, both being twice the price of the Hudson bid and one even having miscalculations of the numbers – not a good thing for a CPA firm. The Hudson firm has been doing this work for MID for several years satisfactorily and the new agreement will be priced at $28,220 for each of the first three years and $29,650 each for the final two years. The contract covers the audits for MID and its 401a retirement plan and the special district’s SCO report for 2024 – 2028.
Next up was consideration of the budget for 2025. Controller Furstenburg gave an overview pointing out the totals of approximately $27,686,000, including water costs of $10,000,000. Salaries and benefits comprise 26 percent or $7,129,000. That figure funds 59 positions with 52 filled and seven vacant. Admin accounts for three, finance and engineering four each, 20 filled and five vacant in maintenance and 21 filled and two vacant in operations. These totals have remained stable in recent years. A capital budget of $1,628,000 or six percent of budgeted expenditures is included.
Payments for two bonds are included. The 2015 bond will be paid down by $2,560,000. The 2016 bond requires $1,679,000. But due to prepayments without penalty in recent years, these bonds will be paid off in 2026, fourteen years earlier, a great benefit to rate paying water users as well as taxpayers in the District.
Following her description of the summary document, Furstenburg led the directors through a category by category review showing the proposed budget compared with actual and previously budgeted totals for the major areas of income and expenditure Directors commented and asked questions throughout this process.
GM Greci said that the budget will allow the district to maintain reasonable water costs. Reduced expenses will provide the ability to acquire land, build basins and improve groundwater recharge without the need for bonding or other borrowing.
Operations and Maintenance Manager Charles Contreras presented the equipment and machinery in his capital budget, complete with photos and justification of the use for each piece. The directors appreciated this detail. Assistant GM Nolan pointed out that by properly equipping an adequate staff, lower costs by as much as a third were possible when extensive work was contracted out. Loquaci said that building and properly maintaining storage basins was a much better way to support improved groundwater levels thereby preventing the need for well mitigation programs.
During discussion, Director Janzen on Zoom asked if more detail could be provided for the $10 million cost figure for water payable to the Bureau of Reclamation. Erickson asked if staff could break out the figures to show growers what they are. Nolan said that when water is actually priced for growers in the spring, those costs are known and presented. Loquaci offered the reminder that at this point, when a budget needs to be built, we don’t know the amount, the cost or the timing of water to be purchased. As always, budgets and actual expenditures will have to be adjusted as the water year proceeds.
Discussion finished with a review of staff positions and the organization chart of employees. Director Davis asked if the assumption by MID of the work of managing MCWPA, taken over at the request of the Chowchilla WD had impacted staffing levels. Greci pointed out that some office positions had been reduced but the operations staff was maintained at full
capacity. It was noted too that staff positions are mainly full time, with workers moving from water deliveries in the summer to maintenance work in the off season. This makes it more attractive for workers while the cross training gives them a better understanding of overall operations.
With discussion finished, Loquaci moved and Director Tim DaSilva seconded the resolution to approve the budget as presented. The roll call vote was unanimous in favor.
As always, the comments from individual directors conclude the meeting. DaSilva said he enjoys driving around the District and he’s observed the work that Contreras and his staff are doing… “the best job I can imagine.”
Davis said it has been a good year with property acquisitions for the future. He said he believes we’ve come a long way in ten years, moving from putting out fires to building up assets and improving relations with growers. He said he’s impressed the District has adopted new technologies and the staff have grown in their skills and responsibilities. He concluded saying the hopes that Trump can take down red tape and obstructions to projects. At ACWA we should look forward to better water management even at the state level. He concluded by wishing the group a Merry Christmas.
Saying it was sunny and 80 degrees in Palm Springs, Janzen said how passing this budget is an example of how we’re moving forward to meet the goals of the District. He said it’s good to hear favorable comments from growers.
Loquaci said it’s been a great year and then turned to Erickson saying this is Jim’s last meeting. He said it has been a real pleasure to sit on this board with you. He said you’ve always thought about the District, the growers and the taxpayers. Erickson, obviously moved, said it’s been ten years and we’ve done a lot. With that, he declared the meeting adjourned at 11:48 a.m.
It was Erickson’s last meeting because he was not reelected to his directorship on the board. In spite of his work including service as the current president of the Friant Water Authority, a local group had run an opposition candidate, Brandon Bishel, who attended this meeting but declined to speak during public comment. Bishel will be officially seated at the next regular meeting in January when the board reorganizes for the year. Janzen also had an opponent in the election, but he prevailed and will serve another term.
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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: Jim Erickson, Chair; Tim DaSilva, Brian Davis, Carl Janzen and Dave Loquaci
HISTORY: From www.madera-id.org The Madera Irrigation District (MID or District) 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
