By Don A. Wright
The Oakdale Irrigation District Board of Directors held its Tuesday, September 1, 2026 meeting at its headquarters in Oakdale, California. Oakdale ID provides water to a more than 80,000 acres of farmland along the Stanislaus River in the northern San Joaquin Valley. Can you imagine the bucolic beauty of an oak grove along a river? This Valley has all the necessary ingredients for paradise.
The Meeting
Things got rolling at precisely the scheduled 9:00am start time. The very first thing was the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States, as it should be in a public meeting. There were four board members on camera so a quorum was established. I didn’t hear where Director Herman Doornenbal was hanging out but we wish him well. There was no public comment.
Public Hearing
Assembly Bill 2561 was the subject of a public hearing regarding vacancies, recruitment and retention of employees. The union was allowed by the law to weigh in on this matter but chose to leave it up to the board. There are internal and external recruitment of available positions. It sounded like 300 applications were received during a two-week posting. I believe OID is still looking for the right heavy equipment operator. Kim Bukhari, head of HR said there are retirements coming up in the next five years and since many of these employees are cross trained the district needs to plan ahead to fill these positions. She also said the current workforce is stable and the district does give opportunities to cross train. The board thanked Bukhari for her work.
Consent & Action Calendar
The consent calendar included: approving the minutes, paying the bills and accepting the financial report. The board approved the consent calendar.
General Manager Scott Moody reported staff believes it would be prudent for the board to authorize continuing the water delivery run for in district lands past the September 30th end date into October. The board has approved this for the past decade and wanted to voice a few caveats. Although TID has been able to extend its delivery run it is a discretionary action. The board wants that made clear. Also, wisely I’d say, the board wants to give staff the leeway to shut down as needed for maintenance, demand or weather or some such reason. The board approved extending the run.
The next item was a change in insurance and Bukhari once again give the board the straight skinny. She said the district’s health plan increased by more than 50-percent over the past year. After research it was revealed the Association of California Water Agencies, ACWA has a Joint Powers Insurance Association. Bukhari said this is a pooled plan of the ACWA membership, and its cost increased less than three-percent if I understood. The benefits for the employees were also considered in this matter. Moody added going with ACWA JPIA will take a load of insurance work off of the office staff this time of year. Also, the district’s partner Tri Dams is already on the ACWA JPIA plan. The board approved switching to ACWA.
Chairman Tom Orvis* and other directors were happy to have an insurance option that will help both the district and the employees. They approved.
The next item was also medical related – the vision and dental insurance plans. If I understood correctly Delta Dental is not a plan the local dentists are happy with. It sounds like they charge a lot and pay the dentists a little. However, Delta is under the ACWA JPIA offerings and is the current plan OID is using. Also, if I understood correctly Bukhari said the JPIA will be reviewing this matter at its next meeting. The board approved staying with the plan.
Reports/Communication
The board gets to comment during this part of the meeting. I believe it was Director Jacob DeBoer who said he had a ride along last Saturday with one of the ditch tenders and it was a good day. He said the gentleman who he road with was very good at his job and was polite and a peace maker.
Director Ed Tobias said he’s happy with the current board and noted three of them are doing such a good job they ran unopposed.
Director Brad DeBoer said he saw three beaver dams on a dry creek and was thankful for the district’s pre-1914 water rights.
Orvis reported he attended the recent water forum in Turlock with Congressman Tom McClintock last week. He said there is an effort by Valley district to the north of OID lobbying for more water from New Melones Reservoir. He also said the golden mussel was a subject of little comfort. The meeting paused for a biological break.
Committee Reports
Tobias said the administration committee talked insurance. Brad DeBoer said the Tri Dam Committee will be meeting at 3:30pm today. It was announced there will be an ACWA Region Four meeting coming up soon.
GM Report
Moody said last month’s and July deliveries were up to 80-percent of capacity and now they’re delivering about 65-percent. He noted a comment was made at the McClintock forum about predation on juvenile salmon. The US Bureau of Reclamation and the US Fish & Wildlife said they were aware of this problem.
Attorney Report
Stefanie Morris reported the State Water Resources Control Board has released a draft plan for the Healthy Rivers & Landscapes Phase II which is Sacramento River focused. It was said further State Board tinkering with the Tuolumne River would require reopening the Phase I portion of HRL.
Reverse validation of Groundwater Sustainability Plans has been in the legal news. It wasn’t clear to me how a recent court ruling impacted GSPs pending under DWR review and approval being sued by – I guess mostly NGOs.
Having a golden mussel plan will be helpful in the future to avoid charges of moving an invasive species carelessly. It occurred to me – what if they named the golden mussel an endangered species that needs to be sent back to China? In other words would an endangered determination get more attention than an invasive determination? That was a rhetorical question by the way.
Morris said understanding full-natural flow as a layperson and the possible Department of Water Resources definition is: removing the infrastructure on a river and using that condition to determine what the full natural flow would be.
Closed Session
The meeting went into closed session at 10:22am for some litigation, a little bit of personnel and some real estate matters. So, that was that in Oakdale for now. Go be good to yourselves and each other.
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*Cousin to Friant Water Authority CFO Wilson Orvis, in case you wondered.
OAKDALE ID: 1205 East F Street, Oakdale, CA 95361 www.oakdaleirrigation.com 209/847-0341 OIDGSA’s DWR SGMA NO. 5-022.01
OID holds its board meetings on the first or second Tuesday of the month.
Board: President – Tom Orvis, Ed Tobias, Herman Doornenbal, Brad DeBoer & Jacob DeBoer
Staff: GM – Scot Moody, Superintendent – Joe Kosakiewicz, CFO – Sharon Cisneros, Engineer – Eric Thorburn P.E., HR – Kim Bukhari & General Council – Fred Silva.
From the OID website: The District was formed on November 1, 1909 as an irrigation district of the State of California formed pursuant to the provisions of Division 11 of the California Water Code (the “Act”) for the purpose of delivering irrigation water to the agricultural lands within its boundaries. Geographically, the District encompasses parts of Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties, about 12 miles northeast of Modesto and 30 miles southeast of Stockton.
Water to supply the District comes principally from the Stanislaus River under well-established adjudicated water rights but also from water reclamation and drainage recovery systems and pumping from deep wells.The District encompasses an area of approximately 80,900 acres, with an additional approximately 77,700 acres within its sphere of influence.
