MID general manager resigns. Long-time employee takes over at water and power utility
General Manager Bill Schwandt resigned Thursday from the Modesto Irrigation District and was promptly replaced from within.
Ed Franciosa, assistant GM for power transmission and distribution, was named to the top post on a 5-0 vote by the district board.
MID declined to say why Schwandt submitted his resignation, which was accepted in a closed session Thursday. He spent 15 months at the district and previously ran the city water and power utility in Moorhead, Minn.
Franciosa joined MID in 1997 as an electrical engineer and went on to serve as an interim trouble supervisor and electrical engineering manager. He became an assistant GM in 2014 and was interim GM before Schwandt was chosen to succeed the retired Scott Furgerson.
“I think we have a real solid person that’s going to be here for us and take care of the district and keep it above water,” Director Larry Byrd said just before the vote.
Franciosa takes over immediately, but his salary will not be announced until the April 12 board meeting. Schwandt was hired at about $270,000 a year.
Franciosa also has worked for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the California Energy Commission.
“He’s a reliable and competent and decent guy,” MID Director John Mensinger said. “.... I believe he’s fully qualified for this position.”
MID has about 131,000 electricity customers. It delivers Tuolumne River water to about 58,000 farmland acres and a treatment plant for Modesto and a few other locales.
