MID general manager will retire after 26 years with utility. Any word on successor?
Ed Franciosa will retire as general manager of the Modesto Irrigation District after 14 months in the post.
The May 26 departure was announced in a news release Friday from the utility. Franciosa, an electrical engineer, has worked there since 1997.
The MID board had appointed him in March 2022. He informed the nearly 450 employees of his retirement on Thursday.
“I’m grateful for MID and the wonderful employees and fellow water and power industry professionals I have had the privilege to work with throughout my 36-year public service career,” Franciosa said. “I’m honored to have had many opportunities at the district, including serving as general manager, and I’m proud of my contributions to providing the excellent services MID is known for.”
The district delivers Tuolumne River water to about 58,000 farmland acres and to a treatment plant that supplements city wells in Modesto. It has about 131,000 power customers.
Franciosa’s tenure has included the first water and power rate increases in several years, based on a November report about the cost of providing the services. Critics long have complained that electricity rates subsidize the water side.
MID also has made progress toward a compromise with the state on increased reservoir releases for lower-river fish. The Turlock Irrigation District and San Francisco are parties to it.
Franciosa joined MID as an engineer and went on to serve as an interim trouble-shooting supervisor and electrical engineering manager. He became an assistant GM in 2014, overseeing electric engineering, substations, metering, line construction and maintenance, and trouble-shooting.
Franciosa was interim GM in 2020, between the tenures of Scott Furgerson and Bill Schwandt. The board has not yet discussed the process for hiring a successor.
Franciosa also has worked for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the California Energy Commission.
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
