New OID era opens with 3-2 split votes

The first meeting for two new irrigation district board members featured a few 3-2 votes, including a key decision to pursue selling Stanislaus River water elsewhere in 2016, with the newcomers on the losing end each time.

Wariness about shopping water to wealthy outsiders had become an Oakdale Irrigation District campaign issue for newly seated Linda Santos and Gail Altieri. With an attorney in the audience warning that a pending vote could be illegal, the women wanted more information before having consultants push forward with environmental studies.

“I think we need to just stop until we get more information,” Santos said. “This is too important.”

She and Altieri were outvoted by board members Steve Webb, Herman Doornenbal and Gary Osmundson. They agreed that consultants should finish studies started last year for a one-year transfer: “We already put in the time and energy,” Osmundson said. However, they put off deciding whether to order more in-depth studies covering several years of future water sales.

Other 3-2 votes, with Santos and Altieri dissenting, will keep Webb as chairman of the board next year, and elevate Doornenbal to vice chairman.

The board also disagreed on a normally noncontroversial issue: thanking outgoing board members for their service. Santos said plaques would be fine, but objected to language in formal resolutions touting as accomplishments some actions that critics deplore, such as annexing a giant almond company.

Santos and Altieri easily ousted Al Bairos and Frank Clark, respectively, on the November ballot, each by more than 20 percent margins.

Doornenbal asked the board to rise above acrimony. “These men were servants and I think it’s very appropriate that we recognize them as servants,” he said.

A split vote was averted when Santos asked that the recognition wording be reviewed, and the matter is expected to return to the board in January.

Despite a lack of consensus on some items, Tuesday’s tone was mostly polite. Santos smiled after a 5-0 vote to renew OID’s memberships with several organizations, and to pay 2016 dues. Unanimous votes “will happen every once in a while,” Webb cracked.

The former board had agreed in 2014 to sell river water this year to Fresno-area buyers for $400 an acre-foot. They called the project an On-Farm Conservation Funding Program because 75 percent of the proceeds were to be used to upgrade equipment for sellers who volunteered to fallow fields, freeing up water to be transferred. Sellers were to get 20 percent in cash, and the district was to take 5 percent.

It was an innovative way for Oakdale-area growers to comply with state law requiring higher efficiency while generating money for upgrades, OID General Manager Steve Knell explained. A report said 114 farmers expressed interest; the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau did not take a formal position, but Tom Orvis on Tuesday said the bureau looked kindly on the proposal because growers wanted it.

Early this year, the board blamed drought and a legal challenge from former board member Louis Brichetto for canceling the idea. Brichetto’s lawyers had argued that state law mandates environmental studies ignored by OID for such transfers. They might be allowed under exemptions for one-time sales, however, and OID struck such a deal just before the election, reaping $5.75 million for the district. But Bairos and Clark might have paid a steep price when critics complained that the deal was secretly consummated with no public input while unwitting growers were told to conserve water.

Leaders with other agencies, including Stanislaus County, have frowned on outside sales while urging OID to pursue deals helping local groups. OID has courted a district near Patterson as a potential buyer and Knell indicated Tuesday that talks are ongoing.

“You should explore ways of figuring out how to keep water in this area instead of exploring ways to get water out of this area,” Robert Frobose, an OID customer and frequent board critic, said Tuesday.

Sacramento attorney Howard Wilkins, representing Brichetto, said Tuesday’s vote could violate two state laws, one governing environmental impacts and the other requiring transparency in agendas.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "New OID era opens with 3-2 split votes."