The Friant Water Authority and three irrigation districts in southern Tulare County hammered out an agreement last week that will force Friant to hold future board retreats in its service area —  the San Joaquin Valley — instead of the rolling hills of Paso Robles wine country.

Lisa McEwen

SJV Water

The development is the latest in an ongoing tussle between Friant and three of its member contractors, Porterville, Terra Bella, and Saucelito irrigation districts.

“The goal is to get Friant to play by the rules,” said Sean Geivet, general manager of all three districts. “The meetings need to be in a location that is legal and where members of the public can attend with ease.”

Friant has held “retreat” board meetings elsewhere in California since at least 2018 when it held one at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, according to documents obtained by SJV Water.

In recent years, Friant has invited its staff, board members, their spouses, consultants, attorneys and the public to a three-day retreat at Allegretto Vineyards, a resort-style venue in Paso Robles. This year’s retreat was set for Nov. 19-21.

Johnny Amaral, Friant’s Chief Operating Officer, said the off-site retreats are important because they help “full-time farmers who serve as part-time public officials get up to speed on complicated issues.”

Related Story: Southern California Water Agency Votes to Keep Funding State Tunnel Plans

Out of Bounds

But the three member water districts didn’t see it that way, according to a lawsuit they filed Nov. 8 seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the off-site meetings.

They alleged the retreat was a violation of  the Ralph M. Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, as Paso Robles is outside of Friant’s jurisdictional boundaries. Those boundaries stretch over 200 miles through five counties, from Merced in the north to Kern in the south.

In a response filed Nov. 12, Friant stated that Paso Robles “was selected because of its relative convenience in terms of driving distance for Authority directors, member agency staff and interested members of the public.”

Geivet and other board members from his districts had attended the retreats, never voicing concern about its location and even offering positive feedback, Friant attorney Donald M. Davis wrote. They were some of the first to RSVP to this year’s retreat, according to court documents.

Judge Rules Against Friant

For a few weeks it looked like the Nov. 19-21 retreat would have to be scrapped.

But at a Nov. 14 hearing Tulare County Superior Court Judge Bret Hillman ruled that Friant must comply with the Brown Act, and cease all future off-site retreats outside its boundaries. In a negotiation session later that afternoon, attorneys for both sides agreed this year’s event could go forward, helping Friant avoid more than $50,000 in cancellation fees.

Now, after two weeks of back-and-forth on wording, an agreement is in place that mandates all future board retreats be held within the jurisdictional boundaries of Friant Water Authority. The districts rescinded their requests for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

Amaral called the legal action a distraction and chided the districts’ leaders for wasting time and money.

“This type of gamesmanship took valuable time and resources away from the important issues facing Friant Water Authority, including serious finance matters that the Districts should be focusing on, instead of trying to save themselves 20-30 minutes of drive time,” he wrote in a statement. “We are pleased that all the planning and effort that went into this year’s offsite wasn’t wasted.”

Related Story: CA Needs More Water Storage to Handle Boom-or-Bust Cycles

Canal Still Sinking

All these maneuvers stem from the serious question of who should pay, and how much, for repairs to the Friant-Kern Canal, which has sunk, and continues to sink, due to overpumping along a 33-mile section from southern Tulare County to the Kern County line.

Repairs have been underway, but funding has fallen short.

In August, Friant board members voted to peg a large chunk of those repair costs on the three districts that Geivet manages and Tea Pot Dome Water District.

Geivet’s districts sued Friant over that action. Tea Pot Dome did not join in the lawsuit, and Amaral said he anticipates finalizing a settlement with Tea Pot Dome.

In addition to claiming the board members violated the Brown Act by discussing the fees in advance of the meeting, Geivet likened the action to extortion, claiming Friant was trying to use his district board members to influence decisions made by the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency, where they have board seats.

Coming Up Short

Friant is about $90 million shy of its share of the $326 million already spent to rebuild a section of the sinking canal and needs to show the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the canal, how it will pay for another $250 million in still-needed repairs.

The funding shortfall, according to Friant, is because Eastern Tule hasn’t paid what Friant says it owes as part of a settlement agreement reached in 2021. While some farmers in Eastern Tule get surface water from water districts, most rely exclusively on groundwater and have been blamed for the over pumping that is sinking the canal.

Friant sued alleging Eastern Tule’s groundwater accounting methods allowed continued over pumping and that it significantly underpaid on its obligation to Friant.

This week, in another turn of events, Porterville, Terra Bella, and Saucelito board members discussed leaving Eastern Tule GSA and forming their own GSAs. A vote is expected at their January board meetings.

About the Author

SJV Water Reporter Lisa McEwen grew up in Tulare County. She has reported on agriculture and other issues for a wide variety of publications, including Ag Alert, Visalia Times-Delta, the Fresno Bee, and the Tulare and Kings counties farm bureau publications.

About SJV Water

SJV Water is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley, www.sjvwater.org. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org.