Ken Carlson’s August 4 story in the Modesto Bee about the minor dust-up between Modesto Irrigation District Director Robert Frobose and Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow omitted mention of who Frobose was talking about when he claimed Withrow was representing “friends on the east side of the county.” Withrow was the lead advocate for a taxpayer-funded review of the countywide Groundwater User Mitigation Program approved by the seven-member Groundwater Sustainability Agency last January.

Frobose cited a report by the Bee’s J.N. Sbranti published on February 7, 2014, that listed east side farmers named in a lawsuit by San Francisco Attorney Thomas Lippe and Jerry Cadagan, an environmental activist from Sonora. The names on the list included S and R Rodoni Farms. S and R Rodoni Farms and the nearby Rairden property are leased by Tyler (“Ty”) Angle under the name AB La Grange Ranch. Angle’s partners in the almond farming operation are Tim and Larry Byrd.

Tim Byrd is Terry Withrow’s longtime best friend and campaign manager. Larry Byrd, who sits on the Board of Directors of Modesto Irrigation District (MID), is Tim Byrd’s brother. Larry Byrd has admitted he put no money into the partnership with Ty Angle. According to a report by Trevor Morgan in the Modesto Bee, Larry Byrd received over $100,000 in 2024 as a result of income produced by AB La Grange Ranch.

As early as 2015, and probably earlier, Terry Withrow and Ty Angle were partners in a farming operation in Westlands Water District. Frobose and other speakers against spending more taxpayer dollars on studies of groundwater depletion on the County’s east side were objecting to throwing more money after a problem that was very simple twelve years ago when the late Vance Kennedy said,

“You could solve this problem in a week,” back in 2014.

Frobose cited previous taxpayer-funded studies totaling over half a million dollars that concluded east side groundwater depletion was unsustainable and extremely harmful to the environment. Those studies were presented to Stanislaus County Supervisors over eight years ago, on June 26, 2018.

More recently, further studies supported those same findings. January of this year, the seven member Stanislaus Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), including Stanislaus County, unanimously approved the Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP), which includes the Groundwater User Mitigation Program (GWUMP).

During the August 4 Stanislaus County Supervisors’ Meeting, Frobose wasn’t the only person speaking against “redundant spending” for yet another review of groundwater depletion on Stanislaus County’s east side. Carolyn Neumann of the Stanislaus County Taxpayer Association, and local farmers, including Wrangler Wheeler and Anthony Ratto, also opposed additional spending. According to Ken Carlson’s report, Stanislaus County Supervisors could spend almost half-a-million dollars on another redundant review.

The only Supervisor who seemed to understand the negative consequences of additional spending was Channce Condit. Condit pointed out that changes to the GSP and GWUMP would have to be reviewed and approved by members of the GSA who had already reviewed and approved a plan that took years of study and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. He asked for a money-back guarantee that further study would provide beneficial results. He was voted down.

Terry Withrow, Larry Byrd, Tim Byrd, and Ty Angle have clear ties. Another instance of what some might call “undue influence” is the case of John Boer.

Like Larry Byrd, John Boer sits on the MID Board of Directors. A major source of his income comes from contract work he does for Tim Byrd. Boer’s recusals during votes about investigating Larry Byrd’s irrigation practices on the AB La Grange Ranch have been a major factor in the MID Board’s dysfunction regarding glaring accounting irregularities at MID.

After twelve years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, Terry Withrow and his east side friends want to spend more taxpayer dollars on further study because they’ve suddenly realized members of the local GSA have had enough environmental destruction and are past ready to enforce restrictions on pumping.

Anyone wondering how water miners on the county’s east side have been enabled all these years need only consider an age-old political tactic. It’s called cronyism.

Depletion of groundwater throughout the San Joaquin Valley has been a classic case of socializing the costs and privatizing the profits. It’s time for Stanislaus County to cut its losses before it’s too late. Terry Withrow’s east side cronies have done more than enough damage already.