• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

Stench Rises over OID Recall

April 3, 2017 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

“Do I smell a recall?”

Over the last few years, the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) has conducted a secret water sale, failed to re-district according to state law, sold water by abandoning its water rights, annexed out-of-the-region buyers into the district at bargain rates while rejecting offers from local farmers to pay more for OID water, lost a water sale because it failed to observe requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, barred newly elected directors from closed-session meetings, and pumped record amounts of groundwater while selling surface water to out-of-district buyers. Many of those actions, as well as other questionable decisions, are very likely why incumbent directors Frank Clark and Al Bairos were overwhelmingly defeated in the 2015 board election.

Today, one of the newly-elected directors is facing a recall for “reasons” that include favoring friends and spreading rumors about OID. The most prominent of the so-called favored friends is Robert Frobose, a rice farmer and critic of OID’s history of hidden agendas and contradictory claims about water usage, annexation, and water sales. Director Linda Santos is said to favor Frobose because she too is troubled about the same issues he is.

But Santos made no secret of her desire for transparency during her 2015 campaign. In fact, she stressed honesty, transparency, and open communication as her fundamental concerns. She has claimed other OID board members and management have not been open with her and Gail Altieri, the other victor in the 2015 election. She has plenty of evidence that the board has indeed tried to shut her and Altieri out of some decisions.

Recently, some of the people who signed the petitions for Santos’ recall have made public claims that they were told the recall petitions were in opposition to sending OID water south and were therefore misled when they signed. It’s virtually certain some people who signed the petitions were lied to. They only real question is how many.

The people who collected signatures were paid by sponsors outside of Santos’ district. Some of the sponsors are requesting favorable decisions from the OID Board of Directors; they have large financial interests in obtaining favors from OID board members. Santos is on record opposing special treatment of the kind received by Trinitas Partners when the investors were annexed into the district in 2013.

Adding to the intrigue surrounding the recall, OID just proposed a bizarre re-districting scheme obviously designed to keep Gary Osmundson on the board when he moves into a new home. The proposed new boundaries violate state guidelines in several ways. Moreover, Osmundson has not yet had to run for office; he was appointed to the board in 2015 when an incumbent was too sick to fulfill his board obligations.

Anyone familiar with OID history knows exactly why OID management and others are trying to remove Linda Santos. First and foremost, they don’t like her record of honesty and transparency. And second, her district (as a result of the failure to revise boundaries as required by the state) has a tiny number of voters and is thus easier to influence over the short term.

Public institutions should never operate secretly, nor should they serve the interests of the few at the expense of the many. OID’s repetitive pattern of flouting established guidelines and protocols amounts to renegade policy. Attempts to silence and recall a director whose intention is to restore the public trust have become increasingly unethical. There’s a stench hanging over efforts to recall Linda Santos, and it’s growing every day.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Linda Santos Oakdale Irrigation District, Linda Santos recall, Oakdale Irrigation District water sales

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. damon Woods says

    April 4, 2017 at 1:30 am

    Great expose- I can only hope this gets out to the voters in Linda’s district.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

Oath Keepers leader Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy
Oath Keepers leader Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes faces a prison sentence up to 25 years in the first punishments for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
www.washingtonpost.com
Opinion | America?s Poverty Is Built by Design
Opinion | America’s Poverty Is Built by Design
How did the U.S. become a land of economic extremes with the rich getting richer while the working poor grind it out? Deliberately.
www.politico.com
Republican Jewish Coalition Blasts Gosar Over Staffer's Ties To White Supremacist: Fuentes Has 'No Place' In Congress
Republican Jewish Coalition Blasts Gosar Over Staffer’s Ties To White Supremacist: Fuentes Has ‘No Place’ In Congress
The Republican Jewish Coalition slammed Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) following a  TPM…
talkingpointsmemo.com
Newsom restores floodplain funds, adds $290 million to flood control budget
Newsom restores floodplain funds, adds $290 million to flood control budget
After widespread, bipartisan criticism, the governor revised his budget to include $40 million to restore San Joaquin Valley floodplains.
calmatters.org
New Study Finds a High Minimum Wages Creates Jobs
New Study Finds a High Minimum Wages Creates Jobs
Conventional wisdom had long suggested the opposite.
nymag.com
Spiraling in San Francisco?s Doom Loop
Spiraling in San Francisco’s Doom Loop
What it’s like to live in a city that no longer believes its problems can be fixed.
www.curbed.com
San Diego to open homeless camp sites at two parking lots near Balboa Park
San Diego to open homeless camp sites at two parking lots near Balboa Park
The two lots could accommodate about 500 tents and would be an alternative to congregate shelters
www.sandiegouniontribune.com
K-12 enrollment: Does the increase in homeless students indicate a worsening trend?
K-12 enrollment: Does the increase in homeless students indicate a worsening trend?
California’s overall K-12 enrollment declined, but a lack of affordable housing may be fueling an increase in homeless students.
calmatters.org
Sugar Justice: The Clarence Thomas Story
Sugar Justice: The Clarence Thomas Story
Did you see the latest Clarence Thomas bombshell? To head off any…
talkingpointsmemo.com
California's colossal snowpack has yet to melt: 'Less and less places for that water to go'
California’s colossal snowpack has yet to melt: ‘Less and less places for that water to go’
Only about 12 inches of Caliornia’s snow water equivalent melted in April, leaving most of the Sierra Nevada snowpack poised to flow down downhill.
www.latimes.com
The fastest-growing homeless population? Seniors
The fastest-growing homeless population? Seniors
Included in the increasing number of homeless seniors are those experiencing homelessness for the first time after age 50.
calmatters.org
Perspective | The greatest bird artist you?ve never heard of
Perspective | The greatest bird artist you’ve never heard of
Rex Brasher painted more birds than Audubon, and he never owned slaves.
www.washingtonpost.com

Find us on Facebook

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design