In a move very likely to revive local controversies and bitter memories, Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) water attorney Tim O’Laughlin has been hired by Trinitas Partners to manage its huge Hawaiian farming operation in Maui, where it’s known as “Mahi Pono.” Now an entity with too many names and subsidiaries to list, Trinitas/Mahi Pono recently purchased 56,000 acres in Maui for $267 million from sugar cane growers Alexander & Baldwin. […]
Oakdale Irrigation District water sales
Another Huge Loss for Oakdale Irrigation District
For any other public entity, the loss suffered on November 27 by Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) in Fresno’s Fifth Appellate District Court would amount to a wake-up call, but given the resistance to facts of three of its board members, General Manager and water attorney, it’s unlikely any of them will come away with a lesson learned. This, after all, is the water district whose own attorney told them they […]
Why Jeff Denham Wants the Twin Tunnels
Jeff Denham’s California Congressional District 10 is purple—it’s almost equally divided between red (for Republican) and blue (for Democrat) voters. But despite the almost equal balance between Republicans and Democrats in his district, Jeff Denham votes with his Republican Party 97.8% of the time. Just for comparison’s sake, consider Representative Tom McClintock, Denham’s Republican colleague in nearby District 4. Even though his district leans far more heavily Republican than Denham’s […]
Notions of Surplus Water a Costly Mirage
According to UC Davis, 99,000 residents of the San Joaquin Valley have unsafe drinking water. Even more alarming, a recent study by the University of Michigan “predicts that ‘the percentage of U.S. households who will find water bills unaffordable could triple from 11.9% to 35.6%” over the next five years.’” Many people who lack safe drinking water aren’t far from water utilities, but simply lack the infrastructure that would bring […]
Want water? “Donors first,” says Jeff Denham
Ordinarily, a Beverly Hills billionaire, a Sacramento attorney, and an Oakdale farmer wouldn’t have much in common, but politics, water, and money are the ties that bind Stewart Resnick, Tim O’Laughlin, and John Brichetto to Congressman Jeff Denham. Brichetto is the only one of the three who lives in Denham’s district (CA-10), but as one of the largest independent landowners within the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID), Brichetto provides the loudest […]
Valley Water, Valley Politics: A Fact Pattern
An acre foot of water is the amount of water that it takes to occupy an acre of land at one foot deep. It’s generally assumed that a family of four in a water-rich region will use about one acre foot of water per year; two families can use the same amount if conserving water carefully. Just the facts: Because it provides water to district farmers at well below the […]
Oakdale Water Sale Illegal, says Attorney
“It will probably be some shady deal again.” Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) water attorney Tim O’Laughlin is fond of reminding people he’s one of the best water attorneys in the west. During a recent OID Board meeting, he told Director Linda Santos that he’s also an expert on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). It was a bold statement from a man who just last year not only lost OID’s […]
More Court Time for the Water District?
Tuesday morning, by a 3-2 vote, the Oakdale Irrigation District Board of Directors (OID) approved a proposal to sell $10 million of surplus water outside the district. As usual, the two directors against the proposal were Gail Altieri and Linda Santos, who have the singular distinction of having been sued by their own board, not long after both were elected by overwhelming margins in 2015. Tuesday’s meeting featured the usual […]
Judge Calls Water District’s Bluff: “It is not even close.”
At one point during the conflict between the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) and the Oakdale Groundwater Alliance (OGA), Judge Roger Beauchesne scolded OID attorneys for their use of ad hominem tactics, reminding them that personal attacks are usually attempts to hide weak arguments. But it turns out personal attacks were all OID attorneys could offer when the district’s fallowing program was challenged under the authority of the California Environmental Quality […]
Stench Rises over OID 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 […]