By Lois Henry, SJV Water
A bill that will require groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) to publish the names of their directors and provide links to their financial interest statements was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
The new mandate wasn’t well received by some.
“We’re having all of our laundry put on display for everybody and I don’t think that’s right,” Craig Hornung, vice chair of the East Kaweah GSA, said at the GSA’s Oct. 27 meeting.
Form 700s, which require elected officials and agency executives to disclose their financial interests, including income, investments and property, are already required by the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
“It was one person with an incomplete Form 700, and I have no further comment.”
– East Kaweah board member Mike George on possible impetus for AB 293
Now, AB 293 by Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), will specifically require GSAs to link to the FPPC website to make it easier for the public to access that information.
Bennett told SJV Water he was inspired to write the bill after an Assembly research office had difficulty finding GSA board member names on the GSA websites.
But some in Tulare County focused on the Form 700 aspect of AB 293 and drew their own conclusions.
“It was one person with an incomplete Form 700, and I have no further comment,” said East Kaweah board member Mike George of his take on the possible impetus for the bill.
It’s unknown who George was referring to.
But last year, the FPPC found Eric Borba, former chair of the Eastern Tule GSA board, in violation of the state’s disclosure laws for not listing his ownership in several ditch companies on his Form 700s. Those shares give Borba access to significant amounts of surface water.
Borba was also in a position to help establish rules on how Eastern Tule farmers – including himself – would be allotted groundwater credits that could then be moved, traded or sold within the GSA.
The groundwater accounting method Borba and his fellow board members approved, gave Eastern Tule farmers far too many credits, according to a lawsuit by the Friant Water Authority, which claims the excessive credits incentivized more pumping further damaging the Friant-Kern Canal due to subsidence.
That accounting method also caught Tule subbasin farmer Bill Samarin’s attention. It was Samarin who blew the whistle on Borba’s Form 700 omissions, initiating the FPPC investigation in 2020.
In his complaint, Samarin noted that 94% of Eastern Tule farmers rely exclusively on groundwater.
When the Eastern Tule GSA board created a windfall of groundwater credits, it put the few farmers with surface water, including Borba, in a seller’s position with a captive market, according to Samarin’s complaint.
Borba declined to comment when contacted by SJV Water for this story.
Samarin felt Borba should have disclosed his water ownership rights before voting on Eastern Tule’s groundwater policies. The FPPC violations did not address conflict of interest, just the lack of disclosure.
Samarin, who has retired from farming, said he doesn’t feel AB 293 goes far enough. It should include a mandate that any violations committed by GSA board members be disclosed on GSA websites along with board members’ water use, he wrote in an email.
“I believe that water use information by officials within any particular GSA should be transparently published on GSA websites in a way that is easily visible and accessible to the general public,” Samarin added.
In 2024, SJV Water sought information on Borba’s groundwater credits, trades and sales under Govt. Code Sec. 7927.410(e) which states that information is public for “…any elected or appointed utility official with authority to determine the utility usage policies of the local agency.”
But the code section doesn’t extend to companies owned or controlled by those elected officials. Eastern Tule did not disclose groundwater credit information that may have been associated with Borba-owned companies.
When SJV Water asked Bennett if he was working on possible updates to that code section he replied: “Well, it’s on our radar screen now.”
The Eastern Tule GSA is in the process of being disbanded as all the surface water districts, including Porterville Irrigation District, which Borba chairs, left to become their own GSAs. Tulare County has since taken responsibility for the lands left out when those districts fled and formed a new GSA called the Tule East GSA.
• SJV Water reporter Lisa McEwen contributed to this story
