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Lemoore council approves amendment to South Fork Kings GSA JPA to add two grower seats
Summary
On March 4 the Lemoore City Council unanimously approved the city’s consent to a first amendment to the joint powers agreement forming the South Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency, adding two grower-appointed board seats intended to improve representation for largely unrepresented acreage in the basin.
Lemoore City Council on March 4 approved the city’s consent to the first amendment to the joint powers agreement forming the South Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), adding two grower-appointed seats to the JPA board. The motion passed 5-0.
Council members and GSA representatives spent roughly 40 minutes discussing how the amendment would change board composition, who would qualify for the new seats and what voting rules would remain in place. GSA representatives said the two new seats must be held by landowners from areas they described as currently underrepresented and that the seats would be appointed by the existing GSA board.
Supporters said the change aims to improve representation for tens of thousands of acres the GSA currently assesses but that do not have a direct board seat. “We have 48,000 acres, but people that are affected by SGMA are gonna be paying to implement SGMA who have no representation on the board,” a GSA representative said during the meeting. He added the amendment is designed to allow two additional seats “to get fairness” for landowners in those areas.
Council members pressed for procedural and safeguards details. The GSA representative said the JPA already requires a supermajority for significant actions; under the current structure that threshold is 4 of 5 members, and with the addition of two seats it would change to 5 of 7 for major decisions such as amendments to the groundwater sustainability plan or financial transactions above specified limits. “All significant decisions require a super majority vote,” the representative said. He also told the council that amendments to the JPA require unanimous approval by all five public-agency parties to the agreement before the change can take effect.
Council Member Gornick moved to approve the city’s consent to the amendment; Council Member Brewster seconded. The council recorded five yes votes and the amendment passed the Lemoore City Council 5-0. The representative told the council that Stratford Irrigation District and Empire-area interests had already approved the amendment and that the remaining parties to the JPA still must vote, and that the amendment becomes effective only after every public-agency member of the JPA votes to approve it.
The representatives said the change is part of broader efforts to rewrite the GSA’s groundwater sustainability plan and to secure landowner buy-in for measures the plan will require, including metering and allocation. They repeatedly characterized the process as contentious and difficult and said building grower and landowner trust was a key motivation for the amendment.
No timeline for implementation was given beyond the requirement that all five public-agency boards approve the change. The council did not attach conditions to its approval during the March 4 meeting.
Background: the discussion referenced the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) as the regulatory context for GSAs and for the need to achieve buy-in from landowners affected by assessments and potential restrictions. The council discussion also noted that certain decisions in the JPA require supermajority approval and that appointment rules for the two new seats would restrict eligibility to landowners from the unrepresented geographic areas described by the GSA representatives.
The council moved into other business after the vote; the amendment will not take effect until the other GSA member agencies complete their required approvals.
