Golden Hills water rights issue tabled

The final regular meeting for two members of the Board of Directors of Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District was a quick one, with little business conducted.

Director James Pack served eight years on the board and Director Kathy Cassil served four years. Both opted not to run for reelection.

At the Nov. 16 meeting, board President Robert Schultz and the district’s General Manager Tom Neisler both thanked the two for their service on the board. Neisler said he hopes they will attend the December meeting at which the district will transition to a new board.

The results of the Nov. 8 election are not yet official, but it appears that Schultz was reelected in Division 5 and that Delbert Jones was elected to the Division 3 seat currently held by Pack. Joseph Sasia, the only person to file for election from Division 1, will take over Cassil’s seat.

Directors Jonathan Hall and Rick Zanutto, representing Divisions 2 and 4, respectively, have two years remaining on their terms. Zanutto was not present at the Nov. 16 meeting.

Neisler announced that Operations Manager Jon Curry recently completed a year-long leadership program sponsored by the Association of California Water Agencies — Joint Powers Insurance Association.

On the agenda for the meeting — but tabled until December — was an item requested by Cassil on water rights.

According to Neisler, the director has asserted that the district took action to extinguish, abandon or otherwise deprive Golden Hills Community Services District of the rights to 10 acre feet of base water rights that the CSD allegedly purchased from Jack Iriart in 1979. He said he has met with Cassil and Golden Hills General Manager Susan Wells to discuss the issue a number of times.

“I have continuously maintained that TCCWD took no such action and simply responded to the information that was provided to our district, in our role as watermaster, at the time the information was available,” Neisler said in a staff report

Robert Kuhs, the district’s legal counsel, had advised that if the matter was to be discussed at the Nov. 16 meeting, Cassil should step down from the dais and address the board as a member of the public, not as a member of the board. That won’t be an issue in December, as she will no longer be a board member. Cassil previously requested that the matter be discussed in closed session. Kuhs, however, advised the board that the issues she raised do not appear to fall within any of the closed session exceptions to the Brown Act.

The director provided documents she believes support her contention that 10 acre feet of water rights was taken from Golden Hills inappropriately in 2014.