Group of farmers investing heavily to oust current IID board members
A group of 22 farmers and agricultural-related businesses have poured in more than $70,000 this election season in an effort to defeat two of the three current Imperial Irrigation District directors in the upcoming June 5 election.
Most of the farmers have contributed an average of $3,000 each to the political action committee named Imperial Valley First.
The group itself has not endorsed any candidate.
All of the funds collected have been used primarily to send mass mailers to the voters urging them not to vote for either Division 3 Director Jim Hanks or Division 5 Director Norma Sierra Galindo.
Initially, the group also opposed Division 1 Director Juanita Salas, but in the most recent financial filings in the second half of May, the group changed its full name to “Imperial Valley First, Opposing Hanks and Galindo, Supporting Salas for Imperial Irrigation District 2018.”
The list of the group’s contributors include: TruSource LLC, Jack Bros. Inc., Lantana Farms, Far West Ranches, Vessey & Co., Veysey Farms LLC, Artesia Farms, Steven Dahm, Del Sol Farms, Horizon Farms, Ronald Leimgruber Farms, Vail Ranches LLC, Elmore C-O, J. Emmanuelli & Sons Inc., Paul Cameron, Ametza LLC, Jerry Preece Jr. Farms, Mainas Farms, MVG Farms, Westmorland Farming, Michael W. Morgan Ranches and Foster Feed Yard.
The contributors are listed in the group’s 496 financial contribution reports filed at the Imperial County Elections Department.
The information provided includes all contributions made up to May 29.
“Imperial Valley First is trying to buy this election because they want to control the board and the IID’s water rights. They are targeting me because I’m standing up for the public and not catering to special interests,” Hanks said.
Despite all of the money spent, the group has not disclosed exactly why they want to unseat the current directors. On Friday, the Imperial Valley Press sent a request for comment to the group’s treasurer David Bauer and Jack Vessey, President of Vessey & Co., whose business address is listed on the forms. Neither request was returned before press time.
Ronald Leimgruber, one of the contributors to the group, told the Desert Sun that the group’s main goal is to tie the water to the land. He said he felt the IID’s water allocation plan, which was successfully challenged in court last year, gave the IID board too much power.
“If you allow the five-member political board to have 100 percent discretion on the water that the Supreme Court ruled allocated to the land, then all an outside interest has to come and do is buy off three board members with some political favors, and you can transfer the water anywhere you want,” Leimgruber told the Desert Sun. “If you tie the water to the land, it never leaves Imperial Valley, because the land’s not moving.”
The timing of the efforts to remove at least two of the current board members comes at a crucial time for the agency, which is currently challenging the ruling made by the Superior Court in the Abatti case. The district has filed an appeal in appellate court seeking to overturn the ruling.
IID is also facing pressure from the federal government to participate in the creation of a drought contingency plan to store more water at Lake Mead. Simultaneously, IID has continued its efforts to put pressure on the state of California to expedite the construction of dust-suppression projects in and around the Salton Sea.
Those challenges elevate what is at stake on Tuesday.
Galindo said she was pressured to vote against the appeal and believes the actions from Imperial Valley First have everything to do with the board’s decision to appeal the ruling on the Abatti case.
She said it’s concerning the amount of money the group is spending to try to unseat her and Hanks.
“(I’m) quite concerned because we don’t have the resources to defend ourselves; however, I believe the voters will see through the personal attacks,” Galindo said.
This is not the first time the core group of farmers has banded together to oppose IID incumbents.
In 2012, the group spent more than $114,650 to successfully unseat the members of the board at the time, Stella Mendoza and John Pierre Menvielle.
Menvielle said the opposition to Hanks and Galindo is more closely associated with differences in ideology more than a singular issue.
“Because Hanks and Galindo don’t agree with their thinking they want to remove them from the IID board,” Menvielle said. “They want to tie the water to the land so they can get control of the water. They need to remember the IID is a public agency and not a private business.”
The most concerning issue Menvielle sees with the latest attacks is the spreading of what he says is false information about the candidates.
“The unfortunate thing is that some of the information their spreading is essentially fake news,” he said. “They did the same thing with me back in 2012. They put out a bunch of lies, and unfortunately the voters believed them. The beef they had with me is that I wasn’t their puppet, and I wasn’t doing what they wanted me to do.”
At least 10 of the farmers who are financing Imperial Valley First this time also funded the group in 2012.
“This election can be the end of the Imperial Valley as we know it. If the water rights fall into private hands, they’d decide the price and destination of this precious resource,” Galindo said.
In addition to the $70,000 Imperial Valley First has garnered from local farmers, some of them have independently contributed to the campaigns of Raul Navarro who is challenging Hanks in Division 3, and to Alex Cardenas who is challenging Salas in Division 1.
Six of the Imperial Valley First farmers contributed a total of $3,500 for Navarro. Michael Morgan, Howard Elmore of Veil Farms, Veysey Farms (listed as Veysey Enterprises), Elmore C-O and Manuel Castro of Del Sol farms contributed $500, and Paul Cameron an additional $1,000 toward Navarro’s campaign, according to campaign filings.
According to Cardenas’ financial disclosure filings, he received a total of $4,000 toward his campaign from farmers associated with Imperial Valley First, including Lantana Farms, Jack Brothers Inc. and Paul Cameron.
His competitor in that race, incumbent Salas, was first among the board members the group opposed, but the stance of the group changed to support her.
Although her financial disclosures forms do not list any members of Imperial Valley First in her April filings, those from May were not available as of May 31, and it could not be verified if anyone from the group has contributed to her campaign after April 21.
In February, Salas was the sole board member who asked for the appeal of the Abatti case be withdrawn, an effort that failed. Last month Salas asked her fellow board members to consider forming a subcommittee to iron out issues with farming groups, but her proposal was rejected during the May 22 meeting.
Other contributors The farmers associated with Imperial Valley First are not the only ones getting involved in financial backing of candidates, Rothfleisch Ranches Inc. contributed $4,000 to Cardenas, while Kalin Farms and Colace Ranch pitched in $500 each for his campaign.
In Division 3, Navarro also received a $500 contribution from WestGro Farms. Although West-Gro is not part of the contributors to Imperial Valley First this year, it did contribute $3,000 back in 2012. Hanks received $2,500 from Calipatria citrus grower Mark McBroom. In Division 5, Director Galindo received two small contributions from Kalin Farms and Mark Osterkamp Ranches for $500 each, according to campaign filings.
According to Imperial Valley First PAC filings, through May 19, the group reported to have spent $13,133 opposing Salas and Galindo each, in addition to $17,670 opposing Hanks.