IID board votes against dive team’s reinstatement

EL CENTRO — The Imperial Irrigation District’s dive team will not be reinstated, and the district personnel will no longer directly engage in water rescue operations.

The IID Board of Directors voted 3-2 on Tuesday not to reinstate the team, which had been suspended since the death of one of its members in October. The board later unanimously passed a subsequent motion to end the team’s designation as a rescue team.

After IID directors Norma Galindo, Alex Cardenas and Erik Ortega voted against directors Bruce Kuhn and James Hanks in reinstating the dive team, IID legal counsel Frank Oswalt said the board would have to come back at a future meeting to vote to disband the dive team entirely.

Members of the public attempted to speak before the vote, but Ortega told them the vote had just taken place.

Kuhn said it is no secret that he has been supporting the dive IID team ever since its inception.

“This has been hard times for this board and some of the public, and it probably still is,” Kuhn said before making his motion to reinstate the dive team

It was Hanks who suggested changing the team’s designation after the effort to reinstate it failed.

“My motion is to disband the dive team as a rescue team,” he said. “We have a dive team put on hold that is a rescue and recovery team, so the (suspended) recovery team is still in place.”

Hanks said IID did not have the finances available that would be necessary to protect the IID divers.

“Should we call it a rescue team or a recovery team?” Hanks asked.

He added other agencies in the county have dive teams, so IID having a one would be a duplication of efforts.

Galindo said what she would suggest to her colleagues is to wait to see if a consortium could be formed with another agency.

“We would like to find a solution to the problem because it is a problem,” she said. “We have yet to receive all of the information that is available.”

Oswalt said until the board takes action on the dive team at a future meeting the team will remain suspended.

“You need a motion to permanently disband the dive team,” Oswalt team.

Assistant IID General Manager Sergio Quiroz said there has been discussions with Imperial County Sheriff Ray Loera and Undersheriff Fred Miramontes about forming a consortium recovery dive team. He added the Sheriff’s Office has expressed an interest in doing this.

The IID rescue and recovery dive team was suspended after the October death of team member Jonathan Burnworth. He died while trying to secure hooks to a car submerged in a canal.

The IID board was advised to suspend the operations of the dive team until an investigation was completed. An autopsy revealed Burnworth suffered a heart attack underwater, and a subsequent CalOSHA report cleared IID of any wrongdoing.