Lemoore City Council approves Leprino agreement and okays district election map changes

By Ed Martin, Editor
Lemoore's wastewater treatment plant adjacent to Iona Avenue and the Lemoore Golf Course.
Lemoore's wastewater treatment plant adjacent to Iona Avenue and the Lemoore Golf Course.

Lemoore’s century-long adherence to at-large voting appears to be coming to an end. The Lemoore City Council, at its Tuesday, March 6 meeting, approved an ordinance requiring a move to district elections.

However, it will take a final reading of the ordinance at their next council meeting to finalize the move.

Councilmembers voted 4-0 (Councilmember Eddie Neal was absent) to approve the change amid little if any public discourse. During a public hearing Tuesday night, not one person spoke about the expected move.

Since 1901 Lemoore conducted at-large elections, meaning that voters from the entire community choose each member of the council, and despite a history of inclusionary voting – minority candidates have been regularly elected to the city council – the current leadership opted to transition to district elections to sidestep possible future lawsuits.

After several required public hearings city officials hired a demographer to create new district maps, dividing the city into five separate areas, which the council approved at its Tuesday meeting. The five districts would each have one councilmember who resides in the community and would be elected by its residents.

The first district elections will occur in November when Mayor Ray Madrigal and Councilmember Jeff Chedester will be facing re-election. They will both run in their newly formed districts.

The City of Lemoore and Leprino Foods Agreement

City officials and Lemoore’s largest employer, Leprino Foods, have agreed to a cost-sharing and lease agreement plan to pay for the discharge of the city and Leprino wastewater.  Leprino currently operates two cheese manufacturing plants in Lemoore, including the world’s largest mozzarella cheese facility. Together the two plants generate approximately 2.75 million gallons of wastewater per day currently treated at Leprino’s wastewater treatment facility at 1250 S. 19th Avenue in Lemoore. This treated wastewater is referred to as “city water.”

Leprino conveys the Leprino water to the city’s wastewater treatment facility where the city combines it with the city water, which in turn is referred to as discharge water.

The issue?  For decades the City of Lemoore has sent its discharge water (the water treated by the city’s treatment plant) via a six-mile pipeline to Westlake Farms, a large farm once owned primarily by the Howe family, a long-time respected farming clan in the Lemoore and Stratford area. The discharge water was used to irrigate Westlake’s cotton fields.

In 1996 Lemoore entered into a Water Acceptance and Conjunctive Use Agreement, a contract that required Westlake to pay the City $1.50 per acre-foot for the water, and to continue accepting the discharge water through 2046.

Lemoore City Council approves Leprino agreement and okays district election map changes

Recently Westlake sold much of its property to Sandridge Partners, its principal owner John Vidovich, a somewhat controversial figure in Kings County. According to City of Lemoore documents Westlake “conveyed” the property and the 1996 agreement between Westlake and the City of Lemoore to a tenancy giving 80 percent of Westlake’s ownership to Sandridge Partners.

Lemoore City Council approves Leprino agreement and okays district election map changes

Sandridge currently manages the property and recently claimed that the quality of the discharge water delivered by Lemoore does not meet the standards required under the 1996 agreement, which resulted in a dispute with the City of Lemoore and Leprino Foods.

It’s unknown what prompted the claim that the city’s discharge water failed to meet standards.

Vidovich is a multi-millionaire who farms thousands of acres of pistachios, grapes, almonds and other crops. He’s also a purveyor of water and has been buying land in the Valley for more than 20 years. According to the Bakersfield Californian, Sandridge owns about 82,000 acres in Kings County, and in 2009 he sold rights to more than 14,000  acre-feet of Kings County water to the Mojave Water Agency in San Bernardino for $73 million. According to the Californian, it was a permanent water loss for Kings County.

To resolve the current dispute, Leprino and Sandridge entered into an agreement, the 2018 Water Conveyance, Acceptance, Release, Pipeline Construction, and Farm Lease Agreement. This agreement mandates that Westlake and Sandridge will continue to take Lemoore and Leprino wastewater in exchange for promises including Leprino’s obligation to manage the water and lease land owned by Sandridge which will become the new discharge property.

“Sandridge Partners demanded a change in the agreement.” Said Lemoore City Manager Nathan Olson at Tuesday’s council meeting.  We have to have these agreements signed by March 12.”

To make the agreement work, Sandridge, Leprino, and the City need to enter into agreements regarding the transportation of the wastewater through the pipeline owned by the city and the cost for management of the water.

Leprino will also farm the leased property in question.

The agreement between just Leprino and Sandridge mandates the following:

  • Leprino agrees to compensate Sandridge for accepting water from May 2017 to June 2018 (at a rate of $150 per acre-foot)
  • Leprino will lease 4,000-plus acres of farmland east of Kettleman City for up to 34 years ($960,000 per year)
  • Envisions Leprino operating a farm to grow forage crops to help offset its costs
  • Will utilize much of the existing water conveyance system (minimizing costs), but does require the installation of a three-plus mile pipeline (additional pipeline not to exceed $2,866,986)

The Sandridge-Leprino partnership mandates a commitment from the City of Lemoore to share in lease payments, water conveyance costs, and capital costs to dispose of water. Leprino will pay the full price of operating the proposed farm on the discharge site (farm labor, see, fertilizer, etc.) but keeps any revenue generated from crops.

What’s it going to cost Lemoore?

According to a presentation by Olson, it could get expensive for Lemoore. For example, a one-time cost to build a new pipeline connecting the existing conveyance system to Leprino’s new farm site could cost $2,866,986. Lemoore’s share would be $1,032,115 while Leprino’s share of the cost: $1,748,861.

Total one-time cost sharing, including water disposal and canal maintenance, brings the total to $2,317,878.

The City of Lemoore has also agreed to share annual lease payments, annual pipeline maintenance, and pumping electricity costs, amounting to $421,200 annually. Leprino’s annual share would be $658,800.

Lemoore's share of the agreement would come from the city's enterprise funds, fees paid by city water users.

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