July 16, 2025 (Ridgecrest City Council Meeting)

Ridgecrest California

Update July 18th, 2025

The Daily Independent is reporting on the Ridgecrest City Council meeting that took place on Wednesday night. Aaron Crutchfield reports that Kern County Attorney Phill Hall is no longer listed on the Kern County Counsel’s page:

Support for Assembly bills, attorney-client privilege take center stage at council again

“A quick check of the Kern County Counsel’s page shows Hall no longer listed among the five attorneys.”

Update July 21st, 2025, regarding Phill Hall: a Public Records Act request was filed with the Kern County Counsel’s Office on July 19, 2025, and they replied to the request: They can state that “Phill Hall is a Deputy County Counsel currently employed by Kern County”.

Phill Hall wasn’t in attendance during the all-important July 16th, 2025, IWV Groundwater Authority meeting coming in the wake of the lambasting of Supervisor Phillip Peters by Senator Shannon Grove at the Senate Water and Natural Resources hearing on AB 1413 and AB 1466:

During Wednesday’s meeting, Councilman Skip Gorman attempted to propose a future agenda item a second time concerning the two “amendments” to California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, AB 1413 and AB 1466, to be added to the meeting to be held on August 6th. After a lengthy discussion with the City Attorney on the live screen, Mayor Travis Endicott saw that three council members would not support placing the item on a future agenda and Councilman Skip Gorman then withdrew his motion.

Publisher’s Note: The video from the meeting is below. A lengthy discussion on Future Agenda items is timestamped to begin the video at 2:18:10 (Future Agenda items).

Next month, the council will discuss rules for introducing agenda items after City Clerk Ricca Charlon blocked discussion of AB 1413 and AB 1416 in a previous meeting by using “consensus” as the criteria for putting the bills on the agenda for a vote. The City has no established rules for council members that wish to have an item added to a future meeting agenda.

Rules for placing agenda items will be discussed at the August 20th meeting. For more information on Kern County Attorney Phill Hall, the county attorney who’s been working on the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority for many years, please see:

Below is State Senator Shannon Grove holding up the letter that was hand carried by Ron Strand, Kyle Blades and Scott Hayman which was a gross misrepresentation that the City of Ridgecrest approved of AB 1413 and 1466. Kern County Supervisor Phillip Peters looks on, with his back to the camera, just before Senator Grove pulled out her saber and cut his head off, metaphorically of course.

There is nothing of note on the Agenda, but Public Comments and Council Comments will hopefully provide some answers about the City’s actions now that AB 1413 and AB 1466 have passed during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting.

Today, the bills are on the way to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Unless the chair of the committee tables the bills, they’ll move on to the full senate for a vote, and if they pass the Senate, they’ll go to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk to be signed.

Some of the biggest associations in the state’s agriculture industry as well as the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Association of Realtors are said to be lining up to challenge the two “amendments” to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and the uncertainty caused by the bills will certainly place existing Groundwater Sustainability Plans in over a hundred GSA managed basins in limbo.

Many GSA’s (Groundwater Sustainability Agencies) lined up in opposition to the two bills for good reason.

They bypass judicial adjudication of such things as sustainable yield, groundwater in storage and basin recharge, giving GSA’s the power to essentially set the numbers in concrete, which in some cases are based on old science and poor modeling, with no judicial review.

Last week, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-16) said “SGMA is a failed experiment” during the hearing of the Natural Resources and Water Committee. “SGMA was a well-intentioned law. It is a failed experiment. It’s created winners and losers. If you have money, you have power. We’re seeing a lot more fallowed land, and I believe it’s creating more Valley Fever. This issue has to be figured out sooner than later,” said Hurtado.

Last week, Senator Shannon Grove (R-12) lambasted her friend, Kern County Supervisor Philip Peters, at the same July 10th committee meeting. Here’s the write-up in the Daily Independent (Subsription required):

Grove lambastes Peters, Ridgecrest City Council during hearing as water bill advances By Aaron Crutchfield July 10, 2025

And here’s our opinion which you can read and share freely:

Of course, we’ve been sharing all of the shenanigans of the Ridgecrest City Council, the City Manager Ron Strand, the City Clerk Ricca Charlon and the attorneys at the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority very freely with the Kern County District Attorney, and you can read all of our posts in the Chronology mega-post here:

: Begin Public Comment

There’s no doubt that the City Manager of Ridgecrest thinks the people that live in the Indian Wells Valley are stupid. Last week, Ron Strand sent an “Op-Ed” to the Daily Independent essentially saying that the people who live in Inyokern and have wells should’ve been paying attention a few years ago and today their water rights are under threat.

He says that “if you live on acreage and rely on a private well in the Indian Wells Valley, your water rights may be under threat, and most don’t realize it.”

Maybe Ron Strand doesn’t realize that he’s lying to you. How many times does he have to be told that your water rights are not under threat. The only thing that’s under threat is how much of your water you can use for whatever purpose you want without paying a hefty fee to the Groundwater Authority.

If anything, deminimus well owners have nothing to worry about, as long as the City and the Groundwater Authority don’t try to force you into submission with well registration and monitoring of your well’s pumping volume.

And don’t think they won’t try once they get done pushing an unnecessary $400 million pipeline down the throats of everyone in the Indian Wells Valley, just so they can build more houses and hamburger fast food operations. The city wants more growth and wants to annex land on Highway 395, and they want to collect more sales taxes and hire more police officers and issue more citations for any reason under the sun. Ron calls it grabbing more sales taxes.

Ron Strand says that “Private well owners have spent thousands to drill and maintain their own supply. These self-reliant individuals now face a serious risk to that independence.”

Can you believe that? Who on earth thinks Ron Strand gives a damn about self-reliant individuals facing a risk to their independence. The only risk to your independence occurs when you drive into the City of Ridgecrest where you’re watched 24 hours a day by cameras reading your license plates.

Ron Strand doesn’t realize that the small property owners with their small wells don’t want to have anything to do with the City of Ridgecrest. Who wants to be tracked by License Plate Readers or pulled over for the slightest of infractions by the Ridgecrest Police Department? I don’t, and neither does anyone else. Ron Strand will tell you he’s keeping you safe.

I didn’t read Ron Strands entire Op-Ed. These comments cover only his first two paragraphs. Good bye for now and good luck to the Indian Wells Valley. Someday soon, you’ll be able to say goodbye to Ron Strand. That day can’t come soon enough.

: End Public Comment