The word for the day is “plebs”

February 18th, 2026

Ridgecrest California

Publisher’s Note: Today is a good day to get you up to speed on all the news concerning the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority, including the controversy surrounding the three stooges from the City of Ridgecrest, Ron Strand, Kyle Blades and Scott Hayman, who snuck up to Sacramento with a bogus letter in their hands and where Councilman Kyle Blades gave misleading testimony stating that the City of Ridgecrest supported Assembly Bill 1413.

Nothing ever came of complaints to the Kern County District Attorney regarding Brown Act violations, and the while the city has never voted for or against AB 1413 either in open or closed sessions, the bill sits in limbo and there’s been no action to pass the final version for it to be sent to Governor Newsom for his signature. So don’t worry Ridgecrest, be happy!

The Statement below was read to the City Council during the public comment period of tonight’s meeting. The archived video of the meeting will be posted here after the video becomes available on the city’s YouTube channel.

Conflict of Interest – Mayor Travis Endicott and Councilman Kyle Blades

The City has now been advised and has effectively acknowledged that both Councilman Kyle Blades and Mayor Travis Endicott are prohibited from taking any action in any matters regarding the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority and Mayor Travis Endicott has been removed from representing the city at the mediation table.

An inherent conflict of interest existed on any prior actions, and it exists on any future actions by Navy’s employees that are elected to the Ridgecrest City Council. Most importantly, Blades and Endicott. via their employment with the Navy, have a fundamental conflict of interest in any and all matters concerning the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. Neither of them should participate in closed sessions and they should not discuss or vote on matters wherein the IWV Groundwater Authority is on the closed session agenda. They cannot participate in any discussion or vote on any matters concerning the GA in open sessions either.

Conflicts of interest have been one of the objections that many of Ridgecrest’s residents have when it comes to active Navy employees who are elected to the City Council. From the moment Kyle Blades was appointed to the council, a conflict of interest existed between him as a council member and the Navy. As council members, Navy employees have an inherent conflict of interest on any number of issues between the City and the Navy, especially concerning water rights and the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. They also have a conflict of interest with their boss when it comes to their property rights if they own real estate in the Indian Wells Valley. It’s become apparent that Kyle Blades doesn’t know what’s good for him or for that matter, any of the property owners in the IWV. To put it another way, the Navy’s best interests concerning water rights are factually contrary to the best interests of the people that own real estate in the Indian Wells Valley, whether they work for the Navy or not. Period.

SGMA fundamentally undermines private property rights AND the water rights thereto. Full stop. The Navy’s assertion of federal reserve water rights has been codified as “shall be respected” in section 10720.3 of SGMA, and the Navy’s assertion of a federally reserved water right equal to the entire RECHARGE* of water in the basin, which was estimated to be 7,650 acre feet per year, was legally adjudicated to be illegal and the judge in the case reduced the Navy’s water right to 2,008 acre feet per year in the Phase One portion of the comprehensive adjudication lawsuit. The judge respected Navy’s federal reserve water rights only to the extent of the amount of water needed to perform the Navy’s mission at China Lake.

The law firm representing both the City of Ridgecrest and the IWV Groundwater Authority should be fired. City Attorneys Keith Lemieux and Phill Hall have exposed the City of Ridgecrest to both civil liabilities for monetary damages as well as criminal liabilities to council members for their actions on behalf of the city concerning AB 1413. They failed in their duty to protect the city from liability by allowing this conflict-of-interest charade to continue while their “legal strategy” has backfired. Finally, they’ve exposed the City of Ridgecrest to serious liability for millions in damages incurred by the city’s residents who are also water district customers as well as damages to every single property owner in the Indian Wells Valley.

Mike Sinnott, former valley resident.

*The actual term used for purposes of the legal issues concerning SGMA and the hydrogeologic science is called “Safe Yield”.

What fun! Mediation Begins Today

Talk about “Undesirable Results”. The mediation effort between the Indian Wells Valley’s groundwater pumpers and the IWV Groundwater Authority begins today. And the Navy has totally screwed things up. Paging Mick Gleason. Paging Mick Gleason. Please pick up the red phone.

On one side of the mediation table, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority will have former police chief turned city manager turned “water consultant” Ron Strand hiding in a back room. Mr. Strand (Ron) is currently one of the highest paid retirees on the CalPERS list of fat cats, slumlords and beneficiaries of government largesse, and now the city is paying him $150/hr. to muck things up while holding GA Chair/Councilman Scott Hayman’s soft lotion-soaked hands.

Strand will also be providing aid and comfort to the very weak and compromised Councilman Solomon Rajaratnam who will be replacing Mayor Endicott at the mediation table. Solomon is the business management guy at Desert Valleys Federal Credit Union, the lair of the despised Eric “Former Mayor” Bruen, CEO. You remember him, don’t you? The quirky vax-mandator has been rather quiet lately and has taken down his fundraising link on his political Facebook page. We understand he’ll be installing a new surveillance app on Rajaratnam’s smartphone instead of constantly breathing hot air down the poor guy’s neck.

Payback is hell for Mayor Travis Endicott. How dare he roll into town and take the mayor’s seat from Bruen. Who knows what the Navy’s thinking? They don’t tell us anything, while the city council, Ron Strand and the GA warn us that the national security is threatened because the IWV is running out of water! Does that give them the right to lie and cheat and do everything they do in secrecy behind closed doors?

Of course not, the Navy isn’t running out of water, the Water District isn’t a national security threat, and neither are the good people of the Indian Wells Valley. The only one lining up anti-ICE protests and threatening national security would be 50501 Brenda, who’s also a Navy employee. The city would cut off your supply of electricity, take your first-born and force you into bankruptcy if the Navy wanted them to. In any case, Strand will continue building his empire and planning his imported water pipeline while buying distressed houses from fired Searles Valley Minerals employees and preparing for his next scheme (which will be running for city council). Just you watch plebs!

Haven’t “We the People” had enough? Apparently not, so to insure they can infest City Hall for longer than 8 years, the happy clowns of Ridgecrest have come up with a new reason to change the term limit law now on the books; a little tweak that’ll give Councilmen Kyle Blades, Hayman and Rajaratnam the opportunity to extend your misery for another 4 years beyond the 8 year limit. Isn’t that sweet? Enjoy that “replenishment fee free water” while you still can.

Tune in tonight at 1800 hours to watch the never-ending clownishness in the company town of Navy. We’ll post some updates if there’s anything to report after the meeting.