October 14, 2026 (Originally published)

Updated October 15, 2026, at 5:33 a.m. PST

Indian Wells Valley California

The Indian Wells Valley held their monthly meeting today.

An interesting proposal by Supervisor Phillip Peters was placed on the table at the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority’s meeting. His commentary is included in the video below.

Peters proposed a major shift in budget priorities, from projects, to purchasing the water needed to comply with SGMA and to achieve sustainability. This is a major shift in strategy. Peters is suggesting that the purchase of water the valley needs should be the number one priority. Buy it and worry about transporting it later. He seems anxious to move on once the Phase Two “Safe Yield” trial is decided by Judge William D. Claster. That makes all the sense. How much water will the valley need to buy?

A short video of various highlights of the meeting can be found below, along with the full live feed video on YouTube. You can listen to Supervisor Peters comments in this video and judge for yourself. I may be wrong, but it sounds to me like the Stipulation Strategy is in play.

As usual, a frank discussion and public comments by Jennifer Slayton and your humble publisher are included in the video clips below.

Message From the Publisher to the Kern County District Attorney or the FBI:

The Board of Directors of the Groundwater Authority have been controlled primarily by attorney Keith Lemieux, former Ridgecrest city manager Ron Strand, and Councilman Scott Hayman for over seven years. They are primarily culpable for any misdeeds, misallocation or misappropriation of funds, and they have been vilifying the Indian Wells Valley Water District the entire time.

In my opinion, the city of Ridgecrest and its political leadership never intended to work with the water district, their goal was to consolidate the water district with the city in order to take full control over the valley’s groundwater basin. Before Ron Strand retired, he said that he spent “85% of his time” on the groundwater issue. For how long he didn’t say. Perhaps that is why the city is billing the GA with “blank” invoices totaling approximately $1.7 million?

A Brown Act violation? No, it’s not just a mere Brown Act violation. It’s much much more at the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. There must be consequences, and the GA isn’t off the hook. Sponsoring legislation is not a defense against violating the Brown Act, and nobody in the IWV was informed that the GA was undermining the due process of comprehensive adjudication by sponsoring AB 1413. Do you think Keith Lemieux, the city attorney and general counsel at the GA knew this? Who should we hold accountable?

Board and “Staff” of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority

John Vallejo is the alternate Board representative from Inyo County. The primary representative is Supervisor Will Waddleton. Vallejo’s an attorney too, and he should have known better. Sponsoring legislation is not a defense for violating the Brown Act or the misappropriating funds. His primary agenda is to keep the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority from encroaching on any water that might be supplied from Inyo County, which extends into the IWV groundwater subbasin from the Owens and Rose valley basins.

Tim Itnyre is the Chief of Staff for San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Cook and rarely if ever attends meetings in person. His location isn’t disclosed in the meeting minutes as required when performing his duties via phone.

To my knowledge, “Directors” Waddleton and Cook haven’t attended a GA meeting in many years.

The co-general counsels, Keith Lemiuex and/or Phill Hall, have never reported that actions were taken regarding sponsorship of AB 1413 and AB 1466 in a closed session. If they did, we can’t find where they did. The complete history of meeting minutes hasn’t been uploaded to the GA’s new website, and the first half of 2025 and everything prior is unavailable online as of today.

The first half of year 2025 meeting minutes was recently emailed to me by the General Manager. A complete review of the 2025 Board Meeting minutes and Board Packets has not been possible until this week.

The General Manager for the GA for many years was Carol Thomas-Keifer. She resigned from the position at some point in 2025. April Keigwin served as the Executive Secretary and is now the General Manager. They are both employed under a contract with Regional Government Services Authority. The Groundwater Authority rents a small space at the City of Ridgecrest’s city hall building.

Both the current representative and former representative from the water district have said they had no knowledge of the GA’s sponsorship activities prior to April 2025, and they are unable to participate in closed sessions of the Board of Directors. During the first part of the meeting, Director David Saint-Amand of the IWV Water District makes a statement to that effect. Former Director Chuck Griffin of the IWV Water District confirms that he had no knowledge and didn’t hear any report from the attorneys to that effect.

More information and contact information for the Board and Staff of the GA may be found here:

Please watch the video below for background and current issues:

We’d like to see this mess of a GSA put back in order, with transparency and openness being the first step.

They Broke the Law, YOU Broke the Law, Everyone’s Breaking the LAW!

GA Meeting FULL Live Feed Video:/

BEGIN Opening Public Comment to the IWV Groundwater Authority Board of Directors:

The GA sponsored AB 1413 and 1466.

Who authored the AB 1413?

I believe that you’ve violated the Brown Act. AB 1413 or AB 1466 were never on your agenda!

You sponsored legislation and you paid a lot of money to do so.

Sponsoring legislation is not a defense against violating the Brown Act.         

Your Lobbyist:

Michael McKinney of Capitol Core Group said he was paid by “both the city and the GA” to lobby for AB 1413.

Michael McKinney says that Department of Water Resources and State Water Board helped write AB 1413.

Michael McKinney is the GA and City’s legal “Agent”

Assembly Member Diane Papan did not author AB 1413.

Did Michael McKinney of Capitol Core Group lie about who authored AB 1413?

Did DWR and SWB actually help write the bills, “just short of an endorsement”?

I have news for you, it wasn’t Assembly member Diane Papan that authored AB 1413.

The Attorneys:

Attorney Keith Lemieux, an equity partner in Aleshire & Wynder, is supposed to be a Brown Act expert and it’s his job to keep you out of legal jeopordy (Legal malpractice) How’s he doing?

Why aren’t Keith Lemieux’s Invoices, totaling 1.7 million from City of Ridgecrest, itemized.

Don’t attorneys know how to itemize their invoices??

Was Phill Hall, now a partner at Aleshire & Wynder, the author of AB 1413 when he was the co-General Counsel at the GA when he was on loan from the Kern County Counsel’s office where he used to be a Deputy Kern County Counsel?

Board of Directors

Are the Board of Directors’ Negligent?

Don’t you have Fiduciary Duty to conduct Oversight on “Staff”

Who is responsible and how do we the people demand justice and consequences

What am I missing?…

What is needed is a forensic audit of the Replenishment Fees you’ve collected under Prop 218.

Have you been collecting all the fees legally? (No)

Have you misallocated funds?

Have you misappropriated funds?

How are you going to re-assess the replenishment fee if the only people paying the fee are customers of the water district?

I want to know: Have any “Board or Staff” been interviewed by DA or FBI?

Don’t you know “If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas”?

The Board of Directors is loaded with flees.

Thank you to the Kern County District Attorney for your attention to these matters.

Meeting Video is timestamped to begin at 7:02.

And you (the GA Board of Directors) broke the law (a more serious level of lawbreaking).

You all should have known better. Sponsorship of AB 1413 is not a defense for violating the Brown Act (and more).

Chairman Hayman, you violated my free-speech rights at the last meeting when let Keith Lemieux interrupt me during he report by Michael McKinney. I was then disconnected by the call-in operator. Keith Lemieux should be fired immediately. You’ve also been getting bad legal advice from Lemieux (everyone broke the law!).

April, please post the Minutes and Board Packets on the GA’s website as soon as possible. (2020 and prior, through 2024)

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Mike Sinnott

Cc: Kern County District Attorney

publisher@Roadrunner395.com