“SGMA is a failed experiment.” – Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-16)

October 17, 2026, Editorial by Mike Sinnott, Publisher of Roadrunner395.com

First Published: 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time

UPDATE October 17, 2026, 2:15 p.m. PST: Added the strongly worded letter from the Kern County District Attorney, Cynthia Zimmer. Please see below.

UPDATE October 17, 2026, 2:45 p.m. PST: Video of Comments at the October 14, 2026, Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority meeting.

Ridgecrest and the Indian Wells Valley in California

Publisher’s Note: I’ve attempted to contact all members of the Kern County Board of Supervisors as well as Senator Shannon Grove for comments prior to this weekend. None have returned my calls as of today. This is a breaking story, and this post will be updated and edited as needed.

Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer is in a predicament. What will she do? On one hand, Kern County Supervisor Phillip Peters is in a bit of hot water, but it’s not like that of former Kern County Supervisor District 2 Supervisor Zach Scrivner, which was a family matter. On the other hand, she has an agency called the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority with a board of directors that’s clearly violated the Brown Act (and much, much more) and Supervisor Peters of Bakersfield is on the Board of Directors at the Groundwater Authority.

The Brown Act violation is a prima facie case. It’s patently obvious what has happened. Sponsoring legislation is not a defense against violating California’s open meeting law. The “much, much more” side of the equation involves issues such as fraud, conspiracy, fiduciary negligence, misallocation and misappropriation of funds, violations of Proposition 218 spending and taxing authority etc. etc..

The Brown Act violations concerning AB 1413 and AB 1466 uncovered at the Groundwater Authority only scratched the surface. There are hundreds of millions of dollars involved, and had AB 1413 passed, billions and billions. If SGMA was a big deal, AB 1413 was even bigger. The Department of Water Resources, the California State Water Board and the Department of Justice all had a hand in writing the legislation*, and SGMA Director Paul Gosselin has been kept informed of developments in the Indian Wells Valley.

* Update: Capitol Core Group CEO Michael McKinney claimed in an email uncovered via a Public Records Act request, that attorneys at each of the departments or agencies contributed language to AB 1413, “just short of an endorsement”. See “Smoking Gun Evidence” below:

SGMA is already being called a “taking” under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, and had AB 1413 passed, it would have given over 90 Government Sustainability Agencies across the state near dictatorial control over groundwater pumping and private property rights, of which water rights are an inherent part. SGMA has not yet been challenged in a federal court as a taking, but once the large agriculture producers see what the intentions of the Department of Water Resources actually are, they might just decide to confront the beast of SGMA now rather than later when it’s too late and the damage has already been done.

Conspiracy to Commit Fraud is a federal crime, but the FBI is busy seeking out massive criminal fraud and corruption in the state, and they likely don’t have the time or the resources to investigate or prosecute anything out in Ridgecrest. It’s a very complicated set of circumstances.

Besides, if California’s Attorney General has enough time to prosecute the City of Ridgecrest for its failure to comply with the state’s housing “element” law, maybe, just maybe, Attorney General Rob Bonta will take some of the attorneys in his office, who are constantly hammering the Trump Administration, and send them down to investigate the Groundwater Authority. The Kern County DA’s office has done much of the legwork already.

predicament /prĭ-dĭk′ə-mənt/ noun

1. A situation, especially an unpleasant, troublesome, or trying one, from which extrication is difficult.
2. One of the basic states or classifications described by Aristotle into which all things can be placed; a category.
3. A class or kind described by any definite marks; hence, condition; particular situation or state; especially, an unfortunate or trying position or condition.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition • More at Wordnik

UPDATE October 17, 2026: Added the very strongly worded, crystal clear letter from the Kern County District Attorney, Cynthia Zimmer:

We’ll get right to the punchline from the bottom of page 6:

Conclusion: (Publisher’s emphasis added)

“The claim put forward by Councilmember Blades and Ron Strand, both in the letter and in Oral advocacy
asserting that the City of Ridgecrest was in support of passage of the legislation, to be true, should have
come with the backing ofa lawful vote by the Ridgecrest City Council. This investigation has concluded
that no such lawful vote was held. There certainly was no such vote in open session, and if a vote were
held in closed session, it would not be lawful, as taking a position in support of pending legislation is not
a pennitted purpose for a closed session. Such a vote, were it to be held, must have been held in open
session, with members of the community permitted to provide input.” –

Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer, October 12, 2026

What Will DA Zimmer do about this?

As Indian Wells Valley residents know full well, the Great Indian Wells Valley Water War has been running hot for over six years. The community of Ridgecrest is in an upheaval, and the surrounding towns of Trona and Inyokern have all been torn apart, friendships have been wrecked and millions of dollars have been spent already. A clear and present danger of more legal jeopardy for the politicians involved has and does exist.

Searles Valley Minerals, a mining company made famous during the era of the 20 mule teams, laid off half its workforce and filed for bankruptcy, and the valleys groundwater basin is in the middle of what’s called a comprehensive adjudication lawsuit.

No sooner than the ink was dry, when former Governor Jerry Brown signed California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), community leaders and a few grifters in Ridgecrest began plotting their next “strategy”, that being turning the small, dusty town into a thriving metropolis, or something like that.

Growth! Growth! We want Growth! Please Bring Us More Growth!

The City of Ridgecrest isn’t going to grow, it won’t happen anytime soon, and perhaps it never will. “Be happy with what you got” said the prophet from the comedy world, George Carlin.

“It ain’t gonna happen” as they say at the Indian Wells Valley Water District. What are they talking about? Water and growth, of course. You can’t have one without the other. They’re talking about a pipeline to import water so Ridgecrest can grow! It ain’t gonna happen. But don’t try telling the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority and the City of Ridgecrest the truth, they’ll hear none of it.

There’s another saying that’s popular in parts of the desert southwest, from the canyons in Arizona to the eastern Sierra Nevada and the valley called San Joaquin in California, “Whisky’s for drinkin’ and water’s for fightin'”. Unfortunately, when greed, corruption, and growth meets water, then water will most certainly win, especially when water is scarce and very expensive to acquire and import. This is the essence of the predicament the Indian Wells Valley finds itself in today. And water is winning.

Investigations (Bakersfield)

661-868-2340 extension 87620 – Public Integrity Unit

Lt. Perez – dperez@kernda.org

Re: Brown Act Violations and Conspiracy to Commit Fraud in the City of Ridgecrest AND the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority

Last week, the Kern County District Attorney issued a clear warning to the City of Ridgecrest that they violated the Brown Act when they engaged in actions to support AB 1413 and AB 1466. Zimmer elected to publish the results of her investigation for the public to prosecute the guilty parties politically. And that is what is happening today, right here, right now.

Acting on behalf of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority, which sponsored and likely wrote the legislation, the real bad actor in this phase of the water war is the Groundwater Authority. The guilty parties in Ridgecrest were acting on behalf of the GA. Here’s the latest controversy, and it’s coming down just weeks before the midterm election with a packed field of candidates running for the Ridgecrest city council. The former city manager of Ridgecrest, a central figure in the machinations of the GA, is a man by the name of Ron Strand. And he’s blaming the rest of the council and calling them liars for not supporting him.

What will Kern County DA Cynthia Zimmer do with her investigative file? She certainly can’t close the investigation. There should be no doubt at this point that laws have been broken, the question is how many?

The IWV Groundwater Authority is in extreme legal jeopardy today, and as the comprehensive adjudication Phase Two “safe yield” trial is stalled waiting for the appointment of a Special Master to assist Judge William D. Claster in making his decision, the attorneys for the GA are battening down the hatches, waiting for the shoe to drop.

It’s coming whether the Board of Directors at the GA like it or not. Will it be the FBI or California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta? Or will DA Zimmer decide that Kern County should continue the investigation?

The problem is that the Board of Directors of the GA aren’t directly elected by the people of the Indian Wells Valley. They’re appointed by the respective “Stakeholders” in the Indian Wells Valley’s groundwater basin. This is where it gets complicated. There is no accountability and no recourse when laws are broken, other than through the courts, the district attorneys or the state attorney general’s office.

The Board of Directors consists of representatives from Kern County, San Bernardino County, Inyo County, the City of Ridgecrest and our friends and neighbors at the Indian Wells Valley Water District who were locked out of closed sessions. Will the Kern County DA prosecute this one? Who will the DA prosecute if they do?

We’ll name names now. These individuals are primarily responsible for oversight and have a fiduciary obligation to fulfill.

The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority Board of Directors*

Kern County District 1 Supervisor Phillip Peters.

Inyo County District 5 Supervisor Will Waddleton.

San Bernardino County District 1 Supervisor Paul Cook

City of Ridgecrest Councilman Scott Hayman

* Responsible Public Officials (Names above open a new tab to their official biographies).

There you go. If the investigators add the ingredients of misallocation of funds, misappropriation of funds, fraud, and conspiracy to the mix, you’ve got one helluva lot of people that are responsible for the mess the Groundwater Authority finds itself in, including the “staff”, i.e. the companies, engineering consultants, lobbyists and attorneys responsible for lying, misinforming and misrepresenting everything while creating the mess in the first place.

Thank you SGMA. Thank you, Jerry Brown. Thank you, Sacramento. We love sustainability!

Water. Water. We Want More Water! Please Bring Us More Water!

The Indian Wells Valley has more potable water underground than Lake Mead.

The question and the solution of determining the “Safe Yield” or recharge of water in the Indian Wells Valley’s groundwater basin is now the final point of contention, the war has reached its final battle, and that’s determining the size of the “pie”.

• One side says it’s 7,650 acre feet per year, and the other says it’s 14,300 to 15,400 acre feet per year.
• One side says the IWV has more water underground than can fill Lake Mead, 37,500,000 acre feet, and the other side says only 1,500,000 acre feet is “useable”.
• One side is lying to you, the other side is representing you, the property owners and water rights holders in the Indian Wells Valley.
• One side wants to increase your property taxes to pay to import “Table A” water from an AVEK pipeline, the other side says there are other alternatives and spending $400 million on AVEK is ludicrous and insane, not to mention infeasible and unaffordable.
• One side is in great legal jeopardy, having sponsored a scheme to undermine due process rights under SGMA and comprehensive adjudication, the other side is looking for ways to sue or prosecute the other side for any number of transgressions, including Brown Act violations.

The Phase Three portion of the comprehensive adjudication trial is where everyone picks up their pieces of the pie after the bodies have been removed from the battlefield.

Who’s Winning the Great Indian Wells Valley Water War?

And here we are today, looking at the possibility of turning out one side, kicking them out of public office and sending them back to wherever they came from, with the locals taking control over their water and their water rights.

Which side would you be on if you could vote for them or against them? Unfortunately, you can’t, you have no control over the Board of Directors or their actions. They can do whatever they damn well please. The Indian Wells Valley Water District is your friend, they are your neighbors, and they are the ones that bring you the water that you need to prosper and grow. They’re looking out for all of you.

And that’s the problem with the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. It’s not a fair fight, and the comprehensive adjudication of the IWV basin is your only hope for justice, unless the Kern County District Attorney continues the investigation, or the Attorney General of the State of California or the FBI take control of the “Ridgecrest Investigation”.

We await DA Zimmer’s decision.

Bonus Video: Public Comments at the October 14, 2026, Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority meeting.