An hour of painful verbal attacks among Modesto Irrigation District leaders ended Tuesday, Feb. 17, with no decision on continuing an investigation into Board Director Larry Byrd’s water use.
Although all five board directors attended the special meeting, three – including Byrd – removed themselves from voting and district business can’t be conducted with only two votes.
The vote was separate from the California Fair Political Practices Commission look into the board’s previous vote on the issue last December.
A previous investigation suggested Byrd improperly watered almond trees outside district boundaries near La Grange, but was not conclusive.
Byrd’s vote in December to end the probe drew widespread criticism, including from ethics experts equating it with a violation of public trust. State ethics enforcers then launched their own ongoing investigation into whether Byrd should have voted.
At the Tuesday special meeting, a defiant Byrd defended the earlier vote, but said he decided not to participate this time, citing “political attacks on me.” Board Director John Boer recused himself both times to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
Board Director Janice Keating had joined Byrd to kill the investigation in December. On Feb. 17, she aired several unrelated grievances and concluded by abstaining from the current decision, saying she would “refuse to engage in personal battles.”
That left only Board President Robert Frobose and Board Director Chris Ott – not enough for a voting quorum.
But plenty of dirty laundry had been aired in sometimes heated comments over the previous hour among board members and people in the audience. Seven spoke during public comment.
Byrd’s brother and business partner, attorney Tim Byrd, and former congressman John Duarte said Frobose and others were pursuing a vendetta against Larry Byrd. Duarte said the animosity is revenge for Larry Byrd’s opposition in 2010 to a proposal to sell MID water elsewhere.
Frobose said MID leaders have a duty to all customers to see that district resources are not misused. “This is not politics or a witchhunt,” he said.
Keating said she’s been “screamed at, spit on and belittled” since becoming the first woman MID board member in history in 2022, and abstained because she did not want any part in another power struggle.
Garth Stapley is the accountability reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact him at garth@cvlocaljournalism.org.