![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lois-henry.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Kern County Water Agency hired its own former board president as its new general manager last week at an annual base salary of $525,000.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lois Henry<\/p>\n
SJV Water<\/p>\n
Eric Averett, who apparently\u00a0resigned his board seat\u00a0<\/a>Oct. 8 though that wasn\u2019t announced until Thursday, will assume his new duties Nov. 24, according to the\u00a0employment agreement<\/a>\u00a0unanimously approved by the agency\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n Aside from the more than half a million in salary, Averett will also receive a $60,000 signing bonus, $40,000 a year into a retirement fund, $11,700 a year in car allowance, 240 hours of vacation time per year (with a maximum cap of 672 hours), plus 40 hours a year of \u201cadministrative leave time.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a huge job that involves juggling the needs of 13 often contentious, local agricultural water districts, overseeing a network of canal systems and providing water for residents in northeast Bakersfield all while keeping an eye on what\u2019s happening in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta \u2014 among other things.<\/p>\n \u201cHiring a general manager is\u00a0the\u00a0most important decision that a board can make,\u201d director Gene Lundquist stressed. \u201cSo, I\u2019d like to congratulate Eric Averett on his appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n Conflict of Interest?<\/p>\n While many people sang Averett\u2019s praises as a knowledgeable and innovative leader in both Kern County and statewide water issues, there was an undercurrent of concern about a potential conflict of interest following\u00a0an email Averett sent out<\/a>\u00a0Thursday morning prior to the agency meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cDear Partners and Friends,\u201d the email states. \u201cI am reaching out to share that I have stepped down from the Board of the Kern County Water Agency and have accepted the position of General Manager of the organization.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, I\u2019ll be transitioning from my role as Chief Executive Officer of Homer later next month and am excited by the opportunity to serve Homer in a new role as a Board member and strategic advisor \u2014 continuing to help shape and grow how we serve our community\u2019s water supply needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Homer LLC<\/a>, is the land and water division of Los Angeles-based Renewable Resources Group (RRG), co owned by Ari Swiller and Cole Frates. RRG started as a renewable energy investment firm but has become a major private investor in various water projects throughout California.<\/p>\n Averett\u2019s Successor Named at Homer<\/p>\n The term \u201cstrategic advisor\u201d raised eyebrows in the local water world.<\/p>\n Strategizing for a private, for-profit water company could be in direct conflict with working on behalf of the agency \u2014 a public, tax-funded entity \u2014 that is involved in just about every aspect of water from state imports to an ownership stake in the Kern River.<\/p>\n Averett\u2019s email states that John Ocana will take his job as CEO at Homer.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my new capacity, I look forward to working closely with John and the entire team to ensure Homer continues to thrive as an integral part of the Central Valley water supply story,\u201d the email concludes.<\/p>\n When asked whether this presents a conflict, Averett told SJV Water: \u201cNothing has happened yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt says I\u2019m \u2018excited about the opportunity,\u2019\u201d Averett said of the email. \u201cWhich means, they\u2019ve asked, but nothing is done.\u201d<\/p>\n As of Thursday, he said, he was no longer with the agency, is still working for Homer and has yet to become general manager of the agency.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019ll deal with that if and when it happens,\u201d he said of any position with Homer. \u201cAnd the agency will definitely have requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n The potential for conflict was a concern when\u00a0Averett was elected<\/a>\u00a0to the agency board in 2022 while working for Homer. He said he only recused himself from two votes in the last three years.<\/p>\n Kern County Water Agency Shake-Ups<\/p>\n The agency has had several leadership shake-ups in recent years.<\/p>\n In 2024, it fired its longtime General Counsel\u00a0Amelia Minaberrigarai<\/a>\u00a0who obtained a $640,000 settlement on her way out.<\/p>\n Then in May of this year, the board, including Averett, voted not to renew the contract for its General Manager\u00a0Tom McCarthy<\/a>. No reason was given.<\/p>\n McCarthy had served as general manager since 2020 and earned a base annual salary of $380,016, according to the public employee wage tracking website Transparent California.<\/p>\n Four months after McCarthy\u2019s departure, the agency announced at its Sept. 25 meeting that during its closed session the board had identified a new general manager candidate and would begin negotiations with that person who turned out to be Averett. According to the agency, Averett who was still board president, was excused from the closed session where the candidate was discussed. That is not reflected in the minutes of that meeting.<\/p>\n Though Averett\u2019s employment agreement was approved Thursday, it may have to be brought back to the agency\u2019s Nov. 19 meeting to be \u201cre-ratified,\u201d as it was not included in the agenda packet, which is required by the Brown Act, California\u2019s open meeting law.<\/p>\n SJV Water had requested the agreement multiple times prior to the meeting as it was listed on the agency\u2019s open session agenda but agency attorney James Ciampa declined to provide the document, saying later that it was still being drafted until distributed to the board at 10 a.m. the day of the meeting.<\/p>\n Averett\u2019s history with the agency goes back to 1991 when he started in an entry level staff position. He worked for the agency for 17 years in different capacities and was then hired as General Manager at the Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District.<\/p>\n He\u00a0left Rosedale-Rio Bravo in 2021<\/a>\u00a0to take the job with Homer.<\/p>\n About the Author<\/p>\n SJV Water CEO and editor Lois Henry has spent 30 years covering the San Joaquin Valley.<\/p>\n About SJV Water<\/p>\n SJV Water<\/a>\u00a0is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley,\u00a0www.sjvwater.org<\/a>. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kern County Water Agency hired its own former board president as its new general manager last week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-27124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"BMW](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761173413_533_Untitled-design-6.png\")
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