Westlands Water District Board Seats Filled Without Public Vote — Landowners Alone Decide

Four Westlands Water District board seats will be filled this November. None will appear on the ballot most Fresno County voters see.

Incumbents Donald Ross Franson III, Jeremy Hughes, and Justin Diener are unopposed. Charles Herrin Jr. filed for the seat Ernie Costamagna is vacating after one term. No challenger emerged for any seat. The election was canceled.

Even when seats are contested — as they were in 2022 — general voters do not vote. Westlands was formed in the 1950s under a Water Code provision restricting the franchise to landowners holding water contracts within the district.

Advertisement

Westlands spans more than 1,000 square miles across western Fresno and Kings Counties. It delivers water to 700 farms. It is the largest agricultural water district in the United States.

It is also positioned to host 136,000 acres of solar installation — the largest in the country — a shift that will substantially change the use and tax base.

Not all landowners vote equally. Westlands uses weighted voting: one vote per dollar of assessed land value, under a “special benefits” assessment the district adopted in 2017.

“If you’ve got 100 acres and it’s assessed at $1 an acre, then you get 100 votes,” Stephen Farmer, Westlands’ chief administration officer, stated. “One vote per dollar of assessed value.”

The assessment is based on water delivery records from 2006 through 2016. An engineering firm hired by the district determined that 68% of water delivered came from Westlands’ Central Valley Project contract, 32% from other sources.

Parcels eligible for CVP water were assessed for both CVP and other-water benefits. Non-CVP parcels were assessed only for other-water. Because the district’s CVP share — 68% of $17,208,522 in operations, maintenance, and bond debt at the time of the 2017 report — was divided across fewer eligible acres, CVP-eligible land carried a higher per-acre value.

Landowners with more acreage and larger water contracts hold more votes. They also pay larger assessments. “That’s just the way it works,” Farmer said. “That’s the way the law was written. And that’s how our election is run.”

A third-party firm issues, collects, and counts the ballots. Westlands follows county election rules. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors must formally appoint the four directors before the first Friday in December 2026.

The district’s nine-member board serves staggered four-year terms. Jeff Fortune, Jim Anderson, Frank Coelho Jr., William Bourdeau, and Ryan Ferguson hold seats through 2028.

The Breakdown

• Westlands Water District holds elections this November for four board seats — all uncontested.
• Only landowners with water contracts in the district may vote — general Fresno County voters are excluded by a 1950s Water Code provision.
• Votes are weighted by assessed land value: one vote per dollar. Larger landowners hold more votes and pay larger assessments.
• The Fresno County Board of Supervisors must appoint the four directors before the first Friday in December 2026.

What This Means for You

You do not vote for Westlands’ board. Landowners within the district do. That board governs water delivery to 700 farms and will oversee the shift to 136,000 acres of solar. The structure was set by state law in the 1950s. Your ballot includes other water district races this November — Westlands is not among them.

What to Watch

The landowner-only franchise means the public whose tax base and land use are affected by Westlands’ decisions — particularly the solar conversion — hold no direct accountability lever over the board making those decisions. The weighted-voting structure ensures the largest landowners, not the most numerous, control outcomes. Fresno County supervisors appoint the directors, but that appointment is ministerial — they certify the landowner vote, they do not independently choose.