Are SoCal water agencies, including Metropolitan of Southern California, quietly floating with the tide of MAGA-fascism when we’re not watching them?
by John Earl, 1/15/2026, cross-posted from SoCalWaterWars
The Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) has seven elected members on its board of directors, three of whom it has appointed to sit on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)—which has 38 appointed, not elected, members. A fourth MWDOC appointee to the MWD board, Linda Ackerman, is not a member of the MWDOC board but regularly sits with its members at meetings.
MWD supplies water for 19 million SoCal residents in six counties, including MWDOC. MWDOC sells MWD’s imported water, which comes from Northern California (through the State Water Project) and the Colorado River, to its 27 Orange County member agencies serving 3.5 million residents.
What do our water districts stand for in terms of water management philosophy and policies, including ethics, transparency and politics?
It’s a fair question, and answering it honestly requires water‑board officials to drop the pretense that political partisanship somehow stops at the edge of their dais. A good place to watch that illusion fall apart is at one of their semi‑private, corporate‑sponsored water‑buffalo forums—events the general public rarely hears about.
A few notes about these gatherings. They’re always held in the ballroom of an upscale hotel. Before dinner, you can buy a drink at the bar just outside the doors, giving you a chance to mingle with the Who’s Who of Southern California water buffalos and maybe overhear a few interesting conversations not meant for public ears.
Mingling at Feb. 9, 2023 MWDOC Water Policy Forum and Dinner.
Photo John Earl, SoCal Water Wars
But it will cost you.
Dinner typically runs about $150—$160 if you’re not a member of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA, but that’s another great story). For that price, you get a nicely plated serving of high‑end airline food, a slice of cheesecake for dessert, and an endless supply of State Water Project water at no extra charge—unless you count the $150 infrastructure fee you already paid.
Seating, much like voting power on the MWD Board of Directors, is determined by wealth. The biggest players buy entire tables positioned closest to the stage, where the evening’s honored guests will speak. A table for eight goes for roughly $1,350.
This is more or less what you can expect at the upcoming Municipal Water District of Orange County Water Policy Forum and Dinner 2026 at the Westin Hotel in Costa Mesa, where MWD’s newest general manager, Shivaji Deshmukh, will be the guest of honor.
It’s not an event designed for people struggling to pay their water or sewer bills, and your absence will go entirely unnoticed. Few people do, but you can watch a recording on YouTube days or weeks later from the comfort of your home, though it’s far less revealing than sharing cheesecake with the people who raise your rates every year.
ICE’s Deputy Secretary welcomed by MWDOC and MWD
I’d had more than enough cheesecake at these events over the years as a comped journalist and member America’s bottom one-percent, so I skipped the chance on June 26, 2025, to watch Troy Edgar, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, take the stage as the honored guest at MWDOC’s Water Policy Forum and Dinner.
That’s me at the February 9, 2023 MWDOC Water Policy Forum & Dinner
featuring keynote speaker Adán Ortega, newly elected Chair of the MWD Board of Directors.
I enjoyed the abundance of water and cheesecake, as usual.
Besides, I probably would’ve been arrested before I ever made it to dessert. Full disclosure—SURPRISE :)—I’m no fan of DHS or ICE, especially in their current Trump 2.0 incarnation. And if you’re wondering why, just look at the now‑infamous video of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on a Minneapolis street on January 7, 2025.
That horrific event occurred only days ago, more than six months after MWDOC’s celebration of Edgar and DHS. But the agency’s racist, brutal, and indiscriminate attacks on immigrants—and on U.S. citizens who were either people of color or who protested those tactics—had been underway almost from the moment Donald Trump was sworn in as America’s 47th president on January 20, 2025, marking the start of what he called the Golden Age of America.
But I did watch MWDOC’s event honoring Edgar—and the agency that had already spent six months perpetrating a reign of terror against immigrants and others in cities across America—on YouTube. The video is posted below…
Is this the same Troy Edgar who lost the GOP nomination for State Assemby against Travis Allen? I think it was 2012.
Yeah. Back then Troy just seemed like a slimy kleptocrat, didn’t picture him as a fascist.
We supported Travis over Troy cuz he seemed more honest, and Travis turned out to be a real pre-MAGA nutjob! I guess there was no real choice that year.
The Mesa Water board are also deep into perks and benefits galore!