Chief of one of the San Joaquin Valley’s largest water agencies to work from Arizona
Jason Phillips, Friant Water Authority’s chief executive officer, is leaving his Fresno home and relocating to Scottsdale, Ariz. to be closer to family.
He will continue working remotely for the authority as CEO, where he earned $493,747 in salary and other pay plus $82,675 in benefits in 2024, according to the nonprofit public employee pay tracking website Transparent California.
Phillips’ move was unanimously approved during Friant’s Aug. 28 meeting under a modified employment agreement, which also deleted his monthly automobile allowance.
Phillips said he and his wife, Melissa, will complete the move by year’s end. It will bring them closer to his mom, Joyce, who is in her 70s, and the couple’s three children, Robert, Ryan and Renée.
Proximity to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport will be an added benefit of relocating, as Phillips spends a good chunk of time traveling to Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Sacramento for lobbying and policy work. Flights are also less expensive from Phoenix than Fresno, Phillips said.
“Frankly, for the work I do, these major airports are not easy to get to (from Fresno),” he said. “I’ve had this discussion with others who represent large service areas and we all agree that it’s very difficult to get to where we need to be. It’s going to save some time.”
He mentioned that Tom Birmingham and Allison Febbo, the former and current general managers for the giant Westlands Water District in western Fresno County, both lived in Sacramento.
Phillips will appear in person at Friant’s monthly meetings in Visalia, and whenever he’s needed, he said. He joined Friant in 2016, and at the time, lived in Roseville, outside of Sacramento. He later moved to Fresno to be closer to Friant’s headquarters in Lindsay, in Tulare County.
Friant director Matt Leider, who represents Tea Pot Dome Water District, said he gave his full support to Phillips’ request.
“It doesn’t matter to me where he lays his head at night,” he said. “I think he does an exemplary job for Friant and is one the best water CEOs around. If I could move my water district and my orchards to Arizona, I’d do the same thing.”
Leider said anyone who complains is “likely an old director who doesn’t understand about working remotely.”
Sean Geivet, who represents the Porterville, Saucelito and Terra Bella irrigation districts, said while he understands Phillips’ need to be closer to a major airport and that working remotely is valid, it’s also important for Friant’s leadership team to live in the Valley.
Right now, chief operating officer Johnny Amaral and general superintendent Chris Hickernell are the only ones who live in the Valley.
“I wasn’t shocked to hear he was moving but they pay him enough so he should be able to live where he wants,” Geivet said. “I won’t see him any more or less than if he lived in Fresno. But there is kind of a desire to keep our leaders and their salary in the Valley with the communities that they work for.”
Geivet’s districts and the Friant Water Authority are embroiled in a legal dispute over fees Friant says they owe for not enacting policies as part of the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency that would have curbed excessive pumping. The districts have since left Eastern Tule, which is also being sued by Friant.
Friant supplies water to 34 member water districts and municipalities, including the City of Fresno, and 15,000 San Joaquin Valley family farms.
The authority manages several key pieces of water infrastructure in the San Joaquin Valley, including the 152-mile long Friant-Kern Canal, and the Madera Canal.
Overpumping caused the Friant-Kern Canal to sink along a 33-mile stretch in southern Tulare County. Through a collection of funding from its member districts along with state and federal money, Friant paid $326 million to build an entirely new 10-mile section of canal next to the old one. Overpumping continues to sink the land beneath the canal.
