Perks for some Kern water agency directors not too shabby

Serving on any board is typically a thankless job.

But for directors of the Kern County Water Agency, there are perks.

Directors are paid $325 per meeting – up to 10 meetings per month. That goes for any public meeting as long as they’re attending on behalf of the agency.

But that’s not all.

Directors can also receive medical, dental, vision, long-term care, life and travel insurance benefits through the agency.

Medical benefit premiums are shared with the agency. Director contributions can range from zero to about $500 a month, depending on the plan and level of coverage, according to the agency.

Premiums for dental, vision, long-term care, life and travel insurance are 100% covered by the agency.

Annual costs of those perks to the agency are $100,895 for meeting stipends; $76,178 for medical premiums for four of the seven directors; and a combined total of $17,945 for the other insurance categories.

Serving on the Kern County Water Agency is a very big job.

Orientation for new directors can take up to 40 or 50 hours, according to Tammy Johnson who was appointed to the board in December 2025. 

Directors have to keep tabs on complex issues from the state’s Delta Conveyance Project to groundwater banking, water exchange contracts, drinking water treatment protocols and much more. They attend the main agency monthly board meetings, must be available for special meetings and each director also works with agency committees that delve into specific topic areas more deeply.

Plus they represent large, diverse chunks of the county and attend meetings of the water districts within those boundaries.

Still, director compensation at the Kern agency is significantly higher than local water districts, which typically pay directors $100 a day for meetings attended and have a set list of meetings that stipend can apply to. Very few local districts have any kind of insurance package for directors.

Even compared to other, comparably large and complex, water entities, Kern County Water Agency director perks stand out.

Directors at the Friant Water Authority and Westlands Water Districts, for instance, may receive a stipend of $100 for each meeting attended with a cap of six meetings for Westlands’ directors.

Westlands directors can also elect to have the district pay $162 a month toward medical insurance and may enroll in the district’s vision and dental plans, according to Westlands’ spokesman Justin Mendes.

Friant directors get no other compensation besides the meeting stipend, according to Chief Operating Officer Eric Limas.

Both of those entities also cover large, diverse geographic areas and have their own highly complex issues including how to repair the perpetually sinking Friant-Kern Canal and salt buildup under a large chunk of Westlands’ land, among a host of others.