The full story of Mike Abatti’s enormous influence — over the desert’s Colorado River water, agriculture and energy — has never been told. Until now.

Far from the highways of Los Angeles and the shipyards of San Diego, in California’s southeastern corner, nearly half a million acres of lush green farmland unfold in the middle of the bone-dry Sonoran Desert. Sprawling fields of lettuce and sugar beets and onions, irrigated by water from the Colorado River, brush up against the U.S-Mexico border in a region once known as the Valley of Death but today called the Imperial Valley.

A few hundred landowning families dominate the Imperial Valley and its lucrative agriculture industry, which produces much of America’s winter vegetables. The valley is one of California’s most impoverished areas, with a stark divide between the mostly white landowners and the mostly Latino farmworkers who labor in their fields.

Mike Abatti speaks at a dedication ceremony for the Imperial Irrigation District's battery storage project on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Even among the landowning elite, Mike Abatti stands out.

Abatti’s ancestors helped settle the Imperial Valley a century ago, and today he’s one of the region’s most successful farmers, with thousands of acres under cultivation and crops he says are worth more than $10 million this year. He grows those crops with vast amounts of water from the drought-stricken Colorado River; for every thousand drops of Colorado River water used by California, Arizona and Nevada in 2012, three and a half of those drops watered fields owned by Abatti. He has also made a second career for himself in the energy industry, winning tens of millions of dollars in publicly funded energy contracts from the Imperial Irrigation District, on whose board of directors he once served.

But while Abatti looms large in the Imperial Valley, the full story of his enormous influence has never been told. It’s a story about public officials — including Abatti’s friends in elected office, a judge with ties to his family, and a district attorney whose second-in-command is his sister-in-law — repeatedly making decisions that have advanced Abatti’s private interests. And it’s a story about money and influence in an often overlooked corner of California, where political battles over water and energy can have ripple effects across California and the Southwest.

Over the past five years, Abatti has won a string of major victories. He sued the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID, over its water apportionment plan, winning a sweeping ruling that critics say could create problems for millions of people who depend on the Colorado River. He also helped convince Imperial County officials to let him pump thousands of acres of groundwater without doing a full environmental review first, overturning a previous decision by county employees. And one of his companies won a $35-million contract from IID to build a giant battery, beating out several lower-cost bids, even though Abatti had no previous experience in the energy industry.

The district attorney, Gilbert Otero, said he would scrutinize the $35-million contract, but later announced his office had determined Abatti “had no criminal liability.” IID officials have defended their decision to give Abatti’s company the contract.

With those victories in hand, Abatti is actively working to defend his empire. He continues to wage a high-stakes legal fight to protect his access to Colorado River water, even as water managers across the Southwest scramble to respond to long-term drought and falling reservoir levels. In the energy world, Abatti is working on a solar project that would eliminate hundreds of acres of prime farmland. He’s also demanding millions of dollars from IID for an expansion of the battery facility, and threatening to void the 20-year performance guarantee for the original battery if he doesn’t get millions more in a new operations and maintenance contract.

Those millions would be paid by IID ratepayers in Imperial County and the Coachella Valley, including many low-income customers who depend on IID’s low electricity rates.

Video: Meet the farmer building a water and energy empire in the California desert The full story of Mike Abatti's enormous influence — over the desert's Colorado River water, agriculture and energy — has never been told. Until now. Vickie Connor, The Desert Sun

Abatti didn’t get into the energy business on his own. His energy projects have all involved longtime IID consultant Ziad Alaywan, founder of the engineering firm ZGlobal Inc. Alaywan was recently accused by IID of working behind the scenes at the public agency to benefit his own private-sector energy projects. On several energy and water projects, including three that involved Abatti, Alaywan enlisted the help of Jurg Heuberger, who has consulted for ZGlobal while also running a local government agency in Imperial County.

Even without Alaywan’s help, Abatti and his family have plenty of friends in high places.

Of the five IID board members who voted to give Abatti’s company the $35-million battery contract, three of them were self-described friends of Abatti.

District attorney Gilbert Otero, meanwhile, received thousands of dollars’ worth of campaign contributions this year from Abatti’s brother Jimmy.

Then there’s Judge L. Brooks Anderholt, who ruled in Abatti’s favor in his consequential Colorado River water lawsuit against IID. Anderholt presided over that case despite his long history of business and social ties to several members of the Abatti family.

To report this story, The Desert Sun spent six months investigating Mike Abatti’s business, legal and political activities, requesting hundreds of records from government agencies under the California Public Records Act and reviewing thousands of pages of documents and dozens of hours of video and audio.

Abatti didn’t respond to repeated requests to answer questions. But friends and allies say he’s a dedicated farmer who has the region’s best interests at heart, and who has supported good causes in the Imperial Valley and across the border in Mexico. More broadly, Imperial Valley officials have described the region as a tight-knit community, where it isn’t unusual for farmers, business leaders and elected officials to run in the same small social circles. It’s not uncommon for farmers to run for elected office.

Jim Hanks of the Imperial Irrigation District's board of directors, seen at a board meeting on July 18, 2017. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Abatti hasn’t always gotten what he wanted, The Desert Sun’s investigation found. For instance, IID didn’t drop its appeal of Judge Anderholt’s decision in the water lawsuit, even after Abatti threatened political consequences for board members who continued to fight him.

But when Jim Hanks, president of IID’s board of directors, discussed the lawsuit at a board meeting in May, he tread carefully around Abatti.

“I hate this dispute,” Hanks said, “because it has affected a person that used to sit on the board with me and became a very good friend of mine.”

The Campo Verde solar project is seen from a drone. The farmland in the background is owned by Mike Abatti, who has plans for a solar project there. Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

History

How Mike Abatti became a farm baron

Mike Abatti is the grandson of Battista Abatti, an Italian immigrant who helped settle the Imperial Valley more than a century ago. According to an Abatti family history from the Imperial County Farm Bureau, Battista Abatti was one of the workers who built the All-American Canal, a taxpayer-funded 80-mile aqueduct that brings Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley and makes possible the region’s thriving agricultural economy.

Two of Battista Abatti’s sons, Ben and Tony, went into the agriculture business together, growing crops on 24,000 acres and employing more than 7,000 people, according to the farm bureau’s family history. They weren’t afraid to fight their workers and the government when money was at stake. They clashed with the United Farm Workers union, which successfully brought charges of unfair labor practices by the Abattis to California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board in the late 1970s. In a separate case, the labor relations board ruled the Abattis had unlawfully interfered with a 1978 union decertification election. The brothers also sparred with the Internal Revenue Service, which accused them of not paying more than $2.3 million in taxes from 1971 through 1973. The Abattis fought the tax charges, but ultimately lost in appellate court in 1981.

Ben Abatti married Loretta Studer, whose father had emigrated from Switzerland to the Imperial Valley. Ben and Loretta had five children, including Mike and Jimmy, both of whom followed their father into the farming business. Jimmy is currently president of the Imperial County Farm Bureau.

The Westside Main Canal flows past farmland owned by Mike Abatti, as seen from a drone. The Campo Verde solar project can be seen in the background. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Today, the Abattis are some of the largest landowners in the Imperial Valley. Between Mike, Jimmy, their father and an entity called the Abatti Family Trust, the Abattis have said they own and operate about 20,000 acres of farmland, out of approximately 450,000 total acres under cultivation in the Imperial Valley. Mike Abatti has said in legal filings that he personally farms about 7,000 acres, growing crops including melons, broccoli, sugar beets and alfalfa. Abatti leases some of his land to his brother Jimmy’s company, Madjac Farms. He also serves as general manager of their father’s company, Ben Abatti Farms.

The Imperial Valley’s agriculture industry is estimated to be worth $4.5 billion annually to the local economy. Mike Abatti said in a legal filing last year that the value of his 2018 crops “is in excess of $10,000,000.”

That wealth is made possible by Colorado River water. Long-term drought and climate change have reduced the river’s flow, but the Imperial Irrigation District still controls the single largest share of the river’s water — as much as the states of Arizona and Nevada put together. And a substantial amount of IID’s water is used by Abatti.

More than 26,500 acre-feet of water were delivered to fields owned by Abatti in 2012, according to data Abatti requested from IID, which was later entered into the administrative record for a lawsuit he filed against the agency. Abatti’s 26,500 acre-feet accounted for nearly 1 percent of the Colorado River water delivered by IID in the Imperial Valley that year, based on federal data. It also accounted for 0.35 percent of all Colorado River water use in California, Arizona and Nevada in 2012.

Despite Imperial County’s agricultural bounty, it’s one of the poorest parts of California, with an unemployment rate that is often the state’s highest and income levels that are among its lowest. The income inequality is accompanied by racial disparity; more than 80 percent of the county’s 180,000 residents are Latino, but white people make more than twice as much money as Latinos on a per-person basis, census data shows. The wealth created by agriculture is concentrated in the hands of a few hundred mostly white landowning families, including the Abattis.

Unsurprisingly, Imperial Valley farmers often get involved in local politics. And there’s no group of people more powerful than the five-member board of directors of the Imperial Irrigation District, a publicly owned utility that provides Colorado River water to local farms and also sells cheap electricity to residents of Imperial County and the eastern Coachella Valley.

The Imperial Irrigation District's El Centro office is seen on July 12, 2018. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

In 2006, Mike Abatti got himself elected to the board of the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID, after dramatically outspending his opponent, incumbent Andy Horne. Campaign-finance filings show Abatti spent more than $117,000, compared to just $24,000 by Horne. Abatti was largely self-funded, contributing more than $92,000 to his own campaign. He also received $10,000 from his brother Jimmy’s company and $5,000 from his father Ben.

Abatti has spent heavily to influence other IID races as well. After leaving the board, he contributed $17,000 to Imperial Valley First, as part of the group’s successful 2012 campaign to oust incumbent board members Stella Mendoza and J.P. Menvielle, who had fallen out of favor with much of the farming community. Imperial Valley First spent nearly $200,000 in that campaign. Voters replaced Menvielle with Bruce Kuhn, who has done business with Abatti and has described Abatti as a longtime friend. In recent years, Kuhn has recused himself from votes related to Abatti’s water lawsuit against IID, saying he’s acting out of an abundance of caution.

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Campaign-finance records show that Gloria Trantham, Abatti’s longtime secretary, gave nearly $5,000 to Imperial Valley First in 2012 as well. Federal records also show that Trantham gave $20,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee on May 19, 2005 — the same day Abatti, her employer, contributed $5,000 to the NRCC.

Trantham, who no longer works for Abatti, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. The $20,000 contribution to the NRCC is the only campaign contribution Trantham is listed as giving in a federal database that goes back nearly 40 years.

Show caption Hide caption Then-Imperial Irrigation District board member Matt Dessert, left, greets his longtime friend Mike Abatti, a former IID board member and president of Coachella Energy Storage... Then-Imperial Irrigation District board member Matt Dessert, left, greets his longtime friend Mike Abatti, a former IID board member and president of Coachella Energy Storage Partners, at an event celebrating the opening of IID's battery storage system in El Centro, California, on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Abatti has also given money to philanthropic organizations, including the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation and the Burn Institute. He has been a sponsor of Imperial County’s annual Farm Workers Appreciation Breakfast, as well as the Green and Gold Hall of Fame at Holtville High School, where he attended school. He and his wife Kerri have donated more than $50,000 to San Diego State University, which offers a scholarship named for Mike and Kerri Abatti at its Imperial Valley campus.

At an IID board of directors meeting a few years ago, Kuhn said he had been friends with Mike and Jimmy Abatti for more than 20 years. Kuhn “cited several good deeds that … the Abatti brothers have done for the local community and for less-fortunate residents in the Mexicali Valley,” according to the meeting minutes.

Mike Abatti didn’t run for re-election to the IID board in 2010. But he was replaced on the board by his childhood friend Matt Dessert. Dessert went to grade school with Abatti and has described him as “an old friend of mine.” After joining the board, Dessert quickly appointed Abatti to IID’s Energy Consumers Advisory Committee, which gave Abatti the opportunity to pepper IID staff with questions about solar tax credits, the costs of connecting solar projects to the grid and the construction of new power lines, among other topics, meeting minutes show.

Abatti stepped down from the committee in December 2013. But before he left, he began laying the groundwork for the energy projects he would partner on with ZGlobal, a Sacramento-area engineering firm that helped run IID’s energy department for several years.

On Feb. 1, 2013, Abatti formed Dry Gulch Resources Inc. Also formed that day was a limited liability company called Imperial Water Ventures, which had two managers, according to a document submitted to California officials a few months later: Abatti’s Dry Gulch Resources and Apex Energy Solutions LLC, which was owned by ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan.

Two years later, Dry Gulch Resources would be one of the partners in Coachella Energy Storage Partners, the company that got a $35-million contract from IID to build a giant battery. Imperial Water Ventures would be involved in the Vega SES and Valencia 3 solar projects. Valencia 3 would eventually get a $12.6-million contract from IID.

On Jan. 6, 2014, IID’s energy advisory committee announced Abatti had resigned his seat. That same day, the public agency began soliciting bids for a giant battery.

Abatti’s second career in the energy industry was about to take off.

HELP US INVESTIGATE: Do you have information that could lead to further reporting? Please contact the reporter at (760) 219-9679, or by email at sammy.roth@desertsun.com.

The Valencia 1 solar project, as seen from a drone, borders the city of Westmorland, California. Valencia 1 was developed by ZGlobal. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Energy

A $35-million battery, and demands for more

The story of how Mike Abatti got into the energy business starts with ZGlobal Inc.

ZGlobal is based in Folsom, just outside Sacramento in Northern California. The energy and engineering firm signed its first consulting contract with the Imperial Irrigation District in 2005, before Abatti was elected to the agency’s board of directors. From 2007 through 2009, during Abatti’s time on the board, ZGlobal got nine more contracts from IID, collectively worth more than $3.3 million.

For a few years after that, ZGlobal didn’t do any consulting work for IID, focusing instead on developing solar farms in the Imperial Valley. In 2012, ZGlobal began pitching IID officials on a giant battery to help prevent power outages, following a September 2011 outage that left millions of people without electricity across the Southwest.

The Imperial Irrigation District’s Path 42 power lines run from a substation in the eastern Coachella Valley to a Southern California Edison substation in the west valley. Courtesy of the Imperial Irrigation District

The federal government ultimately required IID to spend at least $9 million on battery storage, as part of a settlement over the utility’s role in causing the blackout. It was more than a lucky coincidence for ZGlobal. IID officials included language that mirrored ZGlobal’s battery pitch in their promise to federal officials to build a battery. Documents obtained by The Desert Sun showed the language that mirrored ZGlobal’s pitch made it into IID’s list of promises after being included in a document created by Jamie Asbury, an IID employee whose son, Cameron Bucher, worked for ZGlobal at the time.

At some point after ZGlobal’s initial battery pitch to IID, Abatti got involved in the firm’s energy storage plans. Abatti became president of a company called Coachella Energy Storage Partners, whose chief engineer was ZGlobal.

In early 2015, after a competitive bidding process, IID gave Coachella Energy Storage Partners a $35-million contract to build a giant battery. The agency’s board of directors voted unanimously to approve the contract, with three of the five votes coming from Abatti’s friends on the board: Matt Dessert, Jim Hanks and Bruce Kuhn. Dessert has since left the board.

Abatti’s company got the $35-million contract only after IID disqualified several multinational energy companies for not having a certain type of contractor’s license — even though Abatti’s company didn’t have that license, either. IID staff told the board of directors that three disqualified bidders had submitted proposals between $1 million and $5 million cheaper than Coachella Energy Storage Partners.

IID released a report last year defending its decision to give Abatti’s company the $35-million contract, saying the bidding process was fair and the contract was awarded in the public interest. IID also rejected the suggestion that disqualified bidders had submitted lower-cost proposals than Coachella Energy Storage Partners. Unlike the disqualified bidders, the agency said in its report, Abatti’s company included a 20-year warranty, which raised the project’s cost.

But now the warranty has come into question.

In January 2018, Abatti wrote a letter to IID general manager Kevin Kelley, saying the battery’s 20-year performance guarantee would be voided unless the agency signed a new 10-year, $7-million operations and maintenance contract with his company. Abatti said the original, 18-month O&M contract between IID and Coachella Energy Storage Partners was set to expire soon. Without a longer-term contract, Abatti wrote, CESP “is under no obligation to provide any guarantees” past the end of the 18-month period, including the critical task of replenishing the energy storage facility with new batteries as the original components degrade over time.

“We urgently request that IID take immediate action otherwise CESP is under no obligation to provide any services, battery replenishment or performance guarantee for the existing (battery),” Abatti wrote.

The new operations and maintenance contract demanded by Abatti would have brought the total amount paid by IID ratepayers to Coachella Energy Storage Partners to about $42 million.

IID's 30-megawatt battery facility, seen from a drone, is next door to the 20-megawatt Sol Orchard solar farm in El Centro, California. Video by Jay Calderon and Richard Lui, GIF by Daniel Simon.

Abatti had a second demand: He wanted millions of dollars for an expansion of the battery.

IID had originally planned months earlier to give Abatti’s company a $6.9-million contract to expand the battery — which, along with the proposed O&M contract, would have brought the company’s total haul for battery storage projects to nearly $50 million.

The battery expansion had already been derailed twice by potential conflicts of interest involving ZGlobal. In late 2015, ZGlobal had been hired to help run IID’s energy department, while also continuing to work for Abatti’s energy storage company. After a member of the public complained that ZGlobal had a conflict of interest on battery storage, IID general counsel Frank Oswalt said ZGlobal had agreed to stop working for Coachella Energy Storage Partners. Oswalt also said the utility would solicit competitive bids for a battery expansion, and CESP would be allowed to bid.

ZGlobal vice president Kevin Coffee speaks at the dedication ceremony for the Imperial Irrigation District's battery storage project on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

But public records show ZGlobal never stopped working for Abatti’s company. Emails between IID staff and representatives of CESP, for instance, show ZGlobal vice president Kevin Coffee participating in a conversation about operations and maintenance for the original battery, after ZGlobal told IID it had stopped working for CESP. Around the same time as those emails, Abatti’s company filed a statement of information with California officials that listed ZGlobal’s Imperial Valley office as its business address, and longtime ZGlobal employee Melissa Vaa as its registered agent.

Despite those continued ties, IID gave CESP a $6.9-million contract for the battery expansion after a bidding process. The IID employees who evaluated the bids gave Abatti's company three times as many points in the cost category as the only other bidder, Oregon-based Powin Energy — even though Powin submitted a lower-cost proposal. IID didn’t respond to questions last year about how Abatti’s company had gotten more points on cost despite submitting a higher bid.

The project was again derailed by conflict-of-interest concerns. After The Desert Sun began publishing stories about the battery expansion and contracts IID had given to ZGlobal and its private-sector clients, IID officials said they would not sign a contract with Abatti’s company for battery expansion, at least not without a new bidding process.

Thirty battery banks, containing nearly 100,000 lithium-ion batteries, line the Imperial Irrigation District's battery storage facility in El Centro, California on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Abatti wasn’t ready to give up.

In his January 2018 letter to IID general manager Kevin Kelley, Abatti said his company had spent $3.65 million preparing for the battery expansion, even though no contract was ever signed. Abatti said those expenditures included a $2.3-million deposit to Samsung to purchase the actual batteries, as well as “nearly completing the detail engineering and technical analysis” and payments for “insurance, licenses and staff.”

“CESP respectfully requests that IID notify us in writing whether the IID plans to continue with the expansion project. If the IID has elected not to continue with this project, we would like to send you invoices for the incurred costs to date along with the new batteries and detailed design,” Abatti wrote.

Vance Taylor, IID’s assistant general counsel, responded to Abatti in a March 2018 letter. Taylor didn’t address Abatti’s demand for millions of dollars for battery expansion. But he did push back against Abatti’s demand for a long-term operations and maintenance contract, while still acknowledging the need to spend more money on operations and maintenance. Taylor told Abatti that IID had chosen to seek a new O&M contract with General Electric.

Antonio Ortega, IID’s government affairs officer, wouldn’t say whether the need for a new O&M contract to maintain the battery’s warranty undermines one of IID’s stated reasons for selecting Abatti’s company as the winning bidder. But Ortega said in an email that the battery actually has two warranties from Abatti’s company — one for capacity, which Abatti threatened to void in his letter, and another one for design.

Ortega also said the public utility has “retained an independent expert to advise IID on the battery expansion.”

A 140-megawatt natural gas-fired power plants looms over the Imperial Irrigation District's 30-megawatt battery storage facility in El Centro, California on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

ZGlobal officials didn’t respond to repeated requests to answer questions for this story. But the company’s founder, Ziad Alaywan, has previously rejected any suggestion that he used his influence at IID to benefit his own energy projects. And by all accounts, the battery has worked as expected. CESP brought in several well-established subcontractors to build the project, including General Electric and Samsung. IID said last year it had demonstrated the battery’s “black start” capability, jump-starting a unit at the gas-fired power plant next door.

IID board members Jim Hanks and Bruce Kuhn didn’t respond to requests to discuss the tens of millions of dollars of ratepayer money that have gone to Abatti’s companies for energy projects. Neither did Matt Dessert, the former board member. The utility’s general manager, Kevin Kelley, declined an interview request for this story.

IID officials may have to decide soon whether to give more ratepayer money to Abatti. He has another big energy project in the works.

The Imperial Irrigation District's 30-megawatt battery storage system in El Centro, California, seen from a drone. Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Energy, Part 2: From prime farmland to sprawling solar farm

Mike Abatti’s business relationship with ZGlobal isn’t limited to the $35-million battery project.

About 20 miles north of Yuma, along the California-Arizona border, the All-American Canal begins its westward flow through Imperial County. Most of the canal runs along the U.S.-Mexico border, carrying Colorado River water that may have started as Rocky Mountain snowpack. Along the canal, three smaller channels cut northward toward the Salton Sea, bringing that water to the farm fields of the Imperial Valley.

The last of those smaller channels, the Westside Main Canal, cuts a blue-green streak through the landscape, separating lush farm fields from parched open desert.

The Westside Main Canal flows past farmland owned by Mike Abatti, as seen from a drone. The Campo Verde solar project can be seen in the background. Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

A trust led by Mike Abatti and his wife owns hundreds of acres of farmland along Westside Main, just south of a big solar project called Campo Verde. Abatti has been working with ZGlobal to turn his lands into a solar project, too.

If Abatti succeeds, he’ll do so despite having fought against similar projects in the past.

Abatti opposed other solar projects that would take similarly high-quality farmland out of production, arguing those projects would harm the Imperial Valley’s agricultural economy. But now he’s willing to eliminate prime farmland for a solar facility that would benefit him financially.

Abatti’s solar farm could also benefit from ZGlobal’s past work at IID. For much of 2017, ZGlobal was working with Abatti to develop the solar farm, known as Vega SES, while also helping to run IID’s energy department. During that time, in its role as an IID consultant, ZGlobal touted an electrical infrastructure project that would enable Vega SES to connect to IID’s power grid and sell its electricity.

This farmland in Imperial County is owned by Mike Abatti, who wants to build a sprawling solar farm there. Abatti has been working with ZGlobal on the solar project, known as Vega SES. (Video by Jay Calderon and Richard Lui, GIF by Vickie Connor.)

Abatti’s proposed solar project would include nearly 400 acres of prime farmland, a state designation for the highest-quality farmland, based on soil quality and water availability. But when a developer proposed a 250-megawatt solar project west of Calexico, near other lands farmed by Abatti, he complained to county officials that the project could take 395 acres of prime farmland out of production. He also said the proposed project, together with other nearby solar facilities, “leaves me as an island within a sea of solar developments.”

Abatti told county officials they ought to consider putting solar farms on non-agricultural lands.

“The project is but one puzzle piece in the larger universe of solar projects recently constructed and/or proposed for construction on agricultural lands in this area which have also failed to consider using non-agricultural lands to minimize their impacts on agricultural resources,” Abatti wrote in an October 2014 public comment letter.

In January 2015, a lawyer working for the activist group Backcountry Against Dumps and several individuals, including Abatti, objected to another group of solar farms for similar reasons. The lawyer, Stephan Volker, said in a comment letter to Imperial County that the proposed solar projects would remove from agricultural production 1,400 acres of “some of the best and most productive agricultural land in Imperial County.”

“This premier farmland is currently used for agricultural production, and is truly irreplaceable,” Volker wrote on behalf of Abatti and his other clients. “Yet the Project would preclude cultivation of the land throughout its operational lifetime, and possibly permanently.”

The All-American Canal runs along the U.S.-Mexico border outside Mexicali, bringing Colorado River water to the farm fields of California's Imperial Valley. Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

Abatti’s Vega SES solar farm would have a capacity of 100 megawatts and a battery storage component, according to county permitting documents. The interconnection application submitted to IID last year for Vega SES lists Abatti as the contact person for the project, in his capacity as president of Imperial Water Ventures LLC. The address listed for Abatti in the application is ZGlobal’s Imperial Valley office. County permitting documents, meanwhile, list the address for the developer as ZGlobal’s Sacramento-area office.

Documents from Imperial County and IID also say Abatti’s solar farm would connect to IID’s power grid at a planned electrical substation directly adjacent to the Vega SES project site, known as the Fern Substation.

A ZGlobal employee touted the Fern Substation to IID’s energy advisory committee while the consulting firm helped run IID’s energy department — a potential conflict of interest, since ZGlobal is helping develop Vega SES and therefore stands to benefit if the Fern Substation gets built.

ZGlobal consultants had taken on a leadership role at IID in October 2015. That month, IID abruptly placed five senior engineers on paid administrative leave and replaced them with ZGlobal, giving the consulting firm a three-year, $9.1-million contract for the work. A team of ZGlobal employees, led by Jesse Montaño, would be embedded at IID, where they would play a critical role in running the energy department.

The contract gave ZGlobal outsized influence not just in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, but in California’s larger energy landscape. Imperial County has some of California’s strongest potential for solar and geothermal power, and those renewable resources could play a significant role in the state’s plans to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels. Decisions made in Sacramento and Imperial County will help determine to what extent those resources get developed — and who will profit. Already, solar and geothermal facilities in Imperial County are selling electricity to buyers in Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix.

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IID is also a key player in regional energy battles. The public agency is fighting a proposal backed by Gov. Jerry Brown that could lay the groundwork for a regional power grid spanning a dozen western states. IID officials are worried the regional entity would threaten IID’s autonomy as an independent, publicly owned grid operator. If IID and its allies in Sacramento succeed, California could end up getting more renewable energy from power plants within the state, rather than out-of-state resources like wind energy from Wyoming or New Mexico.

ZGlobal helped run IID’s energy department for two years. During that time, ZGlobal touted the Fern Substation — the proposed infrastructure project that would enable Abatti’s Vega SES solar project to connect to IID’s grid and sell its electricity.

Show caption Hide caption From left: ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan, ZGlobal employee Jesse Montaño and former Imperial Irrigation District board member Mike Abatti chat at the dedication ceremony for... From left: ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan, ZGlobal employee Jesse Montaño and former Imperial Irrigation District board member Mike Abatti chat at the dedication ceremony for IID's battery storage project in El Centro, California, on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

In September 2016, ZGlobal’s top consultant at IID, Jesse Montaño, discussed the Fern Substation at a meeting of the utility’s Energy Consumers Advisory Committee. Montaño said he was “pleased to announce to the members that we received our very first interconnection request” — a request to connect a power plant to IID’s grid through the Fern Substation. He said the public utility had previously developed a similar electrical infrastructure project, but that the Fern Substation would be better for IID ratepayers.

“We stepped away from that project and we’ve developed our own project, which is called the Fern Substation,” Montaño told the committee.

A few months later, a consultant working for ZGlobal submitted permit applications to Imperial County for the Vega SES solar project, which planned to connect to IID’s power grid at the Fern Substation.

ZGlobal didn’t respond to a question about whether Montaño had a conflict of interest when he touted the Fern Substation in his role as an IID consultant. California law says elected officials, public employees and other government agents, including private contractors, “shall not be financially interested in any contract made by them in their official capacity.” Courts have broadly interpreted Section 1090 to apply to situations where government agents participate in the making of a contract that could benefit them financially — even if they don’t propose or vote on the contract themselves, even if the benefits are indirect, and even if they don’t intend to break the law.

ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan attends a dedication ceremony for the Imperial Irrigation District's battery storage project on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

ZGlobal terminated its $9.1-million contract with IID in October 2017, after The Desert Sun started publishing stories about the consultant’s potential conflicts of interest.

ZGlobal founder and president Ziad Alaywan has denied that he or ZGlobal ever acted improperly, saying his consulting firm has boosted the Imperial Valley’s economy by bringing solar developers to the area and by helping IID keep electricity rates low.

“I have brought a lot of work for them, I have brought a lot of projects,” Alaywan said last year.

Antonio Ortega, IID’s government affairs officer, said in an email that it “remains undetermined” whether the Fern Substation will be built.

HELP US INVESTIGATE: Do you have information that could lead to further reporting? Please contact the reporter at (760) 219-9679, or by email at sammy.roth@desertsun.com.

The Campo Verde solar project, seen from a drone, is adjacent to farmland owned by Mike Abatti. Abatti has plans to convert this farmland into the Vega SES solar project. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Energy, Part 3: A government official working for ZGlobal

Imperial County is still going through the permitting process for the Vega SES solar project, which is being developed by Mike Abatti and ZGlobal. Abatti and ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan have been aided on that project by another local power player: Jurg Heuberger.

Heuberger was Imperial County’s planning director for decades, and he still leads another county-level government entity called the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO. As executive officer of LAFCO, Heuberger oversees issues including city annexations, the formation and dissolution of special districts, and boundary changes for public agencies.

For several years, Heuberger has also worked as a consultant for ZGlobal, helping the company navigate the county permitting process for at least five energy and water projects, three of which involve Abatti.

On at least two occasions, Heuberger blurred the line between his work for ZGlobal and his responsibilities as the head of a government agency.

In December 2016, ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan wrote a $13,000 check to Imperial County to pay the permit application fee for Vega SES. That check needed to be delivered from ZGlobal to county officials. Heuberger originally planned to pick up the check from ZGlobal’s office, emails obtained from LAFCO and the county show. But instead Heuberger asked one of his employees at LAFCO, Paula Graf, to do it.

“I have asked Paula Graf to deliver the application and fee to you personally next Tuesday,” Heuberger wrote in an email to Imperial County planning director Jim Minnick.

The Campo Verde solar project, seen from a drone, is adjacent to farmland owned by Mike Abatti. Mount Signal, in Mexico, looms in the background. Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

In an interview with The Desert Sun, Heuberger defended his decision to have one of his government employees help him with his private-sector consulting work for ZGlobal.

“Well number one, she didn’t do it on LAFCO time, and number two, she wasn’t supposed to do it but she thought she was doing me a favor,” Heuberger said.

He also sought to shift some of the responsibility to his employee, even though he said in the email to Minnick that he had asked her to deliver the application and check.

“She thought she was helping me out, but like I told her, she doesn’t do anything for me other than the work I do at LAFCO,” Heuberger told The Desert Sun.

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Heuberger also saw his responsibilities as a government official and a ZGlobal consultant collide in June 2015.

At a meeting that month of the city council of Westmorland, a small city near the Salton Sea, Heuberger made a presentation about a small solar project ZGlobal planned to build just outside the city’s boundaries, known as the Valencia 1 project. He was told at the meeting that Westmorland was eyeing possible housing development on the piece of land proposed for solar development.

But Heuberger told the council it wouldn’t be able to annex the land unless an actual housing project had been proposed.

“Let me switch my hat to executive officer,” Heuberger said, referring to his job at LAFCO. He added, “I can’t bill ZGlobal for this.” Then he explained the housing issue in detail, telling the council, “As a rule, LAFCO doesn’t approve annexations to the city unless there’s a project.”

Asked by The Desert Sun about those comments three years later, Heuberger said he told city officials in advance of the meeting that he wouldn’t be able to speak in his capacity as LAFCO executive officer. But at the meeting, he still answered their questions.

“As a courtesy, I would always answer their questions,” Heuberger said. “I’m not going to go to a meeting and say I can’t talk to you today because I wear two hats.”

The Valencia 1 solar project just outside the city of Westmorland in the Imperial Valley, seen from a drone. ZGlobal developed the three-megawatt project, which sells electricity to the Imperial Irrigation District. (Video by Jay Calderon and Richard Lui, GIF by Vickie Connor.)

The solar farm outside Westmorland, which is now delivering electricity to IID, is one of several three-megawatt solar installations developed by ZGlobal, known as the Valencia 1, 2 and 3 projects. All three received 20-year, $12.6-million contracts from IID under a state-mandated program that requires utilities to buy electricity from small solar farms at predetermined prices. When the contracts were signed, Valencia 3 was owned by Imperial Water Ventures LLC, which is led by Abatti.

In December 2017, after an internal investigation, IID attorney Mike Aguirre accused ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan of helping make half a dozen public contracts in which he had a financial interest, including amendments to the Valencia contracts, while Alaywan’s company helped run IID’s energy department. Aguirre, the IID attorney, wrote that IID “does not conclude in this report that Mr. Alaywan has violated Gov. Code Section 1090,” the California law that prohibits elected officials, public employees and government consultants like ZGlobal from making contracts that benefit themselves. But Aguirre did write that IID “must take corrective action to ensure no improper benefit is taken from a contract that arguably transgresses Section 1090.”

Aguirre’s report didn’t specify how Alaywan had influenced the Valencia contracts. But in a March 2016 email, obtained by The Desert Sun under the California Public Records Act, IID employee Jamie Asbury — whose son had previously worked for ZGlobal — wrote to Alaywan about modifications to the Valencia contracts, which she indicated she and Alaywan had discussed previously. Asbury said the commercial operation dates for the projects would be changed. Rather than a deadline of July 1, 2016 for ZGlobal to finish the three solar farms, the projects would have new commercial operation dates of “not earlier than” 1/31/17 for Valencia 1, 2/28/17 for Valencia 2 and 3/31/17 for Valencia 3 — essentially a blank check for ZGlobal to finish the solar farms at its own convenience.

According to a 2010 report from the California attorney general’s office, “A decision to modify, extend, or renegotiate a contract constitutes involvement in the making of a contract under section 1090,” the conflict-of-interest law.

A waterfall flows in the lobby of ZGlobal's office in El Centro, California. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Valencia 1 is now delivering electricity to IID. Construction had not started on Valencia 2 and Valencia 3 as of early July.

Asbury didn’t respond to questions about whether she had given ZGlobal special treatment on the Valencia projects. In response to those questions, IID’s outside counsel, Mike Aguirre, said the utility would have no further comment beyond the report concluding that Alaywan had helped make contracts in which he had a financial interest.

In its role as a consultant for IID, ZGlobal also worked on several of the utility’s engineering studies for the Valencia 1 and Valencia 3 solar projects, IID told The Desert Sun last year — another potential conflict of interest. Those studies typically help determine how much it will cost developers to connect their energy projects to IID’s power grid.

In early 2018, ZGlobal agreed to divest from the Valencia solar projects as part of a legal settlement with IID designed to resolve conflict-of-interest concerns. But ZGlobal denied any wrongdoing. Eugene Iredale, a criminal defense attorney who helped ZGlobal negotiate the settlement, said Alaywan had only agreed to help run IID’s energy department after being assured by utility officials that precautions could be taken to avoid conflicts.

“Acting in good faith, and in reliance on the assurances of IID’s counsel that these proposed procedures obviated any possibility of ethical or legal impropriety, Ziad Alaywan, on behalf of ZGlobal, agreed to this arrangement,” Iredale wrote in a letter to Aguirre. “Now, over two years later, after having sought ZGlobal’s help and repeatedly assured ZGlobal of the working arrangement’s ethical propriety and legality, IID appears to be questioning whether there have been (Section 1090) violations. The unfairness is clear.”

Imperial Irrigation District general manager Kevin Kelley attends the dedication ceremony for IID's 30-megawatt battery storage system in El Centro, California, on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

ZGlobal was supposed to divest by mid-May, but the process took longer than that. The company agreed to send any profits it made on the sale of the Valencia solar farms to IID, but ZGlobal and IID disagreed over how much of the sale proceeds ZGlobal should be allowed to keep to cover the cost of developing the projects. The two parties asked retired federal judge Irma Gonzalez, who oversaw the mediation that led to the legal settlement, to resolve the dispute, according to IID’s outside counsel, Aguirre.

“Judge Gonzalez resolved the amount of the divestment and ZGlobal has represented to IID that it will be making the payment as set by Judge Gonzalez. IID has not yet received payment,” Aguirre said in an email on Monday, July 30.

IID general manager Kevin Kelley has stood by his decision to hire ZGlobal to help run IID’s energy department, saying the engineering company did critical work that IID employees weren’t equipped to do themselves. But in an interview earlier this year, Kelley blamed himself for not paying closer attention to ZGlobal’s private-sector activities, including its work for energy developers that do business with IID.

“I was just so happy to have competent expertise in that critical function of transmission planning. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have been as complacent,” Kelley said.

The Valencia 1 solar project, seen from a drone, borders the city of Westmorland, California. Valencia 1 was developed by ZGlobal. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Colorado River

The Abatti family keeps suing IID over water

Even as tens of millions of dollars in energy contracts flowed from the Imperial Irrigation District to Mike Abatti's companies, he was suing the public agency over a plan that could limit his access to Colorado River water.

Abatti filed the lawsuit, which led to a sweeping ruling with potentially dramatic impacts across the Southwest, on Nov. 27, 2013, the day before Thanksgiving.

But it wasn’t the first time he had taken IID to court over water rights. Multiple times over the past decade, Abatti and members of his family had sued the public agency to block projects or policies that could limit their use of Colorado River water.

Jimmy Abatti attends a meeting of the Imperial Irrigation District's Water Conservation Advisory Board in El Centro on July 12, 2018. Abatti is a member of the advisory board. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Mike and his brother Jimmy were among the many people and groups who brought lawsuits against IID over the Quantification Settlement Agreement, a 2003 farm-to-city water transfer in which IID agreed to send 10 trillion gallons of Colorado River water to San Diego County and the Coachella Valley over 75 years. Mike Abatti initially continued his involvement in that lawsuit even after he joined the IID board, although he later withdrew. The lawsuit ultimately did not succeed.

Mike and Jimmy Abatti also sued IID in 2006 to block a plan to add concrete lining to 23 miles of the All-American Canal, which brings Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley. Lining the canal was expected to save nearly 68,000 acre-feet of water per year that previously seeped into the ground, helping IID meet some of its obligation to send water to cities under the 2003 deal. State officials and San Diego County had agreed to pay for the canal-lining project.

In that lawsuit — which was filed while Mike Abatti was running for IID’s board of directors — the brothers argued that concrete lining would increase the flow of water through the canal and make its sides steeper and harder to climb, thereby making the canal less safe for people trying to cross it, including migrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. Without proper safety measures, they said, more people would die.

A view of the All-American Canal near Yuma, Arizona, on Feb. 28, 2006, before it was lined with concrete. AP Photo/Sandy Huffaker

Mike Abatti was also interested in what lining the canal would mean for the Colorado River water his farming operations depend on. In a sworn declaration in a separate lawsuit by other plaintiffs to block the canal lining, he said a canal lined with concrete would be “smaller than the present canal and may physically limit the amount of water that can be made available for farming and other uses in the Imperial Valley.” A smaller canal, Abatti wrote, “could permanently reduce IID’s share of Colorado River water,” even if a court were to overturn the 2003 water transfer deal.

Abatti dropped his involvement in his and Jimmy’s canal-lining lawsuit after he was elected to the IID board. The courts eventually ruled against Jimmy.

Jimmy Abatti didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

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Three years after the 2003 water transfer deal, IID also approved a water apportionment policy known as the Equitable Distribution Plan. The plan was supposed to help IID limit its water use to 3.1 million acre-feet annually, by determining how much water individual farmers could get during years when demand for irrigation exceeded available supply.

For some Imperial Valley farmers, the idea that IID could limit their water supplies was controversial from the start. Many local landowners have long contended that Colorado River water is a private right tied to their lands, not a public resource that IID can give or take away.

Initially, nobody sued IID over the water apportionment plan. But then in 2008, the IID board made technical amendments the plan, to prepare for possible shortages. Mike Abatti voted against the amendments, which were nonetheless approved by the board in a 3-2 vote.

Water from the Colorado River flows to a farm near Brawley in California's Imperial Valley. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The next month, several farmers sued IID. The plaintiffs included Mike’s brother Jimmy and their father Ben. They argued the new apportionment plan unfairly attacked the water rights of landowning farmers, in part because it didn’t require industrial facilities, which use a tiny fraction of the Imperial Valley’s Colorado River water, to cut back during shortages.

A local resident complained to the IID board that Mike Abatti should recuse himself from conversations about the lawsuit, since the plaintiffs included his brother and father. According to Abatti’s financial disclosure statements, he was leasing land at the time to his brother Jimmy’s company, Madjac Farms, and to farmer Doug Westmoreland, another plaintiff in the lawsuit. Mike Abatti also served as general manager of his father’s company, Ben Abatti Farms.

At a February 2009 board meeting, Abatti responded to concerns about his potential conflicts of interest by saying he “represents a lot of people and when it comes to the equitable distribution program his input is needed,” according to the meeting minutes.

Abatti left the IID board at the end of the next year, while the lawsuit continued. Jimmy Abatti and the other farmers lost in court, but it didn’t much matter. Even with the modified water apportionment plan in place, Imperial Valley farmers used more water than they were supposed to in 2011 and 2012, forcing IID’s board of directors back to the drawing board. In October 2013, they adopted a new version of the water apportionment plan.

This time, it was Mike Abatti who sued. And this time, he was going to win.

Colorado River, Part 2: Judge Anderholt and the Abatti family

When Mike Abatti sued the Imperial Irrigation District in 2013, claiming its water apportionment plan could unfairly limit his water use, the lawsuit didn’t generate much interest outside the Imperial Valley. But Abatti’s suit, if successful, was relevant to millions of people who depend on the Colorado River for drinking water and irrigation.

For the past few years, federal officials have been working with water managers in California, Arizona and Nevada on a regional deal to leave more water in Lake Mead, a reservoir outside Las Vegas and the Southwest’s primary storage vessel for Colorado River water. Mead’s water levels have been falling as a result of long-term drought and climate change, and further declines could lead to mandatory cuts in water deliveries.

Lake Mead has been declining for years, with the reservoir's level reaching record lows. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

State and federal officials hope to stave off those cuts by striking a regional deal to leave more water in Lake Mead. But any deal would be largely meaningless without IID, since the agency controls more than 20 percent of the Colorado River water allocated in the United States. And that’s where Abatti comes into play. Critics say his lawsuit threatens to make it more difficult for IID to participate in a regional deal, because it seeks to undermine one of IID’s key tools for limiting water use by farmers.

Abatti challenged the method by which IID chose to apportion water to farmers during a shortage year. As part of IID’s Equitable Distribution Plan, the agency set per-acre water limits using a hybrid of two techniques: a “straight line” method, which would apply a standard amount to all growers, and a “historical use” method, based on each farmer’s historical water use.

Abatti challenged the hybrid method, arguing IID should base its water limits only on historical use, which would almost certainly result in more water flowing to Abatti’s fields during shortage years. Abatti also said IID was unfairly prioritizing non-agricultural water users, such as cities and geothermal power plants, over farmers, even though non-farm users consume just 3 percent of the region’s Colorado River water. Abatti’s brother Jimmy had made a similar argument in a lawsuit challenging a previous version of the water apportionment plan.

READ MORE: Imperial Valley farmers are embroiled in a fight over water rights

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Abatti has said in legal filings that much of his land has sandy soil, meaning it requires more water than typical farmland. Much of his land, he says, requires between 9 and 11 acre-feet of water per year. But IID told him that under the water apportionment plan, his allocation would average less than 6.5 acre-feet of water per acre in 2018, he said.

“My relationships with my lenders and buyers are more important to the success of my farming operations in the long run than the value of my crops in any given year. If I am unable to secure the water I need to produce my crops in 2018 or beyond … I may suffer irreparable loss of those financial relationships,” Abatti wrote in a legal filing last year. “If I lose my financing and/or the commitments by customers to purchase my crops in the ensuing years, then my ability to continue operating my farming business will be seriously jeopardized.”

An Imperial Irrigation District canal carries irrigation water past farmland near Westmorland, in California's Imperial Valley, on July 18, 2017. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Shorty Hickingbottom, a longtime Imperial Valley resident and member of IID’s energy advisory committee, said he agreed with Abatti’s arguments “to an extent.” He described Abatti as a dedicated farmer, whose sandy ground may require more water than IID wants to give him.

“Mike will farm whatever he can. If they take the water away from him, he’ll still try to farm,” Hickingbottom said.

Abatti’s lawsuit originally landed in the courtroom of Judge Jeffrey B. Jones, one of about 10 judges at Imperial County’s Superior Court. But Abatti’s lawyer filed a peremptory challenge, in which a litigant can object to a judge without having to give a reason. The case was then transferred to Judge Juan Ulloa. But this time IID filed a peremptory challenge.

Each party is only allowed one such objection. In January 2014, with the peremptory challenges exhausted, the case was transferred to Judge Diane Altamirano. She presided over the case for the rest of the year, overseeing a flurry of legal arguments.

But then in December 2014, the day after Christmas, the case was reassigned to Judge L. Brooks Anderholt. The reassignment notice in the court docket gives no explanation for why the case was transferred to a new judge. Both judges, Altamirano and Anderholt, declined to discuss the case.

Colorado River water flows through the West Side Main Dixie spill toward the New River and the Salton Sea. Courtesy of the Imperial Irrigation District

Judge Anderholt had a long history of ties to the Abatti family.

Anderholt was first elected to a judgeship in 2012, after a career as a private practice attorney in the Imperial Valley. He was born into a farming family in Holtville, population 6,000, the same town where Mike and Jimmy Abatti were raised and where their father Ben has long lived and farmed. Anderholt and Mike Abatti both attended Holtville High School, although not at the same time, and they were both inducted into the Holtville High School hall of fame in 2014, a month before Abatti’s lawsuit landed in Anderholt’s courtroom. Both men were descended from Swiss immigrants who came to the Imperial Valley a century ago, and both of them were members of the Imperial Valley Swiss Club, along with about 300 other people, according to a membership list from 2013.

Anderholt also had past ties to two of Mike Abatti’s siblings.

When Jimmy Abatti founded his farming company, Madjac Farms Inc., in 1999, L. Brooks Anderholt was the company’s registered agent, according to Madjac’s articles of incorporation. In documents filed in 1999 and 2000, Anderholt was also listed as the registered agent for Baja Farms LLC, which is owned by Mike and Jimmy’s other brother, Ben Abatti Jr.

Before he became a lawyer, Anderholt worked for Mike and Jimmy’s father, Ben Abatti Sr., according to John Hawk, a Holtville farmer and self-described friend of Anderholt’s. Hawk said Anderholt worked as an irrigation foreman for Ben Sr.’s company, Ben Abatti Farms, in the early 1980s, after leaving his job as an Imperial County deputy sheriff.

When Anderholt ran for judge in 2012, Jimmy Abatti’s company gave $1,000 to his campaign. Ben Abatti Sr.'s company gave $500.

A sign outside the Mealey Building in El Centro, California, where Mike Abatti's office is located. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

More broadly, Anderholt had a long list of business ties to the Imperial Valley farming community by the time he was elected. Between 1997 and 2012, he was listed as the registered agent for at least a dozen agricultural or ranching businesses, including several based in Holtville, his and the Abattis’ hometown. Anderholt’s law firm, Anderholt & Storey, filed registration documents for another half-dozen agricultural entities during those years, including, just days before Anderholt was elected as a judge, Holtville Ag Education Foundation Inc.

Two years after Anderholt took the bench, Mike Abatti’s lawsuit was transferred to his courtroom.

After a four-year trial court proceeding — which produced an administrative record of roughly 550 documents and more than 27,000 pages, some of which dated back to the 1800s — Anderholt released an eight-page ruling. He ruled in Abatti’s favor, writing in his decision that IID’s only legal option was to apportion water based on the “historical use” method preferred by Abatti. He agreed with Abatti that IID’s plan illegally prioritized non-agricultural water users.

The judge also endorsed the idea that farmers, not IID, have ultimate control over the Imperial Valley’s Colorado River water. He wrote that IID “holds mere legal title to the water rights,” and that the farmers “own the equitable and beneficial interest in the water rights.” He described the farmers’ interest in the water rights as a “constitutionally protected property right.”

Imperial County Superior Court in El Centro, seen on July 12, 2018. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The outcome may have been different if the case hadn’t been transferred to Anderholt.

In November 2014, the previous judge, Diane Altamirano, wrote in an order that Abatti could only challenge provisions of IID’s water apportionment plan that weren’t present in previous versions of the plan. Challenges to any provisions in the most recent version of the plan that were also part of earlier versions were “barred by the passage of time,” Altamirano wrote.

Two key elements of IID’s water plan — both of which would later prove central to Anderholt’s decision — were part of earlier versions of the plan. First was IID’s “straight line” methodology. Second was the provision that Abatti said unfairly prioritized cities and industrial facilities over farmers. Both of those elements were part of the Equitable Distribution Plan as far back as 2008, IID said in court filings.

Two weeks after the order from Altamirano, Abatti’s lawyers filed an amended complaint. But IID’s lawyers said Abatti was ignoring the judge’s order, by continuing to challenge provisions of the latest version of the water plan that were also present in previous versions. On Dec. 24, 2014 — the day before Christmas — IID’s lawyers asked Altamirano to throw out the legal arguments challenging those provisions, which they said violated Altamirano’s previous order.

Altamirano never had a chance to respond to that request. Two days later, on Dec. 26, 2014, the case was transferred to Anderholt.

The courtroom of Judge L. Brooks Anderholt at Imperial County Superior Court in El Centro, seen on July 12, 2018. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Anderholt disagreed with IID’s lawyers. He said it was his understanding, based on reading Altamirano’s November 2014 order, that she had merely intended to “clean up” Abatti’s complaint for trial, and that her request for an amended complaint was “nothing more than an administrative procedure.” He noted that Altamirano had in several places ordered specific language removed from Abatti’s complaint, and that Abatti’s lawyers had complied.

An attorney for IID objected, pointing out that Altamirano wrote in her order that Abatti “can only attack the October 2013 (water plan) with respect to any change that it contains from the May 2013 (plan), as to which, along with all prior (plans), attack is barred by the passage of time.”

Anderholt wasn’t swayed.

“You’re reading something into the order that’s not there, counsel,” Anderholt said.

When Anderholt ruled in Abatti’s favor on the central issues a few years later, his decision was based largely on the legal arguments that, in IID’s view, Altamirano had tried to eliminate from consideration. Anderholt wrote in his eight-page decision that IID’s October 2013 water plan “contained substantial changes from the prior equitable distribution plans” and therefore “there is no statute of limitations.”

Anderholt didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story. Through a court employee, Anderholt and Altamirano declined to be interviewed about the Abatti case.

HELP US INVESTIGATE: Do you have information that could lead to further reporting? Please contact the reporter at (760) 219-9679, or by email at sammy.roth@desertsun.com

The sun rises over farm fields in Heber, in the Imperial Valley, on Jan. 12, 2017. Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun

Colorado River, Part 3: Judge Anderholt and Imperial Valley First

Judge L. Brooks Anderholt made a sweeping ruling for Mike Abatti in Abatti’s lawsuit against the Imperial Irrigation District. Anderholt threw out key elements of IID’s plan for limiting Colorado River water use by farmers during shortage years. He also endorsed the idea that farmers, not IID, have ultimate control over the Imperial Valley’s Colorado River water.

Anderholt’s ruling sparked a fierce political battle. His conclusions about water rights disturbed some IID board members, who believed his decision could undermine a century of water law that they say gives IID broad discretion to manage the Imperial Valley’s water supply for the benefit of the region as a whole.

IID board members said they couldn’t let Anderholt’s sweeping conclusions about water law stand. Even as they repealed the water apportionment plan that Anderholt had ruled illegal, they appealed the judge’s decision.

From left: Imperial Irrigation District board members Norma Sierra Galindo, Bruce Kuhn and Jim Hanks, seen at the July 18, 2017 board meeting. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The appeal struck a nerve with many Imperial Valley farmers, who thought IID should drop the case. The Imperial County Farm Bureau passed a resolution supporting Anderholt’s decision and urging IID to dismiss its appeal. The farm bureau’s president is Mike Abatti’s brother Jimmy, whose company, Madjac Farms, once listed L. Brooks Anderholt as its registered agent in state filings, before Anderholt was a judge.

Some critics of IID’s appeal did more than criticize the public agency. Two dozen farmers opened their wallets to try to unseat two IID board members who supported the appeal. Those farmers gave $71,000 to Imperial Valley First, a political committee that campaigned against Jim Hanks and Norma Sierra Galindo in the June 2018 election. But Hanks held on to his seat by a 41-vote margin, and Galindo advanced to a runoff after getting the most votes in the primary.

Imperial Valley First also supported incumbent board member Juanita Salas, who had argued IID should drop its appeal in the Abatti case. Salas was defeated by challenger Alex Cardenas.

Ronnie Leimgruber, who gave $3,000 to Imperial Valley First, complained that Hanks and Galindo were “not listening to the judge.” In an interview with The Desert Sun before the election, Leimgruber said the IID board was threatening the valley’s agricultural economy by trying to exert too much control over the water.

“If you allow the five-member political board to have 100 percent discretion on the water that the Supreme Court ruled allocated to the land, then all an outside interest has to come and do is buy off three board members with some political favors, and you can transfer the water anywhere you want,” said Leimgruber, who grows hay. “If you tie the water to the land, it never leaves Imperial Valley, because the land’s not moving.”

Ronnie Leimgruber, left, and Doug Westmoreland attend a meeting of the Imperial Irrigation District's Water Conservation Advisory Board in El Centro on July 12, 2018. Both men are members of the advisory board. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Leimgruber, like Anderholt, once served as president of the Imperial Valley Swiss Club. And that’s not the only past tie between the judge and some of the farmers who spent tens of thousands of dollars to try to unseat IID board members who disagreed with his decision.

Anderholt first ran for judge in 2006. Several campaign finance filings from that election cycle list his assistant treasurer as Jamie Vessey — wife of Jack Vessey, one of the leaders of Imperial Valley First’s campaign against two IID board members this year. Jack Vessey, like Anderholt and Abatti, attended Holtville High School and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame. Vessey and Anderholt have also served together in the leadership of the Holtville Rotary Club, along with Mike Abatti’s brother-in-law Joseph Dhalliwal.

Dhalliwal, who works in the hay business, told The Desert Sun he doesn’t know anything about his brother-in-law Mike Abatti’s water lawsuit against IID. Dhalliwal described Brooks Anderholt as “a dear friend” who worked as his attorney before being elected as a judge. Dhalliwal said he’s known the Anderholt family his whole life.

“Brooks, he knows what he’s doing. He reads the law, he knows the law, and we stand behind him and support him in decisions he’s made,” Dhalliwal said.

Water flows through a canal next to an alfalfa field near Brawley in the Imperial Valley. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Dhalliwal also suggested Anderholt would do the right thing for the Imperial Valley.

“I am for agriculture, I am for our water, I will fight to the end for it,” Dhalliwal said. “And so will Mike Abatti, and I’m sure Judge Anderholt would be the same.”

Anderholt is also listed in state business filings from 2011 and 2012 as the registered agent for a company that is now owned by John Hawk, who gave $3,000 this year to Imperial Valley First. Hawk gave money to Anderholt’s successful 2012 judge campaign, as did Jack Vessey and Ronnie Leimgruber. Leimgruber was one of the plaintiffs in Jimmy Abatti’s lawsuit against IID over an earlier version of the agency’s water apportionment plan.

Anderholt also serves as a worship leader at Trinity Baptist Church in Holtville, where Hawk leads a church program.

Hawk described Anderholt as “a straight shooter.” He said he’s known Anderholt for a long time, and their wives are close friends. He said it’s well known locally that the judge makes up his own mind, regardless of how his friends and neighbors might react.

“He’s a straight arrow. If he ruled on that (Abatti) case, he ruled on it for the merits of that case, not because he worked for the Abatti family years ago,” Hawk said.

WATER IN THE WEST: Desert residents have been saving a lot of water. Farms and golf courses, not so much

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Charles Geyh, a judicial ethics expert and law professor at Indiana University, helped write the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct, which has been adopted in whole or in part by most states, including California. The core principle, Geyh said, is the “common sense notion” that a judge should recuse himself or herself if a reasonable, well-informed member of the public would question his or her impartiality.

The history of ties between Anderholt and the Abatti family, Geyh said, “certainly strikes me as enough to pursue the matter further, because taken together you can fairly say these ongoing relationships — friendship relationships, business relationships, campaign contribution relationships — would lead a reasonable person to wonder about the impartiality of the judge.”

“The composite of facts you offer do seem as though they ought to have been disclosed. They should have been put on the record by the judge to enable the defendant, if they’re so inclined, to seek disqualification,” Geyh said.

Under California law, a party to a lawsuit can ask the judge to remove himself or herself from the case if the party believes the judge has a conflict of interest. The Desert Sun could find no record of IID making such a request.

Board members of the Imperial Irrigation District listen to a presentation by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner Brenda Burman during a board meeting on May 22, 2018. Ian James/The Desert Sun

A second judicial ethics expert, James Alfini from Southern Texas College of Law, said he didn’t think Anderholt had a legal obligation to recuse himself. Alfini, who also helped draft the ABA’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct, said he could see a judge in Anderholt’s position not wanting to set a precedent that could prevent him from hearing future water law cases, considering the importance of water to the Imperial Valley.

“I’m guessing he will say, ‘I thought about that, this is an important issue in this community, it comes up often, the people of this community would not have elected me if they thought I was going to be less than impartial in these cases,’” Alfini said. “Frankly no court, I think, would rule against him on appeal simply for some of those things you mentioned.”

On the other hand, Alfini said, Anderholt’s history of ties to several farmers who tried to unseat IID board members who disagreed with his decision makes this a difficult case ethically.

“You have to ask the question: Can he exercise independent judgment, knowing that his farming neighbors are going to be angry with him if he rules in a certain way?” Alfini asked. “It really galls me that so many judges are willing to swear that they can be impartial in cases where the average person would say, ‘Hey, are you crazy?’”

Birds flock to irrigation water on farmland outside Calipatria, in the Imperial Valley, on May 16, 2017. Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun

Groundwater

Abatti and Alaywan team up at Allegretti Ranch

While nearly all Imperial Valley farms survive on Colorado River water, Allegretti Ranch exists in a different universe.

The 2,440-acre ranch lies just south of Highway 78 in western Imperial County, three miles from the San Diego County line. It was farmed for years by the Allegretti family, which pumped groundwater from beneath the ranch to irrigate their crops. But farming largely ceased on the property by the early 2010s, after Joe Allegretti lost a years-long fight against the county for the right to pump unlimited quantities of groundwater.

The energy and engineering firm ZGlobal Inc. started working on plans to build a solar project at Allegretti Ranch in 2011, later partnering with Regenerate Power, a Menlo Park-based developer. The Imperial County supervisors approved a permit for the project in October 2014, allowing Regenerate to install solar arrays on five of the eight lots at the ranch. A few months later, ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan bought the ranch.

Undeveloped land at Allegretti Ranch in Imperial County, seen from a drone. The land was prepared for farming by Mike Abatti. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The 50-megawatt Seville solar farm now takes up two of the eight lots at Allegretti Ranch. Seville was built by Kruger Energy, which bought it from Regenerate and later sold it to Duke Energy. In mid-2014, the Imperial Irrigation District signed a contract to buy some of the electricity the solar farm generates.

The Seville project later caused controversy for IID due to potential conflicts of interest. Two adult sons of IID board member Jim Hanks had been paid by a subcontractor to do pre-construction work on Seville while Alaywan owned the ranch, and while ZGlobal worked as a consultant for IID. That information, and other facts reported by The Desert Sun, prompted IID to ask its outside counsel to investigate potential conflicts of interest.

IID’s outside counsel, former San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre, defended Hanks, writing in one of his reports that Hanks “will not have a financial interest in any contract that will benefit his adult, non-dependent children, so long as the contract does not benefit Director Hanks directly.”

Allegretti Ranch in western Imperial County, seen from a drone. The land to the right was prepared for farming by Mike Abatti, but no crops were grown after that. The land to the left was developed as the Seville solar project. (Video by Jay Calderon and Richard Lui, GIF by Vickie Connor.)

After Seville was built, there were still several lots at Allegretti Ranch permitted for solar that didn’t have solar panels installed on them yet. And that’s where Mike Abatti entered the picture.

In February 2016, Alaywan asked Imperial County for permission to reactivate three groundwater wells at Allegretti Ranch. He wanted to pump 3,200 acre-feet of groundwater per year, or about 1 billion gallons, to restart farming operations at the ranch. He told county officials that Abatti would be the farmer growing the crops.

Bruce Kuhn of the Imperial Irrigation District's board of directors, seen at a board meeting on July 18, 2017. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Sometime in early 2016, Abatti hired IID board member Bruce Kuhn, who has described himself as a longtime friend of Abatti’s, to level about 350 acres at Allegretti Ranch to prepare the land for farming. After a member of the public complained that Kuhn’s work for Abatti created a conflict of interest, Kuhn began recusing himself on matters related to the ranch and to Abatti’s ongoing water lawsuit against IID, saying he was acting out of an abundance of caution.

Alaywan and Abatti still needed permission from the county to start pumping groundwater. And that would be harder to get than they expected.

In July 2016, the county’s Environmental Evaluation Committee, which is made up of county employees, met to decide what kind of environmental review to require for the proposed groundwater pumping. Speaking on behalf of Alaywan and Abatti was former Imperial County planning director Jurg Heuberger, now a consultant for ZGlobal. Heuberger still ran another county-level government entity, the Local Agency Formation Commission.

Heuberger told the environmental committee that based on previous studies, 3,200 acre-feet of groundwater pumping at Allegretti Ranch each year would be sustainable.

“We can study it one more time, get the same results again, and waste a lot of time and money studying it,” Heuberger said. “You already have all these studies that already show that 3,200 acre-feet is not going to be a problem. Let’s do this.”

Committee members were skeptical. They noted that several of the studies Heuberger cited were more than 15 years old, and that, according to one report, groundwater levels at the ranch declined by 163 feet between 1953 and 2001. The report also said there had been evidence of land sinking at the ranch due to groundwater withdrawals. County planning staff told the committee in an environmental document that the proposed levels of pumping “would appear to overdraft this basin and have a potentially significant impact to this groundwater basin.”

One committee member pointed out that the aquifer beneath the ranch is also tapped by a handful of other water users, including the Blu-In RV Park in nearby Ocotillo Wells.

In a unanimous decision, the committee determined the proposed groundwater extraction required a full environmental review, which could take months or years.

Unsatisfied by that decision, Alaywan and Abatti appealed to the Imperial County Planning Commission. In the months leading up to their appeal hearing, the applicants proposed a strategy for minimizing environmental impacts. They said the county should give them permission to pump 3,200 acre-feet annually for seven years, without doing a full environmental review first, so long as they hired an outside expert to monitor the effects of their pumping on the aquifer. If at any point the groundwater withdrawals caused major environmental impacts, the county could step in and force Abatti and Alaywan to reduce their pumping.

Alaywan also scheduled a meeting in October 2016 with Ralph Cordova, the county’s executive officer, to discuss Allegretti Ranch. Cordova, who was not a member of the planning commission, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the scheduled meeting. But less than a year later, he stepped down as the county’s top employee, and within a few months of that he was hired by ZGlobal as an attorney. He helped ZGlobal negotiate a legal settlement with IID to resolve the company’s alleged conflicts of interest.

In December 2016, the county planning commission heard the appeal on groundwater pumping at Allegretti Ranch. Heuberger spoke first, followed by Abatti.

Mike Abatti speaks at the dedication ceremony for the Imperial Irrigation District's battery storage project on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

“Most of you know Mike. He’s a local farmer,” Heuberger said.

Abatti said he sympathized with the commission, having served as a public official himself as a member of IID’s board of directors from 2007 through 2010. He also said he was offering a solution for what to do with Allegretti Ranch.

“If you all have a better solution out there for the Allegretti, to help the valley and everything else and agriculture … please let me know because I’d like to be a partner,” Abatti said.

“I’m with you on it as far as finding out what’s sustainable, because I’d like to know too,” Abatti said later in the meeting. “But we have to get started, and I have to be able to turn the pumps on.”

The commissioners asked several questions. A few of them sounded skeptical. But then, in a unanimous vote, they overturned the previous decision by county employees. They said no further environment review was needed before groundwater pumping began.

Two months later, Heuberger returned to the planning commission to get the final sign-off for the groundwater well permit. There was one last complication. The county was planning to hire a consultant to monitor the environmental impacts of the pumping. But Heuberger said his clients wanted to hire the consultant themselves, subject to the county’s approval. That surprised the county planning director, Jim Minnick.

“Is there a reason why you don’t want to go the standard route where the county would execute the contract and you would pay the freight and we’d keep it as an arm’s length approach?” Minnick asked.

“Well, it’s still an arm’s length approach because you have the right to review it,” Heuberger responded. “Frankly, we’ve already retained a consultant.”

Minnick said that was fine, as long as Heuberger’s clients paid the county to hire a third party to review the consultant’s report. Heuberger said that wouldn’t be a problem.

A few minutes later, the planning commission unanimously approved the permit.

But the groundwater pumping never happened.

Undeveloped land at Allegretti Ranch in Imperial County, seen from a drone. The land was prepared for farming by Mike Abatti. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Groundwater, Part 2: An Abatti farm, or a solar farm?

Mike Abatti and ZGlobal founder Ziad Alaywan had told Imperial County officials they wanted to farm several lots at Allegretti Ranch, which Alaywan owned.

But at the same time, ZGlobal consultants at the Imperial Irrigation District were working on plans for a solar project that would be built on the same land Abatti was preparing to farm at the ranch.

As early as May 2016, IID staff were pitching the utility’s board of directors on a community solar project that would make solar power available to low-income homes and other customers who wanted it. The idea was that IID would sign a contract to buy power from a large solar array, then resell the electricity to its own customers at an affordable rate.

The Seville solar project at Allegretti Ranch, seen from a drone. The undeveloped land in the foreground was prepared for farming by Mike Abatti. Jay Calderon and Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

The proposed location of the community solar project would turn out to be Allegretti Ranch — on the same parcels of land that Abatti had hired IID board member Bruce Kuhn to level for farming.

It generally isn’t possible to grow most crops on land where solar panels are installed.

Then-IID energy manager Vicken Kasarjian, himself a former ZGlobal employee, discussed the community solar initiative at an IID energy advisory committee meeting in July 2016 — the same month county officials first voted on a proposal from Abatti and Alaywan to pump groundwater at Allegretti Ranch for farming.

ZGlobal employee Jesse Montaño brought up community solar again an IID energy advisory committee meeting a few months later. In his role as an IID consultant, Montaño told the committee that IID was getting an “unreal” price for solar. He didn’t mention at the meeting that the solar project in question would be built on land owned by his other boss, Ziad Alaywan.

The community solar initiative was temporarily delayed when a potential conflict of interest came to light. It turned out IID staff had asked Alaywan for his input on contract negotiations with the developer of the community solar project, Regenerate Power, even though Alaywan owned the land where Regenerate was planning to build. The issue was brought to the attention of IID’s general counsel, Frank Oswalt, who was ZGlobal’s landlord for several years before becoming IID’s top lawyer.

Oswalt said the agency would resolve the potential conflict by ending negotiations with Regenerate and soliciting competitive bids for a community solar farm. He also said Alaywan had agreed to sell the land at Allegretti Ranch.

After a bidding process that saw 10 companies submit proposals, IID staff quickly chose Regenerate as the winning bidder. In July 2017, the IID board approved a 20-year, $75-million contract with Regenerate for a 60-megawatt solar project at Allegretti Ranch.

A year later, there are no new solar panels at Allegretti Ranch — and no crops being grown, either.

Solar panels generate electricity at the 50-megawatt Seville solar farm at Allegretti Ranch, in western Imperial County off Highway 78. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

IID canceled the $75-million solar contract in September 2017, later acknowledging that The Desert Sun’s reporting on possible conflicts of interest had prompted the move. That’s why there are no new solar panels at Allegretti Ranch. It’s less clear why none of the land has been farmed, although ZGlobal’s Montaño seemed to blame IID. In a 2017 interview, he said farming preparations had stopped after IID asked Alaywan to sell the land to resolve his perceived conflict of interest. (Alaywan told IID he sold the land, although public records showed it was still owned by a company that listed Melissa Vaa, a ZGlobal employee, as its registered agent.)

Regenerate Power chief executive Reyad Fezzani didn’t respond to messages asking whether he knew Alaywan was also making plans to farm the same parts of the ranch where the solar project was supposed to be built.

Alaywan and Abatti didn’t respond to questions about how they would have reconciled the proposed farming and the proposed solar farm on the same plots of land — or whether they had some other use in mind for the groundwater besides farming.

But less than a year before Alaywan bought Allegretti Ranch, a ZGlobal employee suggested farming was no longer feasible there.

There’s already one solar project taking up part of Allegretti Ranch, which ZGlobal helped develop. When that project was getting its county permit, ZGlobal’s representative for the county’s environmental review process was Cameron Bucher.

In a March 2014 email, county planner David Black wrote to other county officials that Bucher’s position was that no further study was needed of the solar project’s possible impacts to agricultural resources, because, as far as Bucher was concerned, “the Allegretti land is not being farmed (and) farming is not feasible.”

The Seville solar project at Allegretti Ranch, seen from a drone. The undeveloped land in the foreground was prepared for farming by Mike Abatti. Richard Lui and Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

DA's investigation

District attorney ’s office: Investigation continues

Imperial County’s civil grand jury started an investigation last year of the Imperial Irrigation District’s relationship with the consulting firm ZGlobal, following The Desert Sun’s reporting on ZGlobal’s possible conflicts of interest. Roy Caldwell, the grand jury’s foreman from June 2017 through June 2018, recently told The Desert Sun that it was “a very interesting case, and one thing was leading to another was leading to another.”

But then the case was taken out of the grand jury’s hands.

When Imperial County district attorney Gilbert Otero began an investigation into IID and ZGlobal last year, that took the case out of the grand jury’s jurisdiction, Caldwell said. He said it was one of three cases pulled from the grand jury last year, which he said had never happened in his previous three years on the panel.

“Once we were told that it was out of our jurisdiction, that’s when we had to stop,” Caldwell said. “Everything that we had done in our investigation, that my committee did, we turned it over to them. And so that sort of stops us from our process of looking into it.”

Otero’s assistant district attorney, Deborah Owen, is married to Mike Abatti’s brother Jimmy. Otero told The Desert Sun last year he had recused Owen from his investigation, since he planned to scrutinize the $35-million battery contract that IID awarded to Mike Abatti’s energy storage company.

Show caption Hide caption Left to right: Former Imperial Irrigation District board member Mike Abatti, Imperial County district attorney Gilbert Otero, and Mike Abatti's brother Jimmy Abatti. This photo... Left to right: Former Imperial Irrigation District board member Mike Abatti, Imperial County district attorney Gilbert Otero, and Mike Abatti's brother Jimmy Abatti. This photo was posted by the official Facebook profile for Otero's re-election campaign on Feb. 10, 2018, with the caption, "At the Air Show Gala with good friends Michael & Jimmy Abatti." Screenshot

But Otero did not recuse himself, despite his own ties to the Abatti family. In February 2018, a photo was posted by the official Facebook profile for Otero’s re-election campaign, showing the district attorney socializing with Mike and Jimmy Abatti. The photo caption described the two siblings as “good friends” of Otero’s. Around the same time, Jimmy Abatti sponsored Otero’s campaign kickoff event, which amounted to a contribution of nearly $4,800 worth of “campaign materials,” campaign finance filings show.

Asked earlier this year about the Facebook photo, Otero said his office had already “determined that (Mike Abatti) had no criminal liability in any of the matters under investigation.” Otero also said he and Abatti aren’t actually friends.

Jimmy Abatti continued to support Otero’s re-election campaign, which Otero won, defeating challenger Edgard Garcia with 56 percent of the vote. In the weeks leading up to the June 5 vote, drivers passing by the El Centro office of Jimmy Abatti’s company, Madjac Farms, would have seen an Otero campaign sign in the street-facing window.

Joe Beard, a deputy district attorney working for Otero, said in an email to The Desert Sun in early July that Jimmy Abatti’s support for Otero’s campaign “will come as no surprise to almost anyone in Imperial Valley. His support was open and very public.”

Officials including then-IID board member Matt Dessert (in blue) and Mike Abatti (in red) cut a ribbon to celebrate the opening of IID's battery on Oct. 26, 2016. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Beard said the investigation into IID and ZGlobal continues. He also defended Mike Abatti on the $35-million battery contract, saying, “There is absolutely no evidence that Mike Abatti did anything wrong.”

“IID hired a well known attorney to investigate the Abatti contract. That attorney issued a written report in December of 2017 that came to the same conclusion,” Beard said in an email, referring to former San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre, who conducted IID’s internal investigation. “Any implication by you or your newspaper to the contrary is simply wrong.”

Sammy Roth writes about energy and the environment for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and @Sammy_Roth.