MENDOCINO CO., 2/5/26 – The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday discussed a proposal to remove one of its supervisors from a commission after she attended an event with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, which one board member said could be a conflict of interest.
The board did not end up taking action against Supervisor Madeline Cline, who went to a conference last month headlined by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who has opposed the decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project. Cline represents District 1, which includes Potter Valley.
On Tuesday, supervisors discussed the possibility of unseating Cline from the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, a joint powers authority that works to protect the Russian and Eel river watersheds and ensure Mendocino County’s water sources are safeguarded. The board is working to find solutions, such as creating water storage, once PG&E shutters the Potter Valley Project.
Supervisor John Haschak raised the discussion of removing Cline from the commission after she and Supervisor Bernie Norvell attended the 107th American Farm Bureau Federation Convention in Anaheim on Jan. 12. Rollins was a featured speaker at the conference.
For more than 100 years, the Potter Valley Project, which is owned by PG&E, has diverted water from the Eel River to the Russian River Watershed, supplying water to communities throughout Mendocino and Sonoma counties. This water source has been crucial for agricultural, municipal, and environmental uses.
In 2019, PG&E opted not to relicense the project, saying it was not profitable. As soon as 2028, PG&E plans to decommission the Potter Valley Project, which could help fish restoration on the Eel River but could also decrease water availability and negatively impact local communities.
The project’s decommissioning has caused concern among residents, with farmers and ranchers anxious about losing the crucial water source. However, Native groups such as the Round Valley Indian Tribes are eager to see fish populations restored. The Round Valley Indian Tribes will also have water rights transferred to them under a formal agreement with PG&E.
As a member of the Inland Water and Power Commission, Cline attends meetings, speaks with local farmers, and researches how the community can recover from the removal of the water source.
Haschak expressed concern that Cline’s attendance at the agriculture convention could send a negative message to PG&E and the Round Valley Indian Tribes, and harm the county’s efforts to collaborate with those entities on a solution for everyone.
Rollins, who has been outspoken in her opposition to PG&E’s current plan, sent a letter to the editor to The Mendocino Voice outlining why she disagrees with the removal of the Potter Valley Project.
“Make no mistake. If the decommissioning goes through, hundreds of legacy farms and this area’s rich agricultural heritage will be lost,” Rollins wrote in the letter.
Haschak said during Tuesday’s meeting that Cline’s attendance at the conference was inappropriate.
Cline, who said she used her own funds to fly to Anaheim and attend the conference to hear Rollins’ opinions on the Potter Valley Project, said during the meeting that she did not attend the event to partner with Rollins and took offense to Haschak’s proposal.
“I don’t take lightly the way that this agenda item was brought about, it was extremely accusatory,” she said during the meeting. “I’m embarrassed that it’s a part of our public record.”
Cline said her “goal was to hear the conversation that was being had in that room,” and added, “I do not think I would be doing my job if I would have walked away and turned down that opportunity to talk about why this is important for our future.”
Supervisor Ted Williams said the dispute is essentially between people who want to keep the dam and those who are working on a solution for water storage.
“Supervisor Cline, you have constituents who want the dam left up and think there’s still a possibility. I respect your relationship with your constituents to try to further that,” Williams said.
However, he also mentioned the water rights of the local tribal groups.
“I don’t see any other party having a water right other than the tribe, and so much is riding on that relationship that if somehow even inadvertently we sour that, we don’t have a water future,” he said.
Dozens of people spoke in the public comment portion of the agenda item, many of them calling for Cline to stay on the commission and saying she represented the interests of Potter Valley residents, while some criticized her for participating in a photo with Rollins, a member of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Haschak ended up not making a motion to put his proposal to remove Cline from the commission up for a vote, acknowledging that he did not have support from his colleagues, but again questioned the politics behind the trip to Anaheim.
“It just seems a little disingenuous to say, ‘Oh, this is just a free conversation about our issue,’” he said. “No, they had an agenda they wanted to push, and it was political rhetoric.”
The next Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Feb. 24 in the board chambers at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. Meetings can also be watched virtually via Zoom. More information, including agendas, is available at this website.
Incredible to me that there are complaints that Supervisor Madeline Cline attended a meeting about what concerns her district constituents. She paid her own way. Leave TDS politics out of this and applaud her for representing her district, knowing that Potter Valley farmers feel threatened with potential loss of ag water. She needs to be informed.
No matter what side a person is on, all aspects, about losing water, that a corporation, is using to default on infrastructure obligation, should be listened to. Learning about all options, is a good thing. Wish all supervisors, where open minded, open to learning, and not biased, toward others wanting, knowledge. We are in this together. There is no side. Why are the supervisors making this into a political side? Water is life. Water is crucial, to so many facets, of our communities. Families, fish and farms, is on the water commission, website, of the IWPC. Mendocino County exists, in that commissions, mission statement. Ask Mr. Haschak if that website statement applies to Mendocino county too? Or is that statement just rhetoric? We need all our supervisors, informed, of all, alternatives in this historic moment. There is no going back after the dams are gone & we have no water. Getting stuck, in one dimensional thought and one dimensional vortex of one plan, that a huge multi million dollar corporation, is pushing, for their own agenda, is dangerous, for the the citizens, of Mendocino County.
“Water is life” is an indigenous water rights activism slogan, and is really out of place in this issue. Potter Valley is indigenously DRY. I get what Potter is fighting for, their way of life, but that slogan is in such poor taste for this demographic.
I understand supervsors need to represent constituents in their own districts but then again, they also need to consider County-wide needs. Catering to special interests at the expense of all County residents is a bad look. PG&E is out and the fragile 2-basin agreement that has been reached (the only viable solution) could be endangered by this posturing.
I agree, no better resolution could’ve been reached. The emphasis should now be on preparing Potter for reality.
Good grief. Mr. Haschak is some politician, that guy. If he had read the room properly, he would have realized that he did not have support for his position. This might have prevented him from making a fool of himself. By the way, I couldn’t help but notice he was critical of the woman, Ms. Cline, who attended the meeting, not Mr. Norvell who is now, according to Haschak, compromised on this topic.
It is my hope that one day I will see a news report in The Mendocino Voice that the Board has corrected its errant financial ways.
Haschak and Williams are do nothing politicians that are hell bent on destroying the county. With their “leadership” the county has continued a downward spiral that seems to be unrecoverable. We need new leadership with a vision towards growth and stability and these two misguided over compensated individuals need to go.
Sadly, this underscores the current fashion of ‘cancel culture’ and the lack of compromise.
“I disagree with you, therefore you must be silenced!”
She was making an effort to look at an issue that concerns her constituents.
Isn’t that why we have supervisorial districts?
On her own dime apparently, no asset forfeiture involved.
If the Feds want to weigh in, it might be wise to pay attention.
I think Cline did exactly the right thing if her intention was to insult the tribal members and her fellow partners on the two boards that are dealing with the coming dam removal. Instead of getting information from the lower agencies within usda that have real approaches to water storage and resource conservation she went straight to Daddy Trump’s Secretary of Ag, who is just a mouthpiece for the Party Line. The USDA is trying to get FERC to reject the surrender application from PG&E , putting a point on how ignorant the USDA leadership is of how these processes work. So two ignorant supervisors go to SoCal to beg Daddy Trump’s ignorant appointee to “stop the steal” in potter valley. It’s way too late and they should just admit that they lost this one and are only going to jeopardize the future of water from the eel for everyone involved. it’s about property rights and business interests of a major corporation that started years ago. If they think the feds are coming to bail them out we’ll see how that goes.