Ken Carlson’s August 4 story in the Modesto Bee about the minor dust-up between Modesto Irrigation District Director Robert Frobose and Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow omitted mention of who Frobose was talking about when he claimed Withrow was representing “friends on the east side of the county.” Withrow was the lead advocate for a taxpayer-funded review of the countywide Groundwater User Mitigation Program approved by the seven-member Groundwater Sustainability Agency last January.
Frobose cited a report by the Bee’s J.N. Sbranti published on February 7, 2014, that listed east side farmers named in a lawsuit by San Francisco Attorney Thomas Lippe and Jerry Cadagan, an environmental activist from Sonora. The names on the list included S and R Rodoni Farms. S and R Rodoni Farms and the nearby Rairden property are leased by Tyler (“Ty”) Angle under the name AB La Grange Ranch. Angle’s partners in the almond farming operation are Tim and Larry Byrd.
Tim Byrd is Terry Withrow’s longtime best friend and campaign manager. Larry Byrd, who sits on the Board of Directors of Modesto Irrigation District (MID), is Tim Byrd’s brother. Larry Byrd has admitted he put no money into the partnership with Ty Angle. According to a report by Trevor Morgan in the Modesto Bee, Larry Byrd received over $100,000 in 2024 as a result of income produced by AB La Grange Ranch.
As early as 2015, and probably earlier, Terry Withrow and Ty Angle were partners in a farming operation in Westlands Water District. Frobose and other speakers against spending more taxpayer dollars on studies of groundwater depletion on the County’s east side were objecting to throwing more money after a problem that was very simple twelve years ago when the late Vance Kennedy said,…