Division 6 rematch highlights High Desert water board races
Apple Valley, Calif. (High Desert News Online) — Three divisions of the Mojave Water Agency will choose their directors who will assist in the direction of one of the most important regional water agencies of the High Desert during the 2026 general election that will take place on November 3, 2026, with incumbent directors Marina West, Mike Page and Jesse Ramirez seeking reelections and returning Division 6 candidate Ron Haefele challenging once again for the board position.
Mojave Water Agency election is composed of the elections in Divisions 2, 4 and 6, each having a term of four years. The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters has officially recognized all three positions as offices in the 2026 election cycle. Candidate filing started July 13 and ended August 7.
Candidates in the 2026 races are the following:
Division 6 – Jesse R. Ramirez, incumbent; Ron Haefele, challenger
It should be mentioned that the Division 6 race has special significance since Ramirez and Haefele ran against each other two years ago. Ramirez won the special short-term election in the November 2024 in the division after Ramirez was appointed to the office. Furthermore, Haefele ran in the Division 6 race in 2022, which makes it his third consecutive attempt at the office.
Mojave Water Agency covers almost 4,900 square miles
Unlike a city water department, Mojave Water Agency is a regional wholesale and groundwater-management agency, created in 1960 due to fears of excessive extraction of groundwater from the region.
The agency manages the groundwater resources in about 4,900 square miles in the San Bernardino County, including Mojave Basin and Morongo Basin. Territory of the agency covers numerous communities in the Victor Valley, Barstow area and Morongo Basin, such as Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley, Adelanto, Barstow, Phelan, Helendale, Newberry Springs, Lucerne Valley, Joshua Tree, Landers and other desert communities. MWA estimated its regional population as being almost 500,000 people.
The agency is administered by seven directors elected for four years from geographic divisions. Headquarters of the agency are located at 13846 Conference Center Drive, Apple Valley. General manager Adnan Anabtawi leads daily operations and implementation of policies adopted by the board. According to public payroll, MWA employed 54 employees in 2024 while the agency presentation about staffing for fiscal year 2026 reported 54.5 funded positions.
Mojave Water Agency does not have a police force and fire department. Protection, firefighting, medical services and other public safety functions remain under cities, San Bernardino County, the Sheriff’s Department and local fire departments. Therefore, the statistics on police and fire staffing is not applicable to the Mojave Water Agency.
Water infrastructure is another issue. MWA operates regional pipelines, recharge facilities, production wells, monitoring equipment and water delivery infrastructure in the desert area.
State Water Project gives High Desert additional water source
Mojave Water Agency was established in response to the fundamental problem of the High Desert: development depended heavily on groundwater, and the amount of groundwater extraction could exceed natural replenishment.
In fact, MWA became one of the 29 State Water Project contractors in California.
Currently, the agency has rights to extract up to 89,800 acre-feet of State Water Project Table A water per year, although deliveries in each year depend on statewide hydrology and State Water Project allocations. MWA utilizes imported water sources to supplement groundwater and recharge underground basins.
Its infrastructure includes the Mojave River Pipeline, Morongo Basin Pipeline, Oro Grande Wash Pipeline, Regional Recharge and Recovery Project and various groundwater recharge facilities.
The Mojave River Pipeline is about 76 miles long pipeline starting from the California Aqueduct near West Victorville and leading to recharge facilities near the Mojave River. The pipeline has a capacity of up to 45,000 acre-feet of water delivery per year. The Morongo Basin Pipeline is 71 miles long pipeline that delivers imported water from the aqueduct to the recharge facilities in the eastern portion of the territory of the agency.
MWA also serves as the Watermaster for the adjudicated Mojave Basin Area. Watermaster program monitors and verifies production of the groundwater involving about 450 entities and about 1,700 wells, collects assessments, records water right transfers and reports to the court.
MWA Major Accomplishments in the 2022-2026 period
Four-year period of the terms of West and Page, and Ramirez who joined the board in 2023 has seen several important infrastructure, planning and financing accomplishments.
First of all, the Mojave Water Agency received $12.8 million California Department of Water Resources grant in 2023 to fund study related to groundwater banking feasibility. The idea was to explore possibilities of storing additional water underground during wet periods in order to make it accessible in future droughts. At the moment, MWA reported that more than 89 percent of its service territory was economically distressed or disadvantaged.
This planning was followed by the commencement of West Victorville Groundwater Banking Pilot Project in June 2026. The project became an important step in establishing greater groundwater storage capacity near the California Aqueduct and Mojave River Pipeline connection.
Another major project of MWA is the Mojave River Pipeline Traveling Screen Project. In 2025, the agency awarded a contract worth just under $6.3 million to construct the project. The purpose of the project was to add equipment to prevent moss and debris from getting into the Mojave River Pipeline in order to restore water conveyance capacity. Furthermore, the project involved creation of two-acre recharge basin and improvements of adjacent recharge area. MWA reported completion of the project in August 2026.
Significant amount of funds for the project came from federal and state grants including about $2.09 million from California drought relief program and $1.75 million through EPA program.
Construction of the East Ames-Reche Groundwater Recharge Basin Project commenced in 2026 and involved recharge facility investments in the eastern service area. Simultaneously, the agency developed regional approach to 2025 Urban Water Management Plan bringing MWA and major retail providers together including Adelanto, Hesperia, Victorville, Liberty Utilities-Apple Valley, Golden State Water Company-Barstow, Helendale Community Services District, Hi-Desert Water District and other regional systems.
Financial reporting also brought some recognition as the Government Finance Officers Association awarded MWA its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, and gave the recognition again for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. GFOA described the certificate as the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting.
These accomplishments belong to the agency and not to individual director, but they become part of the institutional record accumulated while incumbent directors were serving on the board.
Division 6 — Jesse Ramirez, incumbent
Incumbent position: Jesse R. Ramirez, current MWA board secretary.
Jesse Ramirez was appointed to the Division 6 board seat in October 2023 as the replacement for Jeanette Hayhurst. Then he had to run for the rest of the unexpired term in the November 2024.
Ramirez won in this election with 11,801 votes, or 70.58 percent, and Ron Haefele received 4,919 votes, or 29.42 percent. This means that this year Ramirez and Haefele run against each other once again, this time for a full four-year term.
Barstow High School graduate is a water operations professional who worked as a water distribution operator and became an operations superintendent for Golden State Water Company in 2005. He holds Grade 5 Water Distribution Operator and Grade 3 Water Treatment Operator licenses and has over four decades of professional experience in water industry.
His community involvement includes work with Barstow College Foundation, Barstow Cemetery Committee, Barstow Kiwanis Club and science-fair programs of local schools.
Public contact: The Registrar of Voters has 760-946-7000 as a contact of Jesse Ramirez through Mojave Water Agency. However, no separate current 2026 candidate email, campaign phone number or campaign website could be found based on the public records review for this article.
Division 6 — Ron Haefele, challenger
Challenger: Ronald Leslie Haefele.
Ronald Haefele has considerably more electoral history than a first-time challenger.
Haefele challenged incumbent Jeanette Hayhurst in Division 6 in 2022 and lost. Hayhurst received 6,835 votes, or 70.08 percent, while Haefele received 2,918 votes, or 29.92 percent.
After Hayhurst resigned and Ramirez was appointed as her replacement, Haefele ran in the November 2024 short-term election. This time, his raw vote result increased to 4,919 although his percentage was still about the same: 29.42 percent while Ramirez won with 70.58 percent.
Also, Ron Haefele has documented history of participation in groundwater issues of Hinkley area. According to the records of California Regional Water Quality Control Board, he participated in the proceedings on groundwater contamination and uranium and radionuclide issues in Hinkley in 2012. He also appeared among commentators in the records related to the comprehensive groundwater cleanup strategy related to historical chromium discharges from PG&E’s Hinkley Compressor Station.
These records prove Haefele’s participation in groundwater quality issues, however, they do not imply any agency employment or professional water-system certifications. Opposite to Ramirez, Haefele did not specify his ballot occupation when he ran in 2024.
Public contact: San Bernardino County’s official 2024 candidate filing has ronh2o1223@gmail.com as a public candidate email of Haefele. No telephone number or campaign website was provided in the filing, and no newer candidate-specific telephone number or website was independently verified for this report.
Water policy rather than traditional city government
While the Mojave Water Agency election does not attract as much attention as elections for mayor, city council, sheriff or school board since MWA does not offer many services that residents use every day.
However, its decisions might have consequences for decades ahead.
Directors develop policy for importing of the State Water Project supplies, purchase and banking of water, management of adjudicated groundwater, building of the recharge facilities, maintenance of the regional pipelines, budget and rates approval, obtaining of grants and planning of the High Desert development.
The next board will also continue working on regional master planning process examining existing infrastructure, future facilities, groundwater banking, water supplies risks and regional needs projections. The agency initiated this multi-year process in 2023 and has continued public planning efforts until 2026.
For Division 6 voters, this year’s election will mean a clear rematch of the two candidates with very different public records: Ramirez runs as incumbent who has decades of professional water system operations experience and almost three years of experience on the MWA board, while Haefele runs as a returning challenger who has history of participation in Hinkley groundwater quality issues and two previous runs for the board seat.
For Divisions 2 and 4, voters will examine the records of West and Page in the period of major groundwater banking and infrastructure investments of the agency.
The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters has November 3, 2026, as Election Day. Mail ballots will be sent to voters starting from October 5, while the regular voter registration deadline will be October 19.
No matter what will be the result, directors elected in 2026 will determine how MWA will balance groundwater protection, importation of the water, infrastructure costs and future development.
