Public service is not new to newly-elected Turlock Irrigation District Division 4 Director Becky Arellano.
The third-generation farmer represented District 4 on the Turlock City Council from 2019-2020 and before that served as a legislative aide for U.S. Congressman George Radanovich, consultant for the Stanislaus County Office of Education and field representative/aide for Stanislaus County Supervisor Nick Blom. She also has experience working as the public affairs manager for the Westlands Water District, the largest agricultural water district in the United States, made up of more than 1,000 square miles of farmland in western Fresno and Kings counties.
Arellano said she enjoyed serving on the Turlock City Council — despite the unforeseen consequences of being in office during the COVID-19 pandemic — especially the legislative part and working with her constituency. When she learned that longtime TID Division 4 Director Rob Santos would not be seeking reelection this year, she decided now was a good time for her to get back into public service and work on helping to secure the area’s most precious resource — water.
“There’s so much that goes on over at TID that nobody knows about that’s good for the community. They’re very innovative and I like that. They have great leadership over there, which I enjoy too,” said Arellano on deciding to run for the Division 4 director seat.
Arellano is the irrigation district’s first female director.
“I think it’s a big step forward, really. All these young girls that think, ‘oh, our Board of Supervisors is all men and there’s never been a woman on the TID Board.’ We need to bridge some gaps…and move things forward. I didn’t go into it thinking that I was going to be the only woman. I walked into [the TID Board chambers] and all the pictures on the wall were of men.
“I think it’s important for girls to get into these type of positions, go into water or hydrology. The STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) world is huge, even in Turlock.”
Arellano has jumped right in to being a TID director and has been visiting different district departments.
“I went to buy electricity with the brokers at 4:30 in morning. They buy electricity from everywhere for the next day. It is such an essential business. I thought the city was an essential business, but TID, their fingers are everywhere…I met with hydrology today and they are creating partnerships with people across the world,” she said.
There are a number of projects coming up for TID, including the Don Pedro life extension project and two new electrical substations going in on the westside of the district. Those projects will be funded in part by new electric rate increases approved by the board in November — before Arellano was sworn into office.
Arellano said she is looking forward to being a part of the future of TID: “I’m excited about the innovation part of moving forward, because I’m a risk taker. I’m more go than whoa.”
In regards to moving forward, she referenced the recently completed Stanislaus Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant, a partnership between TID and the cities of Turlock and Ceres.
“All these big entities that have come here the past few years — Amazon, SupHerb Farms and Blue Diamond — they’re still going to want to come here because we have a commodity that’s great [water and power]…We just need to make sure that we can move into the 21st century gracefully,” she said.
