The Kern County Water Agency hired its own former board president as its new general manager Thursday at an annual base salary of $525,000. Eric Averett, who apparently resigned his board seat Oct. 8 though that wasn’t announced until Thursday, will assume his new duties Nov. 24, according to the employment agreement unanimously approved by the agency’s board of directors. … It is a huge job that involves juggling the needs of 13 often contentious, local agricultural water districts, overseeing a network of canal systems and providing water for residents in northeast Bakersfield all while keeping an eye on what’s happening in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – among other things.