Irrigation Challenges: District tries to restore prior structure

ST. IGNATIUS _ On the heels of a successful recall of two commissioners and a strongly worded press release, the remaining Mission Irrigation District board member moved quickly to appoint two new members, re-hire a long-time attorney and move towards re-uniting the irrigation districts.

Before a packed crowd of crowd of about 40, incumbent Jerry Laskody appointed Tim Orr to begin an emergency meeting Monday at the district office here.

The two then appointed Carole Lyons to assume the third seat.

Orr will serve out the remaining year of recalled board member Jerry Johnson, who was up for re-election in May of 2015, Laskody said. Lyons will serve until May 6 in Paul Wadsworth’s former seat. Gene Posivio and Claudia McCready are running for Lyons’ seat during the June 3 primary. The recall results were announced April 15.

After re-hiring district administrator Johanna Clark, the new board also re-hired attorney Jon Metropoulos, who was listening remotely to the meeting.

The crowd on hand was exuberant about the quickly moving meeting. They believe they have been over-taxed and under-represented over the past nine month due to the actions of the former commissioners.

They paid their irrigation fees, which jumped by an estimated 340 percent. Clark said the new board would try and get some refunds but it would probably be a long process even if successful.

“We hope you all have patience as we untangle this mess,” Laskody said.

He authored a pointed press release along with the meeting announcement April 16.

The press release started with:

“The [former] Commissioners were recalled for various reasons including holding illegal meetings, bankrupting the District’s administrative account by taking unnecessary legal actions, the raising of the administrative assessment by 340 percent to attempt to cover those legal fees and by their own admission, taking a position in support of the CSKT Water Compact that would give away the irrigators’ water rights to the Tribe.”

Laskody, who believed the press release was just a “list of facts,” said he ran the content by an attorney friend before sending it to the media and had no fear of committing libel.

“This is not something unknown or secret,” he said. “We had to re-conduct meetings.”

The former board also withdrew the district from the Flathead Joint Board of Control and the Project Transfer Agreement that allowed local operation of the Irrigation Project created by a 1908 congressional irrigation act, the press release said.

Clark brought up a concern that paperwork including the district’s water rights on file in Helena is missing. She said it could have been a simple oversight but records before and after the period between 1980 and 1984 were intact.

“From here forward we’re trying to do things open and by the book,” Clark said. “We are trying to set a new precedence from the past few years.”