Board forges on without attorney
ST. IGNATIUS – Jon Metropoulos, Flathead Joint Board of Control attorney for over 20 years, dramatically submitted his resignation, leaving commissioners and irrigators in a state of shock and growing concern with the continued movement forward.
Metropoulos, last week, in a public meeting, showed great frustration that Commissioners of the FJBC questioned his written draft proposal and legal advice.
Dana Hupp, from the firm Gough, Shanahan, Johnson and Waterman, and associate Jeff Hindoien, previously contracted to represent the FJBC alongside Metropoulos, are confident they can continue legal representation of board members and fee-land owners.
Position statement
FJBC officials hope the recently approved position statement that will be provided to the state Attorney General’s office will assist negotiating parties in providing irrigators in the Flathead Reservation a voice in upcoming Water Compact negotiations.
“I understand this is not a binding document,” commissioner Boone Cole said. “But we only have one opportunity to get this right. I want to make sure that we have covered the issues accurately.”
In recent correspondence from Governor Steve Bullock office, the state is recognizing that fee land owner concerns need to be taken under consideration but are fearful that the FJBC may be overreaching in some requests, encouraging the board members to be realistic in it’s expectations.
Although the FJBC is not considered to be a party in the formal Compact negotiations, representatives of Governor Bullock and Attorney General Tim Fox have requested information from the FJBC concerning how it believes the proposed Flathead Compact should be modified. They have expressed a desire to review this information and possibly address the concerns of fee-land irrigators residing within the Flathead Reservation if suggested compact amendments are found to be reasonable.
Bullock and representatives from the Attorney General’s office believe that the information gathered over the previous months by joint board officials will be an invaluable tool to achieve a successful agreement.
With the awareness that all issues may not be addressed over the coming weeks, Joint Board officials are focusing on what they believe to be the critical points.
Ownership of the water rights to the water delivered by the Project is a main concern of Joint Board commissioners. Commissioners and irrigators agree that project water deliveries are a project property right associated with a specific parcel of land historically.
To protect this believe, the FJBC will suggest the solution that it hold bare-title to the water right, while the actual land owner will receive a beneficial water right certificate.
Such methods would satisfy the concern of ownership. Verification that the volume of water deliveries will equal is historic deliveries is still under debate. Commissioners believe documents that would verify historic deliveries and previous water right filings have not been supplied by the Flathead Irrigation Project, Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Department of Natural Resources.
Some commissioners believe those documents would verify the duty status of multiple parcels across the reservation.
Commissioners contend water delivery data compiled over the last 20 years would prove the tribal officials’ model is inaccurate.
A Unitary Management Ordinance and/or Unitary Management Board would leave non-tribal land owners with fair representation and board members are confident that the current Water Court is fully capable of handling and neighborly disputes while allowing the Resource department to address the needs of new use for non-native fee land owners.
Currently the UMO/UMB is not a topic of negotiation at this time with government, state and tribal representatives, but Joint Board officials consider it a special area of concern that requires additional attention.
With negotiation deadlines fast approaching, a correct and legally sound position statement that fairly represented the information gathered by the FJBC has a small window of opportunity to be effective believes FJBC officials.
“A compact that is not done by Christmas has a diminished chance of success in the legislature.” said Cory Swanson from the AG office in a teleconferenced meeting with FJBC commissioners.
Negotiating officials hope with the implementation of “Adaptive Management” into the Water Use Agreement, that appropriate requirements can be met and that irrigators will continue to have successful irrigation seasons.
Additional meetings of the FJBC will be scheduled to finalize a statement acceptable to district commissioners and irrigators and to address ongoing legal representation concerns.