PRESS RELEASE ON BEHALF OF THE FLATHEAD JOINT BOARD OF CONTROL OF THE MISSION, JOCKO AND FLATHEAD IRRIGATION DISTRICTS
During the recent 2016 District Office Elections administered by Lake County Elections Administrator, Kathie Newgard, as guided by the Lake County Attorneys’ Office, the Flathead Joint Board of Control (FJBC) learned of and verified multiple violations of Montana Election Laws. In prior elections conducted by Lake County Officials, the Elections Administrator determined that corporate entities with out of State addresses were ineligible to vote in District elections and were not recognized registered voters. The FJBC disagreed with Lake County’s interpretation of the law as it prevents fee-land owners serviced by the Flathead Irrigation Project from participating in District Elections.
2015 county communications mentioned in Lake County Attorney, Steve Echenbacher’s multiple public statements, allegedly directed to FJBC Commissioners and/or staff, were meant solely to open discussions that unfortunately never occurred during or after the 2015 Special District Election.
In 2016, Lake County Officials again undertook a review of the Montana statutes related to the current election cycle and determined, in an effort to ensure ballot accuracy and accountability, that all irrigated fee-land parcels held by entity or multi-party ownership must first designate a voting member before being provided with an actual ballot. This new interpretation differed from years past. Despite the change in interpretation, the County failed to provide electors notice of this new requirement and failed to advise electors that they would not be mailed a ballot unless and until the designation was executed and returned to the Lake County Elections Administrator. Nor, did Lake County timely notify the FJBC of any responsibility of the FJBC to require designations be returned prior to providing an elector an actual ballot. The Montana statute at issue, however, does not allow the withholding of ballots under the new unilaterally imposed statutory interpretation. In fact, Montana law requires that all district election mail-in ballots be mailed on the same day between the 20th and 15th day before election day.
FJBC staff was not notified of this significant change of administration and process for the District Election until late February, 2016. Thereafter, the FJBC sent multiple requests for supporting documentation as well as requesting to meet with Lake County officials to discuss how to proceed with the election process. All requests went ignored.
In late March of 2016, the Lake County Elections Administrator finally provided the approved form affidavits to the FJBC. At no time was the FJBC notified that executed, notarized and filed designations were mandatory before an elector would receive a ballot prior to the actual Special District Election that was already in progress. Since that time the FJBC has learned that nearly 800 ballots had been withheld from electors because completed voter designation forms had not been executed, notarized and returned to the Lake County Elections office.
In a cooperative effort, FJBC legal counsel at the direction of the FJBC, consulted with Civil Lake County Attorney Wally Congdon regarding the FJBC’s legal options given the existing legal violations committed by Lake County. Montana law authorizes the cancellation of an election by a governing body, in this case the FJBC, for any reason specified in law. At the conclusion of their discussion, counsel mutually agreed that the best course of action was to cancel the election and reschedule a new election at the earliest possible date. On April 21, 2016, the FJBC in a 9-2 vote supported such action and instructed legal counsel to notify Lake County Officials of the District election cancellation. Timely notification of the cancellation was provided to the Lake County Administrator on April 22, 2016. Thereafter, Lake County Attorney, Steve Eschenbacher determined that Lake County would ignore/dismiss the FJBC’s majority decision and allowed the FJBC Special District Election to move forward as originally scheduled.
On May 2, 2016, by a 10-1 vote, The FJBC passed Resolution 2016-1 resolving that the FJBC and the separate Irrigation Districts would not honor the 2016 corrupted election results due to incurable legal violations and further resolved to maintain the status quo of the FJBC’s acting Board of Commissioners until such time as a legal election can be held. The FJBC remains committed to serving its constituents and representing the legal rights of those it serves.
As of May 3, 2016, (Special District Election Day) 20% of Mission Irrigation District (103 Ballots) and 17% of Flathead Irrigation District (Lake and Sanders County – 508 Ballots) ballots had not yet been mailed to electors nor voted. It is still the intention of the Flathead Joint Board of Control on behalf of the separate Irrigation Districts to reschedule a fair and legal Special District Election at the earliest possible date allowing all irrigated fee-land owners equal participation in government.
For more information check out their website at this link:
http://www.flatheadjointboardofcontrol.com/
or contact their office at 406-745-2090.
Note: we will post a copy of the resolution passed at the Joint Board Special Meeting held on Monday 05/02/2016 as soon as it is made available.
Western Montana Water Rights 
Reblogged this on Exposing Modern Mugwumps.
Please advise in short, what the following means.
Thanks I am a business owner, interested in the Compact.. and cherish facts.
Sally Edwards
Hello, thanks for this question…Basically the irrigation districts, and their governing organization, the Flathead Joint Board of Control, is the only entity standing between the state of Montana and the CSKT Compact. They are the ones who brought the legal challenge to the constitutionality of the 2015 Compact vote, and a decision is likely in that case very soon. If positive, the decision will rule the compact vote unconstitutional, and therefore the compact will be void. Of course it will be appealed.
Compact proponents, the state, and the federal government would like it very much if the FJBC was destroyed, broken up, or have pro compact commissioners “elected”.
So, it appears that several local compact proponent individuals, one of whom sits on the Flathead Joint Board, and the local county election office and attorney, fatally compromised the election by not following state law–i.e., all ballots have to be sent out, and sent out on the same day. Unbeknownst to the FJBC, the “rules changed” by county attorney interpretation, but the county failed to notify voters of the change. The the election is compromised and the FJBC did not have any alternative but to cancel it.
That the assault on the FJBC continues–and in this case a tainted election–is another chapter in the effort of compact proponents to knock out the irrigators who do have a lot of power here. Compact proponents failed, but they will still try to destroy anything in their way.
Factually then, and “simply”, the tainted election was the fault of the County, egged on by compact proponents so they could get their people in, and the Joint Board took the action it had to. The importance of this is that compact proponents will do anything–including destroying irrigation organizations–to get their way.
This all brings to mind the chaos created by compact supporters when they collapsed the FJBC a few years ago in an effort to work around the will of the irrigators. At that time their goal was to have individual districts support onerous water use agreement to gain momentum for cramming the water compact down the throats of everyone living in western Montana. In doing so, they inadvertantly precipitated a hostile takeover of project management by the BIA. During that same period, the rogue commissioners racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills, on the backs of irrigators.
After two commissioners in the Mission District were recalled in 2014, the board came back together, and have worked very hard to clean up the mess that was created. Unfortunately compact proponents have continued to sabotage the board by feeding information to the State of Montana (not our friend) and the CSKT (the tribe that the state ceded western Montana water to). They do this to the detriment of everyone living in western Montana.
What we are watching is a different form of takeover of the board. The reality we are living with is that supporters of the compact will stop at nothing to neuter the voice of irrigators by preventing the Joint Board from protecting irrigator interests in the project.
I would like to add that although you folks think that you are alone in your efforts, there are a lot of people east of the Continental Divide that are starting to realize the facts and are hopefully ready to admit the truth and stand up for their rights. The battle is far from over and the outcome is most definitely in the hands of the3 citizens of Montana. One of the big factors in our area is the do-gooders that feel that they owe the Indian Tribes something to right the wrong that they feel was done against them. Sadly all wars have winners and losers with almost everyone losing. We do have to salvage our country and move forward and end this death spiral in which our leaders have places us. With the upcoming elections, we have a chance to remove those that are voting for the good of anybody but the people of Montana. There will be no end to the illegal actions of those supporting the CSKT COMPACT, as this method has worked so far. Isn’t it amazing what the COPP can determine is Grassroots Campaigning and is or isn’t Dark Money. It seems that it is time to stop the custom of one person becoming the judge, jury, and prosecutor.
Your kind words of support are timely and very helpful. Folks here have been beaten down for decades and often feel very much alone in this battle.
Demoralization is a tried and true tactic against an opponent in any battle. Isolation is another tactic, making it difficult to get traction in a battle when your local representatives buy into the narrative that the everyone else’s property rights, due process and equal protection guarantees are inferior to those of the United States / CSKT.
It is often the “outsiders”, relative new comers to the area, greatly distained by supporters of the compact, that are able to see a clearer picture of what is going on. They also have the energy, stamina, and the will necessary to fight the battle for the long term.
We agree with you that many people have awakened to what the compact really represents to Montana. We are hearing this from legislators who are canvassing door to door in their primaries, as well as folks like you in eastern Montana. We are also hearing from highly placed sources that the incessant FARM ads are backfiring against the compact.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
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