© 2023 Concerned Citizens of Western Montana

From here on out, it is probably helpful for Flathead Compact objectors to remember that they are now in the midst of a legal battle with all three compacting parties.  This is because the compact provides that the three amigo governments will mutually defend their “negotiated settlement” against all challenges, and indeed we have already seen it in multiple instances. (MCA 85-20-1901 Article VII Legislation / Defense of Compact.)

The compacting parties are so close to the water court approval finish line that we expect that going forward they will aggressively seek to dismiss all of the objectors standing in the way of their desired victory by using whatever means that are available to them.   We’ve already been there, and seen that.

IT IS QUITE PROBABLE THAT THEIR MAIN GOAL AT THIS POINT IS TO ACHIEVE WATER COURT APPROVAL OF THE COMPACT WHILE AT THE SAME TIME AVOIDING ALL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE COMPACT TO BE SCRUTINIZED ON THE BASIS OF ITS MERITS (or lack thereof), OR TO UNCOVER ANY OF ITS VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW AND CONSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND STATE OF MONTANA.  

One way to accomplish that is to prevent amended objections not be allowed to go forward.  For this reason and others, it’s important for objectors to pay very close attention to the proceedings going forward. 

Organize your files, keep the court schedule  and other important information in a folder on your computer or desk for easy access because you will need to refer to it often.  

One of the best ways to stay abreast of the activity that is taking place in the water court proceedings and to receive documents is to sign up with the court for electronic notifications.    

Without such electronic notifications, you will literally lose several days of valuable time necessary for you to provide timely responses and other information to the court, and you could also miss other important deadlines.  We strongly urge you to sign up to have water court notifications emailed directly to you.

If you haven’t already done that, here is a link to the form that is required to give permission to the water court to provide you with electronic notifications:  Electronic Notification Authorization Form

The Water Court’s CSKT Compact page for Motions to Amend Existing Objections, Answer Briefs and Replies may also be helpful to keep you up to speed as things start moving forward more quickly.

Compacting Party Reply Briefs

Today is the deadline for the submission of Answer Briefs by the Compacting Parties in response to objector’s motions to amend their original objection. 

This morning we had an opportunity to go out to the water court website and saw that a good number of reply briefs from the United States / CSKT and DNRC pertaining to  OBJECTOR MOTIONS TO AMEND THEIR ORIGINAL OBJECTION had been filed.

At this time about 30 “reply briefs” have been posted, but if others were submitted by the compacting parties late in the day, it’s possible they may not show up on the water court website until Thursday the 11th of January, 2024. 

This may not be a complete list, but here are the names of most of objector’s that were the subject of amended objection reply briefs as of the writing of this post:

Anderson, Karin T Juneman, Margaret S
Avilla, Dane; Avilla, Jennifer Junge, Gunner; Junge, Beth
Brockway, Robert Dean Lueb, Leroy K
Carr, Sandra R Lustman, Shelley
Columbia Farms, Inc MacKenzie, Kirk F
Dalley, Leslie A Matthiesen; Kenneth C
David and Ludmilla Parker Koger Trust Motta Estate
Doty, Randolph M Robert Lee and Darla Beth Pearson Trust
Falk, Leonard W Samuelson, Trudy A
French, Mark T Slack, Grace; Sego, William and Bill & Irene, LLC
Fry, William H Smith, Mark S
Herndon, Dorlene A Smyth, Richard L
Ingraham, Elena A Tschida, Bradley E
Jacobson, Noel A Webb, Brent A
Jore, Rick D  

As we mentioned, if the compacting parties filed documents after the water court was closed for the day some objector names may not show up on the water court site until Thursday.  We ask objectors that submitted a Motion to Amend (MTA) to stay on the lookout for a notification from the court pertaining to the docket number associated with your MTA. 

IMORTANT:  If the compacting parties submitted a reply brief pertaining to your MTA, you must respond to it no later than Friday January 26th. We are not attorneys, and cannot give legal advice, but believe that if a motion is filed against you, and you do not file a response to the court, the judge could grant the compacting parties request to not allow your amended objection to go through.

We urge objectors to think carefully about their response and to provide only what is necessary to retain your amended objection.  Don’t fall into the trap of providing too much information to your legal adversaries.

Case Management Order #3 established the following deadlines pertaining to the amendment of objections:

  • Motion deadline: December 8, 2023
  • Answer briefs (response): January 10, 2024
  • Replies: January 26, 2024

On the few briefs that we reviewed, we noted that they appear to in large part be cut and paste documents focusing on technical issues and errors made by objectors via violations of the rules that the water court pointed us to more than a year ago.

This means that going forward you must have these rules on hand for reference as you proceed with your responses and other documents:  Rules Referenced in Water Court Case Management Order 1:

Another goal of the parties will be to attempt to keep you constantly in defensive mode, making it easier for you to make mistakes by reacting too quickly to their aggressive legal strategy and elimination tactics. 

Take the time necessary to think through the steps you want to take before you respond or act.

It is also possible that the compacting parties will attempt to distract and shift your focus and efforts away from other important documents that you will have to consider in response to future compacting parties’ motions pertaining to the dismissal of objectors and the compact adequacy motion.

Don’t lose focus on what lies ahead.  Here are two crucial deadlines that will be here before you know it, and that we believe objectors should be thinking about and preparing for now:

  • May 17, 2024 – Responses to Compacting Parties Motion to Dismiss Objections
  • Aug 23, 2024 – Responses to Compacting Parties Motion regarding compact fairness and adequacy.

Stay the Course Wooden

It would be helpful for every objector to take a deep breath, understand that you can and will get through this, and understand the importance of staying the course in this legal battle. 

We also pray that in their hubris, arrogance, and greed, or whatever else that is motivating this horrible compact overreach, that the three headed Goliath will stumble, fall, and never recover.