Concern, support expressed about MLIRD senate bill

MOSES LAKE - People expressed a combination of frustration, confusion and support for state Legislation concerning the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District.

People spoke during a recent district board meeting about Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6512, which recently passed the state senate. The discussion included an attempt to have the board support the bill, which failed after the district's attorney Chris Ries said it could be construed as lobbying.

The senate bill would allow each person owning property in the district two votes regardless of the size of the property or the number of parcels owned. If the person owns the property with a spouse, each person would receive a vote. Each corporation, partnership, limited liability company or other legal entity would have two votes.

The bill also allows people to vote for directors and approve additional assessments by mail.

Presently people receive two votes per piece of property they own. The  elections are held at the district office.

Mark Fancher started the discussion saying he doesn't know what the answers need to be, but public input should be taken for the bill.

"The irrigation portion continues to get lost in this talk, and talking to a lot of people, they don't want it lost. It's very critical to the future growth of our community," he said. "I don't know what all the right answers (are) ... But I know there are a lot of stakeholders that aren't being heard."

Fancher didn't oppose changing the rules, but he wanted people to be able to speak about the legislation, he said. He pointed out the legislation doesn't affect anyone other than the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District.

Hansen questioned whether Fancher had a problem with any particular part of the bill.

"I can't get my head around the voting. I'm not sure how it should be done," he said. "Personally, I don't think it's an equitable way (to have voting.) I understand 'one man, one vote,' but this is an irrigation district for people who get a benefit from the irrigation water ... That's why I think there needs to be discussion."

Hansen said the one man, one vote process is the American way of holding elections, calling the present process unfair to people who only own one large piece of property, rather than several smaller pieces of property.

"The person who has a $1 million piece of ground out there that's one parcel, he gets two votes. Then somebody right next door to him that has 25 acres and he breaks it up to 10 pieces on each one of these acres and all the sudden he has 100 votes."

Hansen said he wished there was time to go to the people and find out what they thought, and he was met with a chorus of people saying they do have time.

"I concur with what Mark says," Director Ron Covey said. "I think this thing is being shoved through. You say, 'We don't have time.' Yes, we have time. We don't have to push it through this session. It can be brought back to the ratepayers, and we can have a number of public hearings and take public testimony, and try to come up with an idea that is beneficial and a consensus I feel is the proper way to handle the MLIRD."

Covey continued, saying they didn't even know about the legislation until Hansen testified for it.

Hansen said he gave Covey a paper with the information about what he planned.

Covey said he never saw it before.

Jim Clough pointed out the discussion to change the election process started a year ago, but nothing was done.

"This isn't like all of the sudden, yesterday. This isn't a new issue. It isn't at all," he said.

Covey responded no one was fighting the election process needed to be reviewed. Saying Ries suggested taking some time to put together a new process in an orderly fashion.

Clough pointed out the board didn't do anything about it for a year

Todd Voth didn't agree with the one man, one vote proposal, saying he owns 14 properties.

"I'm a very concerned ratepayer. I never complain about the rates that I pay, I just want to know where my money is going," he said. "I pay a huge amount of money in rates and I want to be represented by one vote for every property that I have because I pay a lot of money for those properties."

He suggested the district take his properties which aren't on the lake off of the assessment list if he isn't allowed to have votes for his properties.

"This is all about the clean lake project to me. I want to see our lake clean. I'm willing to pay the rates and the fees that it takes to get our lake clean."

Bill Bailey echoed earlier comments, saying he doesn't know what the right solution is, but with a more public process they could put together forums and collect more information.

"I have in my mind that you went to Olympia with the idea in mind that you were going to improve things," he said. "I don't have a problem with that, but I have a problem with not having a little bit of a voice in it as a ratepayer, and not having the ratepayers agree to what the new rules would be."

Debbie Doran-Martinez pointed out Hansen didn't speak about the senate bill at the Jan. 24 meeting.

"I know we talked to a lot of people, and I thought we had it at the meeting here, but I couldn't tell you," Hansen said.

Kris Dexter supported the changes in the senate bill, saying he didn't feel the previous election was transparent.

"There was no accountability," he said. "Then a year later, nothing had been done that I could see, and I complained at the meeting, then at that time, the only thing that was said was, 'Didn't you complain about that before?' I said, 'Not exactly like this but it's the same issue.'"

He complimented the board, saying he thinks the change is wise and working on saving the ratepayers money.

"We're making progress and it's good," Dexter said.

Hansen wanted to put an advertisement in the newspaper stating what the bill does. He said it would include information on the bill, a letter from Sen. Janéa Holmquist Newbry, R-Moses Lake, and a Columbia Basin Herald editorial.

Covey said he wanted to read the advertisement before it was printed, and he pointed out Hansen didn't want to spend more money on advertising.

"You cut the budget back to some ungodly amount of money so we can't do anything like this anymore," he said.

Covey asked if it was Hansen's interpretation of the bill.

Hansen said it was his interpretation.

"I'm not sure if that is of value," Covey said. "There are a number of issues that require further investigation before we go out and tell the ratepayers that this is what it says."

Ries said they had a discussion in previous months about the board's ability to lobby. They can take actions as individuals, and lobbying includes trying to influence the course of legislation.

"I don't know what else you can call a mailer trying to convince people that a certain piece of legislation is a good idea except for lobbying," he said.

Hansen initially said it was informing, and moved for the board to support the bill. After further discussion, the motion was withdrawn.

Ries resigned as the district's attorney at the end of the meeting.