Mick Hansen files suit against MLIRD

EPHRATA - Former Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District director Mick Hansen is now going through legal channels in hopes of changing the district's current election practices and assessment methods.

He recently filed a lawsuit in Grant County Superior Court against MLIRD, its board of directors and the county over the two issues.

According to the lawsuit, Hansen has not only been denied his constitutional right to vote in district elections, but his property has been improperly assessed taxes as well. It is the result of MLIRD's current system of allocating votes to a landowner depending on how many parcels he or she owns and assessing $1 per $1,000 of valuation to determine taxes owed.

Hansen has been working on getting the district to change its practices for a few years. Early in his first year as director, Hansen went to Olympia to support a bill Sen. Janéa Holmquist Newbry, R-Moses Lake, sponsored that would have made several changes to voting and property assessment laws for the district.

The bill made it through the Senate, but did not advance in the House, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article.

If passed, voting rules would have changed to one vote per land owner regardless of the number of parcels. The bill would also have allowed MLIRD elections to be by mail and all property tax increases would have required approval by district members.

Although the bill died, Hansen continued to work on getting those changes made. However, he was ultimately unsuccessful.

He cited that fact as his main reason for resigning from the district's board of directors in March.

In an interview this week, Hansen said he knew at the time that going through the courts would be his next step.

"This is something I started on immediately after leaving the board, it's why I left the board," he said. "I didn't feel like I could file a lawsuit against them and still be on the board."

He said he eventually hopes to get a favorable ruling from a judge.

"I'm just hoping it'll change the way they vote and I'm hoping it'll change the way they assess," said Hansen. "And by the way they assess, I mean they have to go to a vote of the people rather than just put anything out there that they want. In this point in time they have no limitations as far as they're concerned on how much they can assess."

In the court filing, Hansen's attorney Thomas Burke pointed out that MLIRD has never held an election for ratepayers to vote on assessment amounts.

"By statute, an irrigation and rehabilitation district is limited to assessing land for benefits thereto at $00.25 per thousand dollars of value without a special election and approval by the electors of the District," read the document.

Burke also mentioned MLIRD should not be using the same rate of assessment for all parcels as they have been. He also pointed out that governing laws say each qualified voter should receive two votes regardless of, "the size of ownership," according to the document.

MLIRD General Manager Chris Overland said Tuesday he could not comment on the lawsuit, as the district has not formally seen any court documents yet.