MLIRD hears concerns over December vote

Also passes 2020 budget

MOSES LAKE — Directors overseeing the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District passed a 2020 budget and elected new officers for the year on Tuesday, but they also faced concerns from a former director about last year’s election.

Directors unanimously approved the district’s $1.7 million budget for 2020, which includes $150,000 to $200,000 for testing alum treatments to control phosphorus levels in the lake. The budget also includes $200,000 to $250,000 to move about 75,000 cubic yards of dredgings that have accumulated north of Broadway just south of state Route 17.

“We promised we would do that, the city (of Moses Lake) wanted it moved before we do anything else,” said General Manager Chris Overland during a regular board meeting Tuesday evening.

As part of the budget, directors also approved a district-wide 2020 assessment of 80 cents for $1,000 of assessed value, down from $1 in 2019, to fund MLIRD operations.

The MLIRD has agreed to provide most of the soil from recent dredging operations to the Port of Moses Lake, but it is also willing to let anyone who wants to have soil take it away in order for MLIRD to save a little on the cost of hauling.

“The port will take all that we have left,” said Bill Bailey, who was elected president of the board on Tuesday.

Board members also heard from former board member and chairman Mick Hansen, who said he is concerned that Jeff Foster’s property was not correctly annexed into the district late last summer and that he was not legally entitled to stand for election to the board.

“Both the election itself and the way the property was brought into the district were unusual,” Hansen told board members.

While he added he didn’t think it was illegal, he then proceeded to contest the legality and propriety of the process by which Foster’s property was brought into the MLIRD.

Hansen has also been suing the district since 2014, claiming the board has approved assessments greater than state law allows and that board directors are not elected properly.

Foster was a member of the board and its chairman until late last July, when he sold a property within the district boundaries before a second property he owned could be annexed into the district. After that parcel was annexed into the district on Aug. 13, Foster filed to run for the seat. He was elected in December.

On Tuesday, Hansen said the MLIRD failed to adequately notify Foster’s neighbors about the annexation or adequately publicize the public hearing, noting that the district published its legal notice in the Grant County Journal in Ephrata — far from any properties in the MLIRD.

“You want people to see your notices and you put them in the Grant County Journal,” Hansen said.

“The notice was published the same way bond and special elections are,” responded Brian Iller, the district’s attorney.

Hansen also said he found no evidence, either in the minutes or a recording of the Aug. 13 meeting, that a public hearing was held. However, Iller said it is typical that no one from the public attends public hearings.

“We always ask if someone wants to protest, or submit something in writing,” Iller said. “There was no hearing because there was no one there to protest.”

Board member Kris Dexter asked Hansen to summarize his concerns about the entire process in writing so the board would have something to review.