Concerns Regarding Fort Peck Rural County Water District

Dear Editor,

I would like to applaud Jody Sundheim Novak for her recent column in the Courier's Letter to the Editor section and giving the rest of us courage to publicly speak up about matters of great importance. If I were to take the Nashua Town Council name out of her letter and insert the Fort Peck Rural County Water District (FPRCWD) name, the story would almost be exactly the same.

However, FPRCWD Board members took their efforts to a much lower level by actually violating the open meeting law to make an offline decision to hire an attorney for $1,200 (wasting FPRCWD dollars) to see how they could taper public participation. The Board's expensive legal opinion, which could have been obtained by simply looking up the applicable Montana Law, backfired in their faces.

According to FPRCWD Board President, Josh Kittleson, the reason for the sudden hiring of an attorney was "Because we are having too much trouble at these meetings. We have got to get it where there is no interruptions in these meetings. We want things to run much smoother in these meetings than it has been going."

Mr. Kittleson is not referring to "interruptions in these meetings" in the sense that people are actually interrupting the meeting. He is referring to public participation only during those times when public participation is allowed and the president grants a specific person in the audience to speak.

Based on my personal experience, Board members show no open consideration of the information shared by the very stakeholders they represent, even if it is supported by facts, good business acumen or the law.

Mary Kaercher

Fort Peck, Mont.