Dedicated workers impacted in Compact squabbles
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Because of the actions of two Mission Irrigation District commissioners, two Jocko Irrigation District commissioners, and their local adviser, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has assumed operation of the Flathead Irrigation Project. These commissioners had no exit plan for voting their districts out of the Flathead Joint Board of Control, because of this the Coopertive Management Entity who operated the project went away, so the BIA stepped back in.
What you should know is some more to the story. The three district chairmans, about nine lawyers, several officials from the Department of the Interior and BIA, tribal officials, and a project manager were invited to this meeting in Missoula, but you the taxpayer who funds this Irrigation Project by taxes, were not invited. This broke federal and state law. These meetings were held, one in December, one in January. In early February all three districts were sent an ultimatum to sign on to an option to re-establish the CME to operate the project, this time with two extra board members. So five tribal, five fee irrigators, with the BIA chairing this committee, ask yourself if this is a stacked board or not. Districts had about two weeks to inform their irrigators, vote and sign on, no other options. Four Mission and Jocko commissioners, who caused this problem to begin with, met with their districts and signed on, with irrigators in protest asking for more representation and accountability on this board. Flathead District met with irrigators and sent a timely counter proposal, with accountability and representation on the forefront of their proposal. Not a word from the BIA for weeks.
On March 6, old BIA employees including some who quit post-2010, were called and told to go to Pablo, and sign up for employment for the Flathead Project, CME Project employees were told the week of March 14 to apply online. All non-tribal were rejected, dubbed not qualified. Since then all CME tribal employees have been hired as well as three tribal members with no experience. Hiring is done from the Oklahoma BIA office.
Since 2010 these four years, the employees of Flathead Irrigation have cleaned and reshaped close to 900 miles of canal, replaced more than 200 structures, sprayed 700 miles of canal, removed brush and trees off 26 miles of canal, crews removed 70 truckloads of saw logs off the Pablo feeder alone, from Post Creek to Ronan most canals are drivable now, they built two fish screens, and placed 6,000 feet of liner on K Canal in Arlee. Ditch riders took over their rides, delivered and recorded water usage as was done in pre-BIA day. Jocko irrigation had irrigation water until Sept. 15 instead of the first week of August. Note, this was due to excellent employees.
You will hear talk this resumption was caused by the Western Montana Water Users fighting for the rights to this water. This is far from the truth. These five men mentioned above bear the responsibility for dismantling of the best and quickest Irrigation Project betterment in history.
I urge you to call your county, state, federal representatives and complain about this resumption. You are the taxpayers who fund this project. Call the BIA as well, it is due to their arrogance and not willing to listen to reason. This is why we are at this point now. The BIA and tribal leadership has admitted this resumption will only be a year or two, we are going to lose 10 or 14 quality employees to the BIA only to turn back over in a year or two. The law says the irrigators will operate and maintain the Flathead Irrigation Project signed in 1949 and 2010.
On that note the Flathead District made a proposal to hire all employees as-is for the 2014 season, with all benefits, annual, sick, seniority, and state retirement of which all employees will lose vesting in, which was to occur in 2014, after five years of service. The older employees can’t afford to throw these last four years of their life away. This proposal was not even considered. All that was needed was to negotiate the board or entity to be agreed upon by the districts, state, tribe, Department of the Interior and BIA to run the project. We could have kept things moving in this positive direction.
It’s time for our communities to come back together. It’s time for the vengeance to stop, the half-truths, the destructive force that has divided our friends and neighbors. This vengeance is destroying families like these 14 men who lost their jobs, after giving us so much. I urge the people in these beautiful valleys we live in to remember we are a nation of laws carefully crafted to protect us to give us the best, most equal and safest nation in the world, and to remember our great history that brought us here. There was a great cost to achieve the standard of living we enjoy today.
