Irrigators urged to attend next district meetings
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Editor,
Monday at the FJBC meeting a majority of the members met to save and protect the assets of the irrigators of our project; this includes the building, records, and the water rights, four members of Mission/ Jocko District moved to withdraw from the FJBC. The vote from the irrigators in these districts were against this withdrawal, this was a per acre vote, not one vote per irrigator. After much discussion and public comment it was unanimously decided that it was wise to extend the withdrawal date to Friday the 20th to give time for legal review.
Wednesday another meeting was held, four members of the Jocko/ Mission districts went against their word and tried to vote to split the districts, the assets and tried to sign on to the water use agreement with the Tribes and replace CME members. (Note our four irrigator CME members are doing an outstanding job for the irrigators this year.) Legal measures were then taken to protect the irrigators by the rest of the board.
These four Mission/Jocko members voted to raise your administration fees to $9 per acre from $2.65, to cover legal fees of more than $65,000 accrued in only five months.
Jocko district is broke, you are borrowing from 0&M, Mission district is not far behind, we have to pay this back in a repayment plan. There is no public or legal exit plan for Mission-Jocko districts from the FJBC, you the irrigator, should know what this is before they split, water distribution, system repair, labor, who collects money, and if the FJBC goes away, will the CME? The CME is a product of the FJBC.
These four members should have had all this done before they voted to split and spend over $65,000 of our money. I urge irrigators to spread the word and be at the next district meetings, most of all contact your Mission-Jocko board member, make them report on their actions. It’s your property right and money. On this course, we will fall and fail.
Tim Orr
St. Ignatius
