Political predictions, especially about our General Assembly, can be dangerous. Nonetheless, it is safe to prophesy that the legislature will kill House Bill 1330, which is scheduled to come up for its first committee hearing on Tuesday.
HB 1330 would require our water conservancy district boards to be elected, rather than appointed by judges. WCDs collect property taxes and have eminent domain. But with rare exceptions, the public does not choose WCD boards. Pure and simple, it’s taxation without representation.
Further, these appointees cannot be recalled from office, and last summer, a judge ruled that term limits don’t apply.
This bizarre system of power without accountability might have made some sense in 1937, when Colorado established WCDs.
Back then, district judges were directly elected, so there was some public accountability in the appointment process. Now judges are appointed, and subject only to retention elections. Also back then, all judges heard water cases and thus were familiar with ditches and diversions; today there are specialized water courts, and a district judge may know no more of water matters than any other informed citizen.
The judicial system and political climates have changed in the past 71 years, but the basic mechanism for selecting WCD boards has not. They apply to judges, who make the appointments. And if someone sues the WCD, the judge could be in charge of a case involving people he appointed. No matter how impartial the judge, it’s not going to look good — so why keep putting our judges in this position?
As for the operation of WCDs, consider the local Upper Arkansas WCD. Ideally, it might coordinate local water users; for instance, if Salida and Buena Vista both needed more storage, UAWCD could find a cost-effective co-operative solution.
But instead it operates as a competitor. UAWCD wanted to sell water to a developer who planned to put 5-acre lots, with septic systems, on top of the aquifer that supplied Westcliffe and Silver Cliff in Custer County. Our elected Chaffee County commissioners want development to go close to towns; our unelected UAWCD wants sprawl so it has more water customers. Our elected commissioners wanted an in-stream flow right for the Arkansas River; the unelected UAWCD opposed it — and we got to finance both sets of lawyers.
One glaring illustration of this competitive attitude is the treatment of Patricia Alderton. She’s the Poncha Springs town administrator, and was appointed the at-large member of the UAWCD board in 2005. Information provided to other board members was not given to her, because some of the board claims there could be a “conflict of interest.” They must fear that if the Poncha Springs town government knew what UAWCD was planning, Poncha might get a competitive advantage in finding more water customers.
My litany could go for pages, and those who follow most other WCDs could likewise tell their own tales of secrecy and expensive litigation.
The sensible solution is public accountability through elections. We are deemed smart enough to elect hospital and school boards, and even state legislators, senators and governors. But our legislature has for 71 years considered us too stupid to routinely vote on regional water development and administration.
To the Colorado water establishment, we are just a bunch of wallets to be plucked. The water buffaloes will find a way to kill HB 1330. After all, the water that belongs to the people of Colorado ought not to be controlled by people accountable to the people of Colorado. That would be far too reasonable.
Ed Quillen (ed@cozine.com) is a freelance writer, history buff, and publisher of Colorado Central Magazine in Salida.
