Rooney Valley News

Here are the final election results from the Green Mountain Water and Sanitation District Recall Election:

If this is hard to read, here is a link to the document:

Recall election results

When I had a fellowship with the Citizens Research Council of Michigan and working on my Masters in Public Administration, we spent a lot of  time with numbers – budgets and elections.  They always tell a story.

The first number is 4,893.   That is the number of folks who voted.

I don’t have the number of residents who voted in 2020 or 2018 but I understand the voter turn out was greater this time than in prior elections.

So, that number tells us about 5,000 people cared enough about the issues to vote.

Of those 4,893 people who cared enough to vote, 3,605 voted against the recall and 1,288 voted for the recall.

26% voted for the recall

74% voted against the recall to keep the three board members in place.

I am using the numbers for Jeff Baker.  The numbers for Alex and Karen are similar:

28%  /  72%  (Alex) and

27.5%  /  72.5%   (Karen)

That is a significant margin.   About three quarters of the voters opposed the recall and voted to keep Jeff, Karen and Alex in office.

What message did they convey.

By all accounts, the prevailing issue was extraterritorial service.  Although there was no specific vote on providing service outside the district, the anecdotal evidence indicates that it was a significant issue.

The statements and actions by the recall group clearly indicated that they supported extraterritorial service.

• Their leading spokespersons said so many times,
• their financial backers have a history and public reputation in support of extraterritorial service and developer control over the decision-making and
• the whole point of the recall at a critical time in the developer initiated litigation
• all establish the recall group’s position.
• They and one of their spokespersons, Director Hanagan, were completely silent during the Town Hall on extraterritorial service.

On the other hand, Jeff, Karen and Alex were outspoken and clear in their opposition to extraterritorial service,

• settlement of the litigation with a new IGA and
• constantly asserting the importance of the citizens having a seat at the development table.
• After all, Jeff and Alex terminated the developer sponsored May 8, 2018 Big Sky IGA and
• Karen consistently worked alongside them not to settle with a replacement IGA advocated by Director Hanagan.

So there was a clear choice on this issue.   And the result was that only 26% supported extraterritorial service.

Drilling down a little further, we get an idea of the integrity of that number.   There were other reasons to support a recall unrelated to the extraterritorial issue that may have compelled some to vote to recall but not to provide extraterritorial service.

We can see this refined by looking at who the voters chose to replace Jeff in the event the recall was successful.  In Jeff’s case there were three to choose from.

Two of them were clearly opposed to extraterritorial service and made those statements in no uncertain terms during the Town Hall on extraterritorial service.

But, one of them completely ignored the Town Hall, as did all the recall supporters.  That same person was also strongly endorsed by the most aggressive pro-extraterritorial service advocates.

That person, Steve Senigla, got 545 votes out of 1,989 votes cast for the three candidates to replace Jeff.  Of course 2,904 people didn’t vote for any of the three – they just voted against the recall.

So, using that example, 545  out of 4,893 voters voted for the candidate who was most clearly favored by the recall group.  11%.

Now to be sure, some people could have voted for him who voted against the recall, but its unlikely given the public information available.  And there are other variables that might come into play, but none that are reasonably significant enough to make a difference.

It seems fair to conclude then that between 11% and 27% of the voters in the Green Mountain district want extraterritorial service and between 89% and 73% do not.

That sends a pretty clear message to the majority of the board.  A message which supports the position those three citizens have taken the past three years.

It also sends a pretty clear message to the development community that, if it was not clear before, they need to re-think their business model.

• Their business model for development in Rooney Valley which works overtime to exclude resident involvement.
  • The residents will demand to be involved.

• Their business model for obtaining sewer in Rooney Valley – the citizens don’t want Green Mountain to provide that service and won’t support it.  
  • Which means, that even if the decision dismissing the case was overturned and the district lost at a jury trial – neither of which is likely – the Rooney Valley developers will never get the sewer from Green Mountain.  
  • The Court’s can’t force it to happen.  
  • Ultimately, its up to the residents.

Which of course explains why the May 8, 2018, Big Sky IGA was signed election night without any public hearings when no one was looking.  

• The development community already knew what the citizens would say
• so they tried to force it through against the residents’ will.

Which goes back to the first point – not only will the residents demand a seat at the table but odds are they won’t be interested in doing business with these developers.

The board has a lot of work to do.

• They need to establish new leadership on their board.  Director Hanagan who unabashedly worked overtime to support the recall and undermine the majority can no longer represent the majority as their president.  She must step down or be replaced.

• The board will also need to codify the mandate against extraterritorial service.  But there is time.  There is no immediate need there.

• They have a budget to pass and other compelling district business to attend to.

But at the very least, they know in no uncertain terms that the recall group that has monopolized their and staff’s time the past many months  represents a tiny percentage of the population –  and that you – 72 to 89%  support them.   I doubt they will let you down.

Finally to the 4,893 residents who voted, no matter how you voted, thank you for making our democracy work.  Thanks to you it is still the best system of self government that exists.

John Henderson