After more than 40 years of advocating for local government issues on behalf of myself and my neighbors (and now former neighbors) it never ceases to surprise me when the candidate or party who feels they are losing – does something that finally reveals essential truths about their position.
That happened in the Green Mountain Water and Sanitation District recall campaign recently.
First, a last minute “vote this way or I’m leaving” ploy by the fifth board member.
Second, a “coming out of the closet” article in “Your Hub” by Rita Bertolli and Brenda Bronson – the chief financial backers of the recall campaign.
With respect to the fifth board member, Rhonda Peters, here is her record on the board since her election in May of 2020:
- She has abstained in most votes and when she doesn’t abstain she has voted with Hanagan the past 8 months, often after being chastised by Hanagan for abstaining.
- She has demonstrated an almost militant obsession with reinstating Timmins as counsel despite Timmins unethical and divisive manipulation of the board.
- When she wasn’t abstaining she indicated an interest in “settling” the case with a new IGA even though the district has won and will likely win the appeal.
- She wants the board to allow public comment throughout the meetings which proved to be complete chaos when it was allowed the past 6 months because the recall group hijacked the meeting with hours of personal attacks against the board.
- That ended when new counsel was hired and correctly pointed out that public comment at the beginning of the meeting fully complied with the Open Meetings Act.
This fifth board member is now attacking Karen falsely claiming that Karen wants extraterritorial service.
- Karen has clearly stated on every occasion, including the most recent town hall, that she adamantly opposes extraterritorial service.
- Karen also opposed settlement which the fifth board member embraces.
- At the most recent town hall meeting the fifth board member only gave her credentials and abstained, again, from taking a position on extraterritorial service.
Rhonda has clearly joined the effort to enter into a new IGA which will happen if the board is recalled and Timmins is re-hired.
Whether you agree or disagree it is always good to know where your elected officials stand on the issues – which is always difficult when they abstain and won’t take positions at public meetings.
It is disappointing she is not willing to extend the same respect to her neighbor elected officials and work toward consensus. Drawing lines in the sand and making unreasonable demands is never productive when serving on local boards.
With respect to the Bertolli and Bronson opinion “article”, it is now perfectly clear if it wasn’t before: Rita Bertolli and Brenda Bronson are 100% committed to a new IGA and extraterritorial service for Rooney Valley.
Rita helped write and published the opinion “article”. Here is reference to her email in the article:
Brenda refers to herself in the article “I am one of the residents on the recall committee. My name is Brenda Bronson”
She and Rita go on to explain:
“Green Mountain is still facing multimillion-dollar litigation (moving to appeals) for signing and then renegging on a contract to connect a pipe from Metro Waste to private property owners west of us who are building subdivisions. The pipe was oversized to do just this. The contract’s cancellation was a dangerous risk taken by a new and inexperienced Board in 2019. The District was lucky enough to find a well-seasoned attorney Jo Timmins — who for a deeply discounted rate, came to Green Mountain Water, and found a way to release our Water District from liability in trial court for backing out on the contract, identifying financial technicalities with it.
“Signing and then reneging on a contract to connect pipe from Metro Waste to private property owners west of us who are building subdivisions.”
“The contract’s cancellation was a dangerous risk taken by a new and inexperienced Board in 2019. “
What they are talking about is “reneging on a contract” – the election night IGA signed by the outgoing board for the benefit of the Rooney Valley Developers – signed with no public hearing, no authority from the service plan and no discussion by the board.
What they are talking about is the decision by the board members to re-evaluate the May 8, 2018, election night IGA forced on the district by the Rooney Valley developers.
What they are talking about is the new board responsibly retaining special counsel and spending 8 months including multiple public hearings and meetings to evaluate the IGA and then had no choice but to terminate the IGA.
See: https://rooneyvalleynews.com/history-of-extraterritorial-service-in-green-mountain/
Ms. Bertolli and Ms. Bronson are now clearly saying the IGA never should have been terminated.
They are clearly stating they want to go back to the way things used to be when the developers controlled the Green Mountain Board.
And they want to bring back Timmins who blindly tried to manipulate the board into a settlement – and continued to do so even after the Court said the “inexperienced” board members were right in terminating the IGA.
Ms. Bronson is part of a developer family and joins with pro-development advocates Christopher Smith (Arlen), Devon Neill, Mr. Eadie and Mr. Furman (and his wife Nikki Mayer).
She and her husband have had no difficulty making money on development the past three years, including 11 development projects in 2021, donating more than half the recall contributions and threatening the board the past 6 months:
The opinion “article” claims the recall effort is a ‘grass roots” effort. But the public documents show otherwise. 75 % of the recall signatures were collected by paid non-residents. Paid for by Ms. Bronson and her husband – who both support extraterritorial service to development outside Green Mountain.
And Ms. Bronson and her husband also paid to have “Ground Organizing for Latinos” knock on your door and try to persuade you to vote for the recall – hired non-residents.
The article complains that supporters of the board include neighbors who are “outside the district”. Well, sort of. The people they are talking about are rate payers, just like Green Mountain residents. They live in Solterra outside the district boundary but – because of prior board decisions in violation of the service plan – are customers of the district and care just as much as Green Mountain residents about the financial health and security of their sewer provider.
The article talks about a $140,000,000 million lawsuit that will bankrupt the district. That number comes from somewhere – probably the plaintiffs. It is a false number. The IGA was signed by the previous board May 8, 2018. The new board put a hold on the agreement by September, 2018. There are probably no damages between those two dates – the only time period that would allow for damages. Big Sky is a government with a publicly filed budget. It does not show any significant expenses related to sewer build out during that time. And they had no claim before May 8.
The number has been thrown around by those who want to force a settlement as a scare tactic. It is false.
The article talks about chaos with the board. But it was the recall group led by Bronson and Christopher Smith (Arlen) who initiated that chaos enabled by Counsel Timmins who attacked her own clients in public and Adrienne Hanagan who actually tried to stop the board from taking votes and having a meeting.
The board has overcome the recall groups efforts to hijack meetings, replaced divisive counsel with an attorney who actually has experience with Title 32 issues and representing water/sanitation boards and are taking care of business – balanced budgets, excellent staff, addressing day to day issues without all the recall group “drama”.
The rest of the opinion “article” is a rehash of all the rumors, false statements and shallow personal attacks against the board members we have heard over and over again the past 6 months.
In short, once competent Title 32 counsel was retained, he confirmed that the board majority was complying with Title 32 and the the Open Meetings Act.
The board’s decision to terminate the May 8, 2018 election night IGA (with no public hearing or discussion by the previous out-voted board) was upheld by the District Court.
The board has retained counsel who worked well with the board the past year to handle the appeal which is not a legally complicated matter.
https://rooneyvalleynews.com/timmins-issue-still-lingering/
It is not too late to vote. As I stated before, I was a rate paying customer but could not vote. If I could, I would vote “NO” on the recall. You have a good and now very experienced board. They have earned your trust, respect and support.
John Henderson