Three members of the Heights Water Board were absent at the last two meetings of the board, claiming that the meetings were not legal meetings. Because of discord and lack of quorums, one board member declared that they are three months behind on dealing with business that needs to be done.
The regular meeting of the board of the Heights Water District did not have a quorum, on Wednesday, November 17, because one board member was so upset by an email which she perceived as a threat, that she was intimidated into not attending.
Other board members expressed disgust, as they explained the reason they didn’t have a quorum and reported the “threatening” email sent by “someone in the audience.” There were loud denials that it was a threat by the email’s author, Tom Zurbuchen.
Board member Ming Cabrera read aloud the email received by Laura Drager, shortly before the meeting.
Zurbuchen warned, Cabrera should be careful or he would sue him for slander.
Zurbuchen’s email cited the board’s bylaws, claiming that to hold the meeting was in violation and then posed the question to Drager, “When ethics complaints are filed against you for knowingly and willingly agreeing to hold this meeting violating the bylaws and State law, will you be forced to surrender your realtors license?”
Speaking from the audience, Zurbuchen proclaimed, “I didn’t threaten her. I advised her that complaints could be filed… It was her choice, not mine.”
The three board members in attendance, Ming Cabrera, Pam Ellis and David Graves, asserted that it most certainly was a threat– “against her livelihood,” said Cabrera.
Zurbuchen asserted that meeting attendance would be an ethics issue for Drager, who is a real estate agent. He said that under the regulations that govern ethics issues for real estate licenses, she could lose her license. He said he didn’t even know that Drager could be in violation of real estate licensing regulations until someone else pointed it out to him.
Ellis emphasized that the board’s current bylaws were written in 1956, and have never been updated. She read other portions of the bylaws to demonstrate that they are so out-of-date that they hold no current context or relevance. Ellis emphasized that one of the evening’s agenda items had been to consider the approval of newly drafted, updated bylaws.
The attendance of four board members of the seven, establishes a quorum for the District Board. Cabrera moved the meeting forward without a quorum saying that while they couldn’t vote on issues, they could have discussion.
Earlier in the week, there was uncertainty about whether the monthly meeting of the District Board would be held. The controversy swirled around agenda issues and whether it was posted.
Ellis, who prepared the agenda said that, although there were some updates to the agenda, it was available to all board members more than a week before the meeting. She sent the agenda to the board and others, on Friday, Nov. 11, with the request to staff to post it on the website.
Cabrera explained that there is conflict among board members about settling a $2.9 million water bill with the City of Billings. Some want to negotiate for better terms, while others (Cabrera, Ellis, Graves and Drager) want to pay it. One of the agenda items was a discussion of the issue and to get a report from the committee (Brandon Hurst, Jeff Engel and Chairman Dennis Cook), which is negotiating with the city.
At last month’s board meeting, Engel reported that things were going smoothly with the city, but that apparently fell apart in their meeting on Oct. 29. Dennis Cook reportedly announced they would not meet again until after January 1.
Said Graves, “Four of us …want to pay the bill so we can move on” to other business. Graves said that when the negotiating committee members saw that was on the agenda, they “all of a sudden said they weren’t having a meeting.”
The agenda also noted that City Officials, including City Administrator Chris Kukulski, were invited to the Heights Water Board’s public meeting. The negotiating committee, under the advice of their attorney, Jeff Weldon, said that they were not supposed to discuss negotiations, not even with the rest of the board.
After the Board meeting on Nov. 17, their attorney, Jeff Weldon, resigned.
The following Monday, the Heights Water Board issued an agenda for a special meeting on Nov. 29 to deal with issues they believe must be dealt with as soon as possible. (See accompanying updated article.)
Kukulski spoke at the meeting saying he came because he wanted to share information and then leave. “…I don’t want to get caught up and be perceived that we are trying to do anything other than the offer.” The bill the Heights has with the city for water is now about four years old. Kukulski said that the city had agreed to eliminate all interest and penalty charges reducing it from about $5 million to $2.95 million. The proposal is still viable, but he said he hoped to be able to meet again with the committee in December.
Kukulski said that the city did make a mistake and that they take full responsibility for it, but he said the city and the Heights are “long term partners.” “Most of your customers are city residents, if I walked away from the till with extra money, that is wrong. If I overbilled you and it was determined … that we had overbilled, I better expect them to say, ‘Hold it, you owe us a refund.’”
Dave Goodridge of Goodridge Real Estate and Scott Aspenlieder, Performance Engineering, spoke about how prospective businesses are being discouraged from locating in the Heights. “Ambiguities” in fees and policies are having a negative impact on the Heights business growth.
“I think one of the biggest problems you have in the Heights is the way you assess annexation fees at 23 cents per square foot,” said Aspenlieder. “If you look at the growth of our community, there is a reason you are not seeing significant growth at the same level and at the same speed that you are seeing in the rest of the Billings community. When you charge somebody 23 cents a square foot to annex into the district, and then make them put the infrastructure in and then charge them the impact fees, you are hitting them three times.” Aspenlieder said he has never gotten a full explanation of what the annexation fee is supposed to cover.
The way the district assess impact fees and water meter service fees is “vastly different” than the way it is done by the City of Billings, “…and it is the reason you are not seeing bigger scale commercial development in the Heights.”
The problems more consistently apply to properties outside the district that want to annex into it, explained Goodridge. Properties already in the district are more conducive to development, because they don’t have to go through the annexation process. But, the availability of such properties is becoming increasingly limited. “That is why you see so many buildings get scrapped.”
Asked by an audience member how much local bias or “stigma” against the Heights plays into decisions about where to locate a business, Goodridge said that would have no bearing on “major investors” from Utah or Colorado or elsewhere. “They are strictly looking at the numbers and the data and that is it,” he said.
“They are looking at roof tops, traffic, what they are competing against, and what is available in raw land and services,” said Goodridge. “You have services right there; you have raw land right there. The Heights has oodles of rooftops. Main Street is the busiest road in the state. So that is pretty much checking all the boxes. Those guys are interested,” he said.
Goodridge underscored that the Heights “is part of the City of Billings.”
They emphasized the importance of the Heights Water District accepting that they do have an impact on economic development, given that new areas will become open for development with the completion of the Billings Bypass.
Josh Jabalara, Midwest Technical Assistance Program, was also in attendance. He explained the services they provide, often free of charge, to rural water districts, including rate studies and budgeting assistance.
