Fort Peck Rural Water District Looks Forward To Future

During the regular board meeting of the Fort Peck Rural County Water District on Aug. 14, tensions were high among the board members in attendance as each tried to understand each others’ viewpoints on how certain situations have been handled over the past few years, not only by the Board members themselves but also by the general counsel of the board, David Irving.

At the May board meeting, board member Mary Kaercher expressed concerns about Irving as the general counsel for the Fort Peck Rural County Water District which ultimately led to a majority vote of the board to ask Irving to voluntarily resign. “There was clearly a discussion and agreement that I would write something up with regards to asking Dave to voluntarily resign and give it to the board members in advance. It would be ludicrous to ask Dave to voluntarily resign without giving him any explanation and now allow him to respond to our concerns,” stated Kaercher at the Aug. 14 meeting. “Let’s face it, based on that meeting, if Dave’s contract had included a termination clause for cause to begin with, his contract would have been terminated based on that vote. But because there was no termination clause, the board feared they could not fire Dave without potential threat of litigation.”

In the middle of July, documentation was submitted to Irving by Kaercher detailing specifics as they pertained to her original concerns, which included an incident that occurred during Irving’s divorce proceedings against a former member of the Water District. Irving had the opportunity to respond to these concerns at the Aug. 14 meeting.

“The tone and substance of the remarks of her letter have to be taken in context. And the question asked, whether it is the best interest of this organization to rehash the past as opposed to addressing the current needs of the district, I think the answer is obvious,” explained Irving. “....The hopes that by finally telling my side of the story, it will put to rest the misconception some members of the public may have about my role as the district’s general counselor for the last 30 years. My reputation is everything in a small community and in particular with this District.”

As Irving went into detail about the concerns brought up in the letter, further clarifications came to light on how the legal situations involving the personal incidents were deferred to a different counsel to handle, with the request made through the District’s liability carrier and a completely different law firm was to represent the Board of Directors during these legal proceedings.

“This is a troubling time for the District and its Board. Two former employees have resolved their legal suits against the District in mediation. All within the last year,” ended Irving. “Mrs. Kaercher has criticized the board in handling those suits in public meetings after coming on board in December of 2022. General counsel was challenged in May by calls for his resignation without any basis. Next customers were encouraged to come to the July meeting, many in misinformation to request the resignation of general counsel...Thank you for this opportunity to demonstrate my commitment, to provide confident and diligent representation to the district.”

In Kaercher’s concerns she also indicated to the Board that per the District’s Bylaws, Section 3 Duties of the Secretary state that the secretary shall “keep the District Seal and complete and attest to all agreements issued and affix said District Seal to all papers requiring the seal.” However, Kaercher’s research showed there are no secretary’s signature or District Seal on the Fort Peck Rural County Water District Attorney Contract. “Thank you for pointing out because I came in and investigated. We have multiple documents that were not properly signed by our secretary...so we found out things that we need to have to make sure they’re sealed before they’re filed. We did learn something.” stated Board President Ned Parpart.

After addressing the concerns that were brought up on both sides, the Board and general counsel, as well as open dialogue among all members, revisions were made to the current General Counsel contract which included Irving will not attend every Fort Peck Rural County Water District Board meeting as he has in the past, and instead only attend when invited. The other revision made included adding that either party may terminate the contract by providing 30 days written notice if it’s deemed to be in the best interest of the district without a further statement as the basis for the decision. This amendment will replace the one that was signed on Sept. 6, 2022 and Irving will stay on as general counsel for the District.

“I felt like there was a responsibility to hash this out and while I probably don’t agree with everything in Dave’s letter, you guys might not agree with everything in mine, but the fact is that we’ve learned a few things,” reflected Kaercher. “We want to look forward. We have things in our district that we need,” stated Parpart.