Board to fight Larson lawsuit

SEELEY LAKE – At a special meeting Aug. 13, the Seeley Lake Sewer District board elected new officers. They also voted to retain Beal Law Firm to defend the district from a lawsuit filed by Seeley Lake resident Don Larson.

Beth Hutchinson was elected President and Troy Spence was elected Vice President. The vote on the officers was split with Davy Good going against the nominations while Hutchinson, Spence and Juli Cole voted for the nominations. Director Mike Boltz was not in attendance.

Attorney Jon Beal explained the predicament the district was in with the lawsuit. The district currently did not have an attorney to represent them at a court hearing Tuesday, Aug. 14. At the hearing, the judge would decide if a preliminary injunction would be granted to Larson to essentially stop the district from moving forward with the sewer or spending any money.

Beal felt that it was the board’s duty to the community to put the greater good first. Currently the board has a resolution to put in a sewer system and the board should defend that.

If the district didn’t hire an attorney to represent them at the court hearing, Beal felt that there would be a good chance that the judge would grant Larson his preliminary injunction. If that happened and the sewer project is delayed, it could cause some of the funding agencies to pull grants.

Beal had already been retained by one of the district’s insurance companies but the board also needed to retain him. The board voted unanimously to retain Beal.

Beal then asked the board for direction in the lawsuit on three main points: Did the board want to take a stipulation that was offered by Larson’s attorney? Did the board want to attempt to ask that the hearing on the preliminary injunction be moved in order to have more time to prepare? Did the district want to oppose the preliminary injunction?

The stipulation offered by Larson’s attorney wasn’t fully discussed but if the board accepted it the decision on the injunction would be taken out of the judge’s hands. The board would have to accept parts of the requested injunction and would lose some options in the case. One of those options is for the board to ask for the court to require Larson to post a bond to pay for damages to the district if he loses the case. If the district lost funding that amount could easily reach $15 million.

Beal also pressed the board for an answer as to if they planned to move the project forward. He felt that he needed to know and that it was the community’s right to know if the board planned to change course on the planned sewer project.

Hutchinson said the issue was more complicated than a simple yes or no because the board has been trying to seek additional information to answer the question. She felt that the public voted for three new board members on the premise that they would gather more information before committing to construct the planned sewer. Hutchinson felt that the question should be discussed at a future meeting.

Beal felt that the decision to construct the sewer had already been made before the last board election and that board had the duty to follow the resolution to construct the system. If not, then the board needed to go through a public process to change that.

Cole said she didn’t think the question of if board members supported the sewer needed to be answered but that they needed to bring the discussion back to the hearing on the injunction.

The board voted unanimously to decline the stipulation, request additional time to prepare and if that didn’t work, to fight the preliminary injunction.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. The public hearing on the annual assessment will follow the regular meeting.