Outdated Bylaws Create Confusion

SEELEY LAKE - A special meeting for the Seeley Lake Sewer District, June 19, was thrown into disarray with a mistake made in the agenda and further confusion created by the district’s outdated bylaws.

The first item on the agenda was “District Election.” Newly elected Director Beth Hutchinson explained that the purpose of that item was to elect the board’s president and vice president. District Secretary Felicity Derry apologized, saying that she thought the agenda item was to swear in the new directors and therefore labeled it “District Election.”

Director Troy Spence made a motion to elect Hutchinson as the board’s president. Derry responded to Spence’s motion saying that in the bylaws, officers were to be elected in November.

Hutchinson said that state laws regulating sewer districts have changed. The district elections previously were held in November and therefore the organizational meeting to elect president and vice president were held in November. Now, state law mandates the elections to be held in May and therefore officers should be elected at the next meeting.

Hutchinson felt that the intent of the bylaws should be followed, not the literal interpretation of them. The bylaws have not been updated in decades to reflect state laws. Director Davy Good disagreed saying the board needs to follow the bylaws, not the intent.

Hutchinson brought up that the bylaws also allow for the board to remove the president. She then made a motion to remove the board’s current president, Mike Boltz. Spence seconded the motion.

Good said he wouldn’t vote for that. He acknowledged that the district could be moving in a different direction with three new board members but said Boltz has done a good job moving the district forward.

Good didn’t feel that a newly elected person who has indicated they might go back to the beginning of the sewer and start over should replace Boltz. Hutchinson replied that she didn’t say she wanted to start over but go back and review the evidence and past decisions. She felt she had the time and energy to honor the voters that elected the three new members.

Kim Myre questioned if the topic should even be discussed because it was not properly noticed in the agenda. The public in the audience added that Boltz wasn’t in attendance and questioned if they should remove him without him being there to defend himself. The community was also not informed of the discussion due to the error in the agenda.

Director Juli Cole went back to the bylaws and pointed out that they read, “The Board may remove any officer from his duties as an officer upon a majority vote of the total members of the Board of Directors, at any meeting.”

The audience again pointed to the failure to notice the item in the agenda. Eventually Hutchinson retracted her motion to remove Boltz.

The board officer elections couldn’t be added to the next regularly scheduled meeting set for June 21 because there was less than 48 hours to provide notice.

The position of vice president is currently vacant as former board Director Mike Lindemer held that position and nobody has been elected to fill it.

Ironically the second and last thing on the agenda was to discuss the district bylaws. Hutchinson handed out a draft of the bylaws with recommended edits and updates for the board to review. She said when she started she thought they would be just a couple of little things but the deeper she dug the more issues she found.

In addition to the issue of district elections and electing board officers in November versus May, the voters who are eligible to vote in district elections has changed. There are also several references in the bylaws to state laws that have since been repealed and a handful of grammatical errors.

The issue of the outdated bylaws boiled over into the June 21 meeting as Hutchinson pointed out that the bylaws also called for regular meetings to be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month, not the third Thursday.

Hutchinson suggested that the board prioritize the changes and start working on the sections that could impact the board’s ability to function first. Everyone agreed that there needed to be some changes.