The Heights County Water District Board (CWDB) has offered the position of General Manager to Allan “Bo” Andersson of Cambridge, New York. At their regular monthly meeting last Wednesday, the board voted unanimously to offer Andersson a contract.
CWDB President Doug Kary said that Andersson received the highest score in the board’s interviews and evaluations of candidates. The board is offering him $100,000 a year in their proposed contract.
Andersson is a retired business owner, who retired in 2021 as the president and chief executive officer of Flomatic Corp., following a 52-year career.
As the board dealt with other issues before the district, it sounded like Andersson, who is to become the manager on April 22 , will hit the road running as numerous decisions were deferred until Andersson had an opportunity to see information and weigh-in on the decisions. Board member Jeff Essmann commented that he hopes with a new manager in place, “Maybe we can get some of this stuff done,” referring to a number of issues and projects that no matter the board’s decisions, seem not to move forward.
Pam Ellis, the county’s appointee to the board, was seated with the board at the Wednesday meeting following the board’s acceptance of a settlement offer from Yellowstone County and Pam Ellis in the case which CWDB filed against them in a dispute regarding whether the board had the authority to remove Ellis from the board. With the recent District Court Judge’s determination that the board did not have the authority that they attempted to exercise on June 15, 2022, the County and Ellis offered to settle the case if the board paid $9,500 in legal costs and seated Ellis back on the board for the remainder of her term, to end in December 2024.
In other business, the CWDB board set forth the process by which it will fill a vacancy on the board that was created with the resignation of Laura Drager, in order to apply for the position of General Manager. Drager was in attendance at the Wednesday board meeting.
The board cancelled their effort to fill the position a couple weeks ago and rescinded all the applications they had received because of a number of complaints and confusion. All applicants must re-submit applications (available on district’s website) by May 8, which will be reviewed at the next monthly board meeting – May 15, 6 pm. – at which time they will choose the new board member. The new member will assume their position on the first Monday in June.
The board has planned a “work session” for May 1, 9 am. Ellis suggested that the work sessions be noticed as a business meetings, so the board can vote and deal with some of the issues rather than postponing decisions until the regular monthly board meeting. The board agreed and the May 1 will be a business meeting.
Ellis suggested also that the process for replacing board members be outlined in the bylaws to reduce some of the confusion.
The board discussed a wide range of pending issues including maintenance projects on Wicks Lane and Bitterroot, easements, the process of engaging an attorney, potential rate increases, and the process of investing the district’s reserves.
The Board was upset with a vendor that manages the Employee Benefits Plan for the District because they paid out benefits to “former employees” in violation with the terms of their contract. Essmann presented a resolution, approved by the board, to direct the General Manager to cease doing business with the vendor.
The resolution explains that the vendor “… acting through District staff and without any prior discussion with the Board of Directors, has presented a document to the District that would appear to absolve the Vendor or Vendors from responsibility to the District to recover funds that were improperly distributed to former employees in violation of the terms of the plan.”
The board’s resolution granted authority to the new General Manager to engage an attorney to take the appropriate steps to force the vendor to abide by the contract and to basically cease doing business with the vendor. It directs the General Manager to suspend the transfer of employer funds to the retirement program and to direct them instead to a separate bank account to be reconciled at the end of the year with the terms of the Employee Benefits Plan under next year’s budget.
