Klamath Irrigation District Recall

Put Klamath back in KID!

“There appears to be a substantial objective basis to believe that one or more violations of the executive session provisions of Oregon public meeting law may have occurred … when the board of directors of the Klamath Irrigation District discussed topics not authorized for executive session.” Oregon Government Ethics Commission, July 2016.

Public Statement From the KID Recall Petitioners

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Earlier this month, KID patrons voted to recall Board Chairman Brent Cheyne, which will get KID back on track towards fulfilling its traditional services to its patrons. During the course of the extensive, grassroots work that went into this recall effort, e-mails were acquired during a series of public records requests involving public officials and KID.

Those of us involved with the recall efforts are concerned about the information contained in some of these emails and what it might portend for the greater community, beyond the borders of the irrigation district. After reviewing this matter further, we have decided to share those emails with other leaders in our community and media outlets.

The emails and other developments suggest something larger and more complex than the devastating decisions of the recent board.

We hope this information can be used by others in a way that helps the broader local community better make informed decisions that could affect the future of Klamath County. In the meantime, we will continue to focus on our recall efforts.

An example of the findings can be seen here: 2016-10-12-kogan-linthicum-email

Cheyne & Kogan Emailing Outside Influencers?

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If you’ve spent much time in the last few weeks reading the letters to the editor in the Herald and News, you’ve seen Klamath Irrigation District (KID) Chairman Cheyne, Vice Chairman Knoll and board member Ken Smith’s most ardent and vocal supporters arguing not only are these three men not pushing an agenda, they’re merely doing what they were elected to do, including hiring outside help to negotiate the C Flume contract. These folks have also stated this recall effort against these “honest” men is merely sour grapes from former board members and, therefore, has no merit.

Regardless of their view of the Board majority faction, the truth looks much murkier.

In Mr. Knoll’s Letter of Justification he called out the public records requests as distraction tactics being used to disrupt district business. However, in the request for lame duck Klamath County Commissioner Tom Mallams‘ emails, we’ve found several emails which, in our opinion, are troubling for KID patrons. Not only do these emails call into question who exactly Larry Kogan was working for, in our opinion, we feel they call into question Chairman Cheyne’s leadership in allowing outside, non-KID forces to have a voice in district decisions.

December 21, 2015
From: Joe Watkins
To: Grant Knoll; Brent Cheyne; Brian Quick; Pat Lunde; Tom Mallams; Senator Doug Whitsett
Subject: FW: More information for your website about clandestine liberal efforts to establish environmental initiatives that harm private property rights

This email counters Chairman Cheyne’s claim that Larry Kogan was found from a “Google search”, as he publicly stated at a KID board meeting. This email from Joe Watkins of the Klamath Soil and Water Conservation District on December 19th, 2015 (which includes Cheyne, Knoll, Tom Mallams, Senator Doug Whitsett and KID patron Pat Lunde in a forwarded email from Kogan), to us clearly indicates that Kogan was already working with Cheyne and his associates, requesting Watkins to share an attached document “with the irrigators”.

This raises the question of how Mr. Kogan came to our Basin, which wasn’t likely due to a “Google search” initiated by Cheyne. Read this email.

January 19, 2016
From: Brent Cheyne
To: Grant Knoll
Subject: Fwd: KID Issues

In this email, Chairman Cheyne forwarded Vice Chairman Knoll a message from Senator Whitsett (who is not a KID patron) which included an attached revised Mission Statement, an Explanation of the Mission Statement and a KID Newsletter with Whittsett’s comments.
The three documents suggest that a plan – prepared by or with Senator Whitsett’s assistance – to create a mission statement for KID that would give KID justification for not joining organizations not aligned with the mission statement (e.g. KWUA). This happened around the time that dozens of pro-KWUA patrons started showing up at the KID board meetings, which may have been the reason the mission statement and accompanying newsletter were never publicly introduced.   Importantly, Senator Whitsett is listed as the “author” of all three attachments, when you check the properties of the document.
This email begs the question of why Chairman Cheyne was getting advice from a non-patron, versus KID’s legal counsel. Clearly Chairman Cheyne was allowing a powerful elected official – often adversarial to KID’s past policy positions – to form policy for that same district, now controlled by his allies. Read this email.

April 1, 2016
From: Larry Kogan
To: Thomas Mallams; Brent Cheyne; Grant Knoll
Cc: Erin Ryan; Dennis Linthicum; Joe Watkins
Subject: Not Available

Larry Kogan emails Chairman Cheyne, Vice Chairman Knoll and Tom Mallams  as well as Cc’s Erin Ryan (Congressional staffer to California Representative Doug LaMalfa), Dennis Linthicum and Joe Watkins about the C Flume financing contract and the Bureau of Reclamation’s possible play to take over KID’s transferred works. Why Kogan was allowed to email non-KID entities (some of who have worked against KID in the past) with confidential documents is a major concern we want addressed. Further, he goes on to chide Cheyne and Knoll for their “failure to have me in the room yesterday with Moss Driscoll, a lawyer representing the BOR, after we had choreographed what we were going to say, and your failure to distribute the copies of the carefully written documents I prepared to explain the KID Board’s positions to the District members (which you were apparently warned not to bring to the Board’s special meeting), has placed the District and District members’ interests in great jeopardy.”

In this same email, Kogan goes on to tell Cheyne, Knoll, Mallams, Ryan and Linthicum that he feels KID’s lawyer Reitmann (also Mallams’ attorney) “has intentionally deceived or incompetently (due to his short legal practice experience) deceived you into believing it can all be worked out”,  and “effectively works for the other team (BOR)”. In Kogan’s opinion, the board needed to “terminate Reitmann and permit me to do my job if you want the District to have a fighting chance at coming out of this positively”.

The internal bickering of newly hired KID attorneys is certainly disturbing, especially since KID patrons are paying the bill. What this also demonstrates is that Kogan was sharing the inner-workings of KID with outside, non-KID influencers. Kogan was clearly sharing client information with these people – who were not paying his bill.  Read this email.

March 31, 2016
From: Larry Kogan
To: Erin Ryan; Tom Mallams; Dennis Linthicum; Doug Whitsett
Subject: Statement to the Press

Larry Kogan has again emailed California Representative LaMalfa’s staffer Erin Ryan, Tom Mallams, Dennis Linthicum and Doug Whitsett about KID affairs and included a press release about the KID Board of Directors Special Meeting. The press release, dated March 31st as well, delves into the topic of the meeting (the C Flume contract) and the documents prepared by Reitmann and Kogan.

Once again, Kogan is sharing information with four people who are not KID patrons, and whose interests are not those of the patrons.  Read this email.

March 31, 2016
From: Larry Kogan
To: Dave Cacka; Greg Carlton; Brent Cheyne; Nathan Reitmann
Subject: KID Board Special Meeting of March 31, 2016 – C Flume Financing Contract (1 of 2)

Kogan emailed Chairman Cheyne, Dave Cacka, Greg Carlton and Nathan Reitmann about the C Flume Contract and the associated documents.

While this is appropriate, the fact that he blind-copied Tom Mallams on this raises more questions. Did Chairman Cheyne direct Kogan to Bcc Mallams in on this, or did Kogan do this all on his own again?  Read this email.

These emails, in our opinion, provide further evidence why Chairman Cheyne, Vice Chairman Knoll and Mr. Smith need to be recalled. We believe they suggest that the  Klamath Irrigation District Board majority were active participants in a political gambit led by outside interests with an agenda contrary to the well-being of KID.

There is no reason why Attorney Kogan was emailing Mallams about KID business, which we believe is a breach of client-attorney privilege, especially when considering Mallams’ conflict of interest relative to KID groundwater rights matters. Were Cheyne, Smith and Knoll aware of these emails? If so, did they direct Kogan to send them?

Knoll Justifies Role, Attacks Former Board Members

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On Monday, October 3rd, Klamath Irrigation District Vice Chairman Grant Knoll submitted his Statement of Justification to KID office manager Linda Seater. In his statement, Knoll went on the offensive, focusing on his election win record before addressing the “baseless accusations”.

As written in Vice Chairman Knoll’s statement:

“I have been on the KID board for 5 years.  I have always striven to do the Right Thing in all the decisions presented at KID.  The person mounting the recall attempt has baseless accusations that are completely false and have no merit.  He lost an election election against me by 90%.  The actions that I have supported of accepting the resignation of our former manager and legal council, negotiating a proper C-Flume Contract, and ending our membership with Klamath Water Users are fully justified and I stand behind them.  I do not understand why the prior board members are so opposed to the current board actions.  They have been given more access to board meetings than they deserve; used FOIA attempts, Bar Complaints, and ethics complaints to try and disrupt KID business.  While working for constituents I represent at no time was water delivery in jeopardy this past irrigation season.  My priorities if I retain my board position are to implement proper business practices at KID that reduce assessments, work for true reliable water supplies, and protect the dams in the Klamath watershed.  Please vote no on this truly crazy recall attempt.”

In the October 5th Herald and News article, “KID’s Knoll justifies board participation“, Vice Chairman Knoll went on to explain he feels the KID board has “outdated” bylaws (which a committee was formed to address already), and new work rules, financial policies and employee descriptions need to by updated as well. He also went on to explain his position on dam removal, which from what we can tell does not effect KID patrons since the only dam in Klamath County is near Keno.

In reference to Knoll’s 90% victory, for that election there was only a 30% turnout – hardly a mandate against Mr. Chapman.

While we can appreciate Mr. Knoll’s ability to look forward and see what KID needs to address to continue operating, why haven’t those issues been addressed in his last five years of service to the Board of Directors?

Are the patrons not justified in the opinion that wasting nearly $130,000 on New York City attorney Lawrence Kogan to “negotiate” (which apparently means not to change a word of a document) the C Flume Contract while the legal budget spirals out of control?

We still have the issue of approving the funding for the C Flume contract, and then standing in the way of signing the contract with R&G Excavating to get the C Canal Flume replacement started.

As far his concerns about the need to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain information, perhaps that wouldn’t need to be an issue if he, Cheyne and Smith were more transparent and honest in their work for the board. And hiring an attorney that’s not licensed in Oregon and another that represents a party that is working against KID patrons’ interests would result in a Bar Complaint.

However:

They have been given more access to board meetings than they deserve . . . .

– Grant Knoll, Statement of Justification

In our opinion, that comment justifies our push to recall Vice Chairman Knoll even more. The fact he feels only some patrons should be given access to meetings speaks to either arrogance or an agenda he, Cheyne and Smith are hellbent on pushing. Does he feel Commissioner Tom Mallams and State Senate candidate Dennis Linthicum – who are not KID patrons – should be allowed at these meetings and not former board members or those who oppose his various positions that appear to have a negative effect on KID patrons?

Vice Chairman Knoll may feel this is a “truly crazy recall attempt”, but that doesn’t change the facts and issues we have addressed. There have been bad decisions made by him, Cheyne and Smith that are going to impact KID irrigators for a very long time. Some of these decisions have been very expensive – and irresponsible.

Read Grant Knoll’s Statement of Justification:

Klamath Irrigation District Grant Knoll's Statement of Justification to the recall complaints filed against him by Jason Chapman.
Vice Chairman Knoll’s Statement of Justification to the complaints
The recall petition complaints against Klamath Irrigation District Board of Directors Vice Chairman Grant Knoll.
Petitioner Chapman’s recall complaints against Vice Chairman Knoll

Chairman Cheyne & Mr. Smith Questioned by Oregon Secretary of State

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Apparently the hits don’t stop coming for Klamath Irrigation District Board of Directors Chairman Brent Cheyne and Director Smith.

After receiving a complaint alleging campaign financing violations, the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division (SOS) sent letters to Chairman Cheyne and Mr. Smith along with a letter to KID patron Al Fronsdahl about the political activities surrounding the opposition to the KID recall elections. In it, the SOS asked specific questions regarding campaign finances, expenditures and contributions. The SOS requested a response date no later than October 7, 2016.

At the heart of the complaint is the SOS’s request for information regarding the organization calling itself “zones 1,2 & 3 patrons”. According to the letter, the Secretary of State’s office “conducted a search in the online ORESTAR application (which is used by candidates and political action committees to set up or file committee paperwork) and
searched for committees that are associated with the recall election; the search executed no results even though there is clearly political advocacy related to the recall being paid for and disseminated in the Klamath Irrigation District.”

In the letter to Fronsdahl, the SOS is investigating his actions of mailing or placing in mailboxes copies of a lengthy letter in support of the recalled candidates. In our investigation of the letter Mr. Frohnsdahl was placing in mailboxes (which is illegal), it appears to be the same message New York City attorney Lawrence Kogan outlined in an incredibly long memo. From the letter the SOS asks Fronsdahl, “If you are responsible for these advertising and mailings, please explain why you have not set up a committee to oppose the recall of each of the candidates.”

As we get closer to the October 12th recall election of Chairman Cheyne and Director Smith, these issues remain important. If they are involved in the actions the SOS is investigating, it shows even more reason why these two men need to be recalled. Aside from the obvious disregard for KID’s legal budget, the odd manner in which Kogan came to KID, the fact they stood in the way of the C Flume contract, or even the questionable decision to hire an irrigation district manager with no experience, these two continue to push their personal agenda over the needs of the irrigation district and its patrons.

Not only is it embarrassing they’re so nakedly pushing their own agendas, it’s dangerous.

For more details, read the press release “KID Recall Opponents Questioned by Oregon Secretary of State“, the Oregon Secretary of State’s letter to Chairman Cheyne and Mr. Smith, or the letter to Mr. Fronsdahl.

Recall Election Against Knoll Is Official

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After having several signatures rejected, Jason Chapman’s recall petition against Vice Chairman Grant Knoll has been verified by Klamath Irrigation District Office Manager, Linda Seater.

Needing 15 signatures, Chapman turned in 16, one more than what was required. Now that there are a enough valid signatures, Knoll has until Monday, October 3rd to respond with a “statement of justification” or resign. If he chooses to stay, the recall election will be held Monday, November 7th.

Like Chairman Cheyne and Ken Smith, the complaints against Vice Chairman Knoll are violations against Oregon public meeting laws (which led to an ethics investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission), allowing legal fees exceeding the KID legal budget, hiring two new outside attorneys without full board and public disclosure, attempting to sideline the C Canal Flume Contract and neglecting the fiduciary responsibilities of the irrigation district.

In the last few weeks, we’ve seen more poor decision making with the hiring of John Wolf as District Manager, a 66-year-old Texan with no experience in managing an irrigation district, no computer skills, no familiarity with GIS and no demonstrable understanding of how an irrigation district works.

If you are in Zone 3, we encourage you to make sure you can vote. You can find the KID main office at 6640 KID Lane, Klamath Falls, OR 97603. The office hours are from 8 am to 4:30 am, Monday through Friday.  They can be reached at 541.882.6661, but you need to register by 5:00 p.m., October 18 to vote in the Zone 3 recall.

For more information on Knoll’s recall election, see the Herald and News article, “Third KID board member subject to recall“, or you can read Linda Seater’s letter to Jason Chapman confirming his recall petition signatures.