All the board members should quit

Dear editor:

I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the excuse given by the Westside Sewer District and Mellen Water districts, "they can't afford to pay for posting the necessary notices in your paper." Oh, wow! What a whopper! The Westside Sewer District has over $220,000 in a savings account, and they can't afford a $5 or $600 dollar election? And on top of that, they are paying themselves $100 each to attend a meeting that they hold within a short walk of their house. (Westside sewer). The city of Mountain Home had graciously given them permission to hold their meeting in a public place, but they elected to have it in a private home so they didn't have to leave home to earn their $100 fee. It costs the people of the district $500 every time they meet, that's $6,000 per year, not bad for a meeting that usually lastS 30-45 minutes (excluding the social time). I have done a survey on fees paid to other taxing districts. Hospital board-0, Airport board-0, School board-0, Library board-0, WECRD-0, Mountain Home Irrigation District-$25, Grand View Irrigation District-$20, (Mellen Sub Water District comes under the same charter as an irrigation district.) The Elmore County Highway District is the only other taxing district I could find that gets that kind of money for a meeting in this area, so why do these little hen-house districts think they deserve $100? Maybe the Mellen Water District. Westside sewer could afford to have allowed by law and they took it ALL! What a great show of community service! Notice how many other boards ask for nothing! There isn't a single member on either board that isn't getting a service from the districts they are supposed to be serving, and most are getting two, water and sewer. "NO ONE WANTS TO SERVE" is their cry. How is anyone to know if there is an opening on one of these boards if they don't know about it? I went out and in less than 30 minutes I had four people interested in running. In fact, they tried to sign up to run, but they didn't arrive in time to get on the ballot and the notice wasn't even posted yet in the paper, as required by law and wasn't posted until after it was too late. I am the one that filed a complaint with the Elmore County Sheriff's office last fall about what was going on in both these districts as they had once again failed to legally post elections for their districts, as far back as I have been able to determine, neither one of these districts have ever had an election, except the first one to that established their districts. (Westside sewer, 35 years ago and Mellen water, 16 years ago.) Whitney Little has been on the Westside Sewer District for at least 24 years, part of this time as its president and he wasn't aware this was a taxing district that required elections of board members. Oh, pulleeese! Just what is his excuse? Arthur Vagt has been on the Mellen Water District board as president for two years and bragged at his first board meeting that he "had read all of the by-laws for Mellen sub. water district. So what is his excuse? He even came up with a reason to increase certain fees. I feel safe in saying that there isn't a single member of either one of these boards that was not aware that their position on their respected boards was not an elected position. I was on this board for two years and was told by the secretary on the second meeting that my position was up in two years. (I resigned before my term was up). "Officer, I didn't see that stop sign, why are you giving me a ticket? Yeah, sure! I believe ALL the board members should quit and I told them so at the sewer board meeting. There is not one member on either one of these boards that have been legally elected. So should they continue to serve? Don't we have laws against this kind of behavior.

Bart Eben