The May 11 Parker Water and Sanitation District board meeting was packed with business as incumbents Merlin Klotz and Bill Wasserman and newcomer Robert Kennah took their oath to office and long-standing board member Dale Reiman was recognized for his years of service. 

The evening began with public comment as Kory Nelson announced that he is challenging the recent Board of Directors election citing the district failed to ensure all eligible voters received a ballot with sufficient time to evaluate the candidates and mail in their ballots by May 2. 

“You need to give the voters of Lincoln Creek Village a fair chance to vote,” said Nelson. “Without taking this voluntary correct of action, there’s no decision this board can make that will have any legal or moral authority.”

Nelson then asked the present board members to make a motion to conduct a voluntary correct of action and allow the residents who did not receive mail-in ballots to have the same amount of time to properly vote. 

“Don’t let Parker be the place where elections don’t matter and people are disenfranchised,” said Nelson. 

Robert Kennah - who had the most votes according to the preliminary results - supported Nelson and included that it has come to their attention that there were more voters than those of the Lincoln Creek Village that did not receive a mail-in-ballot. 

Among the district leadership team updates, the district’s general counsel and HPWC Law Attorney Jefferson H. Parker explained to the board what happened to cause the Lincoln Creek Village area to not get ballots. 

In 2004, there was a petition for inclusion. According to Parker, the board votes on the inclusion, there is a legal description provided by the owner of the property which is usually reviewed by the district and a petition is then submitted to the district court for an inclusion order. The inclusion order is issued once the statutory requirements are met. Then Parker Water provides a copy to the county to make sure the county has its records updated to reflect the property to be included in the Parker Water District. 

Parker noted this parcel of property in which they were talking about has not been subject to Parker Water’s taxes since 2004. 

What Parker believes caused the county records to not show the roughly 10 acre parcel of property to be included was a space in the legal description concerning parcel A and B. 

When showing the board the map of the property, parcel A is the majority of the property as parcel B is a little sliver that runs atop parcel A, which is described in the legal description. 

“I want to be clear to everybody that this was not anything that we’ve done intentionally,” said Parker. “This was just something that was overlooked.” 

While the court has not yet made a decision based on Nelson’s petition to the Douglas County District Court, the county clerk and reporter, Sheri Davis, conducted the oath to office. 

The board ultimately decided board member Brook Booth serve as secretary, Klotz remain president, Wasserman remain vice president, Don Langley remain treasurer and Robert Kennah serve as director-at-large. 

The district also recognized previous board Secretary Dale Reiman for his years of service.

“He has been a true asset to Parker Water,” said Wasserman. 

Reiman was originally appointed to the board in August of 2014 and re-elected in 2016. During his time, he enabled the district to complete projects such as the Water Purification Facility - the first of its kind in the U.S. - the North Water Reclamation Facility, the WISE partnership, the Rueter-Hess Recreation Authority and a district wide filtration project. 

In a message from the President of the board, Klotz, spoke to how complex and successful the district has been. According to Klotz, Parker Water has a billion dollars of book assets, a lot of the assets are underground and has a large capacity reservoir to insure a consistent water supply to customers. In addition, Parker Water has a AA+ credit rating, which makes it one of the few rapidly growing utilities in the U.S. 

In other business, the board unanimously approved the Rueter-Hess Reservoir Recreation IGA, which makes the county the manager and operator of recreation and the Rueter-Hess Reservoir License Agreement, which is between Parker Water and the county and defines the roles in what they will be doing. 

In two more unanimous votes, the board also approved the expanded use of BOK purchasing cards and the elimination of Home Depot cards as well as the request for approval of the furniture procurement for the District OMA Building.