Water district petition moves to new judge

WALLACE — The dysfunctional situation within the currently defunct Cataldo Water District (CWD) is now in the hands of a Kootenai County judge.

Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Allen recently filed an emergency judicial petition on behalf of the patrons of the CWD following the approved recall petitions and subsequent resignations of all five of the board’s members in December 2022.

Allen’s emergency petition, filed on Jan. 19, gave Shoshone County District Judge Barbara Duggan the power to appoint new board members.

However, on Jan. 25, Judge Duggan filed a motion to voluntarily disqualify herself from the proceedings.

The motion was pursuant to Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 40, subsection C, Voluntary Disqualification.

The rule plainly states that “a presiding judge in an action may make a voluntary disqualification without stating any reason therefore.”

Duggan took full advantage of the rule — which is how the emergency judicial petition landed in the hands of Judge Barry McHugh.

The CWD serves customers in both Shoshone and Kootenai counties, so it’s not entirely out of “local” control, but McHugh will now be tasked with finding suitable replacements to fill the board’s vacancies.

McHugh, a former prosecuting attorney in Kootenai County, was elected to the bench in 2022.

In its current state, the district can’t function outside from maintaining current basic business practices, including collecting payments and conducting basic maintenance.

“This was done out of public necessity,” Allen told the News-Press previously. “Usually these types of decisions are left up to the district in question’s board, including filling any vacancies on the board, but with no board members in place, there is no mechanism to exercise any authority.”

With no board, it means no new business can be handled on behalf of the district, no management of any assets owned by the water district, and no planning for the future of the district.

Both of the district’s clerks also resigned at the same time as the board members, as a rift grew between the board, its employees, and several of the district’s customers.

The tensions hit a fever pitch in the fall of 2022 after customers received their first bills from the "new" (2022/23) budget cycle.

The new budget included a steep rate increase — with base billing increasing from $28 per month to $45, plus an additional $1.50 for every 1,000 gallons of water used. This is a significant change for customers who had been paying the lesser base amount while also receiving their first 10,000 gallons of water per month free under previous budgets.

That wasn’t the only place where the taxing district’s customers were going to be paying more either, the district announced that they would be levying $20,000 — which is $8,000 more than they proposed in their 2019/20 budget (the most recent year they had available).

Those increases all played into their 2022-2023 budget, which was raised from $85,900 to $187,825, which fueled the recall efforts.

Judge McHugh held a status conference via Zoom, this morning (Feb. 14), concerning the petition.

The Shoshone News-Press will continue to follow this story.