Judge Paul Sullivan has rejected a watchdog group’s request to force Lakeside County Water and Sewer District to release requested public documents and void two major decisions made by its board earlier this year.  

Citizens for a Better Flathead, who filed suit against the district, asked the court to issue three different orders to the sewer district through a writ of mandamus filed in April.  

Sullivan released his decision Nov. 3 after the group asked the Montana Supreme Court to intervene and force him to issue a ruling.  

For the first order, Citizens for a Better Flathead asked the court to require the sewer district to release documents pertaining to capital improvements the group sought in public records requests.  

But Sullivan found that the district was accurate in its response when it said those documents were unavailable. 

And the district is not statutorily required to follow up on a request when the documents materialize, he said. The judge indicated that the watchdog group is responsible for following up on its public records requests. 

“[Citizens for a Better Flathead] are not unsophisticated members of the public stumbling through an unfamiliar process,” Sullivan wrote. “They are experienced advocates who regularly interact with government entities, understand the public records process and know how to craft follow-up requests.” 

The group also asked the court to void, or at the very least require the sewer district board to reconsider, two decisions it made earlier this year. 

The first decision came on March 19, when board members agreed to service a luxury resort, “Territory 1889,” also known as Flathead Lake Club, backed by Discovery Land Company. The second decision was made on April 9, when the board awarded a construction bid for Phase I of its wastewater treatment expansion project.   

“Territory 1889” was a new name for an old agenda item previously labeled as “Discovery Land,” according to court documents. Plaintiffs argued this disadvantaged the public’s ability to understand and participate in the March meeting.  

They also argued the district board failed to provide proper supporting documents prior to and during its meetings, including ones when the decisions were made. 

But Sullivan found the board, "while perhaps imperfect,” did not violate any laws when making either decision.  

“Even if [Citizens for a Better Flathead] could establish a legal violation warranting relief — which they have not — the equities would weigh heavily against unwinding completed governmental actions upon which multiple parties have detrimentally relied,” he wrote in the decision. 

Finally, plaintiffs claimed the district’s current policy procedures are not adequate to ensure the public’s constitutional right to know and right to participate in decisions with significant impact. They asked the court to order the district to create a new public participation process. 

Again, Sullivan sided with the district.  

“Because the district has already developed procedures for public participation that comply with existing law, [Citizens for a Better Flathead]’s request fails to identify a clear legal duty that remains unperformed,” he wrote in his decision.   

“The fact that [Citizens for a Better Flathead] have routinely attended district meetings and successfully used the document request process demonstrates that these procedures exist,” he wrote later in the ruling.  

SULLIVAN EXPLAINED his order denying the mandamus request was accidentally delayed, according to documents filed with the Montana Supreme Court.  

In the weeks following the June 11 hearing over the writ of mandamus, plaintiffs filed a second request, asking the court to pause the sewer’s wastewater expansion project and its service agreement with Discovery Land Company. 

A second hearing was held over the requested preliminary injunction on Aug. 18, and Sullivan denied it on Aug. 20. 

“In the aftermath of that hearing, the order denying the writ of mandate was inadvertently not filed,” Sullivan wrote in his response to the request for the Supreme Court’s intervention. “That oversight has been corrected.” 

The watchdog group on Sept. 18 appealed Sullivan’s denial of the preliminary injunction to the state’s high court. It will be several months before a ruling is likely issued, according to Bowen Greenwood, clerk of the Montana Supreme Court. 

In a separate lawsuit filed in Flathead County District Court in May, Citizens for a Better Flathead challenged the Montana Department of Environmental Quality over the issuance of a groundwater discharge permit to Lakeside County Water and Sewer District. The permit allowed the sewer district to move forward with Phase I of its wastewater expansion project.  

Judge Danni Coffman, who is presiding over that case, denied the group’s request to pause the wastewater expansion project in a decision issued Oct. 17.  

Both lawsuits remain pending in district court.  

Reporter Hannah Shields can be reached at 758-4439 or [email protected].