9 candidates vying for 3 seats on KID board

Nov 28, 2008 (Tri-City Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Voters have a wide choice Dec. 9 to fill three seats on the Kennewick Irrigation District Board of Directors.

There are two incumbents: One with 25 years experience, another with 11 months on the board. Seven are seeking office for the first time. The term for each seat is three years.

And there is just one polling place: KID offices, 12 W. Kennewick Ave. Voting will be from 1 to 8 p.m.

Absentee voting is available, but ballots must be obtained from KID and returned by 8 p.m. Dec. 9, election day. Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked Dec. 9 and received within five days after the election.

There are 60,000 potential ballots that could be cast. The number of ballots awarded to each property owner is based on the amount of acreage they own.

Brief rsums of each candidate are on the KID website, www.kid.org.

Position 2:

James Diecker

Diecker retired in 2006 to four acres in Badger Canyon.

"I want to ensure folks are getting water at a fair price," said Diecker, who was a project manager with the inspector general at the state Department of Transportation.

The experience gave him expertise in overseeing fiscal matters for a public agency, said Diecker, who has a master's degree in business administration. He also was treasurer of a homeowners association in Woodinville before moving to the Tri-Cities.

Diecker applied for a vacancy on the KID board in March. He says John Jaksch, the current KID board president, encouraged him to try again.

"I like to solve problems and I want to contribute to the community," he said.

Patrick McGuire

McGuire came to the Tri-Cities in 2000. He and his wife have a few horses, chickens and grow alfalfa on 45 acres in Badger Canyon.

McGuire is retired from the Navy after a career working with nuclear power plant operations.

"I want to ensure ratepayers that their needs are balanced with the needs of the district to deliver the water," said McGuire.

He says he has attended KID board meetings "off and on" for about a year. McGuire said he decided to become a candidate after hearing the board talk about rate increases earlier this year.

"KID needs to become a partner with the community," said McGuire.

He said the board should consider changing from all at-large seats to being elected by positions so directors could be more accountable to the people who elect them.

Position 3:

William Kinsel, incumbent

Kinsel, of West Richland, is a professor of civil and mechanical engineering at Washington State University. He has been on the board for 25 years.

He has been board president, is current vice president and is on the operations and engineering, realty and planning committees.

Urbanization is KID's biggest challenge, Kinsel says.

"These irrigation districts were set up to serve the farmers. Teddy Roosevelt's charge to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was to green the West. We've lost sight of that," he said.

As the senior member of the board, Kinsel says he's "very sensitive about the rates we have to charge," but recognizes that the board has not kept assessments up with inflation.

Kinsel owns 118 acres of irrigable land and about 63 dryland acres.

"I don't want to leave the impression that as an ag person I'm not unsympathetic to the urban users," Kinsel said.

He notes there are now more urban lands than farming land in the irrigable part of the district.

"Urban people right now have a lot of voting power. They just don't use it," he said.

David McKenzie

McKenzie, of Finley, grew up in the Tri-Cities, attended Columbia Basin College, then worked for a John Deere dealership, eventually purchasing it.

McKenzie now manages his family's 150-acre farm in Finley. He thinks KID management is heading in the right direction, but believes the board needs some new faces.

"I've kicked around the idea (of running for the board) for a couple of years. Water is the most valuable resource we have, and I'm a resource manager every day of the year," McKenzie said.

James Wade

Wade, of Kennewick, is making his second try for the board. Wade, who owns a quarter-acre lot, believes it is time to do away with the voting system that favors owners of large properties. He also doesn't like the proposed 2009 rate schedule, which he says is unfair.

Wade, who is retired from careers as a plumber, state patrol officer and machinist, says he has attended almost every board meeting since becoming interested in being on it.

He says better management of the district can help avoid canal breaks. He doesn't want to see KID spending money for studies in Southridge and Red Mountain areas, saying landowners there should foot the bill if they want water.

"There's just too much waste," Wade said.

Wade, who grew up in the Burbank area, says the board should recognize that the election process favors incumbents and owners of large parcels.

"We hold elections with less than a month for the people to decide," he said.

Position 5:

Gene Huffman

Huffman has 20 years of experience on school boards in Milton-Freewater and owns four residential lots in Kennewick. He is retired after working for Boise Cascade Container Division.

"I want to help the (KID) administration and board continue doing the good job they've been doing," Huffman said.

Huffman said he became interested in KID water issues about four years ago. "Our water situation is getting more critical all the time," he said.

Although water for his four residential lots costs him $1,200 a year, Huffman said he leans toward the needs of rural customers.

Huffman supports the current system of assigning the most votes to the owners of the largest acreage in the district.

George Romano

Romano has lived in the Tri-Cities for 58 years. He owns a home in Kennewick's Panoramic Heights and unsuccessfully sought appointment to the board earlier this year to fill a vacancy.

A certified public accountant, he is retired after 26 years in auditing management for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Romano said his experience as an auditor would be helpful to KID.

"I can see (the board) is struggling by not having the kind of information they need," Romano said.

Romano said he is running because the secretary-manager suggested it.

"And I'm not sure (the incumbent, Dale Walter) is doing the job that needs to be done," Romano said.

Mitchell Marrott

Marrott wants to bring more urban representation to the KID board. A resident of Kennewick for 14 years, Marrott says his involvement with the district through a homeowners association over several issues as a water customer has frustrated him.

"There are opportunities to help KID become more customer friendly," said Marrott, who works at Hanford as a waste management representative.

Although he lives in a subdivision and has been chairman of a homeowners group for nearly 10 years, Marrott said he is "pro-ag."

"KID is not a rural district anymore, but there needs to be balance," he said.

Marrott said he could support a change to one-man, one-vote and move away from allowing owners of large acreage to have blocs of votes.

Dale Walter, incumbent

After 11 months as an appointee on the board, Walter is seeking election to a three-year term.

Walter, who lives on one acre in Kennewick, serves on the planning and finance committees. He has an accounting consulting business and has lived in or owned residential property in the Tri-Cities for 30 years.

He joined the board last January. As an accountant, he said much needs to be changed at KID, including replacing Secretary-Manager Doug Grover.

"I want to improve KID's image and get rates down to where they should be," he said.

Walter and Grover often disagree at board meetings, most recently over the proposed 2009 rate schedule. He is alarmed that the district budget has grown by 20 percent in the last two years.

"If it was in operations I would live with that, but it is in administration and finance," Walter said.

Walter said the district's steady evolution from a rural to urban water district is why he wants KID to get away from awarding owners of large acreage blocks of votes.

"It has to be the will of the people. We are discriminating against a group (urban water users). We are right at the point where we can make the move to being an urban district," he said.

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