10/11/2009 6:00:00 AM
Chloride pipeline tops Ridgeway's 'things to do' list
Target of water board recall sounds off on controversy in district
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KINGMAN - After six years of hard work and four years of serving on the Chloride Domestic Water Improvement District, Tom Ridgeway is determined to see a $1.6 million, six-mile pipeline built that will connect Chloride to a clean, dependable source of drinking water.
"The only reason I got involved in this was because of the pipeline," he said. "That was the only reason I ran for the board."
A petition to recall Ridgeway from the CDWID board was filed with the County Elections Department Sept. 25 after Chairwoman Katherine Woody and board member Bert Silverman raised questions about Ridgeway's actions. The County Elections and Recorders offices have 60 days to verify the signatures on the petition and send it to the Board of Supervisors.
Katherine, her husband Stephen Woody and Silverman allege that Ridgeway charged the water district for labor and supplies, took documents from the district office and held board meetings in violation of state open meeting laws.
Ridgeway denies the accusations. He never took or destroyed documents from the district office, all meetings were posted in compliance with the state open meeting laws and Katherine and the board insisted that he be compensated for all expenses and labor he put in as a member of the board, he said. Those expenses were submitted to and approved by the board. He also never locked himself in the board office, he said.
Temporary help
The whole situation started in March, when Stephen Woody was hired temporarily by the board to straighten out the office files and fix some of the computers, Ridgeway said. While Stephen was working on the files, the board was supposed to be hiring two part-time positions for a clerk and assistant clerk, Ridgeway said.
Board members started getting suspicious after three months had passed and Steve was still working on the office and no advertisements had been posted for the two positions, he said. Board members also noticed that Steve was signing papers as "acting manager" and had started giving work orders to the district's three maintenance men, Ridgeway said.
The board never gave Stephen the authority to sign papers or give out work orders, he said.
The two positions were finally advertised in July, after board members raised questions at the monthly meeting, Ridgeway said. Stephen was supposed to train the two new hires; Ridgeway was never asked to help, he said.
Bid dispute
Things started to heat up when a new property owner asked to be connected to the water system, Ridgeway said. The district gave the property owner a quote of about $1,500 for the parts, labor and connection fee.
According to Ridgeway, Stephen found the bid unacceptable and ordered a second bid. He went to discuss the issue with Stephen and Stephen started screaming at him, he said.
"He was acting disrespectfully towards other board members as well," Ridgeway said.
An emergency board meeting was called in August, in full compliance with open meeting laws, Ridgeway said, to discuss Stephen Woody's actions and a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant application for the pipeline.
The six-member board voted 2-2, with Katherine Woody abstaining and one board position unfilled, to fire Stephen, he said. The board agreed to a compromise and allowed Stephen to stay to finish the work in the district office, but only as long as Katherine was not in the office at the same time.
Several board members had expressed concern about having a husband and wife in charge of the finances and files of the district, Ridgeway said.
Missing
paperwork
Ridgeway and some of the other board members became suspicious again in August when the two new clerks reported that they couldn't find some paperwork, he said. Ridgeway and board member Jon Fry agreed to meet outside the office Aug. 13 to examine the files. The meeting ended in a shoving match between Stephen, Ridgeway and a district maintenance man, Ridgeway said. The Sheriff's Office was called, but Stephen Woody left before a deputy arrived. No report of the incident was filed, Ridgeway said.
Locks changed
The next morning, Ridgeway and Fry changed the locks on the office doors to prevent any other files from going missing, he said. Ridgeway and Fry were finishing at the back door to the office when they heard Katherine Woody and Silverman at the front door of the office. When Katherine and Silverman found they could not get into the office, they called the Sheriff's Office and told the deputy that Ridgeway had locked himself in and was shredding documents, Ridgeway said.
Ridgeway said he did not want to get into a confrontation with the two and left. He never locked himself in the office, was not shredding and did not take any documents, he said.
On Aug. 17, the locks were replaced again on the office doors, Ridgeway said, this time by Katherine Woody and Silverman.
Watson hears concerns
Ridgeway and Fry took their concerns, especially about the risk to the USDA grant, to County Supervisor Gary Watson and County Civil Attorney Bill Ekstrom, he said. Watson and Ekstrom told them to lay low and work things out among the board members, Ridgeway said.
Stephen and Katherine Woody and some of the other board members also contacted Watson about the situation and were given the same advice.
Ridgeway called another meeting of the board on Sept. 12 at the Chloride VFW, he said. Katherine Woody was aware of the meeting, even though it was on Saturday, because she called the VFW and tried to cancel the meeting, Ridgeway said.
Bylaws amended
At the Sept. 12 meeting, the board decided to change some of the board bylaws. It increased its size from six members to seven in order to prevent tie votes, required a quorum instead of a majority of members to hold a meeting, required two signatures on any checks written by the district, and changed some of the duties of the board members, he said. Each board member was placed in charge of running different parts of the district.
The chairman's duties were changed to simply running the meeting, Ridgeway said. Two new board members, Jay Combs and Bill McAdams, were added to the board.
Ridgeway and the other board members contacted the USDA about the grant request and found that the district had received permission to go out for bid on Aug. 7, but that the project had not gone out to bid because the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality permits for the district were expired, he said. The board then filed an extension request with USDA, which has been granted and the project went out for bid on Oct. 4.
Finger-pointing
Another meeting was held on Sept. 15, which Watson attended, and it turned into a finger-pointing match, according to Ridgeway. A town hall meeting was called on Sept. 22, which Watson also attended, where Katherine Woody, Silverman and McAdams all submitted their resignations. Ridgeway and the others did not attend, he said. However, according to Arizona Revised Statutes, those members still have a responsibility to the board until replacements are found, he said.
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