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This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
John
Elliott: Finding an equitable solution
By
DD BIXBY
H&N
Staff Writer
 |
| John Elliott |
Klamath County Commissioner John Elliott was a rookie commissioner in
2001, the year of the water crisis, and gained an appreciation for the
various faces of the Klamath water controversy.
For the last two and half years, Elliott has been
sitting across the table from those faces, in negotiations and
discussions about the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.
His interaction with the stakeholders, he says, has
been very productive, and included discussion with not only the
irrigators and tribes, but also people with no agricultural ties at all.
Although Elliott perhaps has been the most involved
commissioner in the agreement negotiations, he says all the
commissioners have been involved in one way or another.
“I have an interest in trying to get parties to work
on an equitable solution,” he says.
Transitions
Elliott says the growth and development of
relationships has been interesting to watch over the last few years.
He called meetings very transitional, as far as
attitudes and perspectives.
“Initially, everyone started out just staking
claims, and there was very little recognition of other groups,” he
says. “In 2001, this would have been unthinkable. But these proposals
show the potential of what we can do when we get together and talk.
“These people all bring different perspectives to
the process.”
As a commissioner, Elliott is accustomed to
negotiations, but he says the experience doesn’t make it easier.
Reaching a
balance
There are predictable phases in such discussions, he
says, with sides beginning relatively uncompromising, then in the end
coming to see the meaning of negotiations for other parties and coming
to a balance everyone can live with.
In the agreement budget,
Side Bar
John Elliott on the Restoration Agreement:
What he
dislikes:
“What I’m less happy about is the inability of the
state and federal agencies to step back and see it work,” Elliott
says. “I would love to see the state agencies spend the first 25 years
just observing and not using a heavy hand.”
Local folks put a lot of effort into crafting the
agreement and should be allowed to take ownership and responsibility of
its success or failure, instead of having governmental agencies quickly
stepping in as enforcers, he says.
What he likes:
“I like what we’ve been able to craft and that we have some degree
of control locally,” the
“I’d rather see people work out these
differences,” he says, “because the continual tugging results in
more lawsuits and litigation as each side tries to get one leg up on the
other.”
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