Yreka, Calif. — “The poison fruit from the poison tree should not be allowed to ripen,” is the concluding statement of an amicus curiae brief recently filed on behalf of the Siskiyou County Pomona Grange (SCPG) in the case titled Tulelake Irrigation District v. All persons claiming to have an interest in the validity of agreements entered into by Tulelake Irrigation District entitled [the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) and Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA)].

In Tulelake, TID requests that the court validate its actions in signing the KHSA and KBRA, as well as the agreements themselves, an action required in the KBRA for all involved irrigation districts.

Earlier this year, Siskiyou County filed a motion of demurrer, or dismissal due to a failure to provide a valid argument, of TID’s validation request, arguing that the two agreements do not constitute contracts or bonds and therefore cannot be validated by the court.

The SCPG brief, filed Nov. 26, urges the court to find in favor of Siskiyou County’s demurrer, alleging that the process leading to the creation of the KHSA and KBRA violated the Bagley-Keen Open Meeting Act.

Alleging that the meetings were secret and had a precondition of agreeing to dam removal, the SCPG brief says, “The stakeholders and members of the SCPG were [systematically] and deliberately excluded from those meetings because they did not agree to the precondition in order to participate.

“No agendas were published; no notice of meetings; no convenient access to meetings; no access to records. The public and Siskiyou counties’ ‘true stakeholders’ were left out,” the brief reads.

Along with urging the court to not validate the agreements, the SCPG also asks in the brief that the court render the documents invalid and require the TID and other parties to the agreements to allow the public to contribute to the formation of new agreements.

The court rendering the documents invalid, however, would require a separate lawsuit.
The SCPG brief is the latest activity in a case that has remained in stasis for a number of months.

– David Smith can be reached at dsmith@siskiyoudaily.com