Complaint filed over water-compact lobbying
The head of Flathead County Republicans is alleging that groups supporting the controversial water compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have failed to disclose the full extent of their lobbying activities.
Jayson Peters, the chairman of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee, filed the complaint Friday with the state commissioner of political practices.
It claims that the tribes, the pro-compact lobbying organization Farmers and Ranchers for Montana and lobbying firm Mercury LLC all failed to disclose money used for direct and grass-roots lobbying.
Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl said the complaint was accepted Tuesday, meaning the parties named will have 20 days to respond to the allegations. He noted that out of 95 complaints submitted last year, 81 were accepted by the commission.
“I’ll consider their responses and the concerns, and following that we determine whether or not there are any facts. If so we will go forward with an investigation,” Motl said, adding that his office usually investigates such complaints.
“Whether it’s a candidate’s campaign or the Legislature in action, it helps the public if you discuss the complaint in some way,” he said.
According to Motl, this is the only lobbying complaint submitted to the commission in the last two years.
In his complaint, Peters alleges that the parties named “have chosen to use dark money and skirt Montana lobbying laws to hide the full amount of funds to lobby the Montana Legislature and other elected officials.”
The filing cites documents purported to be minutes from two tribal council meetings last year, authorizing $600,000 for a “water rights budget” and $200,000 to hire Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group Mercury Consulting Services. Peters claims that Mercury also failed to disclose lobbying activities.
Motl said determining wrongdoing in such cases is difficult in Montana, which has relatively ambiguous lobbying regulations.
“In the area of lobbying, we have a fairly open law and open regulations, and very few decisions,” he said. “The principal problem with lobbying, across the board, there’s a lot of self-determination going as to what is or isn’t lobbying. Different people define lobbying differently. The Commissioner of Political Practices’ office has not taken and thoroughly defined what lobbying means.”
He said his office intends to strengthen lobbying regulations and definitions this summer.
The complaint also names Shelby DeMars, a registered lobbyist with the Helena-based Montana Group who also serves as the communications director for Farmers and Ranchers for Montana.
Farmers and Ranchers is a nonprofit 501(c)4 organization that advocates for passage of the water compact. DeMars said that while an attorney is still reviewing the complaint, Farmers and Ranchers for Montana does not engage in direct lobbying, and she does not engage in lobbying as an employee of the organization.
“It seems to be nothing more than political maneuvering on the part of the compact opponents,” DeMars said. “We formed to raise awareness about the compact and its impacts on all Montanans.”
She added that while the organization does not disclose donors, Farmers and Ranchers is member-funded and counts the tribes and a number of statewide organizations among its members.
Peters, a Lakeside resident, is a former Kalispell City Council member who currently works as a general manager at Sykes’ restaurant and grocery, which he said is part of the reason he decided to file the complaint.
“We have 400 customers in here a day, and we’ve got a lot of farmers and ranchers,” Peters said. “They’re just talking about how many ads they’ve heard and what they’ve heard, and asking, ‘Who’s paying for all this stuff?’”
He said after contacting media and getting pricing from across the state, he believes that mailers and radio ads constituting campaign materials have not been adequately disclosed in accordance with law.
“We did see the CSKT in their minutes has $200,000 they authorized for some kind of grass-roots [lobbying]. But there’s no spending reported on the other end that says someone’s actually spent that.”
Rob MacDonald, a spokesman for the tribes, said their legal department is still reviewing the lobbying complaint, which they received today.
“Considering the tone of the opposition to the compact, a baseless attempt to distract from the ongoing conversation about the compact is not surprising,” MacDonald said.
He also expressed skepticism about timing of the complaint, which was filed just over a week before the bill to ratify the compact gets a hearing Saturday in the House Judiciary Committee. That committee killed the previous version of the compact in 2013.
Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com