ALBUQUERQUE — Change trumped experience Tuesday night as a wave of voters sent challengers cresting to victory over incumbents in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board directors election.

According to unofficial election results, Karen Dunning, an employee of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, beat hydrologist and water broker Bill Turner, who had served since 2005. Adrian Oglesby, a water lawyer who works for the Nature Conservancy, defeated third-generation farmer and two-term director Jim Roberts. Both will represent Bernalillo County.

Derrick Lente, a lawyer, professor and water resources manager, defeated farmer Jimmy Wagner and will take his place as the director for Sandoval County. In Socorro County, Chris Sichler won an open seat against Cecilia Rosacker-McCord, Glen Duggins and Joe Lopez; all are farmers.

“The dynamic of the board has switched quite a lot,” Turner noted Tuesday evening. “You’re losing a huge knowledge base. It was five farmers and a hydrologist, and we all six of us knew the district intimately… For sure it’s gonna take these new board members a while to figure out what’s going on.”

Turner had often feuded with the board and MRGCD chief engineer and CEO Subas Shah. He had been endorsed by Conservation Voters of New Mexico, which praised his “commitment to reforming the policies and practices of the MRGCD to make it more open, transparent and responsive.”

In her campaign, Dunning emphasized her ability to work collaboratively and bring a “common-sense approach” to the board.

Dunning enjoyed the support of state Sen. Dede Feldman, who campaigned for both Dunning and Oglesby, on her blog, in her e-mail newsletters and in phone calls to voters. Feldman has long been trying to get MRGCD to implement a formalized system of recreation trails along the irrigation ditches.

Dunning sent two campaign postcards to what she described as a “targeted” list of voters in the district, culled from lists of voters in previous elections and lists given to her by friends, including Feldman. Oglesby also sent mailers.

The effort was noticed by Bill Turner who said late Tuesday night, “I was up against Dede Feldman, not Karen Dunning.”

Turnout for the election was significantly higher than it has been in the past. In 2007, Augusta Meyers beat two other challengers for her Bernalillo County seat with 709 votes. Only 1,801 votes were cast for the position.

On Tuesday night, Dunning beat Turner by about 700 votes of a total of approximately 2,800 cast.

“Partly more people voted just because MRGCD has been in the news more, but part of it was that there were a lot of people who hadn’t been involved before, who became involved,” Dunning said.

“It was mainly a group of people in Bernalillo County who aren’t necessarily irrigators and haven’t voted before because they didn’t have a lot vested. [This time] there was a real awareness of [the idea that] you pay taxes and because you pay taxes, you get a say in how this organization is run,” she said.

MRGCD is responsible for a network of irrigation ditches, levees, diversion dams and drains that stretch from Cochiti Reservoir to the Bosque del Apache near Socorro. It is funded by taxes paid by property owners who live along the river and fees paid by farmers who use ditch water to irrigate their land.

For final election results, go to the MRGCD Web site.

UNOFFICIAL MRGCD Election Results June 2, 2009 9:55 p.m. All polling

sites except provisional Tally Results – By Election

Photo by Kevin Eddy.

ALBUQUERQUE — The final day of voting in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) election is today, and property owners who live within the district are deciding on board members in four seats.

MRGCD is responsible for a network of irrigation ditches, levees, diversion dams and drains that stretch from Cochiti Reservoir to the Bosque del Apache near Socorro. It is funded by taxes paid by property owners who live along the river and fees paid by farmers who use ditch water to irrigate their land.

Voting takes place until 7 p.m. today at polling sites throughout the district. Anyone who owns property within the district’s boundaries is eligible to vote.

(Not sure if you’re in the district? Check these maps of Bernalillo, Sandoval and Socorro counties.) To vote you need a government-issued ID or two of these three: a tax bill, utility bill or voter registration card.

The most hotly contested seats in the election represent Bernalillo County, where one  director has rankled some with his forthright style but earned praise from others for stirring up a cozy board and shining light on its inner workings.

Debates over recreational use of the ditch system have also divided board members and district residents.

Some argue that most in urban Bernalillo County don’t use the ditches for farming, so the function of the ditches should be expanded to provide recreational opportunities for those who live along them. But others want the ditches left alone, and some property owners don’t want increased public access to ditches that are literally in their backyards.

POSITION 3: Director for Bernalillo County

Jim Roberts

Jim Roberts has lived in Albuquerque’s North Valley for 10 years, but he and his family have farmed in the South Valley since 1929. Today he farms more than 700 acres including the farm bought by his grandfather, the late U.S. Senator and Secretary of Agriculture Clinton P. Anderson. “I was kinda born with dirt in my veins,” Roberts said in an interview.

Roberts has served two terms since joining the board in 2001. “We have reduced taxes by 24 percent, reduced the per diem for board members by 70 percent and we’re using 40 percent less water than we ever did before,” he reported.

Although Roberts says it was he who initially proposed a system of recreation trails along irrigation ditches to the board, he became opposed to the “Ditches with Trails” plan and voted against it.

“As it started to get further along, it started to involve more and more layers of government, and… it was almost losing kind of why we’d started it,” he said.

“All of a sudden it was this thing about when you could cut weeds and when you couldn’t and it was really changing the character of things from when we’d started. We didn’t like the way it was going, where there were so many different entities involved and it had gone away from the grassroots structure of when I started it in 2003.”

Roberts says he would like the district to hire someone to talk to each neighborhood about what kind of trail improvements they want.

He has not asked for any endorsements from local politicians or anyone else, Roberts added.

He is a hands-on board member who devotes two nights a week to meeting with people in the district. If they need help pulling weeds out of their ditches, he’s happy to help, saying, “If I’ve got to climb into a ditch with a pair of galoshes, I’ll do it.”

Adrian Oglesby

Roberts’ opponent in the race is Adrian Oglesby, a water lawyer who has lived in New Mexico since 1989 and in Albuquerque since 1997; he now lives in Duranes, a neighborhood near the river, just north of I-40. Oglesby runs the living rivers program for the Nature Conservancy but does not work on projects in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, focusing instead on the San Juan and Gila rivers. He describes his job as “a blend of land management, acquisition and trying to encourage folks to be wise in their water management.”

Oglesby is supported by state Sens. Dede Feldman and Jerry Ortiz y Pino, both Albuquerque Democrats, along with former Albuquerque mayor and former MRGCD chief executive officer Jim Baca. He was also endorsed by Conservation Voters of New Mexico, which praised him for being “dedicated to protecting the integrity of the Middle Rio Grande: the farms, the communities and the ecosystems – and the water that sustains them all.”

“Primarily, in this race, we’re trying to bring integrity back to the district, restoring the public’s faith,” Oglesby told NMI, adding, “I’d like to bring the notion of longer-term planning to the district.”

MRGCD has been rocked by criticism that its chief engineer and CEO Subas Shah is “double dipping” after he retired but kept his job, collecting both a pension and a salary.

Oglesby is reluctant to takes sides in the debate over a system of formalized trails along the ditches (although he has been endorsed by supporters of that plan), saying, “On the one hand we have a trail system that has been tying our community together for years… On the other we know that trails bring crime, so we have to balance that out.”

But he does not hesitate to criticize the district for posting signs that warn against trespassing along the ditches, while also saying it would not prosecute those who want to walk along them.

“They’ve made promises for years to take those signs down. And the district has a long history of shying away from responsibility. Why can’t we just replace those signs with ‘Use at your own risk’ signs? They keep up the signs but they give you a wink and say they won’t call the cops.”

Position 6: Director For Bernalillo County

Karen Dunning

Karen Dunning is an environmental review officer for the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority; she is a former administrator for Santa Ana Pueblo and worked as a community planner for the City of Albuquerque for 10 years.

She lives in the North Valley, one house away from an irrigation ditch, but she does not irrigate. She argues that her experience as a community planner and as a facilitator in city grievance hearings makes her suited to bring calm and cooperation to a troubled board.

“I’ve been reading all these stories, all these lawsuits and controversy, and the challenges that the district faces are tremendous. In order to deal with those challenges we need to have a board that can work together,” Dunning said in an interview.

She has enjoyed the support of Sen. Feldman, who was a major proponent of the “Ditches with Trails” effort, and who has often been in conflict with the current director in this position, Bill Turner.

“She came to me at a Joan Baez concert and said, ‘I’m thinking of running for the conservancy district. What do you think?’ And I said, ‘I think that’s great,’” recalled Sen. Feldman. “[The district] is such a hornet’s nest that no one wants to devote the time. So I’m delighted when people without vested interests want to get involved.”

Although Dunning is not an irrigator and does not have extensive experience with water issues, she believes the board would benefit from her service as a director who is an “ordinary citizen.”

“Turner says he wants change, but he is so confrontational that it doesn’t work. He doesn’t manage to effect that change because he may come up with a very good idea, but because he’s come up with it, other board members aren’t going to support it,” Dunning said.

Bill Turner

Bill Turner lives in Albuquerque’s Old Town neighborhood. A former New Mexico Natural Resources trustee and a member of the MRGCD board since 2005, he has a Ph.D in geology with a focus in hydrology. His firm, WaterBank, buys and sells water rights in New Mexico and across the country.

Turner said the plan to put in a system of formalized recreation trails was a power grab by Sen. Feldman, who defeated him to win her seat in the New Mexico Senate. His objection to the trails plan was related in part to an increase in crime after some South Valley trails were paved.

Although Turner’s tenure at MRGCD has been marked by controversy, some have praised his efforts to reform what they say has been a secretive but powerful organization. He was recently endorsed by Conservation Voters New Mexico, whose executive director, Sandy Buffett, said, “During his first term, Dr. Turner demonstrated his commitment to reforming the policies and practices of the MRGCD to make it more open, transparent and responsive. We need him to continue this fight.”

Turner has sued the district several times, charging that it violated the state’s Open Meetings Act and that its proposed water bank was illegal. In 2006 the board tried to have him removed as a director, saying his own water rights business was a conflict of interest. The former chairman, José Otero, was quoted in the newspaper calling Turner a “pain in the butt.”

Turner says he’s proud of having shaken up the district’s board.

“They criticized me for being divisive, but when I was elected I was faced with a board that would stonewall everything. They would do whatever [CEO Subas Shah] said to do. I fought with those bastards for holding meetings in Shah’s office before the regular meetings… and the board is working so well now.”

“This is not a patty-cake game we’re playing here. You’ve gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet. And I’m the easiest guy to work with when you have good communications. I’m really easy to work with.”

MRGCD is the organization that manages irrigation ditches from Cochiti Reservoir to the Bosque del Apache near Socorro. 

Early voting for the 2009 MRGCD Board of Directors election began on April 24 and continues through Saturday, May 30 at the MRGCD District Office, 1931 Second St., SW. Election day is Tuesday, June 2, 2009, when voters can cast ballots at dozens of polling sites. For more election information, or to request an absentee ballots, voters can call (505) 865-8683.

“Given the critical role of the MRGCD in water management, local farming and land use, and habitat restoration and protection, it is important for assessment payers to know which candidates best reflect their conservation values,” Sandy Buffett, executive director of CVNM, said in a press release. 

The release also detailed the endorsements:

Position No. 3, Director for Bernalillo County:  Bill Turner

“During his first term, Dr. Turner demonstrated his commitment to reforming the policies and practices of the MRGCD to make it more open, transparent and responsive,” said Buffett.  “We need him to continue this fight.”

Position No. 4, Director for Bernalillo County:  Adrian Oglesby

“Mr. Oglesby brings a wealth of expertise on water law and policy, and is dedicated to protecting the integrity of the Middle Rio Grande: the farms, the communities and the ecosystems – and the water that sustains them all,” said Buffett.

Position No. 6, Director for Socorro County:  Cecilia Rosacker-McCord

“As a farmer fighting to protect the small, local agriculture that is the backbone of the Valley’s rural character, and as the Executive Director of a non-profit working to protect farming and conservation values, Ms. Rosacker-McCord is uniquely qualified to represent the assessment payers of Socorro County,” said Buffett.

Position No. 7, Director for Sandoval County: Derrick Lente

“With his background as a businessman, attorney, professor and water resources manager, Mr. Lente will be an exceptional addition to the Board of the MRGCD,” said Buffett.  “His focus on reforming the management, budget and transparency of the District to better serve its constituents is badly needed.”

An irrigation ditch in Duranes. (Photo by Rockcreek)

ALBUQUERQUE — This spring, property owners within the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District are voting in a board of directors election that could determine the future of a long-running battle over Albuquerque-area irrigations ditches.

For years, residents in Albuquerque’s North Valley have been pushing for a formalized system of recreation trails along the irrigation ditches, or acequias, an idea the current board has unanimously rejected. Supporters of the trail plan are hoping that electing new board members will pave the way to change.

Four seats are up for grabs in this year’s election, two in Bernalillo County, one in Socorro County and one in Sandoval County.

The conservancy district (often referred to by its acronym, MRGCD) is the organization that controls irrigation ditches from Cochiti Reservoir to the Bosque del Apache near Socorro.  It was founded in the 1800s to drain marshy land near the river and control flooding in the valley. Today, it maintains the system of diversion dams, levees, drains and ditches using money collected from property taxes as well as fees paid by those who use ditch water to irrigate their land.

But the middle Rio Grande Valley isn’t the quiet farming area it was when the district was formed. Bernalillo County today is a huge urban area where the number of people who live along the county’s 300 miles of ditches far outnumber the folks who actually use them for farming. The majority of the district’s funding — 68 percent, or $7.2 million — comes from densely populated Bernalillo County, where for two decades, residents have been asking for a trail system along the ditches.

A survey commissioned by the district in 2007, showed 83 percent supported using some of their tax money collected by MRGCD for a trail system.

State Senator Dede Feldman (D-Albuquerque), who represents most of the North Valley, has long been behind the trails plan. She supported the now-defunct Ditches with Trails program, a collaborative project involving North Valley residents, Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque, the National Parks Service and the conservancy district. Together, program participants worked on studies and a put together a pilot project.

As NMI reported last year, board members feared that the Ditches with Trails plan would weaken the district’s control over its own ditches.

Tempers flared after the project resulted in a bridge, built with the help and approval of district employees, and over $100,000 of state money, but without the approval of the board. The end result was inflamed tempers and increased antagonism between the board and trail supporters.

Last summer, the board unanimously rejected the trails idea and severed its relationship with Ditches with Trails. Board members explained the decision in an op-ed in the Valencia County News-Bulletin: 

We received hundreds of communications in distinct opposition to the Ditches with Trails project. Over a hundred people packed our small boardroom that Monday night. Most owned property along or near the ditch that was being considered for a trails pilot project, and most said loudly and clearly that they preferred the ditches to remain as they are: accessible and unspoiled.

… [The plan] ignored significant citizen concerns and failed to adequately address liability issues while opining that a regional, multijurisdictional, unelected “commission” could be created to manage the trails, all while MRGCD retains the increased maintenance costs and obligations.

Undaunted, Sen. Feldman took the battle to the Legislature, where in January, she introduced a bill that would have reallocated $854,000 in collections from Bernalillo County (totaling about $7 million) to a trail program.

The bill died in the Senate Finance Committee, despite an encouraging fiscal impact report prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC). As the report noted: 

There is an inverse relationship between the prevalence of irrigated agriculture and the amount of revenue that MRGCD raises. Ironically, as Valley farmland becomes urbanized, it becomes a bonanza of revenue for the District, since property taxes are much higher on developed land. [The Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department] indicates that in spite of this fact and despite the fact that MRGCD has also enjoyed cash balances of over $20 million in recent years, MRGCD has been unwilling to commit a proportional amount of its revenue to enhancing trails and recreation benefits for urban valley dwellers — many of whom are required to pay taxes to MRGCD but do not irrigate with MRGCD surface water.

But the LFC analysis doesn’t capture the larger-than-life personalities that dominate much of the district’s dealings.

Board member Bill Turner, a water broker, defends the board’s decision to halt the trail program and end its relationship with Ditches with Trail, saying it was a power grab by Feldman.

“She wants to take over the district and build a recreational area,” Turner said, in the frank style that is his trademark.

The fact that Feldman has endorsed several candidates challenging incumbent board members leads Turner to charge that “Dede’s sole agenda is to control the board.”

But Feldman dismissed Turner, saying, “This election is not about me. That’s just a distraction. Bill Turner ran against me [for state senate] in 1996 and I beat him by 70 percent of the vote, so he’s always trying to turn everything into something that I did.”

Turner also argued that increasing access to the ditches would be an invasion of the privacy of the landowners who live along them.

“When the city and county put in paths in the far South Valley, the theft of farm equipment, hay and wire went through the roof,” he said.

Whether the district decides to implement a trail system or not, the board will face many other important issues.

“This is all about water conservation, water use, stewardship of the bosque and stewardship of this diminishing resource, the water that is diverted through the river, runs though our neighborhoods and waters our fields,” Feldman said.

Early voting for the 2009 MRGCD Board of Directors election began on April 24 and continues through Saturday, May 30 at the MRGCD District Office, 1931 Second St., SW.

Election day is Tuesday, June 2, 2009, when voters can cast ballots at dozens of polling sites. Anyone who owns property within the district’s boundaries is eligible to vote. Voters must bring a government-issued ID or two of these three: a tax bill, utility bill or voter registration card.

Absentee ballots are available by calling 865-8683.

Next week, NMI will profile the candidates for the election.