MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District Board of Directors suspended their governance policy and hired a human resources consultant.

The policy was suspended at their last meeting in a 2-1 vote until the policy can be revised, according to board president Mick Hansen.

Hansen and board director Rich Archer voted for suspending the policy. Board director Ron Covey voted against it.

Conflicts over the policy have arisen at every MLIRD board meeting since the policy was enacted in December 2010, Hansen told the Columbia Basin Herald this week. The policy needed to be suspended until the areas of conflict in the policy could be changed and the policy could be revised to comply with Robert's Rules of Order, he said.

The board originally enacted the policy because state auditors required it, the district's general manager Curt Carpenter told the Columbia Basin Herald. Before the policy was enacted, there were no policies and procedures governing the district.

The district's former attorney, Chris Ries, and Canfield and Associates, the district's insurance company, reviewed the policy before the board reviewed and approved it, said Carpenter.

"It's typical for a government operation's policies and procedures," he said.

Hansen originally planned to turn the policy over to Harold Moberg, the board's new legal counsel, to "see if we can get it to match up closer with the new Robert's Rules of Order," he said. "And anything that's got a conflict in it, I will be looking at possibly taking it out of there. But we will suspend all use of it until we actually get it brought back again."

Moberg recommended the board bring in a human resources consultant to do a workplace environmental assessment, look over the governance policy and address other issues.

"Your governance policy, if I may just respond to parts of it, addresses decorum, how we should treat each other, both on the board and in the audience," said Moberg. "It actually has some language that addresses advisory boards and whether or not that's part of your public meeting. My recommendation is that ... we look at bringing in a human resources person to do an evaluation both of the issues regarding a union and the issues regarding human resources."

Carpenter asked how he would be able to manage his employees without a governance policy.

"We made it 82 years without it," said Hansen. "And we've made it one year and six months with it and it's been giving us nothing but a headache since it's been here. So to think that we can't live without it for a couple months, I think we can."

Carpenter was concerned about his authority to direct the staff without the policy.

"Without that policy, they have nobody giving them direction," he said.

"I understand what you're saying, but like I say, you operated for a number of years without this policy ... To say that we can't get along without it now and you've gotten along with it all these years, I don't feel the justification for it," said Hansen.

"It just seems foolish to kick the legs out from under the governing policy that we follow until we've got something to replace it with," Covey said to Hansen. "And it leaves everything open to your dictatorship for you to do whatever you choose to do whenever you want to do it. So I have a real problem with that."

"We will be following Robert's Rules of Orders and that's what we stated right from the start here," said Hansen. "And so like I say, we've got by over 82 years operating under that assumption."

"We've got Robert's Rules of Order that we follow, and we've got open public meetings acts that we follow," Hansen added after the motion was approved. "We've got all these other handbooks that we've got, so I don't think you're going to find that there's going to be a big change at that point in time."

After meeting in executive session, the board unanimously passed a motion to hire human resources consultant Larry Boone, of LL Boone Consulting in Bellingham, to evaluate the MLIRD under Carpenter's direction. The board stipulated that the cost of the consultation will not exceed $5,000.