MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake accounting firm J.R. Newhouse and Company starts a special procedure review for the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District this week.

The district's board approved a motion to have the company complete the work.

The review is estimated to cost between $10,000 and $12,000 and cover financial record keeping from 2008 through 2011.

Some questions arose if a vote authorizing the review was completed correctly at the board's Jan. 10 meeting.

As a result, the review was among some other issues that were re-addressed at the last board meeting, where chairman Mick Hansen and director Rich Archer voted in favor of the motion.

Board director Ron Covey voted against the motion.

Hansen said the review was not an audit.

The independent review ensures there is a vendor invoice and a corresponding check, he explained at a Jan. 17 board meeting.

As a new board director, Hansen previously said he proposed the review for transparency purposes. He said he did not suspect fraud was taking place.

Covey said at the board's meeting on Jan. 10, Hansen said the only firm that could do the work was J.R. Newhouse. Covey said he indicated there were others available out there.

He had a concern because J.R. Newhouse was Hansen's personal accountant and the district's accountant.

Covey said he called another Moses Lake firm, LarsonAllen, and learned they had an office in Yakima that does work for irrigation districts.

A LarsonAllen employee told Covey she needed to meet with district staff to provide a cost estimate for the work. They set an appointment for this week.

"You're not going to give this other entity a chance," Covey said. "You're going to push this through with Newhouse. I think there's a conflict."

Hansen disagreed and said he and the district's attorney didn't think there was a conflict of interest.

"Ron, I wish you would have come here with a number for us," Hansen said. "Just to stall it for another month, I'm not in favor of that. I'm in favor of getting it started and getting it done."

Covey said he thinks the appearance of fairness is important.

"Consequently, I haven't had the last five weeks to put this together with Newhouse like you had," Covey said. "You gave me the authority to seek another accounting firm to go out and do this."

Hansen's wife, Chris Hansen, spoke from the audience and said their personal accountant is Clayton Lynch.

Covey said the firm is J.R. Newhouse, where Lynch is a partner.

Bryan Vance, of Moses Lake, said last week, when he asked if Mick Hansen signed a contract with J.R. Newhouse, Hansen indicated he had.

Hansen agreed.

Vance said he was trying to figure out if Hansen had the authority to sign the contract.

Hansen said he thought they voted on it.

"Maybe we did, I thought we did," Hansen said.

"I didn't know this was a one-man dictatorship," Vance said.

Hansen said it wasn't and to not refer to it as that.

"I'm just asking questions, that's why you ran for this office," Vance said. "I just would like to know a bit more."

Hansen said he was sorry to Covey that he didn't get a price.

"You didn't give him a chance," Vance said.

Lee Creiglow, of Moses Lake, asked if the state Open Public Meetings Act would have been violated if Covey provided Hansen with a price outside of the meeting because it would have been a quorum of the board.

"It wasn't on the agenda to come back with a price," Creiglow said.

Jon Smith, of Moses Lake, said after reading the Columbia Basin Herald, he said it appeared that non-ratepayers were being disruptive at previous meetings.

Vance said he is a property owner and a rate payer.

Todd Voth, of Moses Lake, said he was going to go out on a limb and say he was the biggest rate payer.

"My concern is cleaning the lake," he said. "I don't care about any of this. I want to know what we're going to do to get the lake clean and move on with this thing. These meetings, I've been to two of them. It's a rodeo, I've never seen this in my entire lifetime."

Hansen said it's bitterness.

Voth said the district needs to move on with business.

"Can we move on rather than argue?" he asked.

Hansen said he appreciated Voth's comments.