Complaint filed over CSKT compact lobbying

Jayson Peters, the chairman of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee, has filed a complaint with Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl alleging that groups supporting the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact failed to disclose the full extent of their lobbying activities.

Peters claims that the Tribes, the pro-compact lobbying organization Farmers and Ranchers for Montana and the lobbying firm Mercury LLC all failed to disclose how money was used for direct and grass-roots lobbying.

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, a nonprofit that advocates for passage of the controversial water compact.

Motl said the complaint was accepted April 7. The named parties 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,” Motl said. “Following that, we determine whether or not there are any facts. If so, we will go forward with an investigation.”

Motl said this is the only lobbying complaint submitted to his office in the past two years.

Peters alleges that the named parties “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.”

His filing cites documents purported to be minutes from two Tribal council meetings last year where $600,000 was authorized 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, is 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.”

Motl said his office intends to strengthen lobbying regulations and definitions this summer.

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.

Rob MacDonald, a spokesman for the Tribes, said the CSKT legal department was still reviewing the complaint.

“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 about a week before the bill to ratify the compact gets a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on April 11. That committee killed a previous version of the CSKT water compact in 2013.