Wants full disclosure on CSKT compact

The board of directors of the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors would like to make it known to those crafting and negotiating the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Water Compact that we, as a board, object to the lack of timely disclosure of a complete document package (including all appendices) for our review and consideration. 

We request to be allowed a reasonably adequate time period to read and give thoughtful consideration to a complete version of the proposed compact package in its entirety — a version signed as being the actual commission-approved version. 

We respectfully request that those who are managing the flow of information to the public allow all of the information to be easily accessible and available for review and comment. There have been several versions of the “official” compact, all dated in January, that vary in length and composition, leaving the public to wonder if critical items are being left out or being inserted.

Perhaps if a finalized document of this size and scope had been made available for public review a month earlier, many fears, suspicions and misinformation could have been addressed.

Although it is the very nature of negotiating between parties to push timelines and hold cards close to the chest, the public, which has so very much at stake, should be allowed access to the final outcome of those talks.

The last-minute, rush-to-the-table methodology of trying to get the compact ratified by the legislators did not go over well in 2013, and as an official version of the compact has just become available on Jan. 30, there are suggestions that that same approach is being utilized for the 2015 session.

Rob Keller, president

Northwest Montana Association of Realtors

Kalispell