Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 3.12.14

30 | MARCH 12, 2014
OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM

LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
TWO THOUGHT
FOR Local Topics,
Opposing Views
Jumping on the

CI 114: A Modest Proposal?
Bandwagon

I
By Tim Baldwin
By Joe Carbonari
REMEMBER AS A SOPHOMORE IN SPOKANE,
Wash., watching my older brother play high school

In 2014, Montana may be able to vote on citi- I favor women’s involvement in politics, in- football. Nearly every game, besides homecoming,
zen initiative (CI) 114 if enough signatures are cluding their serving in any and all elective of- was held at Joe Albi Stadium on the northwest part of the
gathered to put it on the ballot. CI 114 would ices. Just ask my wife. I do not, however, favor city. The stadium holds more than 25,000 people and al-
amend Montana’s Constitution requiring that the proposed CI-114, which calls for Montana’s ways seemed too big for the games it hosted – a nice facil-
the Legislature be 50 percent men and 50 per- Legislature to be comprised of exactly one-half ity that was rarely illed to capacity. But everything ap-
cent women. CI 114 is absurd!
men and one-half women. The transition period peared bigger back then, including my brother and the
CI 114 puts gender above qualiications; de- called for is short . the exact timing dependent sports he played.

grades women; takes away voter choice; has no upon the efective date of the next redistricting He was a gifted athlete, standing just 5-foot, 10-inch-
relationship to merits; assumes women think and reapportionment plan. The logistics alone es tall, but built like a brick house. He was fast, too, with
diferently than men; and presumes Montanans are mind-boggling. The diiculties involved in a quick irst step essential to a running back in the Great-
are prejudiced against women.
recruiting properly qualiied candidates to it er Spokane League. His natural athleticism was almost
And what if there are not enough women to the potential election resultants make my head matched by my smallish stature and lack of coordina-
run for the Legislature – will the governor force spin, very uncomfortably. Perhaps there are tion. Once, the high school football coach called my par-
women to become candidates? Will districts not better paths to a better balance.
ents’ house to ask why I hadn’t tried out for the football
be represented for lack of women candidates? For instance, we might make our Legisla- team, assuming I shared similar genetics with my broth-

What if election results reveal that 60 percent ture more “server friendly.” Our citizen Legisla- er. “Have you seen me?” I asked latly. When he started to
of the legislators were men and 40 percent were ture meets for roughly 90 days every other year. explain that cornerbacks and wide receivers were often
women. Is the governor going to remove 10 per- Many, if not most, gainfully employed citizens skinny, I interrupted, “I’m slow, too.”
cent of the men from oice and appoint women?
ind it diicult to free up that time. For women, I gravitated to more individual sports and was rele-
And why stop at the Legislature? Why not particularly, it can even be more diicult. Not gated a fan for high school and college teams. But I was
require the judiciary and executive oices be undoable, but certainly diicult. It is made even a loyal fan, and still am, often asking my parents how
proportional based on class? And why does CI more so by the fact that the pay is minimal at University High School, where I graduated, is faring each

114 stop at the gender class? There are other best. This is true for men as well, and it limits football and basketball season. I root for Gonzaga Uni-
classes, too: race, religion, occupation, wealth, the make-up of the Legislature to those that are versity simply because it’s in the city I grew up in, a city
education. Why doesn’t CI 114 require propor- fortunate enough to be in a position to aford, that has worked hard to shake its spotty reputation.
tionality among these classes? It doesn’t, so ob- perhaps resulting in a limited and un-represen- As an alumnus, I cheer for the University of Montana,
viously it discriminates against them, especially tative cross-section of our citizenry.
but I’ve tended to change my high school alliances as I’ve
minorities.
Let’s give this some more thought. The goals moved across the state, unabashedly joining the band-
CI 114 is plain wrong, anti-democratic, and are good, but the means are problematic. What wagon in every region I’ve lived in. And I’ve been lucky
unworkable. Don’t sign the petition for CI 114 do the women say?
to root for some winners here, especially Columbia Falls.

and vote NO on CI 114.
It’s diicult to match the connection the town of Co-
GUESTCOLUMN | NancyBallance
lumbia Falls has with its high school sports teams. And
once again, the boys’ basketball team brought home the
state title after defeating Dillon 56-47 on March 8. It’s CSKT Water Compact – We Must Get it Right
the Wildcats’ ifth championship since 2003, an aston-
ishing run of dominance. The girls’ team heads to state in
Great Falls this weekend, coached by Cary Finberg, who I am seeing letters, opinions and discussions go- and the hundreds of pages of additional background
just led the boys to a title.
ing back and forth on the potential impacts of the information, there are holes in the environmental,

Similar to my time in high school, cheering for my Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) economic and legal arguments big enough to drive
brother, I’m the perennial fan, as are most of the staf- Water Compact. One of the latest letters implied an 18-wheeler through.
ers here. We watch these Flathead Valley teenagers grow that although the current agreement may not be ac- This is why I and 30 other legislators have asked
into young adults and meet many of them, especially ceptable to all and some may be unhappy, but the the Montana Environmental Quality Council to
those we feature in the Best of Preps sections we publish compact may be acceptable enough. This might conduct an analysis of the proposed CSKT Water
three times a year.
sound reasonable if we were dealing with emotion- Compact prior to further consideration of its ratii-
Two years ago, my colleagues gathered around the ra- al issues, but this is not about someone being “un- cation by the legislature. This is also why the Rav-

dio at my home to listen to Glacier play Flathead in the happy.” This compact raises serious constitutional alli County Board of County Commissioners unani-
Class AA state semiinal basketball game. For us, it was issues that will have far-reaching, long-term im- mously passed a resolution to request an environ-
less about rooting for a team than for the kids we’ve spent pacts, setting precedents that will threaten Mon- mental, economic and legal analysis of the compact.
so much time covering. Flathead upset Glacier 63-58, but tana’s sovereign jurisdiction over its people. This is It is time for the rhetoric and the opinions and
fell in the championship.
about people potentially having their private prop- the supposition to stop. We need facts and answers
This year, both Glacier boys and girls teams hop on erty taken without just compensation, or losing the to the questions of constitutionality and the legality
a bus and travel to the state tournaments in Billings at protection of the Montana Constitution to a water of of-reservation water rights, economic liability to
Rimrock Auto Arena and MetraPark. And the Bigfork board that is not obligated to follow the state con- the state, and economic impacts to our communi-

boys are traveling to Bozeman to vie for the Class B title stitution.
ties. We need to understand the precedent setting
at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University Legislators with legal background in water law impact of a tribally controlled water administra-
– the team hasn’t lost all year and also hasn’t won a title and tribal relations are still unsure of the case law tion plan that removes Montana citizens from the
in the school’s history.
involved and have not been able to decide whether protection of the constitution and laws of the state.
The venues are big and, for many of these student ath- the interests of Montana citizens have been fairly We need an assessment of the impact of increased
letes, the stages are even bigger. There’s a lot to cheer for represented in the compact. Now, imagine the aver- in-stream lows on shallow ground water levels and
this weekend as dozens of young men and women on four age legislator who has no background in water law wells and the impact of a “robust river” standard for

local teams head to state tournaments. Many of you will attempting to understand the impacts of the more in-stream lows on ish survival, stream bank stabil-
be following their caravans across the state. Many of the than 1,300 pages of the compact bill, the compact it- ity, erosion and irrigation structures.
rest of us will get game updates online and on the radio. self, water abstracts and the Unitary Management This is a compact between the state of Montana,
And, whether we played high school sports or not, we’ll Ordinance without the beneit of any legal, environ- the CSKT and the U.S. government. It cannot be
be cheering for all of them.
mental or economic assessments.
changed or amended by the legislature after it has
The Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact been ratiied without the approval of the state of
Commission’s report to the governor, produced in Montana and the CSKT and the U.S. government.
December 2013, was supposed to have answered all We must get this right the irst time.

open questions regarding the compact. However, for Nancy Ballance is a state representative from
those of us who have read the compact documents
Hamilton.