The entrance to the Birchfield community near Onalaska is seen in this 2013 file photograph.
Lewis County finally has prospects to fill a months-long vacancy on Water-Sewer District 5, a contentious commission with a tiny jurisdiction that has been stalemated since its third seat was left open in February.
Both Jimmy Hilliard and April Toups submitted notices of interest to county commissioners, who had assumed the role of filling the opening after the district failed to appoint a replacement within 90 days. Hilliard’s wife, Deborah Hilliard, is one of the sitting Water-Sewer District 5 commissioners, and she claims her counterpart Virgil Fox refused to consider either her husband or Toups.
“We have tried to appoint someone, but we haven’t been able to agree on anyone,” she said last week.
The district has only 29 voting residents, limiting the candidate pool, and the ongoing conflict on its commission may have further muddied the waters.
“Because of the controversy and the difference of opinion, some people just don't want to get involved,” Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund said last week.
The Hilliards are suing the district for an alleged violation of the Open Public Meetings Act, which Fox said drove Commissioner Steven Nikolich to quit the commission in February. Deborah Hilliard said Nikolich was also frustrated with insurance issues, media coverage and other issues that have plagued the district.
Nikolich won the seat last fall in a coin toss after he and Jimmy Hilliard each received 11 votes. Deborah Hilliard won her own coin toss to earn her commission seat.
“Over the past seven years, I attended all but three of District #5’s meetings,” Jimmy Hilliard wrote in his letter of interest obtained by The Chronicle. “I have requested, reviewed, and analyzed hundred of records regarding District #5 to acquaint myself with its operations and financial position.”
Hilliard went on to cite his financial concerns with the district, and referenced his experience as a revenue enforcement agent for the state of Georgia and special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
District 5 encompasses the Birchfield gated community designed by Fox, which has not met its initial ambitions. Deborah Hilliard asserts that Fox has refused to act on unpaid billings and allowed some tenants to dig wells in order to boost his Birchfield development at the expense of the district.
A 2012 state audit found Fox had exempted himself from $80,000 in payments and used untenably low rates to help the sale of Birchfield lots.
Fox has claimed the discrepancies were honest mistakes, and he blames Hilliard for the district’s lack of productivity.
“We have a totally dysfunctional board that we're asking the county to straighten out,” Fox said last week. “I have tried three times to call a special meeting to try to discuss, iron out, rectify some of our differences. Three times Commissioner Hilliard refused to meet. ... In regular meetings, I have refused to bring anything up, because anything I bring up is a big donnybrook. I think it's better to do nothing than to fight.”
Hilliard said she opposes special meetings because the limited public notice does not promote transparency.
“We have huge issues, and we need some unbiased commissioners to address them,” she said.
Fox said he is calling on the county or state to take over the district, and Hilliard said she could see that being the best solution, but she’s skeptical another entity would want to take on the district’s more than $250,000 in debt.
