The word Servant Leadership* was never uttered. In fact, in the basement of the Dawson County Courthouse where a few dozen farmers gathered on a November afternoon, most had probably never sat in a big-city corporate boardroom where mid-level managers sit through mandatory TQM and other training to improve their leadership skills. Yet, when all the fancy words are set aside and real men root for the success of their neighbor's land as much as their own, and their mission to feed each other and America is fueled with the corporate responsibility of a multimillion dollar project that dates back to the 1930's, the Buffalo Rapids District I Bureau of Reclamation Project proves the Walden of the democratic process can be achieved.
Tuesday afternoon Buffalo Rapids held their annual meeting which reflected a three-year turn around for the entity that separated from two additional Buffalo Rapids districts following several years of decisions by three combined districts that left the historic irrigation district in near bankruptcy.
On entering the meeting, each member of the public was provided a complete annual report including complete and appropriately detailed minutes of every meeting throughout the year. Throughout the year, prior to approving minutes of previous meetings, the chair of the board on the record confirmed “that legal notice had been given, a quorum was present, and the meeting was legally and lawfully ready to transact business.”
True to the servant leadership model, all members of the board of directors were present however it was not the president who conducted the majority of the meeting. The first segment was led by Vice President Ray Roethle. Rothle gave recognition to those who had worked particularly hard over the course of the year including Sandy Helmuth, Field Manager Don Buxbaum, and Office Manager Joanne Marble then the meeting was handed to board member Ric Holden who has taken the group from emergency loans to make payroll in 2009 to a surplus.
Holden explained that at last year's annual meeting he announced “...last year the budget hemorrhaging stopped. This year the bleeding has stopped. We now have a surplus and are budgeting for things we need to do rather than the things that are being done to us.” Holden credited the producers for making the project work and noted that while in 2009 they had to borrow $30,000 from District II, they have really come around and now have a surplus of almost $14,000 and that is before the first half of taxes which will go on the books soon as income for the project. Currently the project has $160,000 cash on hand.
Holden, like other speakers to follow, explained some of the elements required to achieved the feat. All had to do with questioning interpretations of institutional rules as facts. With the consent of the Buffalo Rapids Board, Holden asked questions about the formula used to calculate the water rights of the group which historically was thought to be 2.5 feet per acre. After a series of meetings, it was determined and confirmed by the Bureau of Reclamation that the group actually had nearly 6 feet per acre rights and over the years the board had assessed and sent in large amounts of overage charges based on the 2.5 feet premise. Additionally, in the process, the board learned that if their full water rights are not put to beneficial use going forward, they will be lost during adjudication. A potential bonus to the group they will likely next explore is if income to the project could be reaped by leasing some of those rights. More important though is that the farmers will be allowed to pull 4 feet per acre giving them more adequate watering capability.
Another area embraced by Holden in concert with contracted engineer Scott Aspenlieder, was to challenge both the project's insurance company and FEMA to repair damage to a pump and housing. Holden repeatedly appealed and refused to accept negative decisions from the insurance company on a pump that had been installed. The pump would have cost over $122,000. Once he won that battle, the insurance company would not guarantee that work unless an additional $74,000 related project was put in place. Once again Holden refused to accept no from the insurance company and just last week they agreed to pay that as well. The project will end up paying a $1,000 deductible for a $196,000 project.
Engineer Scott Aspenlieder and his firm WWC is working with Buffalo Rapids on some of their more difficult projects. The most difficult, though, may not be an engineering feat as much as a miracle as he,Holden, and District I Project Manager Mike Carlson worked together to convince FEMA to fund flood damage from last spring in at a level for a method that will work as a long-term solution to protect the project. That process also took persistent refusal to accept initial assessments from a federal agency and obtaining approvals from state and local agencies. At one point, the project was delayed because they were required to even obtain approval from the state historical preservation office to prove that the re-build of flood destroyed property would not change the historical integrity because because the irrigation facility is listed as historical facility.
In all, Aspenlieder said the Buffalo Rapids board and staff convinced FEMA to pay 75% of a $553,000 project. They pulled an additional $42,000 from the Montana Department of Emergency Services and the project ended up paying around $97,000 for a project project expected to last decades Had Buffalo Rapids not convinced FEMA, the engineer said, the damage next flood would be directly to the pump to the tune of a minimum three to four million dollars.
In the audio to the left of this column, project manager Mike Carlson addressed the past and present work of the project and briefly explained his new role with the agency. He emphasized that they have corrected many things and going forward they will continue to “do it right.”
Now that turmoil of the last several years has settled and Buffalo Rapids has retained a permanent contract project manager, Board President James Whitmer said that they will be back to being a board and not involved in the day-to-day operations. Whitmer took the podium in the final leg of the annual meeting explaining to the audience that the board recognizes that while they have come a long way they realize that they have made mistakes along the way and that there are still areas that the producers need services. At that point he called for input and direction from the membership to tell the board what direction they should take next. The issue that came to the top was to have a place to protect inventory and prepare materials for installation. The board members each have somewhat conflicting ideas about what the configuration and most appropriate location will be, however they all appeared committed to negotiating consensus over the coming months.
Any successful business model should reflect profitability and return on investment, both of which are reflected in the annual report of Buffalo Rapids District 1. The servant leadership model they appear to intentionally or unintentionally implemented also allows for several other measures of success including transformations vehicle for institutional growth to improve the quality of life for all stakeholders; enabling environments that empower and encourage service, that recognize the equal worth of every person and that foster the achievement of everyone's full potential; service as a fundamental goal in the belief that anyone accepting the role of leader should do so out of the desire to be of service to others; trusting relationships as the foundation for collaboration and service, affirming that all relationships should be based on trust and mutual respect, not power, status or coercion; creating commitment as a way of enlisting everyone's contribution rather than manipulation or some other superficial form of motivation; community building to create environments in which people can trust each other and work together, recognizing that people work best in collaboration, in teams. By those defining terms, Buffalo Rapids had a successful year.
The Buffalo Rapids Irrigation project falls under the auspices of the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation.
*Servant Leadership is a management philosophy developed by Robert K. Greenleaf and popularized in the 1970's.
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