SB01-216 Senate Committee on Public Policy and Planning

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Sen. Perlmutter: You won't have rules of evidence, you won't have things that really help you get to the precise question that would come before this tribunal? I mean, what I'm saying is, you say, well, people can just get up and make a statement. And that's all fine and dandy. The reason you have rules of evidence, the reason you have these kinds of things that help you get to the precise question and the precise facts, so you can make a just and equitable determination, so it isn't political in nature. And my concern about this approach is all of a sudden we have a court system that can resolve these things today. And now we're going to try to take a different approach, but it's going to be like a court system, kind of. And I'm just, you know, I mean, I'm not sure you're ever going to persuade me on this, so I wouldn't, you know — But I'm just telling you my concems. Mme. Chair: Mr. Kuharich. R. Kuharich: I would attempt to answer that. You know, I think the Water Conservation Board would act as the arbiter of fact in these cases. The issues that arise are issues of equity, whether or not an adequate amount of water has been filed on. It takes out of the realm of politics and puts into the realm of the average water user what the amounts would be, the timing would be. And I think that it's an attempt to get away from what I would call mischief filings. I mean, I'm [unintelligible] real comfortable in addressing some of these mischief filings. And one of them has caused I think both parties tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars at this juncture. And what we're attempting to do is to develop a process that will circumvent this type of activity in the future. Mme. Chair: Are there further questions for Mr. Kuharich? Senator McElhany [sp]. Sen. McElhany: Thank you, Madam Chairman. Rod, I guess I've got some of the same concerns Senator Perlmutter does. And I'm wondering if you can't address what you're trying to — the issue you're trying to address by simply working in the existing structure, but putting some language into statute that would guide the courts in these particular kinds of filings. R. Kuharich: There was one in the area — Mme. Chair: Mr. Kuharich. R. Kuharich: I'm sorry. Sony, Madam Chair. Senator McElhany, that was one of the areas we did look at in depth. The problem that we found was that there was so much difference in each one of these cases that the factual April 12, 2001 Page 7