A petition to combine sewer and water boards in the Coleman District has again been rejected by the Webster County Board of Supervisors.

Assistant County Attorney Brad McIntyre said Tuesday morning the petition didn’t include all the needed information.

Dennis Jones, who lives in the unincorporated neighborhood south of Fort Dodge, has been trying to submit such a petition since last year.

“The public is getting pretty fed up with this,” Jones said. “Every time we do the right thing, we get shut down.”

Although the district is outside Fort Dodge city limits, its water and sanitary sewer systems tie into the Fort Dodge system. Independent boards of trustees oversee both systems.

Jones and some other Coleman residents have been at odds with the current board trustees since they were elected in 2015, and with the previous trustees before that.

Jones and Shannon Ely recently filed a lawsuit against the trustees under Iowa’s open records law.

Jones said he got 76 signatures on his petition to combine those two boards into one board, as described in Iowa code.

Jones circulated a petition calling for the same thing in May 2016, with about 25 signatures, and was told this wasn’t enough. The next week he came back with 76 signatures on the petition, and was told combining the two districts can’t happen without each district’s board meeting and working out terms.

Jones said Tuesday that, according to Iowa code, he believes the community can combine the boards without the boards meeting if enough people agree.

“The law states the fact that the community can override the board,” he said.

Supervisor Keith Dencklau said the supervisors share Jones’ frustration, and want to see this resolved.

“We’re frustrated too,” Dencklau said.

Supervisor Mark Campbell said before Jones circulates another petition he should have the Webster County attorney’s office go over it and make sure everything is correct.

“We can set up a time for the auditor, the county attorney’s office, and you to sit down with your council to put the petition together, lay out what exactly your goals are so you aren’t going back and forth like last time,” Campbell said.

Jones and Ely filed suit against the sanitary board after they claimed the board wouldn’t communicate with the people or give any account of its actions. The suit sought records of the board’s finances and any meeting minutes, and complained an open records request for these items wasn’t fulfilled in a timely matter.

But attorney Ernie Kersten, who represented Jones in that suit, wasn’t involved in crafting this petition, Jones said.

Supervisor Merill Leffler said it’s not the county attorney’s responsibility to help citizens in creating a legal petition.

“The county attorney’s office is more than willing to work with your attorney to get this done right,” Leffler said. “Again, for clarification, the county attorney is not responsible to help Coleman District do this properly. You have to do it properly, but he is offering to work with you and your attorney to get it submitted properly.”

Jones said he got the information on how to submit this petition from Webster County Attorney Jennifer Benson.

McIntyre said under Iowa code the petition needs to set out the specifics as to the size of the board, the per diem and other details.

“Pretty much they need to have everything set out in the petition for everybody to read how the board’s going to operate and what changes are going to be necessary,” he said.

Two trustees currently serve on the three-person sanitary board.

Trustee Melissa Evans was elected to the sewer board on Feb. 2, 2015, and resigned in August 2015 after she said the other board members wouldn’t hold meetings or give her access to the board records. Evans was never replaced.

Her term was to expire this year, but an election for her seat was not held.

There is only one person on the three-member water board, Jones said.

Jones himself once served on that board, but resigned in 2015 in order to run for sewer district trustee.

The lawsuit resulted in records being released. A judge ordered the sanitary district to pay for Jones’ attorney fees, and to hold a meeting before the end of April. A meeting has now been scheduled for Tuesday at 11 a.m.

A second lawsuit by Jones against the trustees seeks to compel them to hold regular public meetings, hold an election for the vacant position, and submit a budget to the county auditor which allows the district to collect property tax money.