At the January 4, 2016 meeting of Mohave County’s Board of Supervisors, a motion was made by Supervisor Angius, seconded by Supervisor Watson and unanimously approved by the Board for Chairman Bishop to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement for Mohave County’s participation in the second phase of water settlement negotiations with the Hualapai Tribe.
The motion stated that Supervisors Moss and Angius, County Administrator Mike Hendrix, and attorney Carlos Ronstadt will attend a confidential preliminary status meeting and report to the Board at a later date. The date and time for the preliminary status meeting has not yet been determined.
These Board Actions were predicated on a December 7, 2015, meeting among Supervisors Angius and Moss, the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Governor Ducey’s staff which resulted in a letter being received by the County from the Arizona Department of Water Resources inviting representatives of Mohave County to participate in the Hualapai Tribal Water Settlement Phase 2 discussions.
The Board also believes that it would not have been invited to participate in these negotiations if they had not challenged the County’s exclusion from the earlier settlement discussions that led to the passage of the Bill Williams River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2014.
The Phase 2 discussions are meant to address the remaining water rights claims of the Tribe. Parties to the discussions may include the Hualapai Tribe, the United States, Salt River Project, Freeport Minerals Corp., Central Arizona Project, Arizona State Land Department, Arizona Department of Water Resources, and Mohave County. The Non-Disclosure Agreement will insure that information received from the Tribe or other parties will remain confidential, which in turn should encourage open and honest discussions among the parties.
Mohave County looks forward to working with the parties in this matter.