(1) The district shall be managed and controlled by a board of fifteen directors. The members of the board shall hold their offices for terms of three years and until their successors are appointed and qualified. A director may serve one or more terms. The boards of county commissioners of the counties of Yuma, Phillips, Kit Carson, Washington, Sedgwick, Lincoln, and Logan shall each appoint one director, who shall be a resident of the respective county. One member of the board shall be appointed by each of the boards of the Marks Butte, Frenchman, W-Y, Sand Hills, Central Yuma, Arikaree, and Plains ground water management districts. One member of the board shall be appointed by the Colorado ground water commission and shall be a member of the Colorado ground water commission. Each director shall be, at the time of the director's appointment, a resident and owner of real property within the county or ground water management district from which he or she is appointed or, if only a part of the county or ground water management district is included within the boundaries of the district, a resident and owner of real property within such included part. The director appointed by the Colorado ground water commission shall, at the time of appointment, reside within the district. Each director shall be appointed by either the board of county commissioners of the county in which the director resides or by the ground water management district in which the director resides. The director may be a member of the board of county commissioners of such county or the board of directors of such ground water management district. Such appointments shall be made at the first meeting of the board of county commissioners, ground water management district, or Colorado ground water commission after the establishment of the district. The members of the board shall annually select one of their number to act as president and one of their number to act as vice-president, each to hold office for one year or until a successor is duly selected.

(2) The office of a director shall become vacant when the director ceases to reside in the county or ground water management district from which the director was appointed, or in the case of the director appointed by the Colorado ground water commission when the director ceases to reside in the district or is no longer a member of the Colorado ground water commission, or when declared vacant by a majority vote of all of the members of the board when a director has failed to attend two consecutive regular meetings without having been excused from attendance by the president. If a vacancy occurs in the office by reason of death, resignation, removal, or otherwise, it shall be filled for the remainder of the unexpired term by the board of county commissioners ofthe county, or the ground water management district from which the director was originally appointed. Each director shall take an oath or affirmation in accordance with section 24-12-101.

(3) (a) Upon creation of the district, the directors shall be appointed by the respective boards of county commissioners or ground water management districts as provided in this section for the following terms of office:

(I) The directors from the counties of Phillips and Kit Carson and from the Marks Butte and Arikaree ground water management districts, whose terms of office shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting of the board to be held in October 2005, or as soon thereafter as their respective successors are appointed and qualified;

(II) The directors from the counties of Washington, Sedgwick, and Lincoln and from the W-Y, Central Yuma, and Plains ground water management districts, whose terms of office shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting to be held in October 2006, or as soon thereafter as their respective successors are appointed and qualified; and

(III) The directors from the counties of Yuma and Logan, the directors from the Frenchman and Sand Hills ground water management districts, and the director appointed by the ground water commission, whose terms of office shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting to be held in October 2007, or as soon thereafter as their respective successors are appointed and qualified.

(b) Thereafter, each director shall be appointed for a term of three years, and the term shall expire on the date of the regular quarterly meeting to be held in October of the year that commences during the third year of the director's term, or as soon thereafter as a successor is duly appointed and qualified. For the purpose of determining such expiration date, the term of the director shall be taken as having begun on the date of the first regular October quarterly meeting at which the term of a predecessor would have expired had the director then been duly appointed and qualified.