Ravalli County won't reappoint planning chair

The Ravalli County Planning Board chair who set off a statewide furor by suggesting that the Hill County Detention Center was full of "drunken Indians" has not been appointed.

Jan Wisniewski of Darby has asked Ravalli County commissioners to reappoint him, but when the matter came up for a vote, not one of the four county commissioners present would nominate Wisniewski, the Ravalli Republic reported.

Instead, the board decided to give other county residents more time to apply for the job.

Wisniewski created a stir at a December commissioners meeting where the conversation centered on a tax deal between the county and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Wisniewski, who said he was speaking as a county resident and not as planning board chair, said that while he was on a fact-finding trip to Havre, local officials complained that the Hill County Detention Center was "full of drunken Indians."

That comments created a stir in Hamilton and Havre.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said he talked to all kinds of county officials who said they had never met Wisniewski, much less made the comment.

Ravalli County commissioners apologized for Wisniewski’s statements.

Wisniewski, speaking through his attorney, said commissioners “had neither the legal or moral authority to apologize for the words of a private citizen of this county.”