Our View - County commission again ignores state law

The Hill County Commission apparently has appointed a new Hill County attorney.

It also apparently, and ironically, broke state law in its appointment of the highest legal officer in the county.

The commission’s weekly calendar for next week reports the oath of office will be administered Monday to the new county attorney, who will take the place of Karen Alley, who resigned to take a position out of the area.

Appointing a county attorney to fill the term is not the problem, in fact, it is the duty of the county commission to do that.

The problem is, the commission didn’t bother to tell the public it was doing so.

The Hill County Commission confirmed Thursday it voted to appoint one of the applicants for the position, although Commissioner Diane McLean said she could not recall exactly when the vote was held.

She also said the commission had not put out any notice it was voting, because the commission does not publicize hiring.

Unfortunately, the Montana Constitution and Montana Code Annotated are very clear — any time a public body is taking a vote, it has to let the public know. In Montana, the accepted practice is the public has to be notified at least 48 hours before the vote is held to give the public time to review the issue, make comments before the vote and watch the vote.

To the best knowledge of Havre Daily News, the commission also did not notice up the fact it was voting to appoint an interim county attorney, although the same laws apply.

This issue has nothing to do with the applicants. All they did was apply for a position. It is the obligation of the county commission to notify the public it is voting and on what it will vote.

The commission not only didn’t do that, it didn’t bother to tell the public that anyone had applied and who the applicants were.

Attorney Mike Meloy, the attorney for the Montana Freedom of Information Hotline and an expert on freedom of information issues, said the commission’s vote broke several laws.

“The actions of the Commission violate Article II, Sections 8 and 9, the right to participate and the right-to-know,” he told Havre Daily News. “They also contravene Section 2-3-103 MCA which requires a public body to give advanced notice of proposed action of significant interest to the public and Section 2-3-203 MCA which provides all meetings of public bodies to be open to the public, except when the demands of individual privacy clearly exceed the merits of public disclosure.

“Because the proposed action involves the appointment of an elected official there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy which might justify a closed meeting,” Meloy continued.

“In the event the Commission continues on its present course any decision can be set aside and voided by a court under another statute, Section 2-3-213 MCA,” he added.

This is nothing new for this commission, and is the latest in a string of offenses.

Several positions on the Great Northern Fair Board remain open, and the commission has said it has applicants and is trying to arrange interviews. But it refuses to provide the names of the applicants, saying it doesn’t do that.

Under Montana law, the names of applicants for public positions are public information.

This kind of issue goes back several years. Until Havre Daily News informed the commission about state law and requested it provide information about what the issues for votes would be in its weekly business meeting, the commission didn’t provide a detailed agenda.

Now it is providing a detailed agenda, although it usually provides it to Havre Daily for Tuesday, meaning it is going out on the street Tuesday afternoon — 46 hours before the votes, not the required 48 hours. But at least Havre Daily can publish it.

Several years ago, the Great Northern Fair Board held a secret online vote to decide who to hire as a new fairgrounds manager. The board re-held that vote at its next meeting after Havre Daily reported it held an illegal secret vote.

McLean, who said Thursday the commission doesn’t publicize votes like it held for the county attorney, said at that time she didn’t know the fair board had voted to hire someone. Some 15 to 30 minutes later, the new manager said McLean was the one who had told him he was hired.

Last year, the commission proposed changing how the county paid its share of employees’ health insurance premiums. Its idea of notifying the employees was putting a line about it in its business meeting agenda two days before the vote. After two meetings’ worth of employees speaking against the proposal — which would have saved taxpayers a few dollars each and cost some employees hundreds of dollars — the commission voted down that proposal.

And especially in the matter of appointing a county attorney, the commission might consider being more than above board, considering how its last appointment to the position went.

It appointed Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson to the position Nov. 25, 2016, although at least one judge previously had taken action because she had not fulfilled her duties.  In one case in 2014, a district judge threw out a felony charge alleging a man had attacked a jailer, saying Cole-Hodgkinson, then a Lake County deputy attorney, had taken too long to file the charges after the suspect made his initial appearance.

Complaints soon started coming in about her performance as Hill County attorney, but the commission said they were not allowed by law to remove a person appointed to fill an elected position.

Cole-Hodgkinson ended up resigning while facing contempt of court hearings in state District Court in Havre and Hill County Justice Court for failing to perform her duties. She was found guilty of three counts in justice court and banned from practicing in that court, although the charges were dismissed in District Court after she filed missing documents there.

She now is facing a trial in Abeline, Texas, March 7, on charges she shot her estranged husband four times Feb. 3, 2019, while visiting him in Abilene.

With a track record like that, the commission might consider being a bit more public and above-board in their appointments.