Commissioners cancel meeting for lack of notice

The Hill County Commission did not hold its weekly business meeting scheduled for Thursday morning because the agenda was not sent to local media to publish 48 hours in advance, prompting the commissioners to schedule a special business meeting for Monday at 1:30 p.m. in their office.

Montana law states that agendas for public meetings held by the Hill County Commission must be noticed to the public 48 hours before the meeting, but Thursday Commissioner Mark Peterson said he mistakenly did not send the agenda to local media so they can’t hold the meeting.

Hill County Commission Executive Assistant and Commissioner-elect Sheri Williams normally handles sending agendas to local media, but was absent earlier this week to receive training for her new position on the commission.

Peterson said the mistake was his, but Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said he was also in the office and should have caught that as well.

Peterson said there were three time-sensitive resolutions on the agenda for the meeting that would have taken place that day, so the commissioners agreed to set a special meeting on Monday to take care of them.

The resolutions are for amending Hill County Budget to provide for the receipt and disbursement of federal funding from the 2020 Homeland Security Operation Stonegarden Grant Program, and two from Hill County Attorney requesting prosecutorial assistance in court cases.