Commission continues public comment restriction despite criticism

At their business meeting Thursday, the Hill County Commission heard another objection to a recent decision to restrict public comments at their weekly business meetings.

Rickie Magnussen, a resident of Havre and former administrator of a now-closed nursing home, said he’s concerned with the recent decision to restrict public comments and the way the change was handled.

Two weeks ago, Hill County Commission Chair Mark Peterson announced that from now on, the public and county officials will no longer be permitted to speak during discussion of agenda items unless called to by the commissioners.

Peterson said people can still comment on issues at the very beginning of the meeting but after that only the commissioners may speak on the agenda items.

He said this decision was made in order to prevent people from going off on tangents and slowing down meetings, but the move has drawn widespread criticism from county residents, county officials and fellow Commissioner Sheri Williams who’s said she was not involved in the conversation about that change until just before it was announced.

The fact that Williams was not included in this conversation was a serious concern to Magnussen who lives in Williams’ district.

“As a constituent to Commissioner Williams, who I voted for, I don’t feel like my voice is being heard,” he said.

Peterson said Williams was not in the office at the time that he and commissioner Strissel had that conversation, the morning before the 10 a.m. meeting when Peterson announced the change, and that’s why she wasn’t included, but Magnussen didn’t think that was a good way to go about things.

“So a decision like that would be made without her, just because she wasn’t in the office at that time?” he said. “... I just don’t see this as being good business.”

Beyond the way the decision was handled, Magnussen said, the decision itself is one he doesn’t really understand, a sentiment he shares with many.

He said he understands that people can make public comments at the beginning of the meeting, but if something comes up during the commission’s discussion of an issue during the rest of the meeting he’d like a chance to ask questions about it, a criticism made by county officials at last week’s meeting as well.

He said if he’d made a decision to restrict questions from his board of directors during his time as an administrator, he suspects they wouldn’t have let him keep that position for very long.

Magnussen requested that the commission go back to the way it was handling meetings before, which Peterson said they would take under advisement.

Peterson said people shouldn’t expect a quick decision on the matter because they would like to have more in-depth discussions on it, including with the Montana Association of Counties to get their take.

Magnussen said he’d be very interested to know how that conversation goes.

Peterson said the commission’s door is always open and they’re always encouraging people to come talk to them but said people should keep in mind that the commission’s decisions are not always unanimous and not everyone is going to get what they want.

Williams said the commission never voted on the change, and reiterated that she was left out of the conversation.

Peterson said he, as the chair, has the authority to make decisions about how to run the meeting.

Criticism of change continues

During the meeting Peterson said he hadn’t heard any negative comments from the public despite his phone number being publicly available, however, the Havre Daily News has received numerous complaints from county residents including two who sent an email to Peterson and Strissel voicing their opposition to the change.

The email was from Monte and Tracie Connor, the latter of whom said she’s had conversations with a lot of people in the community about the issue and hasn’t encountered one person who thought it was a good idea.

Not enough people keep up to date on the commission, she said, but those that do don’t seem to be satisfied with Strissel or Peterson’s performance in light of decisions like these, at least if the conversations she’s had around town are anything to go by.

Connor echoed the sentiments of many critics of the commission’s recent change, saying she thinks something like that should have been discussed with Williams but most of her criticism centered around the change itself, which she said sends a bad message to the community.

She said just after this change was made the commission announced its intention to ask the public to vote on a tax increase and she doesn’t think a lot of people are going to be happy hearing about such a request in the immediate aftermath of them restricting public comment.

She also said she doesn’t really see why the change was even necessary as it doesn’t seem like anyone is really disrupting meetings, save perhaps Peterson who she thinks has a tendency to cut people off during discussion of issues.

Connor echoed the sentiments of other critics saying if there really is an issue the commission can just limit the length of individual comments, a suggestion Williams, Magnussen and others have also made.

Even that seems unnecessary, she said, considering the median runtime of the meetings is around an hour if not less.

“I don’t think someone being long winded is much of a disruption, and if that really is an issue… just put a time limit (on comments),” she said.

In response to Peterson saying people can always come in and talk to the commission about their concerns, she said, the fact that they are sticking by a change that is so universally disliked by the public doesn’t inspire her to think that she would be listened to if she did go in to voice concerns.