Hill County Commission censures fellow Commissioner Sheri Williams

The Hill County Commission voted 2-0 last Thursday, to formally censure Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams, with commissioners Mark Peterson and Jake Strissle voting for the censure.

Williams was not present at the meeting. She complained in a telephone interview later Thursday that the resolution was voted on when she was not in Havre.

She said she would take no action in reprisal. She said if the two others commissioners want to pass a resolution based on a bunch of opinions, slander and character assassination, that is fine. She said she planned not to take any action about the resolution being passed.

Strissel said they had planned to vote on it the week before, but moved it to Dec. 26 when they found out that Williams would be absent. He said when they found out she also would be out of the office Dec. 26, it already had been listed in a published agenda and they proceeded with the vote.

During the meeting, Bob Kaul, who lives in Wiliams district, said that in the last several months he has attended more meetings than Williams has, saying he doesn't think she is representing her district.

The resolution includes multiple allegations that Williams has taken actions that undermine public trust in Hill County Commission and has "adverse affected the effective governance of Hill County," including trying to independently fire the executive administrative assistant to the commission in volition of procedure and has harassed and intimidated the executive administrative assistant, has filed false criminal complaints against both Peterson and volunteers at the Rudyard Senior Center, spread false and defamatory rumors about Strissel, and "continues to foster a negative and hostile work environment by using oppressive and bullying language to numerous Hill County employees and department leaders.

Peterson noted that passing the resolution has no legal impact, but said he and Strissel have tried to work with Williams to address issues since she took office two years ago without success and they want their concerns on the record.

About 20 members of the public attended the meeting, and not all were in favor of passing the resolution of formal censure.

Havre Park Board member Lou Hagener said he had several problems with allegations in the resolution, and said it seems inappropriate to pass a formal censure motion just before the start of new commission being formed following the election, and a more appropriate remedy would be to set up and follow a process to act in a respectful, responsible and legal manner to carry out the county's business, including having an understanding of responsibilities according to the state constitution and law as well as effective team development and functioning, effective leadership and public engagement.

He said he has seen and experienced increasing hostility in the commission and some county department toward county employees and the public in the last 13 years he has been trying to work with the commissioners, and it did not just start after Williams was elected.

"This resolution has already made a point," Hagener said. "Putting a censure resolution into the record at the last minuted in a time of transition from one commission to another has the appearance of a political and or personal parting shot."

Bill Laner, who won the race to take Peterson's seat on the commission and was scheduled to be sworn in this afternoon, agreed that the motion should not be passed at today's meeting, as did Havre businesswoman and former Hill County Park Board member Renelle Braaten.

Several people spoke and numerous letters, including from the Clerk and Recorder's leadership and staff, were read about things people had experienced with Williams they believed had been innappropriate, including several people who tried to step in and salvage frozen food from the Rudyard Senior Center when the walk-in freezer had failed.

Several people who had tried to salvage the food wrote letters to the commission, saying they felt intimidated and even threatened by how Williams acted, and that throwing the food away instead of salvaging it cost the county thousands in taxpayer dollars.

They said Williams called the sheriff's office to report people stealing from the center, and then had eventually had the food, mostly several hundred pounds of ground beef that still was frozen when people pulled it from the failing freezer, thrown into the dump.

Williams said she didn't ask the sheriff to send the deputies, saying that was a lie.

When asked about why the deputies went to Rudyard, she said she was talking to the sheriff and he said if they made a formal complaint, he would send deputies to investigate, so, she said, she had the Hill County Council on Aging director call to file the complaint.

She said they threw the meat away because it had been removed from the county Senior Center without proper supervision, and so it had been compromised.