Williams denies allegations in motion to censure passed by Hill County Commission

Editor's note: A shorter version of this was printed in the Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, edition of Havre Weekly Chronicle.

Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams has denied allegations in a resolution to formally censure her passed 2-0 by Hill County commissioners Mark Peterson and Jake Strissel Dec. 26.

Williams said in a telephone conversation later Dec. 26, while she was on the road, that the allegations in the resolution are untrue, but the resolution passing does not lead her to plan to take any legal or other actions because of it.

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.

Strissel said during the meeting, when the commission was asked asked when what he sees as inappropriate actions started and why they started, that his opinions on why things happened don't matter.

"It's just what the facts are in this resolution," he said. "These are the things that have been going on. So, I mean, you can hypothesize all you want, but it doesn't really matter."

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 violiaion of procedure and has harassed and intimidated the executive administrative assistant, has filed false criminal complaints Peterson, 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.

During the meeting Williams was also accused of improper conduct, including filing a criminal complaint against the volunteers, when volunteers Dec. 12 were trying to salvage food in the Rudyard Senior when the center's walk-on freezer failed.

Peterson, who left office at the end of the year with his position taken over by Bill Lanier, who won the election in November, 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.

In her telephone conversation with Havre Weekly Chronicle, Williams also complained about the commission voting on the resolution when she was not present.

Strissel said that the commission originally planned to hold the vote Dec. 19, but when Williams told them she would be out of town until after Christmas, rescheduled it for Dec. 26. He said that when they found out she would be gone then as well, the agenda for the business meeting listing a vote on the resolution to censure already had been posted.

The agenda for the upcoming week's business meeting is sent to all of the commissioners, including Williams, the week prior to the meeting.

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.

Strissel said she has missed about 30 percent of the weekly business meetings during her two years in office, while in his four years he has missed two meeting.

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

Opposition to the resolution

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 departments 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."

Laner, 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.

But 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 Dec. 12 when the walk-in freezer had failed.

Confrontation at the Rudyard Senior Center

Peterson said the issue at the Rudyard Senior Center was not listed in the resolution on formally censuring Williams because the resolution already was written by Dec. 12.

Willa Rae Langel and her husband, Stan, sent one of the letters and Willa Langel attended the meeting.

She said during the meeting she and her husband were two of the people who were trying to salvage food out of the freezer, as they had done in the past when the freezer went out in the building, when they were stopped from doing so, and all of the food that could have been saved later ended up in the dump.

She said she is talking about her taxpayer dollars that were thrown away into the dump when volunteers were trying to save the food.

Glenda Pester wrote in a letter to the commission that when she quit working at her beauty shop, which is close to the Rudyard Senior Center, she went in to make sure the furnace was on, and, as she does from time to time, checked on the freezer and found things were thawing out. She "called in the troops" as she has done in the past to find freezer space so the food wouldn't spoil.

Pester wrote that Willa Langel, one of her "troops," tried to call Heather Sinclair, the director of Hill County Council on Aging, which oversees the Hill County senior centers, and then they called Strissel, who lives in Rudyard and was on his way back there from Havre. Strissel stopped by and was told what the volunteers were doing. He tried to call Sinclair but she did not call him back, so he texted Sinclair about the situation, Pester wrote. Strissel had a meeting that night and had to leave until about 7:45 p.m.

Willa and Stan Langel wrote in their letter that when they were working on salvaging the food, they were told Williams had called the sheriff and filed a report they were stealing from the center. The wrote that Strissel had received a call from the sheriff and he explained the food was not being stolen but salvaged.

Pester wrote after Strissel got back to Rudyard, he told them that the sheriff's office had been called. He also had been contacted by Williams or Sinclair, who said "they were headed right behind the cops to some see who was stealing."

After the deputies drove by, the volunteers waited for Williams and Sinclair to "show up and explain to us what needed to be done," Pester wrote.

She wrote that, when they did arrive, they started accusing people and asking them what gave the volunteers the right to take the food out of the center.

"Tempers flared," Pester wrote. "They were accusing us of stealing!"

The Langels wrote that Williams and Sinclair arrived and "they were disrespectful and angry. I guess they wanted us to leave things alone and stay out of it."

Strissel added that a false police report was filed about him and others trying to save the food, accusing them of robbing the senior center.

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

When asked about the deputies, she said she talked to the sheriff and he said he would send deputies to investigate if a complaint was filed, so she had Sinclair call the sheriff's office 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. She said they didn't know if it was contaminated or otherwise damaged, so they threw it away.

She said Strissel had taken it on himself to work to salvage the meat, and it hadn't gone through the proper channels.

Williams also denied that anyone had tried to contact her or Sinclair.

Richard Pester of Rudyard said in a letter to the commission that he was helping try to salvage the food after his wife called him, with about 60-70 10-pound packages of ground beef still frozen, which were the priority. He said the condenser on the fan motor of the freezer was plugged due to lack of maintenance.

When Williams and Sinclair showed up, things deteriorated.

"(They) basically accused us of stealing the food," Pester wrote. "Words were exchanged. We were informed that the sheriff was called, and they were on their way to investigate a robbery."

Later, he said, Williams said she was busy the next day, but Sinclair said people would be up the next morning to take an inventory. No one showed until noon two days later, and things were starting to thaw.

Pester said he has volunteered and worked on the building since the county acquired it in 1978.

"We need volunteers in our community, and this is the most bizarre situation I have seen," Pester wrote. "It makes you never want to volunteer for anything again."

Cheryl Bowker wrote to the commission that she was on her way to the dump Saturday, Dec. 14, driving past the center when she saw several vehicles parked outside, including a trailer full of food that had been salvaged. She wrote that she stopped and was going to offer to help, "but a man came out of the side door of the Senior Center screaming at me."

She said she couldn't hear what the man was saying, but heard his elevated voice, so she left,. She took her trash to the dump, stopped again on her way back from the dump across from the construction of the new community center, where she often stops to see how that is coming along. Four men came out of the Senior Center, who she later was told were there with Williams, and stood in an intimidating fashion - ""almost like vigilante stance" - and began taking pictures of her, she wrote.

"Very intimidating and frightening, to say the least," Bowker wrote. "I was so shaken by this behavior, I waved and left."

"I am appalled that a person representing out public can behave in the fashion that I witnessed that Saturday," she wrote. "In my opinion, this is in no way a responsible way for anyone to act, especially from a public servant."

'From Day One'

Strissel, Peterson and Hill County Clerk and Recorder Lexis Docktor all said Williams apparent antagonism started from the day she took office.

Peterson, when asked, said Williams does have some good ideas and good suggestions, and he and Strissel back her when that happens, but not on all she does or says.

He and Strissel said they have tried over and over again to work with Williams and stop doing what they say are improper actions.

"We have attempted to take care of this In-house," Strissel added. "We did not want to include the public. This is the last thing we wanted to do."

In the letter from the Clerk and Recorder's Office, Dockter and her deputies and staff listed numerous allegations of things Williams had done and wrote that Williams has been reported to both the Human Resources Office and the county attorney.

It was noted during the meeting that the county attorney, after reports of conflict, moved the commission administrative executive assistant out of her office and in to the Clerk and Recorder's Office, where Williams put a desk for her own work space rather than working out of the Hill County Commission office with the other commissioners.

"The way (Williams) treats people is beyond comprehension," the Clerk and Recorder's letter reads, "we are surprised she is still in office."

"Us workers would not have to feel like we are suffering through the day because we never know how she is going to act and what she's going to do," the letter says."Sheri has created a hostile work environment and we do not feel safe working with her."