By Michael Howell
The Ravalli County Commissioners denied a grievance request from former Road and Bridge Department Supervisor David Ohnstad. Ohnstad asked the commissioners to reconsider his termination and reinstate him as supervisor.
Ohnstad was terminated for allegedly making false statements concerning culverts on the Upper Woodchuck Road paving project. He was also accused of making false statements obscuring the fact that he had not had any drainage engineering done on the upper part of the road.
Commission Chairman Matt Kanenwisher said that he did not find any new information or anything to make him reconsider the decision to terminate Ohnstad in the letter rquesting re-instatement.
Commissioner Suzy Foss said, “If anything the letter reinforces our original decision.”
Several members of the public spoke in favor of reinstatement, most suggesting that the action to terminate his employment was disproportionate to the offense.
“You need to look at the man’s entire record,” said Scott Copus.
Mary Barton called the commissioners’ action to fire the road supervisor “downright mean.”
Both Commissioners Greg Chilcott and J.R. Iman, who originally voted against termination, said that despite their dissent at the time, this grievance was asking them to review and reconsider the process itself and they found that the process was not flawed, despite their disagreement with the final decision.
“This is not a re-hash or a new hearing on the matter,” said Iman. He said it was simply a question of whether they had followed the process correctly and in his opinion they had.
The grievance was denied unanimously by all commissioners.