Bitterroot citizens: Do you honestly believe our Commissioners are doing a competent and ethical job in governing and managing Ravalli County?
I’d argue they’re not. Their incompetence, hypocrisy, political cronyism, and disenfranchisement of the majority are tearing our valley apart.
We all know of their inability to manage the Road and Treasurer’s Departments by appointing incompetent political cronies. This has led to low morale, lawsuits, and lack of confidence by us taxpayers who hand over our hard earned property and vehicle tax payments to an unqualified County Treasurer who has three names, doesn’t pay her own taxes, and lacks respect among her office peers.
All five Commissioners claim to want more aggressive management of our Bitterroot National Forest (BNF) lands, in the name of jobs, “forest health,” and public fire safety; yet they oppose timber projects and supported the local off-road vehicle group’s appeal of the Three Saddle Forest Project. This obstructionist and frivolous appeal single-handedly stopped the project in its tracks.
And now the unpatriotic icing on the cake that completely betrays the public trust of Bitterrooters and all Americans: The Commission’s majority wants our nation to turn over our BNF public lands to them to manage and do with how they please.
Amazingly, Commissioner Foss is flying an extremist tea partier up from Utah to jumpstart the transfer of our public lands to “local control.” Sounds crazy, and it is, but they’ll be using our taxpayer money to do this. They’re gonna lock us out and sell ‘em off. They’re dead serious, folks. It starts December 11th. If you love our public lands to hike, hunt, fish—whatever—then tell the Commissioners “No! Stop the insanity!”
The Commissioners have unequivocally lost our trust. And heck, they can’t even manage the Road Department. Why not start there, Commissioners?
Van P. Keele
Hamilton