I don’t know how any clear thinking citizen of Ravalli County could consider returning Suzy Foss and Ron Stoltz to office for another four years of lousy judgment and fiscal irresponsibility. Look at what their mismanagement has cost the county taxpayers so far:
1) Stoltz and Foss, as the two most unapologetic vocal supporters of Valerie Stamey, appointed her (Stamey, an unqualified person) to fill the vacant Treasurer position based only on their cronyism and their failure to do a simple basic background check for any work history flaws or problems. It would have taken about five minutes to uncover enough problems to avoid the mess they’ve gotten the county into.
Remember that Stamey publicly thanked Foss and Stoltz for their continued support (Ravalli Republic, January 22, 2014).
2) The failure of responsibility by Foss and Stoltz in the whole County Treasurer disaster has resulted (so far) in $70,000 (Bitterroot Star, April 23, 2014) of unnecessary wasteful costs to the county to pay investigation and other fees. The commissioners have stated that we can expect additional bills for investigations and other actions relating to the Stamey fiasco. In the meantime we continue to subsidize Stamey in paid annual leave at taxpayer cost of $1,000 per week.
3) Foss and Stoltz’s mishandling of the road department situation resulted in another $125,000 of avoidable and unnecessary legal settlement costs to the taxpayers for wrongful discharge. The settlement was reported in the Bitterroot Star on Thursday, May 21, 2014. On May 14, 2014 the Bitterroot Star reported the settlement for another lawsuit amounting to $35,000 paid out to one of the Road Department secretaries.
My question to the citizens of Ravalli County is: If you had employees in your business that cost you this kind of money, would you keep them on the payroll? Don’t you think it’s time to fire Foss and Stoltz before they bankrupt us all?
Coral Maxwell
Darby