Public comment on hiring Stevi coach heard in private

By Michael Howell

At last week’s meeting of the Stevensville School District Board of Trustees, a motion was made to approve all the fall sports head coaching assignments which included hiring Tilford Meyers as football coach, Stacey Sager for girls soccer, Ralph Serrette for boys soccer, Lori Lewis for cross-country, Erin O’Reilly for volleyball and Jack Filcher for golf.
In public comment on the matter, Gene Mim Mack expressed support for several of the coaches. However, when he added, “I would speak against the appointment of the volleyball coach…,” his comment was cut short by School Superintendent David Whitesell who said loudly, “You can’t.”
Board chair Cathi Cook quickly echoed that remark, saying, “You can’t. If you are going to continue with that then we will have to close the meeting if you are going to continue with this type of dialogue.”
Mim Mack said, “How do you know what I’m going to say? This is public comment on an action that you are going to take for the board to approve a coach.”
“There is a right to privacy,” said Cook.
“There’s nothing that I anticipate saying that is not in the public record,” said Mim Mack. “Since there is no right of privacy to a public document, I object.”
Whitesell said, “You both are kind of right. The individual is also sitting here. So if she wants to make a comment, I would suggest that you ask her if she has a problem with that being in an open or closed session.”
Trustee Greg Trangmoe said that if it is public information then it might be admissible, but an individual may have a right to privacy if a personnel issue is brought up.
Cook said, “OK, I’ll go ahead and close the meeting.”
The public was ushered into the hallway and the door was closed. Then High School Principal Brian Gum came to the door and asked any individual wishing to comment on the hiring of the volleyball coach to enter the room one at a time. Several people took the opportunity, including this reporter. In the private session, Bitterroot Star reporter Michael Howell said he was not there to comment on the coach but wanted to comment on the process and the meeting closure. He was told by Cook that he did not understand the law and that if he did not want to comment on the coach then he should “get out.” Howell left the room.
After several people had been interviewed in private the doors were opened and the meeting was continued. Action was quickly taken to withdraw the original motion to approve all the coaches. This was quickly followed by individual motions to approve each coach. Following each motion and second the chair would say, “Any further comment?” and getting none would quickly take the vote.
When the votes were almost done, Howell said that it appeared that the motions were being made and approved without public comment.
Cook said, “I did say ‘any further comment’ each time.”
Howell said, “You are saying that ‘any further comment’ meant ‘public comment’?”
“Yes,” said Cook.
Howell asked if he could make a comment and was allowed. He said he would like to put a protest on the public record about the previous closure of the meeting.
“There was no issue requiring the closure of the meeting,” said Howell. “A person was commenting on the coaches and then was stopped from making any comment on one of the coaches.” He said without any issue really being raised there was nothing to weigh against the public’s right to know.
A vote was taken on hiring the volleyball coach and was approved on a 5 to 2 vote.
Mim Mack said later that he was going to bring up the fact that the teacher being considered for the volleyball coach position had a history of DUI arrests, the most recent being a DUI arrest in December 2013 that included a felony charge of criminal endangerment.
Mim Mack said that he told the board in the private session that he thought, given the school’s zero tolerance for drugs policy, that hiring someone to be a coach with a record of this nature seems inconsistent.
“A coach is supposed to be a role model for kids in sports. Given the nature of these convictions there should probably be a waiting time of a number of years perhaps before someone with such a record is considered for such a job,” said Mim Mack. Mim Mack believes that his constitutional rights to make a public statement for the record were denied.