There are some comments regarding Complaints about Stevensville Government.
I would like to help clarify the issue if I may.
I think the confusion is that there were two votes taken on the 12th of March Town Council meeting. One was for Resolution 366 and one was to approve the revision to the Town of Stevensville Personnel Policy Manual.
When the Personnel Policy Manual came up for review I had quite a few comments on the new manual, many of which were resolved or incorporated. However, there was one section that was missing in the new manual which related to Position Descriptions. Thus the creation of Resolution 366, adopting a Job Description Protocol, which was intended to define the review and approval process for Position Descriptions within the Town of Stevensville. The vote on Resolution 366 was 2 to 1. I voted no. Once the Resolution was approved establishing the Job Description Protocol, and all of my concerns being met, resolved or otherwise answered, I had no further objection to approving the new Personnel Policy Manual. The vote was in fact 3-0.
During the process of reviewing Resolution 366 as presented to the council I had several objections to the way the resolution was written and still do. One of such is that under state law the Town Council has been empowered to do certain things. I am not an attorney and do not profess to be able to interpret the law, so I will not. However, it is my belief that laws should be written so as to allow the citizen to read and understand the law without the need of an attorney. That is not always the case, but it should be in my humble opinion. That being said, here is what the Montana Code Annotated says regarding this issue.
7-4-4110. Duties of officers not otherwise provided for. (1) The city or town council has power to prescribe the duties of all officers of the city or town, subject to the limitations mentioned in this code.
7-5-4110. Compensation and duties of city employees. The city or town council has power to fix the compensation and to prescribe the duties of all employees of the city or town, subject to the limitations mentioned in this code.
7-4-4103. Officers of towns. (5) The town council may prescribe the duties of all town officers and fix their compensation, subject to the limitations contained in this title.
What Resolution 366 did was to allow a mayor the ability to change a position description, i.e. modify an employee’s duties, without consulting the council unless it affects the budget. If the budget is not affected, the council might not be notified or consulted as to any changes in an employee’s duties. If there is an impact on the budget, then the issue will be presented to the council for consideration.
I hope this helps to clear up the issue that was presented.
Jim Crews
Stevensville Town Council, Ward 2