By Michael Howell
Almost a year after filing suit against former Ravalli County Treasurer Valerie Stamey, aka Valerie Scott, aka Valerie Addis, the County Commissioners came to a consensus last week that it might be time to hire a process server to find Stamey and serve her with papers in the case. Deputy County Attorney Howard Recht noted that the case was filed in June 2014, alleging three counts against Stamey. The first was 58 instances in which she neglected or failed to report to the state. She was fined $500 per infraction for a total of $29,000 in fines. The second count alleged official misconduct and the third count asked for damages such as reimbursement of fees and cost of the audit and investigative reports.
Recht said that a summons was issued and the county attempted to serve Stamey but she could not be located in the county. He said they currently have two leads on addresses in South Carolina. One was already reported as unsuccessful, but one was still pending.
Commission Chair Jeff Burrows said, “She’s got a history of doing this and we had a hard time figuring that out, especially with the different names, the aliases. What I want to do is formalize this or memorialize this so the next person that she tries to do this to will find it more readily.”
Recht said that since the case was filed it would probably show up on any credit search. He said anyone could also Google her and find a lot in the media. He noted that there was a three-year time limit on serving the papers.
“I want to find her,” said Commissioner JR Iman. “A lot of people spent a lot of their lives being affected by this… I agree that I don’t think she has any assets, but I do think she needs to be served so that we can have a record, not only an allegation, but a judgment.” He suggested setting a limit on the expenditure and instituting a search.
“It’s been ignored too long,” he said.
Commissioner Doug Schallenberger agreed that it made sense to place a limit on it.
“I don’t believe we are going to squeeze any blood out of the turnip, but I believe the turnip should probably be squeezed a little,” said Schallenberger. “We don’t want somebody else to go through this.”
In public comment, Jim Shockley told the commissioners that it was a waste of time and money to go after Stamey and they should just move on.
Chris Hockman raised the possibility of criminal proceedings against Stamey in which case a warrant could be issued. He outlined the arguments he had made at the time of her suspension that she could and probably should be prosecuted under the Single Audit Act for failure to perform her duties. He read the law and expressed incredulity that it still hasn’t gone to criminal proceedings.
Elaine Colletto, Secretary fro the Bitterroot Irrigation District, told the commissioners that the district had no intention of seeing some financial burden on the county to go after Stamey.
“The county has already paid dearly,” she said. “But it is extremely important to have some accountability… She needs to be found and she needs to be held accountable.”
The commissioners heard from one local process server who described her work and agreed to come up with some sort of proposal and price range. The commissioners agreed to take that and perhaps solicit a few more and then consider some course of action.