I do believe in being respectful, but to receive respect you must give respect. That is the crux of the issue with the Mayor and some on Town Council. The Mayor is paid to do what he thinks best, but not to the exclusion of any other resident’s opinion. If there was a greater effort made to be more transparent it would relieve a lot of frustration.
For instance, Council Person Hunter stated in the Star that Bob Michalson was misleading in his statement that the sewer project was “over budget.” He made that comment understanding that the lowest bid was $650,000 over the engineer’s estimate. The engineer estimate WAS the budget until the Town accepted an increase of $650,000. He went on to state, “we all listened to the engineers from HDR explain that the current rates would absorb the increased cost…” He made that statement with the knowledge that the Mayor would ask at the Committee of the Whole meeting for an increase of 3% every year henceforth in both water and sewer rates. I was troubled that no effort was made on the record to find a way to reduce this cost. It was accept the increase and pass the cost on. This is real money and I think we deserve better from our elected officials.
Some residents may have difficulty understanding the significance of some recent issues. Like the changes to the Personnel Manual authored in large by the Mayor. Before this revision, Town Council had the authority to review all hiring and firing of Department Heads. This authority is granted to Town Council through State Law. The legislature provided that authority as a check and balance between the two branches of local government. In spite of being made aware of that fact, Town Council approved the Personnel Manual on a 2 to 1 vote with Council Person Crews voting “nay” and Council Person Holcomb being absent. The revision took away the authority of Town Council and gave it solely to the Mayor. The Mayor may now favor anyone he chooses or treat unfairly anyone he chooses with no recourse from Town Council, but as Council Person Perrin said this is the way we are doing it and I think it is the way it should be done.
These are not small shifts. This is not a personal opinion, but shared widely.
Clayton D. Floyd Jr.
Stevensville
Editor’s Note: The vote on the motion to approve the Personnel Policy was actually 3-0 (Holcomb absent).
Bob Michalson says
I do have to apolagize to the Bitterroot Star on my comments above. After emailing and talking to the Editor (Victoria Howell) this is her response to my comments above : The minutes of the March 12 meeting where the vote on the Personnel Policy
was taken were approved unanimously at the March 26 meeting with no
corrections or changes. So what she is saying is the March 12th meeting ‘s minutes were approved unanimously at the meeting of the 28th with no corrections or changes. So i was wrong in thinking there was a vote taken at the March 12th meeting and a 2-1 vote was heard. I apologize for my accusations above, and to the Bitterroot Star.
Editor says
Bob – To reiterate, there WAS a vote taken on March 12 to approve the Personnel Policy.
Editor says
Bob – I was at the meeting that night (March 12) and the vote on the Personnel Policy was 3-0. If you still question the “facts” you can check the approved minutes of the meeting which are on the town’s website. Best, Victoria
Bob Michalson says
After reading Clayton Floyd’s Letter to the Editor and then reading the Bitterroot Star’s Editor’s note at the end, i am confused. How can the Vote on the Personal Policy he was talking about be 3-0 ? I was at the meeting and i heard Two Votes in Favor (Tim Hunter and Bill Perrin) and One Vote against (Jim Crews) Robin Holcomb was absent from this meeting, the mayor had not vote to break a tie. So, my question to the Bitterroot Star is how you can come up with a 3-0 vote when a council member is absent? Does Robin Holcomb not being there make it a Yay vote?. That is the only way i can think that the Bitterroot Star could come up with a 3-0 vote on the Personal Policy. I would think a local Newspaper get it’s facts right before it puts it’s thoughts in on a issue as strong as this one was.