By Michael Howell
Only two people applied to fill the seat on the Stevensville Town Council being vacated by Ward 2 Councilman Clay Freeman and one of them has withdrawn his application. Freeman, who is moving out of town, changed his resignation date to be effective December 12, the day he is moving out. He had originally set the date for later in the month.
Stevensville resident Paulette Floyd and Stevensville Fire Chief Jeff Motley were the only two applicants for the position. Motley withdrew his application after questions were raised about the legality of his serving on the Council at the same time that he is serving as Fire Chief. This leaves Floyd as the only applicant for the job.
Councilor Bob Michalson said that he had some question about whether having the Fire Chief on the Council would present a conflict of interest problem or not. As a result he contacted Dan Clark of the Local Government Center in Bozeman. According to Michalson, Clark said it did present a problem but not exactly a conflict of interest problem. While it could lead to a conflict of interest on certain issues, the more serious problem turned out to be the “doctrine of incompatible offices.”
According to Michalson, there is an Attorney General Opinion that a person cannot serve in two public offices at once if one of the offices has supervisory power or budgetary authority over the other office. Although the Council went ahead and conducted the interview with Motley, he subsequently withdrew his application based on that reading of the law.
Paulette Floyd is the wife of deceased former council member Clayton Floyd.
The Town has received five applications for the position of Finance Officer and is conducting interviews.
At its December 8 meeting, the Council adopted the Stevensville Growth Policy update “and the goals, objectives and actions therein.”
The Council also agreed to award $400 each from the Grants to Others program to the Stevensville Museum, Pantry Partners, Clothes Closet, Genesis House, Stevensville Senior Center, St. Mary’s Mission and the Stevensville Playhouse. Mayor Jim Crews said that the program was started when the water rates were raised and local non-profits were left struggling to pay their utility bills. Crews said that the Town cannot tell them how to spend the money, but that most of them use it to make payments on their utilities.