By Michael Howell
Prior to business last Monday, May 14, the Stevensville Town Council heard a few letters of correspondence. One was a letter from members of the Parks and Recreation Board expressing their “disappointment” at the outcome of two votes at the last council meeting. One was the unanimous vote that defeated the proposed ordinance prohibiting the use of tobacco products in the parks and the other was the unanimous defeat of the proposed grant application for a master planning project that would have included work on a Master Park Plan. The letter stated that no opposition was ever expressed to the board during its considerations and that its considerations and recommendations should be acknowledged by the Council. It was signed by Parks Board members Renee Endicott, Whitney McBeth, Vickie Motley, Loey Knapp, and Sherri Harris.
Later in the meeting, during Council comments, both Councilor Stacie Barker and Councilor Robin Holcomb addressed the letter.
Barker, who serves as Council representative and a voting member of the board, did not sign the letter and was not in attendance at the meeting where it was decided to send the letter.
“Do keep in mind,” said Barker, “that even if you do call, you are still holding an illegal meeting between all the Park Board members. I am still a sitting member of this board and was not notified. I am a voting member of this board.”
Holcomb said, “All boards are just to bring things to our attention. If we don’t approve it, we don’t approve it. If we do, we do. You are just an advisory board. You come to us with what you think, but we listen to the public as well. We were hearing a whole lot more than what was on there and that’s why we voted the way we voted. The boards are just to bring things to us, I want to make that clear.”
The Council also heard a letter from a town resident whose wife had fallen on a broken section of sidewalk and was injured. He suggested that if the town could not afford to fix its sidewalks then it should consider taking out the ones that are dangerous for the sake of the public safety.
The Council flew through its agenda items with hardly a word of discussion, approving unanimously both the Targeted Economic Development District’s and the Tax Increment Financing District’s Work Plans for 2018-2019; a five year contract with Morrison-Maierle Engineering for airport projects; a change order for the airport runway reconstruction project; free pool passes for Stevensville students; confirmation of the Mayor’s appointment of Audree Tribbensee as Town Clerk and Sue Devlin to the Police Commission; and the re-appointment of Jeff Motley and Mike Mickelson to the Police Commission.
For his part, Councilor Bob Michalson read into the record the letter of advice received from the Attorney General’s Office confirming the Town Attorney’s analysis and recommendation that for the mayor to serve as a volunteer fireman on the Stevensville Volunteer Fire Department was a case of “incompatibility of offices.” The Mayor has already resigned from the fire department but did ask for an AG Opinion on the issue.
After reading the letter into the record, Michalson said, “I would hope that this puts this email issue that we’ve been going back and forth on to rest.” He stated that he had been visited by a detective from the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office investigating a criminal complaint filed against him by the Stevensville City Clerk, who alleged that he had deleted some emails.
[Stevensville Town Clerk Stacy Bartlett denies that it was her and has since asked for and received a written apology for the statement from Michalson. She said that he also agreed to read his letter of apology into the record at the next Town Council meeting.]
Michalson went on to say that the officer showed him a copy of some emails that were part of the complaint and told him that the highlighted portions were the parts that were allegedly deleted.
He said that he invited the officer into his house and showed him the emails on his computer which contained the lines that had been highlighted on the pages he had just been shown.
“And they are still on my computer,” said Michalson.
He said the detective told him that he was going back to his supervisor and the Sheriff “and drop the case because he thought it was, in his words, ‘laughable’,” said Michalson. “He thought that for one he did not believe that deleting emails was illegal.”
Michalson said he had questioned several people at a recent MMIA meeting, including lawyers, and was told there is no law on the books in Montana that states that it is illegal to delete emails.
“She says it doesn’t mean we have to go around deleting right and left,” he said, “but the issue is so broad that it is really not an issue. So, I would hope that from now on, from my standpoint and the other council members, that we move on from this, move to town business and let this go. It takes a lot of energy and leads to a lot of sleepless nights for me and I’m sure for others,” he said. “Whatever the Mayor’s perception of what was, that’s his opinion, and we have our opinion and now with this opinion from the Attorney General, I don’t think it should go any further.”