At the March 12 Stevensville Town Council meeting, the agenda item considering the suspension of Council President Bob Michalson was withdrawn from the record at the request of Council member Dempsey Vick who, along with Council member Jaime Devlin had it placed on the agenda for consideration. Vick said that it was a mistake to seek the suspension because the council should begin dealing with these kinds of issues at the lowest possible level. As a secondary motion Vick moved to consider how to handle the issue of addressing complaints about a council member from other council members or staff at the next Committee of the Whole meeting.
“We need to hammer out a process by which we can deal with grievances amongst one another,” said Vick.
Council member Devlin said that she had heard a lot of troubling comments about Michalson’s behavior but was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt until she received a text message from him that day.
“If our staff is treated like I was today, at best I don’t feel like you have any right to be sitting at this table,” said Devlin. She said it was their duty under the personnel policy to make sure that staff and department heads don’t have to work in a hostile work environment.
“Do you even know the rules and duties of a councilman?” asked Michalson. “Do you know the process that put us here?” He said he has not been shown any documentation or evidence about the allegations against him. He stated that he thought the process wasn’t being followed and stated that it didn’t happen this time because the Mayor actually wrote the resolution to suspend him.
Mayor Brandon Dewey stated that the meeting was not a trial and it was not the venue to elaborate on the details of allegations or to defend against them. He said the motion on the floor was to consider establishing a grievance process at the next Committee of the Whole meeting.
“You need a fair shake,” Dewey said to Michalson. The motions to withdraw the suspension agenda item and to place the issue of the grievance procedure on the agenda of the next COW meeting were approved on votes of 3-1 with Councilor Devlin dissenting in both cases.
Mayor Dewey stated that the current grievance procedure allows for employees to file a grievance against their department head and it would be taken to the Mayor, but the behavior of an elected official is not addressed in the policy.
“My office has no disciplinary authority over the council,” said Dewey. He said there is no process described in the policy for a council person to resolve a grievance against another council person or for an employee to make a grievance against a council person.
The next COW meeting, which had been scheduled for March 19, has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 state of emergency.
A second controversial issue tackled by the Council was the issue of a service agreement with the IT company First Call, which Mayor Dewey signed on December 12, 2019 without Council permission and without placing it out for bid.
Town Attorney Scott Owens gave a preliminary opinion based on the facts that were available but without having researched it completely, stating “There has been no violation of Montana Law or Town Ordinance by entering into a non-binding agreement with First Call.” He said the issue does land in “grey zone” based on ambiguity in the statutes and the Town’s purchasing policy.
“Plainly put,” he states, “Montana law has a process for bidding when dealing with ‘other than professional, technical, engineering, or legal services.’ This bidding process does not apply to IT services. Therefore, we go back to the Town Ordinance and the Purchasing Policy.”
Owens went on to say that “based on the dilemma we are in now, I would advise that these larger agreements be brought before council in the future. It is also understood that the purchasing policy will be revised and may address these issues. However, at this point, the current purchasing policy coupled with the contemplated budget allows for department heads and the mayor to purchase services outside secondary council approval.”
He said the issue was brought to his office last Thursday (March 5), and he did not have time to conduct the research prior to the March 12 council meeting. He said with little research time invested, he advised the Mayor and Mr. Michalson of an alternative remedy to address the issue without getting into the weeds:
“I advised that this matter should be brought before the council simply to: 1) educate the council on what the service agreement was; and 2) to decide whether this was an expense that the Town would continue to accept. As I understand, the Town has the ability to terminate this agreement. If the Town decided it was a necessary service, council would exercise their consent. If not, the Town could elect to terminate. Either way, the issue would have been simply addressed. Council should be commended on exercising their fiscal responsibilities in addressing this issue.
“However, advice was additionally given to warn/deter accusations of wrong-doing prior to my legal review.”
There was a discussion about the security of the town’s system if the contract with the company was dismissed.
Most of the Council disagreed with the attorney’s opinion that the Mayor’s action in signing the agreement without bringing it back before the council was not a violation of the law. They voted 3-1 with Devlin dissenting to cancel the contract. But they voted 4-0 to pay the $1,200 bill for the work already done. The Council also asked the Mayor to develop and advertise a Request for Proposals to try to get some competitive bids for IT services.
At the close of the meeting, Michalson spoke, saying, “I’m deeply saddened at the fact that I came back to council and I tried really hard to get along with Mayor Dewey. As soon as I started doing my diligent duty and tried to get hold of that contract I had two council members with Mayor Dewey, I had a city attorney that wouldn’t talk to me on the phone, a newspaper ragging on me all over town. Why? What did I do? I was just doing my diligent duty to get a contract. Then all of a sudden kaboom, I have this complaint against me for all these different things. I’m shocked and like, what’s going on here? I did my duty and now everybody is punishing me for it. That’s just sad. It’s so sad. And you should be ashamed too, Scott. I called you a Friday ago and asked you about the question of being suspended without pay and you couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. That hurt me. I’m the Council President. Then I see that him and her got emails but me and Robin didn’t…”
Mayor Dewey said, “Mr. Michalson, I’m going to have to ask you to refrain from attacking an individual.”
“I’m not attacking,” said Michalson.
“I think you are,” said Dewey.
“All right, I’m done here,” said Michalson.