It’s your bill, not ours

by Jim Crews, Stevensville

Well, Mayor Dewey is at it again. He has placed on the Town Council Agenda Item 11.C of New Business, an item to have the town reimburse him for $12,020.20 for legal fees. Fees for legal representation the personally engaged to fight the recall.

He is asking the town to reimburse him for a “personal legal action” he filed against Regina Plettenberg and Leanna Rodabaugh in order to stop the recall.

It was not the Town of Stevensville vs. anyone, it was Brandon E. Dewey against Plettenberg and Rodabaugh. That makes all the difference in the world.

Fact is the recall went forward after the legal action failed. That made it a valid recall no matter what the Mayor says. It happened. It failed, but it still happened and the town council was not asked if the town would cover the legal fees prior to Brandon E. Dewey obtaining an attorney for his personal use. It was his choice to file the legal action, thus he is responsible, not the Town of Stevensville, not the tax payers of Stevensville, not the Citizens he was elected to serve.

In his letter to the council to try to justify the reimbursement he states, “As a matter of public policy, it is appropriate to grant indemnification and cover the costs of the matter.”

Excuse me, the town does not have a public policy to grant indemnification. It never has had such a policy.

He goes on further to say that, “Communities would be hard pressed to find citizens to step into roles of leadership and responsibility if precedence required them to finance these types of issues on their own.”

Well, welcome to the real world. You are legally responsible for your actions mayor. If you screw up, you pay the penalty. All you had to do was to follow the town policies and ordinance to award a contract. 

Fact of the matter is, every candidate for election to public office takes that risk. If you violate campaign finance laws, you pay. If you are elected to a town office and you violate the town policies, ordinances and state statutes then you pay the penalty. All you have to do is follow the rules and you are protected. If you do not, then you get to hang out to dry all by yourself. That’s the way it is in the real world, not only in politics, but in most professions.

Most people that run for public office are not afraid of a law suits, recalls or criminal action being brought against themselves. Most people that are elected take the conservative route and follow their oath of office, obey and enforce the laws and policies required of the office.

Mayor Dewey, you were told to pay the money back by the Town’s City Attorney after you authorized the bill to be paid by the town without council approval. You did that. I am glad you could do that after not bringing it before the council for 7 months. That is a long time to keep something like that out of the public view.

Now you are coming back to ask the town to reimburse you for something that you did all on your own, after you chose not to seek reimbursement after you were told to pay the money back.

NO! 

You did that, the town council did not authorize it. It is your bill.