Stevensville town hall hours still in question

by John Dowd

For the last few weeks, the Stevensville Town Council has been debating a proposed change to town hall office hours. During last week’s town council meeting, the public was given the opportunity to voice their concerns, which they almost missed out on. 

On the meeting agenda, two items were listed regarding the issue. The first was the public hearing, where the public has a chance to weigh in on the proposal. The second was the unfinished business item, which was a discussion and decision item for the council.

When the meeting got to the public hearing item, Mayor Bob Michalson asked the public to comment. However, none of the numerous community members in attendance stood to comment during the appropriate public comment period.

Being that no one stood to speak, the mayor moved on to the next item. As soon as Michalson asked the council to make a motion to act, and then to discuss the issue before a vote, there was some anger and confusion from the audience. Council member Stacie Barker then suggested that there might be some confusion from the public regarding when to comment.

It is proper procedure at any board, town or city council meeting, that there are appropriate public comment periods, as are labeled on the agenda. Standard procedure dictates that once an agenda item is past, it cannot be returned to, and the public must only comment at appropriate times, and be aware of when those times are.

Fortunately for the community members in attendance, the mayor decided to back up to re-hold the public hearing. This was done at the request of council members, who noticed the apparent confusion among community members in attendance. When the public hearing period was reopened, several community members stood to speak, and all of their feedback towards the decision to shorten town hall hours on Fridays was negative.

One concern was that no one would be in the office if there was someone who wanted to come in later in the afternoon on Friday. This was voiced by Jean McKinley, who further stated that the decision should be made on behalf of the town, and not just the town employees. “It needs to be public oriented.” She also stated that town employee pay should then need to reflect the decreased hours, if hours are shortened.

Former Stevensville council member Nancy Lowell spoke against the change in hours as well. She claimed this would set a precedent and that there could be other employees that might wish to go home early on that day. “You’re opening a can of worms,” stated Lowell.

Other community members suggested employees should stagger their time in the office, with some coming in earlier and others leaving later. Scott Butler stood to speak and said, “We need further public information as to why this is necessary.”

Finally, the mayor spoke to answer some of these concerns, once everyone had finished. Michalson stated, “We were looking at it as being better stewards of the Town’s money.” He spoke about what the town employees are doing that he believes the public is not aware of. 

According to Michalson, the town office employees are at every meeting, during public hearings, council meetings, board meetings and more. Most of these meetings occur outside standard office hours, like the very meeting everyone was in attendance at the night of June 26. “No one sees that,” said Michalson. He then stated that the employees often do not take lunch and work late many days because the Town has things that need to get done, regardless of the standard office hours. The employees try to communicate when they are going to be in the office and are constantly trying to find ways they can save the Town money. This means they often need to miss days, or leave early to save hours. “They manage their time very well,” added Michalson.

Michalson also wanted to remind the public that, as he stated in previous meetings covering the proposed hours change, “on Friday afternoon there’s nobody coming in here.” He said they often do not see anybody coming into the office on Friday afternoons. “It’s a waste of the public’s money,” for town employees to be paid to sit in the office, when they could be taking that time off to compensate for other hours when they need to be there, like for council meetings, he said.

Another concern voiced by the public over town hall hours was if the decision to shorten them was even legally within the Town’s power. To answer that, after Michalson was done speaking, Barker read the Montana law on the subject, MCA 7-4-102. Under the second bullet point of the code, it states, “The governing body of a third-class city or town may establish days and times when municipal offices are open to conduct business.” According to Barker, the town is considered a third-class town and, therefore, the Town of Stevensville has the right to change its operating hours, and the council can vote to do so, legally. 

At the request of council member Wally Smith, and agreed upon by all other council members, the subject was again tabled until an upcoming meeting where all town council members were present, as last week’s meeting was absent council member Cindy Brown.

Another notable event at last week’s town council meeting was that the town decided to award the bid to Water XYZ for a water distribution system leak detection service. The goal of this was to attempt to discover where a large amount of water might be leaking, as the town suspects. 

Stevensville also welcomed a new Stevensville Police Officer, Otis Baugh. Baugh introduced himself before the council, speaking on his time as a bomb technician in the military and how he is excited to be a part of the community and to get involved. 

Stevensville Police Chief Boe also spoke to the community and the council. He wanted to remind the public that there will be no fireworks show at the park this year. He also stated the hours the public would be allowed to use fireworks. These hours were July 3, from 6 p.m. to midnight and on July 4 from 8 a.m. to midnight. The Civic Club will still be holding the Pignic in the park, but there will be no official show. Boe added that there are to be no fireworks in any of the town parks, and said all fireworks are to cease at midnight. He wanted to remind the public that there are a lot of elderly veterans in this community, and some may have PTSD. “Please be respectful, and enjoy the holiday,” said Boe. 

Also at the meeting, a member of the public, Sue Devlin, voiced a complaint against Stevensville Pubic Works Director Stephen Lassiter. The complaint noted an aggressive comment he made on a Facebook post. She requested that he be reprimanded. The town council stated that they would look into the matter.