Star Editorial
Now, about a year after having filed suit in civil court against former County Treasurer Valerie Stamey to collect $29,000 in fines that were levied against her for failure to perform her duties, the County Commissioners are suddenly anxious to track her down and hold her responsible for her disastrous term in office. The only thing holding them back is that it may cost too much. So they are looking into that.
Everyone agrees that there is no chance of getting the $29,000 owed in fines. “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip,” said Commissioner Doug Schallenberger. But they do want to hold her accountable. Commission Chair Jeff Burrows said that he believes getting a default judgment against Stamey on the suit may also help other people out when she applies for future employment. It will stand as a warning sign that will follow her wherever she goes.
This rationale is faulty, though. When Burrows voted to appoint Stamey to the position of Treasurer, there was already a default judgment against her in Ravalli County Court for about $30,000 over credit card debt. There was also a default judgment against her in a South Carolina court that is also a public record. The thing about court records is you have to look for them to find them. Most people don’t submit them as part of their job application. In this case nobody looked. If two outstanding default judgments went unnoticed in this case, why should another make any difference in the future? If any potential future employers look into it, they will find the default judgments that already exist. Adding another won’t change much in that respect.
Another thing we’ve heard repeatedly from Burrows since the debacle is that “the Commission made the best decision possible given the information they had at the time.”
Not true. The Commissioners may not have bothered to look for court records but they did have Stamey’s job application including work history and references. The fact is they failed to give it any sort of critical examination.
Take the claim that she had “30 years of experience in government fund accounting.” Her own work history as stated in the application should have raised questions about that claim. Where and how did she get 30 years of experience with governmental accounting? Maybe in her spare time? Somebody should have asked her about that.
Another red flag that jumps out of her resume is the fact that she left a high paying job as Superintendent of Food Services at the University of Montana in the middle of her contract to take a job cleaning rooms at a local hotel. Shouldn’t somebody have asked her about that?
We believe the county had the right and the obligation to inquire into her work history and chose not to. It might be easy to blame the Human Resources Officer for these oversights, but, given the red flags in the application itself, the County Commissioners should have demanded it.
Now the commissioners want to track her down and hold her responsible. But all they are going to get, even if they successfully serve her in this civil suit, is another default judgment.
Another default judgment against Stamey is just way too little coming way too late.
If the Commissioners are really interested in holding Stamey accountable, they have the same option now that they have had since finding her guilty of 58 counts of “failure to perform her duties.” In Montana, failure of a public official to perform the duties of their office is considered “official misconduct,” and that is a crime.
[MCA 45-7-401 (1) A public servant commits the offense of official misconduct when in an official capacity the public servant commits any of the following acts: (a) purposely or negligently fails to perform any mandatory duty as required by law or by a court of competent jurisdiction; (b) knowingly performs an act in an official capacity that the public servant knows is forbidden by law;…]
Theft would fall under item (b) but Stamey could be prosecuted under item (a) whether she stole anything or not. The ramifications of Stamey’s neglect of her duties were widespread and significant to many people, agencies, departments and districts in the county. She should be held responsible.
There is no need to hire an independent process server and pay big bucks to have Stamey tracked down and served with a civil suit that she probably won’t respond to and which only leads to another default judgment. Instead, she could simply be charged with the crime of official misconduct. An arrest warrant could then be issued and law enforcement here and elsewhere in the country could track her down.
Criminal charges are still an option. One has to wonder why the County Attorney’s office hasn’t made the charges. The only thing they have said is that the audit showed that no money was stolen. So what? Theft isn’t the only possible crime on the books. In Montana, failure to perform official duties, either through intent or neglect, is official misconduct and it is a crime.
If the Commissioners are serious about holding Stamey accountable, they should be urging the County Attorney to press charges, and if he doesn’t, they should take it to the Attorney General’s office. This would be the easiest and cheapest way to achieve accountability.