About 17,000 people voted in the 2014 General Election in Ravalli County.
The Ravalli County Board of Commissioners recently voted 5-0 to contract with the Ravalli Republic for both Legal Notices and Display Advertising.
The Ravalli Republic has a sworn net distribution of 2,999, that’s about 17.6% of 17,000.
The Bitterroot Star has a sworn net distribution of 6,876, or about 40% of 17,000.
Both newspapers have a combined sworn net distribution of 9,875, nearly 58% of 17,000.
Newspapers are important in Ravalli County! Evidently a free press was singularly important to the framers of our Constitution, who were evidently consistently opposed to framing to support political parties.
What follows is from an old plugger whose uncle was a Republican Ravalli County Commissioner in the 1970’s. Uncle Frank used to maintain that, “Ravalli County has higher quality employees than Missoula County, because we support a better pay scale.”
Some background:
There was the purge of the Certified Planner, also the purge plus expensive buy-out of the Deputy County Attorney.
Experimenting with a five Commissioner form of County Government, with all five tied to a dominating political party, soon led to macro-managing the Road and Bridge Department and appointing an obviously unfit party figure as temporary Treasurer of Ravalli County.
How did one-party centralized power become dominant? Because the opposition party was small in numbers and smaller in finances.
Experimenting with five Commissioners combined with one-party governance led to the obviously incompetent approval of what would have become the largest ever subdivision in Ravalli County. (And that was legal for a while, because the organized opposition party is quite small in numbers, and smaller in finances.)
Montana Law requires County Commissioners to call for bids on county newspaper advertising for the next calendar year. Newspapers have to submit sworn net distribution numbers.
On 12/23/15, the Ravalli County Board of Commissioners pretended to deliberate, then awarded the 2016 newspaper contracts to the high, high bidder with half the sworn net distribution numbers.
Of course, a powerful central government is privileged to favor the dominant political party and disfavor opposition and resistance. Might makes right!
To watch the video go to Ravalli County website, select Departments, then Commissioners, then scroll way down to Live and Archived Meetings.
Go to the part where they meet and deliberate about spending county money to buy a vehicle. Then go to the next meeting, 12/23/15, on having additional electrical service installed at the Fairgrounds. In both of those meeting sessions, notice the concern of Commissioners to know the subjects, also the costs to the County!
Then observe the total lack of deliberation as the Commissioners open the Sealed Bids from the two competing newspapers. Pens are twiddled but never put to paper. Nobody says beans about the obvious, such as:
- The newspaper with the least circulation bids a column inch rate that is 180% higher.
- We should always strive to award contracts for the best product at the best cost.
- Our lawful duty is to award the contract to the newspaper with the lowest cost and the highest number of newspapers in circulation.
- To do otherwise would show contempt for common sense, fiscal responsibility and law and order.
- The Bitterroot Star has a sworn net distribution of 6,876. The Ravalli Republic has a sworn net distribution of 2,999.
- For display ads (not Legal Notices) the Bitterroot Star bids $3.00 per column inch. The Ravalli Republic bids $5.30 per column inch (and with a narrower column!).
When watching the video, notice how none of the five Commissioners are shocked by the high, high bid. For some reason, deliberation is not needed. Just a string of code phrases favoring awarding the 2016 newspaper contract to the Ravalli Republic.
(Which happens to be owned, managed and budgeted by Lee Inc. of Davenport, Iowa, restructured by its 2011 Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Delaware. In my opinion, possible ongoing intent and purpose of Montana Code Annotated (MCA) 18-7-411, is that the Commissioners should put out a Call to Bid on newspaper advertising to a newspaper that is mostly “published” in Ravalli County.)
Businesses that advertise in Ravalli County probably know a whole lot more about newspaper circulation numbers than do the Commissioners. However, the Commissioners assume the role of self-appointed judges pretending that their speculation is magically changed into evidence: “Like we said last year, could be that a lot of the Bitterroot Star newspapers just get thrown in the trash.”
And what did not happen next, was the very worst darn thing that happened! Right then a Commissioner should have spoken up and said something like: “What are you implying, but not stating? That the newspapers are put straightaway into the trash? That is without being read? How many? 1,000? Commissioners, our mandatory duty is to work with the sworn net distribution numbers! To neglect those numbers is to neglect the law on how Ravalli County awards contracts for services. Stop acting without good reason. Like I told you during our deliberations in the hallway, we Commissioners have a mandatory duty to see to it that published voter information is distributed to the largest number of potential voters.”
Well, well, do watch the 12/23/15 video and notice what does not happen! You might expect that Commissioners, and the Elections Administrator, would say something like:
- This is an election year. The biggest county advertising expense is for voter information.”
- We have to inform the public with a map of the county with described Election Districts, and locations of where to vote, and information about how to vote, and a portion of a sample ballot, and how to request an absentee ballot.
- To stay on budget, we may have to shrink our election information down to half size if we contract for the $5.30 column inch bid. On a square inch basis, the high bid rate is 226% higher than is the bid rate of the Bitterroot Star.
You might have thought at least one Commissioner would say the obvious: “We already met and discussed this. Some Commissioners think they can trump state law and order. I will not vote to spend a lot more money to print fewer vertical column inches, in more narrow columns, in fewer newspapers. I will not vote for the horror of misuse of public funds paired with fiscal irresponsibility. I will not vote for the horror of Commissioners performing like Kommissioners, knowingly under-informing the public in general and especially about upcoming elections, by way of contracting to place county advertising in a lot fewer newspapers.”
Instead, the Commissioners chimed in with phrases totally neglecting the sworn net distribution numbers of the Bitterroot Star. And soon came the 5-0 vote to award the 2016 Legal Notices Contract to the newspaper with net distribution numbers one half of the Bitterroot Star numbers.
And then the lock step five moved on to the next item on the agenda, the 2016 newspaper Display Ad Contract.
And by gosh, they decided if it was OK to neglect the distribution numbers in the vote on the small contract, well then it’s OK to neglect the distribution/circulation numbers on the big contract.
Notice how Commissioners and a county official were already in agreement that the Display Contract must go to the same newspaper just awarded the Legal Notices Contract! One admits something like: “I’ve already thought this through before now.” Out of the blue, one pushes for having a “paper of record.” Two Commissioners quickly agree with the “our paper of record” nonsense.
Half an hour after opening the bids, each one of the five Commissioners voted to award the newspaper Display Ad Contract to the bid with the high, high rate, and one half the distribution numbers.
Voted 5-0 to increase the power of the central government establishment, with their own ‘paper of record.’
Voted 5-0 for more bureaucratic over-reach.
Voted 5-0 because in Ravalli it’s occasionally OK for the central establishment to neglect law, order and duty.
Voted 5-0 because in Ravalli it’s OK to use fiscal irresponsibility to knowingly, perhaps intentionally, under-inform the public and voters, as long as you advance the interests of the over-dominating political party!
Voted 5-0 because lots of voters have fallen into habits of thinking that it’s OK for county officials to increase the domain of the over-dominating political party.
Solutions? Could the Commissioners vote again? If not re-vote, then revoke?
Partial solution? Print timely, necessary, also sufficient election information in both newspapers? Say with nearly equal size display ads in both newspapers. (Although the one newspaper has half the net distribution and charges 226% more per square inch!)
Solutions? FOIA requests! Ask Commissioner candidates what they suggest! Has absolute power absolutely corrupted?
Bob Williams
Stevensville