Two petitions filed by Leanna Rodabaugh to recall Stevensville Mayor Brandon Dewey have been deemed deficient by the county attorney’s office. Rodabaugh is the Stevensville woman who got a recall petition on the ballot last year which ultimately failed in the November election.
The reasons for these new recall petitions are similar to last year’s in that they have to do with two agreements between the Town of Stevensville and service providers, one for utility billing services and one for an online platform.
Rodabaugh alleges that Mayor Dewey violated his oath of office by signing a three-year contract for services with MySidewalk, Inc. that had not been authorized by the Stevensville Town Council in accordance with Section 7-3-203(7), MCA. The petition alleges that Dewey circumvented the Town of Stevensville Purchasing Policy and that signing this contract for services without Town Council approval precluded the public’s right to know and participate. The petition did not note whether the purchases are contained in the department’s current fiscal year budget or the Town’s current Capital Improvement budget and did not say how much the contract was for. The actual signed contract does provide the amount as $23,000 for an annual subscription fee.
The other recall petition makes the same allegations, only for a three-year contract for services with Billing Document Services, Inc. No amount is specified.
With both petitions, the County Attorney’s office determined that the form requirement that the petition sets out a general statement of the reasons for the recall had been met. The office added a note on both of the petition memorandums: “In accordance with Montana law, our Office is reviewing this petition only for legal sufficiency of its form, based on the statements that Ms. Rodabaugh has sworn are true. If the validity of the statements are challenged prior to the election, then the accuracy of Ms. Rodabaugh’s statements supporting the petition will be a question for the District Court.”
However, the petitions were deemed deficient for three reasons. First, the previous expenses related to last year’s recall election have not been reimbursed by the petitioner. They amount to $2,385.55 and include 49.25 hours of attorney’s time and two hours of staff time, ballot stock costs, printing costs, and the cost of publishing notice of the recall election. Secondly, the petitions must be accompanied by a written statement containing the reasons for the desired recall in no more than 200 words. And thirdly, the petitioner must swear before a person authorized to administer oaths that the written statements are true. Because Rodabaugh failed to meet these requirements, Deputy County Attorney Clay Leland deemed the recall petitions “deficient.”