Stevi mayor compiles paper trail over legal fee payment

Council member Dempsey Vick resigns

Following allegations by council president Dempsey Vick of mayoral impropriety that surfaced at the June 10th town council meeting, on Friday Stevensville Mayor Brandon Dewey released a packet of information pertaining to the payment for legal fees he incurred following a lawsuit related to a recall attempt in 2020. Dewey sued Leanna Rodabaugh, the person who filed the petition to get the recall of the mayor on the ballot. Dewey lost the lawsuit to stop the recall and the recall election went forward but the recall attempt ultimately failed, with Dewey remaining in office.

Although the invoice from the law firm of Boone Karlberg PC was dated September 11, 2020, Dewey told the Star he did not receive it until December 21, 2020. He submitted the claim for payment of the legal fees on December 21, 2020 (the copy of the claim mistakenly shows a date of June 4, 2019 which is incorrect since the recall attempt didn’t even happen until 2020; a simple clerical error, according to the mayor). Also on December 21, Dewey sent a memorandum to Robert Underwood, the Town’s financial officer, in which he outlined the reasons why he believed the claim should be paid.

An undated purchase authorization for the Boone Karlberg PC invoice was signed by only the mayor. According to Dewey, the purchase authorization is used for the purposes of coding for the Town’s accounting software.

The claim of $12,020.20 was paid to the law firm of Boone Karlberg PC on December 23, 2020.

However, the set of claims which contained the payment for those legal fees hadn’t been approved by the council because they were paid out of cycle due to the Christmas holiday. They were supposed to be brought to the council for approval at the first meeting in January 2021 but that never happened. 

In April of this year, on the advice of the Town’s attorney, Scott Owens, Dewey paid the Town $12,020.20 out of his personal checking account as a reimbursement of the payment for legal fees. Both Underwood and Dewey signed a statement acknowledging that the claims 16426-16456, which include the payment to the law firm, were paid out of cycle without ratification by the town council. The statement also says, “The oversight was discussed with the administrative staff and protocol in place to prevent further oversights.” The statement is not dated.

At the June 10 council meeting, council president Dempsey Vick brought up the issue, asking that the mayor be put on trial for misuse of public funds (see accompanying story). In a press release he sent to the Bitterroot Star earlier that day, Vick stated, “In late April or early May of 2021, I was notified by the Stevensville Town Attorney, Scott Owens, that Mayor Brandon Dewey had performed an out of cycle claim in order to cover the losses from the recall lawsuit Dewey v. Rodabaugh. He had informed me that he was contacted by a whistleblower in the organization about the claim… I was never told the exact amount of the claim and the claim was never brought before the council…” Vick also wrote that, “It was the opinion of Mr. Owens and myself that in the above stated lawsuit, Mr. Dewey was the plaintiff and not the defendant, and the Town has no legal obligation to repay Mr. Dewey for his losses in the lawsuit.”

Owens sent a letter to the mayor and all council members on June 10, stating that he wanted to “clarify/correct the information that was disseminated” by Vick. 

“As I understand, a claim was submitted for indemnification of the costs incurred through litigation in the recall matter, Dewey v. Rodabaugh. This claim was processed out of cycle. Immediately, the Town Finance Officer and the Mayor reported this expenditure to my office and requested an opinion. The recent statement uses the term ‘whistleblower’ to describe how this information came to my office. This is inaccurate.” 

Then Owens addresses the matter of indemnification. “Whether this claim qualifies for indemnification is a matter of debate… At this point, it is my opinion that the mayor could submit this claim for indemnification. However, decision to indemnify would have to obtain Council approval or become an issue of litigation.”

Owens wrote that he had advised the mayor to repay the money, resubmit the claim, and present the issue of indemnification to the council for determination, information which he shared with Vick as council president. Shortly after, Owens was “informed that the money had been repaid and the mayor was no longer interested in indemnification.”

The council has received the documentation for review and will take up the matter at the next meeting, which is scheduled for July 8.

In his cover letter for the documentation packet, Mayor Dewey says that he is now “convinced that an investigation into this matter, and a review of the financials dating back to July1, 2020, is necessary to resolve the misinformation circulating. It is my hope that this will also reinstate any confidence lost by our citizens.”

Dewey mentions some accounting tasks that have not been performed in a timely manner.

“I have directed the City Attorney’s office to facilitate the independent investigation necessary to resolve the matter so that the business of the community can move on.”

In an unusual twist, on Friday, June 11, Vick submitted his resignation from the town council, effective immediately. In his resignation letter, he states, “First thing I want to say is this: this resignation has nothing to do with any issues I may or may not have had in the past with Mayor Dewey or anyone else. This decision was purely made on my own, so that I can focus on myself, my career, and my future…”