Roads and rules

I planned on sitting in on a couple Ravalli County commissioner meetings for stories for tomorrow’s paper. But because the two meetings on my radar were sandwiched between a couple other agenda items, I sat through some additional meetings today.

The first was a short item. A resident on Ricketts Road in Hamilton wants to do tree maintenance on a number of trees that are on county right-of-way. But get this – “The landowner wants to do it himself and pay for it,” said commission chair Matt Kanenwisher. The landowner contracted Tarzan’s Tree Service out of Florence to do the work. All the county will have to pay for are flaggers to direct traffic. “We have the cost of flaggers out there but it’s a lot cheaper than us doing it,” Kanenwisher said. Commissioners agreed.

Deputy county attorney Dan Browder then came in to give commissioners updates on county attorney’s codification project. “We started going through these early chapters of the proposed Ravalli County code in late November,” Browder said. “This is just a continuation of this process.” Commissioners workshopped the changes, gave input, asked questions and bartered with Browder on words, phrases, etc.

 

Still a completely Republican race in Ravalli County

Election filing has been open for over two weeks now, and still not a single Democrat has filed in Ravalli County.

Here is a look at the additional Republicans who have filed since I last updated you in this post.

• Roy Morton of Corvallis – governor
• Greg Chilcott of Stevensville (current county commissioner) – county commissioner
• Rep. Ed Greef of Florence – House District 90
• Russ Vogel of Stevensville – House District 89
• Maureen Presswood of Hamilton – Clerk of District Court
• Paige Trautwein of Corvallis – Clerk of District Court

Filing is open until March 12. As a reporter, I want to see some heated campaigns. So come on Ravalli County Democrats! Start filing!

Update: According to Commissioner Ron Stoltz, county commissioner candidate Kevin Fadley of Stevensville has dropped out of the race.

 

Montana Senate candidate hosting Rick Hill fundraiser in Stevensville

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill will again be coming to the Bitterroot, (He was just here a few weeks ago to speak with commissioners) this time for a fundraiser in Stevensville.

The event is hosted by Fred Thomas, a Republican who is running for Sen. Jim Shockley’s vacated seat in the Montana Senate. Thomas is the former Senate Majority Leader (1996-2004) who most famously introduced the energy deregulation bill, passed in 1997.

Hill’s fundraiser is Friday, Jan. 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Thomas’ home in Stevensville – 1004 S. Burnt Fork Road.

No word in the announcement if Hill’s recently announced running mate Sen. Jon Sonju will be in attendance as well.

 

Ravalli County commissioner fire road supervisor

Friday was a nearly eight-hour virtual trial in the Ravalli County commissioners’ meeting room. Back-and-forth testimony, evidence, witnesses.

The verdict? County road and bridge department supervisor Dave Ohnstad was guilty of false statments to the board and failing to obtain necessary engineering services.

The punishment? Termination, effectively immediately.

The hearing was the culmination of an investigation by the county attorney’s office, launched in November at the request of the commissioners.

I will be following up on this story first thing this week. And look here for more blog posts from Friday’s meeting.

 

Commissioners to decide employment fate of county road supervisor

Tomorrow’s 9 a.m. meeting of the Ravalli County commissioners is bound to be another heated one as the board decides the fate of the county road supervisor Dave Ohnstad.

In November, commissioners launched an official investigation of Ohnstad. A letter to Ohnstad outlined the allegations the board had based on work Ohnstad had done on Upper Woodchuck Road. He may have violated employment policy, they say, by:

• ...making false or misleading statements to the BCC concerning work done on Upper Woodchuck Road. These statements were made on or about June 9, 2011, August 18, 2011, and August 29, 2011, at which times you made false statements about what culverts had been removed and needed replacement, what engineering services had been obtained and the cause of problems with the road.
• …failing to perform duties satisfactorily in that the work done by you and under your supervision by the Road and Bridge Department on Upper Woodchuck Road was not satisfactory. Extensive rework has been required. The county has had to pay to install culverts after the fact that should have been installed at the time the work was done. Some of those culverts were not installed correctly, which will require additional remedial action and expense. The work done on this project fails to meet minimum standards. The deficiencies include deficiencies in the road bed, inadequate compacting, compacting testing, and drainage issues, which ave resulted in the premature failure of the paving and other problems, all of which will require additional remediation at considerable expense to the county. 
• …failing to supervise the work done by the Road and Bridget Department such that in several instances such work has been deficient, and by failing to properly manage work assignments. 
• …failing to obtain appropriate engineering services for work done on Upper Woodchuck Road.”

In a letter to commissioners a month later (Dec. 21), Ohnstad’s lawyer, former Ravalli County attorney George Corn, had some harsh words for the board and requested Friday’s hearing be pushed back. Among other things, the six-page letter says commissioners did the following:

• “At the November 21, 2011 hearing, the commissioners violated Mr. Ohnstad’s due process rights and county policy by failing to inform him before the hearing held that day of the allegations against him and the evidence used against him at the meeting.
• …the letter (from commissioners) contains four numbered points alleging, in the most general terms, various misconduct on his part and critically, does not list the evidence supporting these allegations. 
• This present action…continues (to further) the hostile work environment and pattern of harassment directed toward Mr. Ohnstad in his role as a county employee. This present action also shows that he is being treated unequally from other supervisors and department heads who are not being subjected to similar actions. Alarming, it shows that Mr. Ohnstad is being targeted for discipline irrespective of what the evidence establishes.” 

Both the board and Ohnstad will present their arguments tomorrow before the commissioners ultimately decide on Ohnstad’s employment future with Ravalli County.

 

Ravalli County commissioners release a draft wolf policy

Ravalli County commissioners held a meeting today to release the first draft of their county policy for large predator management. You can read about it in my story in tomorrow’s Ravalli Republic, but I also thought I would post it here in its entirety.

 

 

 

 

 

Republican candidates only ones to file so far in Ravalli County

It’s an all-Republican race early on this election year in Ravalli County.

Of the 11 candidates who have filed so far for various elected seats, all 11 are Republican. Here’s a list of all the candidates so far and the positions they are vying for.

– Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor – attorney general

– Sen. Bob Lake, R-Hamilton – Public Service Commission, District 4

– Rep. Pat Connell, R-Hamilton – House District 87

– Rep. Ron Ehli, R-Hamilton – House District 88

– Rep. Gary MacLaren, R-Victor – Senate District 45

– Fred Thomas, former Senate Majority Leader – Senate District 45

– Josh Hennes, Stevensville businessman – House District 89

– Nancy Ballance, Hamilton school board trustee – House District 89

– Marie Keeton, current county treasurer – county treasurer

– Kevin Fadely – county commissioner

– Don Montgomery – county commissioner

I suspect there are many more candidates to come. After all, candidacy filing did just open on Jan. 12. It continues through March 12. The primary is slated for June 5. I’ll be curious to see who else throws their hat in the ring between now and then!

 

County awards legal ads to Ravalli Republic

Legal ads are back in the Ravalli Republic! The Ravalli County commissioners unanimously decided to go with the Ravalli Republic, a 5-day-a-week paper, after printing legal ads in Bitterroot Star, a weekly paper.

Star publisher Michael Howell wrote up this piece that detailed the meeting from his perspective.

 

Rick Hill swinging down to the Bitterroot again

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. The county beat down here has been very quiet due to the holiday season. While the Ravalli County commissioners were technically working the week between Christmas and New Year, it was only office management and no meetings.

But they are back to the grind this week. On Friday, Jan. 6 the board will be meeting with Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill. It is a regularly scheduled meeting for 9:30 a.m. in the commissioners’ meeting room. (215 S. 4th Street, Hamilton). The candidate will be speaking with the commissioners about “important issues for state and local government.”

Hill will also be speaking at the regular meeting of the North Valley Pachyderms that same day at noon at the Frontier Cafe in Stevensville.

Hill made an appearance in Victor back in June that I covered. He also joined Denny Rehberg, Steve Daines and other Republican gubernatorial candidates at a Lincoln-Regan luncheon in Victor in February.

 

This week in editorials

The Ravalli County commissioners went the politically safe route with their latest “commissioners’ corner” editorial. They used their space on the Ravalli Republic opinion page to wish everyone happy holidays.

Ron Stoltz: “This first year on the commission has been a lot of fun and I look forward to serving you in 2012.” 

Suzy Foss: “May the Good Lord bless you and yours with the Miracle of Christs this holiday season.”

J.R. Iman: “I appreciate the opportunity to serve the people of Ravalli County.” 

Matt Kanenwisher: “The family is the true basis of any comunity and it is these relationships which are the mortar that holds our society together. So it is my Christmas wish that we may enjoy, foster and repair thses relationships this holiday season.” 

Greg Chilcott: “I hope you thoroughly enjoy the holidays.” 

Over on the Missoulian today, the editorial board gave its endorsement of reducing the board of county commissioners in Ravalli County from five members to three.

“A ballot item returning Ravalli County to governance under a three-member board of county commissioners should absolutely be put before voters. And Ravalli County voters should absolutely vote in favor of it.”

The editorial did a lot of recapping of a story I wrote recently, talking to various officials about their thoughts on putting this issue on next year’s ballot.