Polson residents question city attorney’s performance
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POLSON — A group of Polson citizens are calling for the non-renewal of Polson city attorney James Raymond’s contract with the City of Polson.
For at least eight months, the issue of impact fees on Polson City Attorney James Raymond’s new house has been dogging the Polson City Council and feeding rumors around Polson. Impact fees are collected from developers for the impact new homes will have on Polson’s parks, water system, sanitary sewer, and emergency services.
The city adopted Ordinance 624, dealing with impact fees, on March 19, 2007, when former city commissioner Tom Corse moved that impact fees in the ordinance would not apply to subdivisions that had already secured preliminary approval. The Hideaway Subdivision, where Raymond’s house was constructed, already had preliminary approval. The motion passed, but the published ordinance did not include Corse’s stated exemption.
Early this year the current commission forked over $500 and hired outside attorney Bob Long to offer a legal opinion. Long’s opinion was that Ordinance 624, as written, was flawed and could not be enforced on the Hideaway Subdivision where the Raymond home was constructed.
The commission has since adopted a new ordinance, No. 661, dealing with impact fees and process.
In a recent interview, Raymond declined to comment on the matter.
His opponents, including former Polson city engineer Bob Fulton, have been vocal on the issue, even writing letters to local newspapers. The impact fees on Raymond’s new house, Raymond’s alleged unwillingness to do what the Polson City Commission asks him to do, and Raymond’s employment contract are Fulton’s main issues.
Raymond’s self-written employment contract requires a year’s notice if it is not going to be renewed.
“I am a proponent of his not being automatically extended for another year,” Fulton said.
According to Fulton, an example of Raymond’s unwillingness to follow Polson City Commission direction, is the draft of Ordinance 661. Commissioners asked Raymond to remove a phrase about Polson’s “unprecedented rate of new development” and to shorten and clarify the ordinance
Fulton said Raymond brought the ordinance back after a month, not shortened and with the phrase on unprecedented rate of new development in Polson not removed as the commissioners had specified.
Although she had heard rumors about a “good old boys' network” in Polson, former city commissioner Judy Preston said she tried to disregard that and form her own opinions until impact fees drew her attention.
Dean and Tari Duncan came to the commission with concerns about the road in front of their home, which had become a commercial road instead of ending in a cul-de-sac. The road led to the “Mansion,” a huge home that now serves as an office building on Polson hill.
Questions came up about whether or not impact fees on the Mansion and Raymond’s house had been paid.
When it took three months to find out if owner Mike Maddy had paid the Mansion’s impact fees, Preston kept asking questions and said she tried to get items on the commission meeting agenda. City manager Todd Crossett formulates the agenda.
More recently, a group of citizens, including Preston, Murat Kalinyaprak, and others, circulated a petition to not renew Raymond’s contract and presented it at the June 18 city commission meeting. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Polson’s population is 4,488 people. The 145 signatures garnered, represents approximately 3 percent of Polson’s population.
At the same meeting, Judith Bromley, vice president of the board of directors of Domestic Violence Education and Services, read a letter from DOVES concerning Raymond.
Reading the letter, Bromley explained Raymond has specific obligations he is statutorily required to fulfill when prosecuting crimes involving actual, threatened or potential bodily injury. Specifically, DOVES claimed Raymond failed to meet with victims prior to offering plea deals to the accused; he did not meet with the victims to ascertain the facts or to determine their opinions regarding the outcome of the cases. The letter also stated Raymond routinely failed to notify victims of scheduling changes, so they miss work and are frustrated by the justice system, and failed to keep victims informed of the case proceedings, “which places victims in an incredibly unsafe position of not knowing what is happening to the accused.”
Crossett had no statement on the issue of Raymond’s performance, but said, “We all are against domestic violence. James has a wife and little girl, as do I.”
Crossett also noted that Raymond prosecuted approximately 300 cases per year between Polson and Ronan, where Raymond is also the city attorney.
Mayor Pat DeVries said she wanted the city manager to advertise for the city attorney position and also wanted the renewal of Raymond’s contract on the city commission agenda.
Commissioner Fred Funke agreed the commission should review Raymond’s contract.
“Not just Raymond’s contract, but all contracts need to be brought up and not just automatically renewed,” Funke explained.
Since it’s too late to give Raymond notice — his contract period automatically renewed earlier this month — his contract will last at least another year.
