Selection process was illegal
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Editor,
The Republic is dead; long live its replacement: Social Democracy.
Polson is about to have a new City Manager. The process of selection was performed outside the confines of the law, the decision on just who it would be was performed without public input and the legal, binding contract for services was voted on by an incomplete city council during a hastily called special (are you surprised?) meeting.
How’s that for socialism? The city attorney apparently knows what the law means, rather than what it says, and directed the city council, in private, to ignore input from our State Attorney General’s office concerning legal procedures. So now we follow “James’” Rules, rather than the Montana Constitution.
Exactly why were two of the three interview sessions with the candidates held in private when the law requires all to be with public attendance? How is it okay to be just partially legal? Can you be just partially pregnant?
The selected candidate apparently already has the power to require Polson’s City Council to convene and agree to a contract without full representation of the council. A hasty public meeting with the mayor and three of your six ward commissioners voted to approve the contract. The mayor had to vote, to make it a quorum. These four individuals won’t be around come January, but they felt empowered to saddle you all with a city manager of their choosing and a contract for services that has not been fully reviewed or vetted by an independent source.
Does anyone remember the additional $35,000 settlement paid to the last city manager against another irresponsibly written contract?
Are you feeling abused or violated yet? Do you even care? And all of this on the heels of the illegal and unconstitutional meetings and resolutions held by the Jocko and Mission District Irrigation boards. We no longer have a Constitutional Republic that safeguards the rights of the individual. You are expendable; sorry. You will become an anecdote in the history of the U.S.A.
Michael Gale
Ronan
