What is community?
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Editor,
The definition of community...“a self-organized network of people with a common interest who collaborate by sharing ideas, information and other resources”. Our Lake County community is governed by elected officials; namely, our three county commissioners: Bill Barron, Gale Decker and Ann Brower. Important common interests, such as county growth policies, reduction of county liabilities and ensured county economic longevity are critical aspects regulated through our county commissioners.
As an accredited member of the press, I promote educational transparency by sharing documented video evidence of important governmental public meetings. Many Lake County tax-paying residents simply cannot attend daytime public meetings that affect us all.
Montana Open Public Meeting Laws exist: Section 8. Right to Participation. The public has the right to expect governmental agencies to afford such reasonable opportunity for citizen participation in the operation of the agencies... Section 9. Right to Know. No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government...
On Feb. 16, our Lake County Commissioners were scheduled to meet, midday, at the corporate headquarters of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, specifically within their council chamber. The CSKT introduced their Memorandum of Understanding regarding their voluntary status of the current density map regulations, behind closed doors, to our sole county commissioner. My intent is always to share critical video documentation to all interested neighbors wishing to observe and possibly participate, yet unable to attend. Having filmed a public meeting within the council chamber before, without prior permission, gave me advance confidence that Montana open public meeting laws were observed.
I was prohibited to film this governmental public meeting. Being held on commonly referred “sovereign soil”, allows for quasi immunity from Montana state open committee laws, at least per the opinion of Steve Eschenbacher, our Lake County Attorney as well our Sheriffs’ department.
How is it that the CSKT, a federal instrumentality and owned by the United States, is considered to be an appropriate venue for any county business? Our community can only grow stronger in trust through transparency.
David Passieri
St. Ignatius
(Editor’s note: Passieri has a press pass through USPA media, an independent international organization not affiliated with local newspapers.)
