City manager, attorney blocking public communication
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Editor,
The Polson city website states that any citizen may correspond with their elected representative by simply sending an email to the commissioners, c/o the city clerk with the note, “attn. commissioners.” But the website fails to mention that the email may be blocked by the city attorney.
On April 10, a city employee was documented by the Blackfeet Tribal Police to have been in Browning at 8:14 a.m. and again at 8:03 p.m. for a BAC test. The employee was in Browning to assist his spouse, whose job required that she interview individuals in different locations, requiring transportation all day.
Interestingly, the city attorney and city manager signed a statement that this same employee attended a meeting on April 10 in the attorney’s private office, not City Hall, where another city employee could have documented the meeting. Only the attorney, the manager and the employee were alleged to be in attendance. The now former employee denies he was present.
On Jan. 16, an email was sent to the city clerk, “attn commissioners” posing the question, “is it plausible that the employee drove from Browning to Polson and back on April 10 for the purpose of attending a meeting?”
The response from the city manager, attributed to the city attorney, was, “This is personnel and litigation and has all kinds of potential exposures — including a guy without a law degree presuming to represent a former employee on a legal issue.” The manager went on to suggest that anyone could directly email commission members but the city does not provide, on its website, the email addresses of the commission members.
Hiding behind “personnel” is easy, but the employee had previously asked the same question in a public letter to the commissioners.
There is no litigation.
If asking a question to an elected representative elicits a childish comment that someone needs to have minimum educational credentials to correspond with the commission on specific subjects, then the city should post what credentials are needed or what subjects are not allowed.
Were it not so pathetic, the response would be humorous.
Bob Fulton
Polson
