Legislators claim planning meeting violated rules

At the Nov. 1 meeting of the Flathead County Planning Board, Gordon Cross, the acting chairman, and Jeff Harris, Flathead County planning director, showed a blatant disregard for the taxpaying citizens of the Flathead Valley and the Montana Constitution.

In fact, this meeting was conducted contrary to legislative intent, which was written into Montana State Law, Title 2, Chapter 3: "The legislature finds and declares that public boards, commissions, councils and other public agencies in this state exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of this part that actions and deliberations of all public agencies shall be conducted openly. The people of the state do not wish to abdicate their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them." Furthermore, MCA 7-1-4143 states: "…the entity shall adopt rules for conducting the meeting, affording citizens a reasonable opportunity to participate prior to the final decision.

After reviewing the law and consulting with Mark Mattioli of the Montana Attorney General's Office, it is clear to us that citizens were not given a reasonable opportunity to participate in this meeting during their deliberations.

Many citizens attended the meeting expecting to give comment on a previously considered setback proposal because this was announced during the last meeting and subsequently printed in the newspaper.

However, the topic for deliberation was a surprise setback proposal which Cross had written and was introducing that night.

A "setback" for the purposes of this meeting, is a government rule which would be imposed on private property owners prohibiting the building of any structure within a specified distance from a designated river.

Cross did not provide the public in attendance with the written materials under consideration and made no arrangements for audio amplification equipment to allow the public to hear the deliberations.

The board members sat in front of the room conversing in a conversational tone that could not be heard by the audience. Cross compounded these violations of Montana law and custom by informing the audience that public comment would likely not be allowed depending on whether the board adopted the proposal.

Cross did accept presentations from Wade Fredenberg, of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Mark Deleray, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Both aggressively promoted setbacks by homeowners as the solution to decreasing fish populations.

They did not mention the role of Montana FWP in mismanaging the fisheries resource in the first place. For example, the salmon run which once saw millions of fish run up the Flathead River to spawn was wiped out by the unwise planting of mysis shrimp in Flathead Lake by the fish biologists who are supposedly protecting our interests. They are now charging full steam ahead with plans to poison lakes and streams which contain non-native fish populations.

This particular option is not the best and may create a situation where we may not be able to catch fish with our kids and grandkids during our lifetime. These public employees then inappropriately joined the board members in their deliberations leaving the public without a voice.

The private property owners of the Flathead Valley are very concerned about water quality and fish. Pollution from seasonal forest fires and government-operated sewer treatment facilities is a huge threat to our rivers.

Whereas government owns the vast majority of the property in Flathead County, this appointed planning board seems intent on controlling only the small percentage of land under private ownership and used for residential habitation.

Sen. Verdell Jackson, Sen. Jerry O'Neil and Rep. Bill Jones live in Flathead County.