Adam Carlson Unleased, Part II

Recap: Adam is describing the taxing and spending authority of county government and how the commissioners find a balance.

“Mills' values can change if their value goes up or down. We can spend different dollar amounts for certain services without going to ask for an increase in the mill levy. Property taxes are based on the square footage of your home or acreage. Individuals that live within the city also pay city taxes. Most of the county expenditures are paid by the agricultural community. The people that live east of Roundup pay most of the taxes and have the smallest voice come election time. I understand the ranching and farming communities' frustration entirely with the allocation of taxes. The coal mine is another large property owner within the county, they pay a lot of taxes. If the mine were to close that land, the property owners would still have to pay property taxes but at a different rate. We would lose the coal proceeds funds, which is added to the property on top of the taxes. We, as commissioners, have worked not to put the coal proceeds into the operating budget because we realize that there is no guarantee.”

“We've directed those funds to individual special projects. When we were putting the 2021 budget together, we anticipated increasing taxes. Part of the reason was to give county employees an increase in their base wage up to comparative values. Look at the road department personnel; they were starting out at $14 per hour. Whereas in Golden Valley, they were starting their employees at $17 per hour. Yellowstone County was starting at $19.20 per hour. Golden Valley has fewer funds, and they have less population than Musselshell County. We amended the base pay to be competitive with Golden Valley by not filling a position within the road department. Obviously, we had to adjust wages down the line with employees that had worked for the county for a greater length of time. We also worked with department heads to increase salaries for clerical employees, raising the starting wage from $10 per hour to $12 per hour.”

“The audits have cost the county $390,000 to complete. A typical county audit for any given year runs about $30,000; the 2015 fiscal year's review costs about $90,000 due to the poor state of the county's books and the time spent to understand what had occurred. The other years, 2016 - 2019 cost more because the county needed those audits completed pronto, which took more manpower and hours spent by the auditors. Along with the general examination, the school ledger needed cleaning, so altogether that audit costs the county almost $319,000.”

“After talking with people who have dealt with governmental audits and finances and reflecting on the county's finances before the completion of the 2015 examination, their conclusion was either there was gross fraud conducted or at least not following on established budgeting procedures. This is also the comments reflective of audits conducted before 2015 in the comment sections of the inspections. Usually, when an audit is completed, it recommends corrective actions that the entity needs to correct before the next examination, and with the audits just finished, those recommendations were never implemented. For the next audit for the year 2020, the corrective actions that Nicole and I put into place should show that the county is operating on a solid financial basis. So in the years before 2019, corrective measures were recommended but were never followed through. The public can view any audit at the end of each audit; a summary page lists corrective actions that need to be carried through with. Anyone will see the apparent trend in those years that the same items were never corrected. Nicole and I also put into motion corrective actions on those items that needed attention in 2015 thru 2019 audits. Having the county's staff involved with the corrective actions will also ensure that these items will be dealt with.”

“As far as my relationship with other county officials, Cheryl Tomassi and Darcie Hetrick has stepped up to take on additional duties. Shawn Lesnik has been someone that I have been able to work with and is very focused on his budget and working within it.”

“Have not had much interaction with Barb Halverson; she works with the district court, which is really out of our control as county commissioners. Brad Marking Justice of the Peace, not much interaction other than his demands for improving his working environment, and wanting to get a pay raise for Carole McKinnis because sometimes she is his pro-tem judge. We had to explain budget constraints to him and that some of his requests were not in his budget. Brad would come into a meeting and refer to “my peope” (individuals with the supreme court that provide training for the JP’s) said I should have this finding and so forth. I told him to bring his people to a county commission meeting and have them tell me how I should spend county finances! Shirley Marking, in her resignation letter, accused me of harassing her. My so-called harassment was by asking her how she was doing her job as far as budgeting and how to improve it. I was just trying to be sure she was doing her role in a way that positively reflected the county. I inquired and followed up with the issues of duplicated checks being issued from the same claim, and how we can correct it and prevent if from happening again. I was trying to be a good manager. When Amy resigned, Shirley continued as claims and payroll clerk and help the commissioners with what she could.”

“My relationship with the county attorney Kevin Peterson has been strained and testy. This goes back to when I was the county's DES coordinator. I had a floodplain complaint that I needed the county attorney to sign off on. This was when the county attorney's office was in transition from Ken Sipes to Kevin Peterson. County attorney Sipe’s signed the complaint along with the county commissioners at that time and we had the individual cited. Peterson dismissed the charges and wrote a lengthy email stating that statutes were out of date, no reasonable court would prosecute someone under this state statute. Peterson used to work for DNRC; he helped submit this type of legislation to the legislature. There are some individuals in Miles City that were convicted under the same statute that Peterson decried. Other counties used this statute effectively to correct wrongs in their counties, and Peterson refused to act. My opinion, go to court and fight it! I view Peterson as someone that avoids court and would rather plea bargain to simplify his life. As a county commissioner, we had issues that we needed legal advice. The county attorney is supposed to render advice to county officials, and he would not come and talk with us. He emailed the commissioners and told us to put what questions we had on the agenda before he would advise us. We would email him with our questions, and he would email us lengthy documents citing statutes but would not come and speak to us directly, as if he was afraid we might ask a question he could not answer. Some of the statutes he provided led us to ask more questions. We never got straight answers or assistance with a direction that we, as commissioners, should go based on his knowledge of the law.”

“Peterson recommended that as county commissioners, we seek outside legal advice because he did not have time to give us needed advice. Susan Swimley in Bozeman would help us with road issues. Michael Meloy from Helena would help us with our local issues and employment issues. I don't believe he was overworked; he just was unwilling to assist us as county commissioners, because he did not personally like us and wanted us out. There were times that we would contact MACo (Montana Association of Counties) for advice. Peterson would contact MACo and chew them out and demand that he be included in any correspondence that they had with us. Some of the questions I had for MACo were how he was fulfilling his role as county attorney. For Peterson to say that I am too busy. There is numerous times we observed and pulled the video of certain public memnbers spending hours in his office. Even as it relates to me, the Monday before the Republican central committee meeting, he met with Bob Goffena about the issue of me moving from my district. I watched Bob Goffena walk straight into the county attorney's office because I held the back door of the courthouse open for him. I went and looked at the video of how many times that Bob Goffena and Larry Lekse and that group of people went into the county attorney's office during work hours. They are not part of any criminal case or plaintiff for the number of hours spent in that office. These individuals are all part of the plot that has been attacking the county commissioners. Some of these individuals would spend over an hour at a time in Peterson's office. I doubt Peterson was doing what he as county attorney was supposed to be doing.”

“Tom Berry has been whining about that Nicole and myself had shut him out of the process. We included him in as much as he wanted to be included. When it came down to approving a budget, he would vote no, and we asked him why his only response was, "I don't agree." When we went to switch the county's workers' compensation fund because MACo's trust fund was shutting down. Nicole and I voted to go along with other governmental transfers in regards to this issue. Berry was out of state when we voted on that move. When Berry found out about it he wanted it back on the agenda to vote on it again. Berry voted no because he thought we should stay local. Well, Key Insurance handled the county's property insurance and health insurance, but Berry was the original writer of those policies. So, for the county to move the county's compensation trust fund away from Key Insurance meant that Tom Berry would personally lose money.”

When Berry sold Key Insurance, he wrote the policy so he will continue to receive financial compensation for the life of that particular plan. When the vote on that specific budget item occurred, Berry should have abstained because he had a specific economic interest. So his complaint about not being able to work with us is false. At first, he was rarely there. After my first six months in office, I provided a letter to Berry stating that he had missed 51% of official county meetings. That was just the Monday meetings, plus he was never there to sign off on claims for the county, and that record went back to October of 2018. I asked him to share the burden or resign, he never answered my challenge. After that, he did attend a little more regularly, but sat on his cell phone when department heads and business was being conducted. Nicole and I always communicated when one of us was not going to participate in a meeting, so we always coordinated. But Berry would not let us know, we would hear that he was in Arizona and we were the last to know. Berry just refused to communicate with us in any way. I believe Berry's resignation at that time was planned. Attorney General Tim Fox knew beforehand, Kevin Peterson knew, MACo was aware. On the day of his resignation, Peterson accompanied Berry when he dropped his envelope on Cheryl Tomassi's desk. Cheryl was not in that day. I had heard on Sunday from several Republican central committee members that Berry had resigned. That was the first I had heard of it.”

“For Berry to have left without letting either Nicole or myself knowing was cowardly. I genuinely believe that a group of individuals in the county is attempting to manipulate the electoral process and create as much chaos as possible. When Berry resigned, they already knew that I had purchased a house in another district. Still, the timing of my being forced from office was already in the works. I think that the conspirator's applecart has been somewhat upset with Mike Goffena as Berry's replacement. This whole conspiracy has hinged on Bob Goffena getting back in as county commissioner. Everyone knows that there is an issue between the two brothers. If the Republican central committee had put Bob Goffena's name as a replacement for myself, then that act would have destroyed the Republican central committee. Sue Olson has been a lifelong Democrat. Bruce Hoiland has run for office many times, and the only way he would get on the county commission is if he were appointed. Mike Turley is the party's only option for my replacement. Robert Pancrantz is a total unknown and will be running against Nicole. Mike Goffena will be on the ballot running to complete Tom Berry's term. This dilemma has been exasperated by Peterson and accusing Nicole and me of thwarting the election process. I am supportive of the county becoming a non-partisan county for election purposes. That would mean that if there were a single candidate for a position, he/she would have to get 51% of the vote to win! Whereas currently, we are a partisan county if there were only one candidate affiliated either Republican or Democrat who only needs one vote to win! This would be a method to defang the party system we now have in place. I think being a non-partisan county would force candidates to sell themselves to the voters and make the system more competitive.”

“The Republican central committee have chosen Mike Turley as their candidate to fill my position on Wednesday, July 22.” That person will then be on the November ballot to fill my position beginning in January 2021.”

“Their choices were Mike Turley, Bob Goffena, Sue Olson & Bruce Hoiland. When I attended the meeting these candidates put their names forward, Mike Turley was the only individual that had a reasonable command of the issues at hand. I had asked the candidates how were they going to fund county roads? Bob Goffena talked about using other funding sources, but those sources are already being used. Sue Olson put forth to increase the mills, but that is an increase in taxes and would never pass the vote on the ballot. She also said there used to be a list with the roads needing work prioritized. Her road was always at the top of that list. Also, funds should be spent on the population on any given road. A priority list would benefit Sue Olson because she lives on Fattig Creek Rd. which is one of the larger populated roads in the county.”

“Bruce Hoiland said he would be sure all the road crews supervisors have a road scholar rating. Bruce does not realize that all the road crews and supervisors have their road scholar rating already. The only employees that do not have a road scholar rating is a mechanic and the secretary. If Bruce thinks he can go in and tell the road crews how to do their jobs, they will quit! Bruce wanted to use some of the county's savings that were in CD's. I pointed out that money was earmarked for emergencies. I also asked how do we put back into the fund for future use? We are using some of the interest that we make on those investments now.

Mike Turley suggested we look at budgets across the board and see if there is some available extra funding from other departments. We should not look at raising taxes.”

“I have not had a chance to meet with Mike Turley. If he keeps an open mind and avoids politics, of the good old boy club, he may be successful.”

“The next time I could consider running for office again is in two years. If the three commissioners can work together and accomplish what needs to be done. I will be content to observe. I have a good job, a family, three children, one grandchild, and some health issues. So, time will tell.”