Board approves trailer purchase, addresses open meeting questions

SEELEY LAKE – At their July 19 meeting, the Seeley Lake Fire Board approved the purchase of a new enclosed trailer. They also approved Fire Chief Dave Lane to seek bids to mitigate and fix water issues at Station 2 north of Seeley Lake. In other business, Board Chair Scott Kennedy addressed correspondence regarding concern that Open Meeting Law was violated at the May meeting.

As requested at the June meeting, Lane presented the board with additional quotes to replace the enclosed trailer that collapsed from snow damage. The insurance totaled it and took it. Lane explained he would like to use the new trailer for incident and event support.

Trustee Gary Lewis offered a nearly brand new trailer to the District for $8,900. The other quotes presented exceeded $10,000. The board unanimously approved the purchase of the enclosed, utility trailer from Lewis. Lewis was absent.

Lane said since the District purchased Station 2, there has been an ongoing issue with moisture getting into the building. The moisture gets into the vapor barrier, in the crawl space and in the attic. He had a safety inspection done which ensured the facility was still safe. He also informed the Facilities Manager for Missoula County of the issue. The tenants should not have to leave the facility due to safety issues or when the work is being completed.

An engineer from the insurance company assessed some of the issues and identified that water pools develop at one corner of the building when there is heavy moisture. The water travels down under the foundation and comes back up under the building in the crawl space. The insurance company said they would not cover it because it was an on-going issue.

Lane presented the board with two bids to mitigate the interior water issues. He advised the water movement under the building needs to be addressed. He asked permission to contact a contractor to mitigate the source of the problem on the exterior of the building.

While unsure of specifics, Kennedy said they had done some work to address that corner of the building in the past. Based on the photos, he felt it was a minimal repair to the corner where the water is entering the building.

Kennedy and Kimble agreed that, while they need to address the interior issues, the source of the problem also needs to be fixed.

“I totally agree we don’t want this to happen again. That is why we need to do it right the first time,” Lane said. “If we take care of the root cause then the other stuff is protected.”

Kimble requested that they have three bids to consider that includes fixing the outside problem.

The board unanimously approved getting an estimate to fix the interior and contact three contractors for bids to fix the problem at the corner. They will call a special meeting, if needed, to approve the entire package to address the issue so they can get the work done while the weather is dry.

Kennedy addressed correspondence submitted by the Seeley Swan Pathfinder questioning the board remaining in closed session for discussion of Lane’s raise following his performance review.

“While closing a meeting for a performance review is perfectly legal, because the meeting was not reopened following the performance review, the public was deprived of their constitutional right to know what options were discussed, witness the board’s discussion and provide public comment before the decision was made,” wrote the Pathfinder in their email to the board. “While redoing the vote in front of the public remedied part of it, the public missed the discussion and the opportunity for public comment.”

Kennedy said he spoke with the District Attorney and this was the response, “The vote in closed session was correct and authorized the chairman to convey results to the public for the four percent pay raise. The meeting was in fact reopened, the recording verifies that, and when questioned by Andi after reopening, her public comment about the vote being in public, the board was further transparent and re-voted without hesitation. No one else expressed public comment. The re-vote was not necessary, doubling up. I questioned the constitutional right as noted in the email, Montana Code Open and Closed meeting privacy laws govern. Furthermore request for discussion of what transpired in closed session is not open to the public for any discussion or what options were discussed.” 

When asked if the Chief’s raises would be discussed in closed session in the future since in the past the board did not go into executive session, Kennedy responded, “This is the way we are doing it. This is the law and the way you are suppose to do it.”

Kennedy emailed the Pathfinder following the meeting to clarify the information after discussing the issue further with counsel.

“Personnel matters may be conducted in closed session to preserve important privacy interests also guaranteed by law, but the raise decision required an opportunity for public comment and a vote in open session. Taking a vote on the raise during a closed session would not have complied with open meetings requirements,” Kennedy wrote. “After this issue was raised during public comment by Andi Bourne after reopening the meeting and provided an opportunity for public comment on this decision. Since there was no other public comment, we proceeded to the vote on the record. Because the issue was raised and because we are striving to fully comply with the open meeting requirement, we also reviewed the process with counsel again after the meeting. Consistent with this statement, we believe that the vote on the record and with the opportunity for comment cured any deficiency in the rest of the process.”

During his update, Lane said they served 577 people at the Fourth of July Pancake Breakfast during which they had 10-11 cars at the Car Show. He felt that was a good turn out. He hopes next year it will continue to grow.

“I think overall it went pretty good post-COVID and the word will get out and hopefully it will start growing again,” Lane said.

During public comment, Kristy Pohlman said she appreciated Kennedy addressing the questions that have been asked for the past two years at last month’s meeting. She asked if there was a policy that the chairman of the board speaks for the entire board or if the board agrees on responses via email since she has never noticed that the board has drafted a letter or response to anyone during a meeting in the past two years.

She felt that Kennedy attacked her personally.

“First I know I made many phone calls and spoke with many experts and formulated my public comments as they advised. As for your response, the public chastising, harassment and defamation of character for nearly 20 minutes, I felt was very unprofessional,” Pohlman said. “You are an elected official. You are not trained, nor do you have a professional license that is necessary to tell me and the public how we feel.”

Pohlman also requested of the board and submitted the required Request for Public Information document to see the strategic board plan.

“I think it is necessary to gain the positive public support,” Pohlman said.

Finally, Pohlman said it bugged her that when the board resumed following an executive session at the June 21 meeting, they had already voted on the Chief’s raise. She pointed out that it is a financial decision and it violated Open Meeting Law.

Pohlman said, “Your blatant violation of last month’s [meeting] just validated my doubts of your transparency.”

The next regularly scheduled meeting is Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Fire Hall, 200 Firehouse Lane. The agenda and any special meetings will be posted at seeleyfire.org.