Bitterroot Wing-nuttery: Part 3

Preface: This was the letter I sent Terry Nelson, Ravalli County Planning Office-Manager, after the April 4th planning board meeting, which can be viewed at:http://youtu.be/KSM_O2rwYvs (Part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40XixJUT1qw  (part 2). I highly recommend watching the video. Then I highly recommend being outraged. Then I highly recommend calling up Terry and the commissioners and asking them if they believe Hell is down under where fracking and deep-water drilling occur, or closer to the surface where us common folks can more easily identify devils with pitchforks. 

From: Bill LaCroix [mailto:blacroix@cybernet1.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 1:53 PM
To: 'planning@rc.mt.gov'
Cc: bitterroot star; 'kmaki@keci.com'; Alex Asakariassen-Independent; ravalli republic
Subject: Document request from Ravalli Co. Planning office

Terry,

As per my request at last night’s planning board meeting, I would like copies in the form of email attachments of documents verifying when Item 11—“Discussion and possible decision of Bylaw Changes”—was placed on Ravalli Co. Planning Board’s agenda, and where the copy of those proposed changes were, prior to last night’s meeting, for public examination. If the documents are not in digital form for attachment, please let me know where the hard copies of the requested documentation exist.

Also, in regards to the board’s discussion and subsequent approval of by-law changes that seek to compel volunteer board-members to comply with a more stringent attendance policy, I’m requesting all documents-- minutes, notes, communications, emails—pertaining to the planning department and planning board’s studied assessment that Agenda 21 was so important to planning decisions in Ravalli County that volunteers on the planning board would be forced to sit through conspiracy-theory meetings such as Agenda 21, organized at the public’s expense, under pain of expulsion if they miss too many of these far-right educational opportunities provided by the current planning board and office. I remind you that the MACo attorney admonished this same board at the last meeting that they are not authorized to discuss anything unrelated to planning issues at this meeting, so if these documents do not exist, I would expect a detailed explanation as to why these policy-shifts have occurred on the public’s dime.

Finally, I am unclear about what was voted on at last night’s meeting in regards to tardiness. The board sought to set a strict limit on how much time an individual board member may miss on any given subject before that board member is either silenced and/ or not allowed to vote on that subject. Much discussion revolved around board members being censured or otherwise punished for not being physically present in the room when the subject is discussed. My question arising from this discussion and from the board’s subsequent approval of  the motion to censure-by-exclusion any board member not being present for what the board determines is not enough minutes on any given subject is several-fold:

·         How many minutes can a board member be absent from the room before she/he is censured?

·         Has the planning office looked into the legality of censuring members of any county board, including commissioners?

·         If your office has already done so, how much time did the above research take away from county attorney staff? If your office hasn’t checked yet, please provide an estimate of cost?

·         Will there be an official timekeeper at these meetings to keep track of members’ movements from the room like, say, when Mr. Wisneiwski left the room to go to the bathroom last night? Who is qualified by statute or decree to keep the official tally? Again, have your office looked any of this up yet?

My last request is that I be sent an estimate based on official policy and pay scales as to what these public meetings that are apparently (to the public who pays for them) designed:

·         to discuss whether citizens who advocate for clean air and water are really in league with global Stalinists to take over the world and

·          how many times a volunteer board member may relieve him/herself before he/she is censured and silenced by the board at large…

…are costing the public.

I would note that I did record last night’s meeting in its entirety, which recording may be viewed at www.rcwatchdog.org/  and that I am cc-ing members of the press who were not present at the meeting. I’m doing this because my above requests might seem frivolous to anyone who didn’t attend last night’s meeting. I want to make sure everyone in this email loop—which as you know, Terry, is an official citizen’s request to your office and will necessarily be available to the public at large—has access to the actual substance of the meeting before passing judgment on the seriousness of these requests. As I’m sure you yourself know, I am quite serious, quite concerned, and do expect answers in timely fashion.

Thank you,

Bill LaCroix/ Victor/   363-1329