Thursday, May 20, 2010

Hill County Commissioners Miraculously Settle Lawsuit in Record Time

Ok we have a couple updates on the lawsuit filed against the city and county on Monday.

First, we have learned that the City was served the papers in the late afternoon on Monday in person. While we maybe can agree that Mayor Tim announcing this to the public at Monday night’s meeting wasn’t necessary we certainly can’t condone the fact that none of the elected council people were even told of this lawsuit. A point in fact is that at least one of them learned of this lawsuit by reading this blog. Why didn’t Mayor Tim inform the council?

Second, Hill County miraculously has come to an agreement with the plaintiffs to get themselves out of this lawsuit on Wednesday. They have agreed to stop cooperating with the city in the annexation process and to cease the annexation process on their end. Isn’t that what Anderson and the rest of the commissioners have wanted from the start? Just think about this logically for a minute about what transpired on Wednesday.
1. We would assume that the County Attorney and the commissioners go to work about 8 am 
2. Someone from the county attorney’s office meets with the commissioners to discuss the suit and what their position will be
3. The plaintiffs attorney is from Great Falls so assume a call was made by the county attorney to Faure Holden Attorneys at Law to discuss the options
4. The attorney from Faure Holden then calls his clients Patrick, Clausen, Newton, and the Holiday Village Mall and informs them of the counties “offer” and they accept
5. County Attorney again meets with the commissioners to inform them of the response which they accept
6. The attorneys for both sides fax agreements and documentation back and for to each other with signatures agreeing to a joint stipulation with the terms
7. The court document outlining the agreement is filed with the district court clerk at 12:15 which is barely 4 hours from the earliest possible time this work could have began if all are being truthful. Apparently we have better attorneys in the County Attorney’s office than I thought if they could get all this done in this short amount of time. It must just be a coincidence
Or, has the county been in collusion with and advising these plaintiffs behind the scenes the whole time? Did they, as we suspect, make sure they were included themselves in the suit to throw stupid questioning taxpayers off their scent?

We are guessing that they have been in on this from the Get-Go

13 comments:

  1. Secrets and deceit are but a couple of the reasons I am voting against Mike Anderson for commissioner. This isn’t the first time or will it be the last with this bunch

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  2. I know im off subject here but im a volunteer for the Montana Meth Project here in Hill county, and we need people and kids to PAINT THE STATE!!! You could win up to 6500 bucks and its for a good cause. tHere will be regestration forms at some of the local gas stations

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  3. Shawn,


    Write it up and send us the info at havredailycorrector@bresnan.net and we will do a post about it for you

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  4. Do you mean to tell us the Commisioners went behind the Corrector's back and did the job they were elected to without telling you first? I will definately vote for Anderson now. Yep,you guys are a kick.

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  5. Backroom secret deals, pretending you are doing something you’re not, misleading the voters, taking credit for things you didn’t do, failing in your campaign promises, causing strife among people you work with, disappearing from work early on a regular basis, and in general doing a miserable job is not what he is being paid for. Out of the four candidates running Anderson is my #4 pick Bill

    What planet have you been living on?

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  7. Yeah that is a little suspicious. Whenever I deal with attorneys on stuff like this it takes a couple weeks usually going back and forth. This does seem a little scripted! Sounds like the County is twisting the knife on the City a bit too! Thanks for keeping us posted on this story Corrector? The HDN is once again behind the curve on this. By the way didn't the HDN pick up on the TBID issue? Their editorial seems to be way behind the curve! EARTH TO ALICE AND THE HAVRE DAILY, the TBID is a lost cause now until this case is resolved! Wake up!

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  8. Hillbilly
    Stop the presses! WE AGREE 100%! (Now if I could only get you to vote for Randy Randolph!)

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  9. I am listening Stephen and it is a couple weeks until I vote. I have been thinking, thinking, thinking

    I just hate to waste my vote if the guy isn't doing anything to get himself elected. I have seen the other two out going door to door and putting up signs

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  10. I am starting to see some signs coming up for Randolph and it appears he is starting (late) to start campaigning. GIve him a listen Hill. I think you will find he is a better choice than Lorang. (and obviously better than you know who).

    Hillbilly--got any friends in the legal profession? Ask them if they prefer Randolph. Would be surprised if anyone said GD.

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  11. The city can settle this fast.
    Anyone on city water must pay city taxes. No taxes- no water and no sewer.
    They are either in the city or out. Their choice.
    60 days to comply and then your water is off.

    Screw all the lawyer B.S.

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  12. I have dealt with lawyers before and I agree that the speed with which the county got themselves out of this suit seems damn fishy. Wouldn’t the commissioners have had to have an “official” meeting to discuss this? Was that meeting advertised to the public? Was it an open meeting? I realize it involved a lawsuit where they maybe could have kept you from entering but they really weren’t discussing strategy or anything pertinent that would prejudice the case so it should have been open to the public.

    If the commissioners had a meeting about this with the County Attorney there should be official minutes from that meeting. Why doesn’t someone demand to see those minutes? I would bet there was no meeting on Wednesday like the HDC claims and this was all set up ahead of time to make themselves look good and at the same time not be a party to this suit.

    Who else wants to see those minutes? I guess the commissioners could run into the courthouse on Saturday and cook up some official Wednesday dated minutes to give you.

    (You will know if that happened because on Saturday the treasurer’s office if vacant and there wouldn’t be any Ho-HO cream on the minutes unless they were typed during regular business hours)

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  13. Did anyone notice in last thursdays paper that the editorial opinion was a kudos about the dollar a night tax on tourists staying in our motels? I asked around and these motels definatly cannot charge this tax on tourists if this lawsuit moves forward.


    The newspaper never has the facts right and there will be no tax collected because of this suit so why are they running factual incorrect articles

    YOU CAN NOT BELIEVE ONE DAMN THING YOU READ IN THAT NEWSPAPER

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