It's time to set the record straight about recent events

I would like to state a few facts that were not reported in the newspapers. First and foremost, I did not lose $17,500 nor did I walk away with $49,500, like some papers tried to show that I did. I lost very little. If not for the generosity of my lawyer, Dog Scotti, from the law firm Morrison & Frampton of Whitefish, this case would not have been settled.

We settled this case because Scotti saw the dysfunction and embarrassment it brought to Libby and I did not want to cost the taxpayers any more money

I spent 14 months on it. Roll and Reintsma knew they had no case going into this, and after the first case was heard, both Bill Bischoff and Robin Benson openly admitted they had no case. They just wanted to cost me financially.

This case was filed for one reason and one reason only: election fraud. Roll knew he was losing the mayoral race so he had his so-called unethical lawyer file false charges. Judge Wheelis saw that they had no credible evidence against me.

During the entire process and in his deposition Roll kept saying that he had nothing to do with the suit, but in The Western News on Nov. 18, 2014, he was reported saying that he and Reintsma had discussed the case before there was ever a filing.

This is not the first case that Reintsma has fumbled his way through, and Judge Wheelis saw that. They both know that the next case would have been just as bad for them.

Reintsma openly admitted in his deposition that Roll had broken the conflict of interest law for working on city trucks, but did nothing about it. He tried to censure me with the same law, even for having an opinion. Reintsma is doing the right thing by leaving town.

The city wants you to believe that it only cost the city a deductible of $750, but Reintsma has been paid almost an extra $3,000 form the city, and you can bet he has an additional bill once he has left town.

Reintsma also makes $2,166 per city council meeting. He did not show up at the Nov. 17 meeting -like I knew he wouldn’t – making it about six meetings that he has never showed up at.

That is $12,996 that the taxpayers have paid out for nothing and now an additional $18,000 for a Helena attorney. I hope the next attorney that the city hires has a whole lot more ethics than this one. The City of Libby cannot afford to keep outsourcing our money. That is another $70,000 from which our town will never benefit.

I am not the first councilman that has faced this bunch of unethical people for standing up, thinking for myself and not forgetting that I work for the people that elected me to office. I respect DC Orr and Stu Crismore more than ever for having to go through this same thing and as long as this bunch stays in office, there will be others after me.

I hope the people of Libby start getting involved and start watching their elected officials. You see what is happening to your water bill, and you can bank on it going up again next year. There have been millions of dollars in up-charges and mistakes in this project and that 1,710 water users are going to pay for it