County prepares to replace Commissioner Downey

Phone calls are already coming in about the Troy commissioner seat that will open August 1.

The interest in the commissioner seat follows Ron Downey’s letter of resignation from the role, submitted the day after the primary elections wrapped up on June 4. Following his resignation, Downey said he was leaving his post for personal reasons.

This week Downey confirmed the personal reasons were medical.

Downey said had wanted to serve his entire term, but after talking to his family, Downey decided a resignation would be the best thing for his health. Because the job often required him to be available from early in the morning until 11 p.m., the decision was also the best one for the county, Downey added.

“I wanted to finish my term really bad,” Downey said on Wednesday. “But it is important for a commissioner to give so much time to this job. I’m gone from about 7:30 in the morning and I’m sometimes on the phone until 11 p.m.

“It’s a load,” Downey continued. “And you don’t meet a lot of people who agree with you — most of the people who get in touch with you, the ones who call you, are usually the ones who have a problem, so you hear a lot of negatives. It just means that [this job] has a lot of pressure.”

Because his leaving date is August 1, Eureka commissioner Mike Cole and Libby commissioner Tony Berget will appoint Downey’s replacement from an application pool. That appointed person will fill the role for two years before he or she is voted on in the 2016 elections.

As per Montana legislature, if Downey’s leaving date had been a day before, a special election would have been held, Downey said.

The Montana Annotated Code 2013 states that whenever a vacancy occurs prior to August 1 before the general election held during the second or fourth year of the term, an individual must be elected to complete the term at that general election. However, if the vacancy occurs after July 31 preceding the general election held during the fourth year of the term, the person appointed by the remaining county commissioners will serve until the end of the term.

Downey said he did not make the decision to resign in time for his position to be on the primary election ballot, and he did not want to burden taxpayers with the cost of a special election — a cost Downey said would be about $8,000.

Ahead of Downey’s position being advertised, Bill Bischoff, executive assistant to the commissioners, said the only requirement for the commissioner position was that person be a registered voter, be 18 or older and have lived in the Troy area — a portion of which includes parts of Libby — for at least two years.

Bischoff said there had been around 20 phone calls to the commissioners’ offices regarding the upcoming opening.