Commissioners address pandemic measure opponents' petition

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners acknowledged Dec. 2 that a resident petition aimed at dismissing pandemic measures had drawn its attention, but lacked legal standing.

Since first presenting the petition, along with statements and affidavits of harm, in October, members of the group have returned to the commissioners to ask what the county’s top elected officials plan to do about their complaints. Remedies pitched by members of the group include defying Helena, purging the health board and ousting Dr. Brad Black, the county health officer.

Seeking to address the residents, County Commissioner Jerry Bennett broke the group’s concerns down into three components: Whether Black serving as both health officer and chief executive officer of the clinic overseeing countywide coronavirus testing presented a conflict of interest; the alleged misconduct of the county health board; and what action commissioners would take regarding the petition.

For the first, Bennett said he had posed the question to the county attorney’s office. The decision to select the Center for Asbestos Related Disease to manage testing did not present a conflict of interest, he said, presenting a three-page analysis by Deputy County Attorney Jeffrey Zwang.

In the letter, Zwang writes that he found no evidence that Black selected the CARD clinic to receive the status or any reimbursement dollars. Rather, “stakeholders and medical experts” helped make the decision.

Zwang also cited a lack of evidence that Black has any oversight of how the county health department operates, in general, or how it spends money, in particular.

Finally, Zwang noted that testing is not mandatory in Lincoln County and residents are free to go to a variety of providers in the area.

“Simply put, there is no evidence of an official act by the health officer leading to a direct and substantial economic benefit to the health officer,” Zwang wrote.

Bennett pointed out that the CARD clinic is a nonprofit corporation, not a private business as has been alleged. County Commissioner Mark Peck (D-1) also noted that Black is not a county employee, but is under contract.

The county attorney’s office’s assessment comes after months of baseless accusations that Black has engaged in profiteering during the pandemic. Opponents of pandemic measures seized onto the perceived conflict of interest as one possible way to sideline Black as anger over the restrictions mounted alongside case numbers in Lincoln County.

As for the conduct of the health board, particularly regarding accusations they were silencing critics, Bennett said members needed to toughen up.

“First off, I will say when you’re sitting in a position like that you need to grow thicker skin,” Bennett said. “There are tough issues to talk about and people need to be able to deal with that.”

But members of the public need to remain civil as well, he said.

“I’ve run a lot of meetings and I’ve gaveled people down,” he said. “Unfortunately, the only thing with Zoom you can do is mute somebody and cut them off.”

Peck said the commissioners were working with health department leadership and members of the board to better facilitate meetings and bolster communication with the public.

“You’ve got volunteers that are in a really complex situation,” he said. “The health board arguably has more authority than probably just about any other board in the county. They’re seldom used. We’ve gone from minor league, Little League baseball to the World Series.”

Finally, regarding the petition, Bennett said it did not legally require the commissioners to do anything. He said he ran it by the Montana Association of Counties and reviewed the Montana Code Annotated. For it to carry authority, it would need approval by the election administrator and county attorney in “form and content,” Bennett said.

He said that since Gov. Steve Bullock also had a role in the pandemic measures, the Office of the Secretary of State would need to be involved as well.

“It’s not that we’re ignoring the petition. It does carry weight,” Bennett said. “We’re understanding people’s frustration. As a commission, I don’t believe there is anything we can do, legally, with that petition.”

Catherine Kahl of Trego, one of the principle members of the group that presented the document, later said that the group never intended the petition to bind the county to any course of action.

“The petition was never meant to be a legal petition,” she said. “It was meant to be the voice of the people.”

Still, members, who run the gamut from civil libertarians to anti-vaxxers and pandemic deniers, had used the petition as evidence of widespread rejection of both the state and local health orders meant to limit the spread of the coronavirus.