Attorneys wrangle over county's land deal with local businessman

Was it a dirty deal or not?

That’s the question a Montana District Judge must answer after hearing more than three hours of argument and testimony last week regarding the dealings of the Lincoln County Port Authority and a local businessman.

Friday, June 20, attorneys representing a Libby man and the Port Authority laid out their cases in Lincoln County District Court on whether an injunction should be given in a case involving the alleged selling of public land without public involvement.

Fifth Judicial District Judge Luke Berger, appearing by Zoom, said he will do what he can to issue a ruling as soon as possible.

Berger heard from current and past county officials as well as Chris Noble, Dan Torgison, Ann German and D.C. Orr.

The affair began when Libby attorney Amy Guth filed a lawsuit April 1 upon behalf of her client, Torgison, alleging the Lincoln County Port Authority has violated the Montana Constitution and state statutes in violation of the right of public participation and open meeting laws.

Torgison, who most recently owned the Switchback Bar and Grill, accused the Lincoln County Commission, Port Authority and John Does 1-15, of hiding its business dealings with Noble Investment Properties, Inc., specifically the sale of 108 acres, owned by county taxpayers, from the Port Authority to Noble in 2023.

According to court documents, Noble Industries entered a Memorandum of Understanding with the Port Authority in March 2022 that allowed Noble to explore business and development opportunities on certain parts of land in the Kootenai Business Park.

The document said Noble Industries would incur related costs and undertake due diligence. Then, on Jan. 25, 2023, both agreed to allow Noble to begin site clean-up work and pre-development services in anticipation of Noble’s eventual purchase of the property.

When a Dec. 1, 2023 transaction was made between Noble Investment Properties and the Port Authority to sell 108.16 acres of authority property, Bennett, identified as the Port Board Chairman, was the person who signed the contract.

The purchase price was $1.6 million with Noble receiving a $600,000 credit for doing cleanup work already performed under the lease agreement.

Torgison’s case is largely about allegations of public land being sold without public notice and family connections between Noble, others who bought Port Authority land and those serving on the Port board.

German testified she has lived in Libby since 1975 and said she has a lot of interest in local government.

“Starting about 15 years ago, I’d often attend Port meetings, but the last six or seven, they haven’t been good stewards of advertising their agendas or minutes,” German said. “In the last three years, unless you really get in there and dig, it’s hard to find anything.”

German said she spoke to reporters at the Kootenai Valley Record and The Western News and, “no one knew about the sale.”

D.C. Orr, a former Libby councilor and a current member of the city’s government study commission, described himself as a gadfly, very interested in the goings-on of area businesses and governments.

“I’ve been attending city council meetings for 26 years and sometimes the county commission meetings,” Orr said. “When I tried to attend Port Authority meetings, I could never find them. I tried to find them at the Port and in commissioner’s chambers.”

Brent Teske, the District 1 Commissioner in Lincoln County, spent the most time testifying.

Guth accused the Port Authority of meeting in secret and Teske of making decisions on his own.

“You alone, without public participation, are making decisions,” she alleged.

Teske replied that he wasn’t familiar with what all the boards in the county are doing.

Jordan Crosby, one of the attorneys representing the county, said minutes were being kept, but that they didn’t have to be made public.

Guth then queried Teske about the location of Port Authority meetings.

“They were at 60 Port Boulevard then moved to the commission chambers, but without any public notice, correct?” she asked.

Teske said he didn’t know.

“Recently the port meetings were moved to another location, a building owned by Chris Noble,” Guth said. “The taxpayers had a building to meet in for free (county courthouse), but now they are paying rent of $2,100 per month.”

Guth asked him if County Resolution 999 was still in effect. Teske replied that it was, then Guth asked why Commissioners Jim Hammons and Noel Duram were not on the Port Authority board.

“I don’t know,” Teske replied. 

Resolution 999, adopted Jan. 24, 2018, reformed the Port Authority Board to be made up of five members with three being county commissioners. 

Guth also asked Teske about his understanding of open meeting laws and if Port Authority meetings were being advertised or noticed.

Teske, a former Libby mayor and current commissioner, said he understood them.

“I assumed it was being done by the director,” Teske said. “I had no idea if the meetings were posted or advertised because it’s not my responsibility.”

Tina Oliphant, the previous director of the Port Authority, resigned the executive director position sometime in 2021. 

After questioning by Guth, Teske said he recalled Oliphant being the director, then Kenneth Rayome Jr. He said Mark Peck was the shared stewardship coordinator.

Teske wouldn’t admit to real estate deals behind closed doors when questioned. Guth asked Teske if he admitted to violating open meeting law and he said yes because there was no paid director.

In discussions about the value of the land, Teske testified that appraisals weren’t done on the Port Authority land because of COVID.

Teske also spoke about the possible transfer of money from county coffers to the Port Authority to pay for a forester and a wildfire mitigation specialist.

“Title 3 Secure Rural Schools funds are what counties get to offset the loss in property taxes due to federal lands that are not taxable,” Teske explained.

Teske voted to approve moving the money to the Port Authority, but Hammons and Duram were against it.

After the meeting, Teske admitted to uttering a profanity in frustration, saying, “Now, we’ll have to lay off two people.”

At Friday’s hearing, Teske said he believed his fellow commissioners didn’t know the full impact of their votes.

In questioning about the value of the Port Authority land, Teske said he thought the land was a burden on the county, pointing to its status as a dual Superfund site with contaminated groundwater and vermiculite - the substance that has resulted in hundreds of deaths.

“There was no real interest in the property, it was not prime real estate,” Teske said. 

In addition, he said he learned about the Comfort Inn deal from signs posted on the property.

Port Authority Board member Jerry Bennett, a former state representative and county commissioner, spoke about open meeting laws.

“They have to be advertised and noticed,” he said. “We did it through the county bulletin board in the courthouse. I posted them when Corinna (Brown) wasn’t around,” Bennett said. “The attorney we worked with didn’t know about the new law in 2023 and we were never  notified.”

Later, when Guth questioned Noble about the property he had bought, he said he had recently sold some it for $1.4 million.

Noble said the MOU was established, “so the county wouldn’t sell the property out from under us.”

Noble spoke at length about his company’s work - previous, current and future - on the property as well as his understanding of the dealings that were undertaken.

“We spent about $467,000 in studies of the land, we removed 12,000 yards of concrete, sawdust, 600 bales of hemp, we removed old buildings, built a new concrete facility that cost about $200,000,” Noble said.

He added that he believed everything that was being done in the purchase was being done according to the law.

“We did the MOU to begin cleanup work to see what we were dealing with,” Noble said. “We did excavation to see how far we’d go before we hit the groundwater. That’s why we’re installing water and sewer lines. It will service the entire Port.”

Seth T. Bonilla, one of the three attorneys representing the county, asked Noble what would happen if the land sale is set aside.

“We’ll have to hire lawyers to deal with it,” Noble said.

Torgison was the last to take the witness stand.

“Other business people came to me with their concerns, that’s why I’m doing this.”

Crosby challenged Torgison’s grounds for filing the suit.

“You’re entire lawsuit is based on rumors,” she said.

“There have been rumors about what has went on there for years and years,” Torgison said. “I worked for Chris for 9 years, I know a lot of people here and another developer came to me about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago about the sale.

“Thompson Contracting was denied the ability to buy property and what I want to see is the county and the Port Authority do it legally,” Torgison said.