tfa was granted permission to post the following two letters:
First Letter: From: Marge Taylor, P.O. Box 426, Fromberg, MT 59029
To: Town of Fromberg, P.O. Box 236, Fromberg, MT 59029
June 11, 2018
To Mayor Miller and the Fromberg Town Council:
I am writing to request that no payments be paid to the construction company who tore up our volley ball court and street with heavy equipment, with total disregard for the fence and basketball hoops.
I feel not only a slight fix is needed but a complete upgrade! Surrounding communities who have contracted for improvements have had their infrastructure substantially improved, just not returned to is pre-existing condition! Additionally, those construction crew members have contributed to said towns with increased rent revenues as well as any services they purchase. Was that true in our community?
A written agreement is needed. There is still time for such a request to be accomplished. I ask that each and every council member sign off on this agreement BEFORE the Final Payment Check is issued. Last November we elected new Council Members and a new Mayor on their claims of fiscal responsibility and transparency! We wanted change, not more of the same!
The Town of Fromberg needs everyone’s input. We can’t merely go along with the status quo. Also, whether a new purchase or current ownership, are landowners required to mow to the center of the street? We think not. It is our position that the Town of Fromberg owns and is responsible for the maintenance of streets, alleys and the easements thereof.
Has anyone been designated as the go-to-person overseeing the streets, parks etc. It takes the entire Town Council AND the Mayor to do justice for our town.
Is there a confidentiality agreement as well as a termination agreement for Town employees to sign? What procedures are to be immediately followed if said agreements are broken?
Thank you for your time. I do hope these things can be addressed by or before the next council meeting.
Sincerely, Marge Taylor
Second Letter: From: the.fromberg.advocacy.com, P.O. Box 27, Fromberg, MT 59029-0027
June 28, 2018
T0: Town of Fromberg, P.O. Box 236, Fromberg, MT 59029-0236
Town of Fromberg:
Quoted below are sections of a letter sent to your attorney, Hope Freeman, June 5, 2018 (a copy of which is attached hereto) by Montana FOI Attorney Peter Michael Meloy: http://montanafoi.org :
“Section 2-6-1003 MCA obliges a public agency to permit access to and provide copies of public information upon request. While you may satisfy a portion of that duty by offering to make the documents available for inspection, you are still required to provide copies.”
If the Town has in its possession documents that may also be available from other public agencies, you may not avoid disclosure by referring the requestor to the other agency. There is nothing in the statutes governing access to government documents that excludes records that may also be in the possession of another agency.
You are also advised that failure to provide access to this information may result in a lawsuit and the City may be liable for the costs and attorney fees associated with such action pursuant to §2-3-221 MCA.”
Our organization has subsequently learned that a FOIA requestor is not required to identify itself nor provide a list of its members, as your Town of Fromberg Attorney Hope Freeman, has mandated.
We therefore ask you again to provide copies of all FOIA requests listed in our March 8, 2018 letter (a copy of which is attached hereto) and specifically bring to your attention to Page 3, Paragraph 2, in which we request copies of CMA’S. Attorney Hope Freeman deigned to address these particular documents.
By not complying with these simple FOIA requests, the Town of Fromberg indeed seems to be thwarting the public’s “right to know”. Your continuing lack of cooperation with regard to our FOIA requests is being duly documented.
Sincerely, the.fromberg.advocacy.com
Photographic documentation provided below:
Second Letter: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vScVz1IR6CGWNIg6vITGcvEKkjp7UxWRDnUd-L4D352BcRlghiSGIUIhWnSU8erXt_FDRrZSWiO7wZ7/pub
After watching the video of the July meeting, it is very clear our Mayor picks and chooses what she wants the general public to know and see. Especially items that might put her in a bad light. Mayor Miller, like the previous mayor, Richard Anderson, likes to skip letters that don’t make them shine. Mayor Miller, during your campaign, you stated you would put different council members in charge of different city departments. Now when you are asked about that, you say everything from” it’s illegal” to “they don’t know enough” and many more excuses. Everyone has different abilities and brings something to the table. Don’t tell us you’re smarter than the four men sitting beside you. Four heads are better than one! It is arrogant to think otherwise.
If you hadn’t been trying to be oh so important, making decisions about the Mackenzie pole barn all by yourself, you would not have lost community respect. The entire town knows any liability that develops on First Street falls directly on YOU. And you just continue to make MORE off-the-cuff decisions that jeopardize our town.
Honesty is one of the best things in life and a hard one to live by and accept. But without it you don’t have a dammed thing. The Special Meeting that your office didn’t correctly post, is the exact same thing the previous mayor did. An example is the Special Meeting Notice about the previous Cop; Ralph Dawson. The print on that Notice was so small it hardly showed up, and whoever posted it in our local post office, slid it in under another notice, making it hard to see. You were on the council at that time and had to have been at well aware of this. So many of your actions are the same as the previous mayor; it appears you took classes from him.
If you worked as hard on YOUR JOB as you do covering your tracks on Facebook, you’d probably get a lot more done. Good ideas are only good when they are carried out! The Town Council are the ones who are supposed to make the decisions. You are there to run an orderly meeting. You aren’t there to interrupt and put forth all YOUR thoughts! We have a very good council! Someone needs to remind you of your true position.
As for water in basements, I’ve been here for over thirty years. The Cowboy Bar, and other building owners on the north ditch side of West River Street haven’t had problems with water in their basements. My building has the old concrete floor and there are damp spots back towards the alley all winter. The same spots in summer, with maybe just a couple more. It’s just how it is.
I see we have a carry over from the last administration. So City Hall is giving us more of the same. Maybe if City Hall wants to ignore their correspondence, then I suggest we have these published in our local news paper. That way the whole county can see our dirty laundry as well as those creating much of it….
Thank You Ms Taylor for your input. We have three council members available and only one department to oversee. Mr. Nottingham is very active with PWD. The other members have full time jobs. According to MCA , council-members cannot be “in charge” of any department, nor can they supervise a dept. “They don’t know enough?” Really? These men have worked with a lot of the functions that the PWD deals with everyday and I know for a fact that they are very versed in those types of jobs.
I am not sure which “letter” you are referring to. I had a person telling me they were getting water in their basement and it was seeping in from the ditch on main street. As you recall I DID come and talk to you about that and you informed me at the time that you were NOT getting moisture in your basement and as far as you knew, you had no reports of anyone else having seepage either.
As for the property on 1st street, I have already said that I was wrong and went by the information I was given five months, before the council approved that application. I certainly don’t believe I am smarter than any of the councilmen. I rely on all of them to think for themselves and make their own decisions and to be totally unbiased, and I think they are doing that well and I rely on all of them heavily to do the best we can for the community. I don’t shrink away from responsibility and I take umbrage in the comparison to the former Mayor. I did not run for Mayor to “important” or popular. As a matter of fact I wasn’t going to run at all. BUT… some “friends” convinced me to run, and I am pretty sure now, it wasn’t because they were friends, but because they had their own agenda.
Maybe someone who has been here for thirty + years and is far more capable and intelligent , should have run for office or at least a council seat.
A special meeting was posted and it was legally posted. And it was not “slid ” under the other post!! If it was, it was moved and reset.
Soooo the Clerk aint a employee ? She not a clerical staff member? an u only got 1 department? Boy your dumber n I thot. U shuld hang it up as meyer. I thoight the Town couldn’t do no wurse than rich andersen. Wrong thinkin on my part there!
The tennis court and “A” Street will be repaired . Payment will not be made in full until it has been completed. As for the condition of the court, it was in major disrepair long before they used it to make sure they had uncontaminated gravel for the lagoons. In fact it was bad and rarely used and the Improvement Committee even had a discussion about filling it with dirt and putting in a bike trail!! The hoops have needed to be replaced for some time, the floor of the court(pavement) has been cracked for years with weeds growing through it. The town has been maintaining it and the ballfields for years, when it actually should have been taken care of by those who “volunteered ” many years ago.
Miller. You’re all over the map. I can’t even follow your train of thought in even your 3 comments here on this topic. No coherent thought process. Talk about shoot from the hip. You just talk us all to death. Noone could ever accuse you of fact checkin and doing research. Embarrassed that you are the head voice of the Town.
Property owners DO mow, water and maintain the easements. They are not required to maintain alleys and streets. The town has been “granted” the use of the easement for future improvements, utilities, etc. Has that “easement” been deeded to the town? According to my deed and tax form, I own and pay taxes on it. It is included in the sq footage of the property.
I have yet to find a “definition” of “ownership” on easements in the MCA.
And, how can you DEMAND complete restoration of a property that was damaged before the use of storing gravel? I would like to see proof that these “other communities” got that accomplished without them putting up financing also.
Shirley Miller you’re ignorance is shining through AGAIN. Do you ever do ANY RESEARCH before you run your big trap? You say “According to my deed and tax form, I own and pay taxes on it.” You outta check with the assors office and recorders office in Red Lodge. It scare me that you can’t understand this simple concept but are in charge of a multi million dollar sewer project. It should scare every voter in Fromberg. You don’t even have a “return to existing condition” for the ball field in writing. Duh. The video at the last council meeting proves that. Also if the city owns the ballpark it should maintain it. It’s there responsibility not some volunteer organization. I think you need a mental evaluation. You can’t even understand simple ideas that are common knowledge. Up to and including “grandfathered in”. It scares me you are in a power position.
Only one department to oversee no wonder city hall can’t get it together!!! That is why a thousand dollar sign-on bonus was given without a contract? No oversight??? Oversight and teamwork has the capability of saving this town fiscally as well as boosting morale… but of course Mayor Miller knows best… LOL… Let’s see, that’s why the Mayor goes through several years of sign-in sheets to see if you ever attended a meeting, commenting on social media, checking to see who in the past has filled out zoning applications, rather than getting our town website updated. While you have all of the qualifications of a high school drama queen. You are incredibly irresponsible, incompetent and unprofessional at preforming your duties. Not to mention, costing us all financially…