tfa notes said letter has yet to be “posted” as stated by the Council. Several attempts to obtain a copy from Town Hall have been unsuccessful. However, upon posting the following video to You.Tube, a transcript was automatically generated. tfa provides that transcription in its entirety below.
Please view the video at the following You.Tube link: https://youtu.be/hwQep2k5G5M
tfa queries why a letter composed by the TOF Attorney, addressed to the TOF Council, read out loud at the 10.20.2020 TOF Council Meeting, (at which time it became Public Information), cannot be obtained even 8 days later at Town Hall? And why a You.Tube translation is the only way for the public to physically review said letter?
Unedited transcipt follows:
“00:02
yes
00:04
okay correspondence
00:11
i have i know we have terry feller
00:15
listed as the first person on our
00:17
correspondence list
00:18
yeah and carrie’s not here
00:22
yeah these at work i guess he has the
00:25
word tonight
00:26
okay what uh
00:33
since some of our meetings we’ve been
00:36
very sparse on these because of the cold
00:37
of 19th
00:39
and we know that the town we’ve had
00:42
several people come up with some issues
00:44
that they find that they want to come in
00:48
and discuss
00:49
and and debate
00:52
so we were bringing this up to the to
00:55
our city attorneys
00:57
in a way that we can’t deal with this
01:01
so talking with the city attorneys
01:06
they send a letter out and
01:10
i’ll read the letter before you read it
01:12
tim let me just
01:13
interject kind of what i feel about
01:17
what you’re going to read here okay and
01:19
my
01:21
my thoughts are that a lot of the
01:25
questions and the the more emotional
01:29
uh issues that are brought up in this
01:33
meeting i have a lot of questions
01:37
involved with with law and
01:40
um you know is
01:44
are we legally bound or should we
01:46
legally do this or legally do that
01:49
and without a lawyer sitting in this
01:51
chair
01:53
we we pretty much have to we just have
01:55
to
01:56
defer there’s there’s no way we can
01:58
answer those questions because
02:00
there is not a lawyer in the bunch and i
02:03
hope you guys understand that
02:05
um so that kind of goes to
02:08
what tim’s about to to read yeah
02:12
so what it is um our town and this is
02:16
mayor and town council it says kyle and
02:19
i have served
02:20
as town council for several months
02:23
in normal times we would have attended
02:25
council meeting and then at town hall
02:27
more frequently i regret that we could
02:30
not do that
02:31
and like you looking forward to to
02:34
normal times returning
02:37
kyle and i work with several local
02:39
governments entities in central and
02:41
eastern montana
02:43
we are generally of the belief that
02:45
certain resolutions of issues
02:48
is a bet is in the best interest of our
02:50
client
02:52
districts and towns legal challenges and
02:55
other legal problems
02:57
are expensive and often do not result in
03:00
solutions
03:01
pleasing to everyone including the
03:04
advocates
03:07
we are aware there have been several
03:09
complaints
03:10
stated against the town we understand
03:13
that a recent council meeting was
03:15
interrupted
03:16
and the council adjourned the meeting
03:18
before conducting its business
03:20
we also understand that no written
03:23
complaints have been submitted
03:26
we propose setting specific times aside
03:30
that kyle and or i will be in fromberg
03:34
to hold
03:35
office hours we will invite citizens to
03:38
schedule
03:39
specific times to meet with us
03:42
we want to hear specific requests of the
03:44
town
03:46
and to receive specific complaints about
03:48
the town
03:50
we are not interested in holding town
03:52
meetings
03:53
where disgruntled individuals or groups
03:56
list idle threats
03:57
or unsupported allegations we are
04:00
interested in
04:02
hearing fact and law-based grievances
04:05
and requests we will do what we can
04:08
as town council to address concerns and
04:12
attend to legitimate claims
04:16
we would bring matters to the council
04:18
when council action
04:19
is required we would resolve matters
04:22
on an administrative level working with
04:25
the mayor
04:26
when possible we offer this plan
04:29
to remove pressure from the council’s
04:31
meetings so that
04:32
business can be conducted and to provide
04:35
a forum
04:36
for legitimate concerns i am not asking
04:40
for council action on this proposal
04:42
if there are questions about this
04:44
proposed method of addressing concerns
04:46
please let kyle and me know we hope
04:50
you are all well general jeffery
04:55
so what that is is they want to come to
04:59
the town of fraumer
05:00
at a specific time for
05:03
an hour and a half two hours because
05:05
with both of them here it’s about 300
05:08
an hour so
05:12
we would need if people have a complaint
05:15
that they would like to issue
05:17
as in like terry he’s got
05:21
with his own the property stuff
05:26
terry needs to would bring all his
05:29
information into the attorneys
05:31
sit and explain everything that he has
05:33
done
05:35
and what he’s found and the attorneys
05:38
would then
05:38
[Music]
05:40
look at it make a determination and
05:42
maybe they’ll take all this information
05:44
and do their research
05:47
and find out what can or cannot be done
05:49
as far as the city
05:51
that alleviates us from
05:55
guessing and that’s some of the things
05:58
we’ve done in the past
05:59
is we’ve guessed and it’s not
06:02
the right thing to do so to get it right
06:06
we need the attorneys to look at it and
06:10
not just for him but if anybody has a
06:12
legitimate complaint
06:13
against the town then they need to bring
06:16
it in and talk with these attorneys
06:19
someone make sure that he gets a copy or
06:23
he gets
06:23
noticed of all of that that
06:26
you just read or pretty much oh
06:31
yeah jerry feller said that
06:45
first hand not second hand just
06:48
this this letter will be posted okay
06:50
thanks
06:52
yeah let’s post it then i can go talk to
06:54
terry thanks
06:55
and make sure that he’s aware of it yeah
06:57
he can bring his information
06:59
yeah and sit down with you so that
07:02
those issues are resolved absolutely and
07:05
any other issues with anybody in town
07:07
it will be posted once we figure out a
07:10
time
07:11
that the attorneys can do this because
07:12
they are very busy themselves
07:14
and like i say it’s very expensive to
07:17
have the guys come up here so
07:18
nobody’s going to complain about it
07:20
there’s no need for them to be here
07:23
and we don’t want to have them come here
07:24
and just sit and put their thumbs
07:25
because
07:26
these are guys that are high paid and
07:29
they know what they’re doing
07:31
and i think that’s a great idea so yes
07:33
it is it’s a very good one yeah i think
07:34
that’s a great idea
07:40
so does anybody have any questions about
07:42
that
07:45
it’ll just be posted when i said it will
07:47
be posted yes okay
07:50
so and it will be posted into normal
07:52
spots right
07:53
yes here the post office and senior
07:55
center okay since terry”
Well, if this isn’t a flipping farce: the Council nor Mayor Miller were stopped from preforming their duties! If they were inhibited in any way, it was by the bookkeeping error of thirty-two thousand dollars! So place the blame where it really belongs. Not to mention the fact that the budget presented spends way more than it brings in! A recipe for bankruptcy! And not a viable answer from Council of how it could or would be fixed! Garbage in Garbage Out! How much of our tax dollars were spent fabricating stories to the attorney? Or did you bother showing him the meeting on the disc, so he could view it himself? Attorney Welton and Kyle bill at $185 an hour. Do the math, even tho city hall can’t. I’m sure you just got your tax statement, just like I did. And we have to pay this much for the clerk’s ineptitude and mayor and council’s stupidity? Stapleton sums it best up when asked why council would sign a garbage contract with no yearly provision for rate increases if needed. His response? “We weren’t thinking about it”. What the hell are they thinking about Why? Why the hell do we the people, have to be watch dogs for Fromberg government? They’ve been there long enough that they should know their jobs. But no, they drop the ball most of the time. How many documented problems has Mayor Miller herself created? And the Clerk attesting to Resolution 501 at a meeting that never happened. Or if it did it was a closed illegal meeting. The clerk should be fired for that alone! That’s illegal folks! And now they want 2 attorneys to come to town to meet with citizens to file complaints! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Give us the law firm’s email address and their permission to use it and we will bombard them with legitimate concerns, especially regarding foia requests and the public’s right to know and participate violations. We the people have the right to comment! Which is usually stifled by city hall. We don’t have to file a complaint. Public Comment at a public meeting IS OUR LEGITIMATE FORMUM THAT THE CONSTITUTION GIVES US!
Yes, ‘it. The letter. will be posted here City Hall, the Post Office and the Senior Center”. Five days later, nothing is posted. Surprise! It gets even better! A party soliciting a photocopy of said letter had to fill out a FOIA request at Town Hall and is still waiting until Mayor and Town attorney ok it! For a letter read out loud at a public meeting This! This is all too unbelievable! I’m able to walk into any other Town Hall and or call for a copy of any piece of correspondence that was read out loud at their meeting and their Clerk is more than willing to share that correspondence in any way that is convenient FOR ME! In Fromberg it’s become an act of Congress! So either they are having some major legal issues or they are covering a ton of illegal actions! I’m inclined to believe the latter! It fits with all their lies!
This letter from the attorney is too little too late and too insincere. Will use other options available! Interesting. When push comes to shove, in the right circumstances City Hall, is willing to be fiscally responsible for using attorney $ options to cover up their wrong doing.
So much for the attorneys letter being posted. Another lie from City Hall. We should rename it Liars Central! We could advertise it on a billboard! “Home of Lying Miller if her lips are moving, she is LYING”!