Local government oversight issues on ballot
Megan Strickland
Ronan Mayor Kim Aipperspach tells of past failed government oversight commissions during a recent city council meeting.
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LAKE COUNTY – Voters in St. Ignatius and Ronan will decide whether or not they want to form a government oversight committee to evaluate their city councils in this year’s election.
The opportunity to vote for a mil levy that funds a local government review committee comes once every ten years for Montana towns and cities per the state’s constitution. While the state maintains that the committee is a part of the check and balance system, local government officials say attempts to put the committees in place in the past have been futile money-wasting endeavors that fell apart.
“Most of the time what you find in a small town like ours is that everybody loves to study government,” Mayor Kim Aipperspach said. “What’s our better option? We’d all love to have a better government, but then you are spending $20,000 to $30,000 to study it.”
The committees study government to determine if it is better to have only a mayor and a city council or if an additional city manager is needed. If the town votes in favor of the committee, three to nine people are appointed to serve and study the government.
Aipperspach said if the commission had additional options instead of the council-mayor or council-mayor-manager set up, it might be worth looking into, but that adding a city manager would be a drain on the city’s finances. A city manager usually costs $50,000 to $80,000 per year, Aipperspach said. That amount would gobble up what little unallocated general funds money the city has each year.
“That’s all of our general funds once we take out mandatory stuff,” Aipperspach said.
Ronan had an oversight committee a few decades ago that voted in favor of a city manager. The person hired for the job left after less than a year for a higher paying gig, Aipperspach said
St. Ignatius also had little success with past commissions.
“I personally think it would be a waste of money for this town to vote to have a commission,” City Clerk LeeAnn Gottfried said. “Last time we couldn’t even get enough people to serve on the commission, let alone have a report.”
Both St. Ignatius Town Council and Ronan City Council discussed in January and February meetings the best way to phrase the initiative on the ballot so taxpayers understand exactly what they are voting for.
“You read it, but it sounds like you are voting for something you are not,” St. Ignatius Councilmember Ray Frey said. “That’s what happened before, and I think that’s why a lot of people voted for it.”
The councils weighed highlighting certain words and putting others in parentheses on the ballots, to make the language clearer.
Ronan Council wanted to insert an estimated cost of the commission to taxpayers in the ballot language, but it might be difficult to guess, Aipperspach said; in an ideal situation commission members would receive training prior to making a decision.
“If you are going to study it, it’s nice to have those people informed,” Aipperspach said.
Exact language for the ballot was due at the Lake County Election Office by March 10.
