May 12, 2005
MACO District 6 and 7 Meeting
Harlowton, Montana
A MACO meeting of Districts 6 and 7 was held May 12, 2005 in Harlowton, Montana at the Harlowton Youth Center. Attending from the following counties were:
Carbon:
Albert Brown
Fergus:
John Jensen
Ken Ronish
Carl Seilstad – District 6 Chair
Golden Valley:
Joy Nell Schanz
Leslie Burroughs
Judith Basin:
Ed Arnott
Musselshell:
Robert Goffena
Mike Kilby
Larry Leske
Petroleum:
Chris King
Lloyd Rowton
Lee Iverson
Stillwater:
Chuck Egan
Dennis Hoyem
Maureen Davey – District 7 Chair
Sweet Grass:
Elaine Allestad
Lloyd Berg
Philip Hathaway
Wheatland:
Tom Bennett
Richard Moe
Yellowstone:
John Ostlund
Bill Kennedy – MACO President
Also attending:
Harry Klock – House District 83
Dustin Frost – Congressman Rehberg’s Office
Keith Kelly – MT Dept. of Labor and Industry
Gordon Morris – MACO
Harold Blattie – MACO
The meeting was called to order by District 6 Chairman, Carl Seilstad.
Gordon Morris of MACO spoke of the Legislative Session highlights. Referring to a Legislative Summary handout, he touched briefly on each of the following bills.
· HB218 – Revising the laws relating to mosquito control districts.
· HB743 – Reimbursement of counties for monies spent on deputy training.
· SB301 – (Clean up bill) Allowing local government to levy for public service.
· SJR41 – Requesting a study of the development of Community Central Health Crisis Response systems.
· SB146 - Establishing Montana Public Defender Act.
Harold Blattie spoke on other bills of interest.
· SB342 – Authorizes entity to utilize design build.
· HB700 – Mine License Tax Money disposition.
· SB48 – Removes tax provision for phase out of class eight property.
· HB60 – Establishing a decontamination standard for cleanup of meth manufacturing property and subsequent
documentation to uncloud title.
· House Bill – Concerning the state to fully fund one half of the County Attorney’s salary.
Land Use Bills
· SB116 – Rewrite of subdivision laws.
· SB290 – Revise sanitation in subdivision process.
· SB255 – Airport bill/protection from adverse land use.
· SB185 – Authorizes impact fees on development.
· SB98 – Montana Land Information Act.
Bills that didn’t pass (but will probably be back)
· SB195 – Quality Growth Act/Smart Growth Act
· SB456 – Prohibited building regulations.
· HB361 – Gravel Pit Bill
Interim Study
· HB790 – Surface Ownership and Subsurface Ownership
· HJR10 – Fire authorities
· HJR44 - Taxation of hard line equipment
· SJR11 – Continuation of study of subdivision
Bill Kennedy spoke on the legislative session, explaining highlights of bills of interest.
· HB395 – Pre-commitment bill.
· SB499 – Mental Health/Service Area Authority.
· Public Defender Bill
The next presentation was from MACO President, Bill Kennedy and the Executive Board. For those who were not aware, Gordon Morris spoke of his retirement, effective June 2006. Mr. Morris spoke on the subject of handling Worker Comp Claims in house, at significant savings. Insurance issues were also addressed.
Mr. Kennedy spoke of the Executive Board Meeting, June 8th at 10:00 am. at the MACO building in Helena. The JPIA & JPA meeting will be held in the afternoon. He asked for Commissioner input and welcomed their attendance at the meetings.
Presentations were made by:
Tom Hayes – Workforce Investment/Montana Job Training Partnership
Keith Kelly – Department of Labor and Industry.
2005/2006 Budgets were discussed. Mr. Morris walked through the 2005/06 budget report answering questions and addressing concerns.
Next on the agenda were nominations for various offices. The positions of District 6 Chair and Vice Chair are up, with District 7 terms expiring next year. Nominations were opened for the two-year term of District Chair and District Vice-Chair. The results were Carl Seilstad nominated for District Chair and Bob Goffena for District Vice-Chair.
There was discussion on having a fall meeting. It was decided that if issues were to arise a meeting could be scheduled in August, if not wait until September.
The positions for MACO 2nd Vice President and MACO Fiscal Officer were open for consideration. Mr. Morris observed that Jean Curtiss of Missoula County and Mark Rehbein of Richland County had been nominated from their districts for 2nd Vice President. Bill Nyby hasn’t decided whether to go forward or not for the position of MACO Fiscal Officer. It was observed that candidates may be nominated from the floor the prior to the actual election. No nominations for either of the MACO positions were made at this time.
The results of the nominations for the Work Force Investment Board positions were:
District 6 – Ken Ronish
District 7 – Bill Kennedy
District issues were up for discussion.
Maureen Davey, Stillwater County, addressed the group about a resolution from Stillwater and Liberty counties concerning the opening of US borders to Canadian cattle. Ms. Davey distributed copies of this resolution. A highlighted area concerning “country of origin wording” was left out of the MACO resolution 2005-1 that was adopted by the membership. Commissioner Davey would like the MACO resolution to be amended to include the highlighted “country of origin” wording. A motion from District 6 & 7 was made for Commissioner Davey to carry a language change to the board.
Lisa Osborne, an area coordinator, with the Custer National Forest spoke to the group concerning fire restrictions. Her group tries to coordinate local, Forest Service and BLM fire restrictions so that all fire restrictions for all counties in the district will be the same. She answered questions from the group.
Wayne Noen – MDOT/Secondary Road and STIP (State Transportation Improvement
Plan)
Mr. Noen explained to the group how the “Choosing by Advantages” program is set up. It was noted that a project for the Judith River slide was nominated without the appropriate approval. It was also noted that the project was nominated by the state for safety reasons. There was a considerable amount of discussion concerning the priority list being manipulated and situations like this happening again. The group was assured that this error was unintentional and precedence would not be set. They were also informed that the body would have to vote on whether or not to continue this project. It was moved and seconded to leave this project on the list since public safety was involved. Motion carried.
Jeff Bohlman of the DNRC spoke to the group about:
Land Banking
The Historic Right of Way Program
The Real Estate Management Bureau
Questions and answers from the floor.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.