Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
It's been almost a month since Ravalli County commissioners placed Treasurer Valerie Stamey
on paid administrative leave as the board reacted to a widening financial crisis involving
millions of dollars.
The move came after Stamey refused to show up at one meeting, and then finally came to
a second, only to deliver accusations of corruption instead of the financial report the board
had expected.
Commissioners would ultimately decide there was enough evidence Stamey had violated state
law requiring the reports to set the public hearing Tuesday afternoon. The meeting is
to hear more specifics on the lack of reports, and especially how that's impacted the cities
and other junior taxing districts. Stamey is also being given the chance to respond.
But questions remain over whether Stamey will be there. Commissioners sent her a certified
letter notifying her of Tuesday's meeting, but at last word had received no response.
If Stamey is a "no show" then Tuesday's meeting will likely be little more than a re-hashing
of the complaints already leveled against her. And the board isn't expected to actually
"fire" Stamey as a result of the meeting. Commissioners have said the session is really
to determine whether she could face several hundred dollars in fines for not submitting
the reports.
The meeting will be the first public session on the treasurer fight in a couple of weeks,
and comes just days after County Attorney Bill Fulbright issued a progress report on
the independent investigation into the Treasurer's Office, and Stamey's allegations.
In that memo, audit team leader James Woy wrote "the duties of the Ravalli County Treasurer
were not properly executed and the state of the Treasurer's office was in disarray", with
nearly a million dollars in the Treasurer's office that hadn't been deposited the day
Stamey was asked to leave. In Hamilton, Dennis Bragg, MTN News.