| Three
environmental groups sued the Department of Livestock
Friday, alleging that the department illegally refuses
them access to public documents and public officials.
"It's really critical that we get this information,
and it's further critical that our public right to know
is not ... scoffed at by state agencies," the groupsā
Helena attorney, Brenda Lindlief Hall, said Friday.
The
Buffalo Field Campaign, the Ecology Center Inc. and
Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers, all are seeking information
from the department about its involvement in hazing
Yellowstone National Park bison back into the park.
They also filed a lawsuit against the department in
May for its use of helicopters in hazing operations.
Hall
said in the current suit that the departmentās actions
violate the groupsā right to know, guaranteed in both
the Montana Constitution and the stateās "sunshine"
laws. Under those laws, a citizen must be given access
to public records, except in cases in which personal
privacy or public safety outweigh the right to know.
The groups have been trying unsuccessfully since March
to get information from the department, the suit alleges.
In addition, a department staffer prevented two members
of the groups from speaking to Board of Livestock members
during a recess in a meeting earlier this month.
The
departmentās attorney, Bernie Jacobs, was not available
for comment Friday afternoon. But, in an interview earlier
this month, he said that, since the groups sued the
department in May, they will now have to go through
the legal discovery process to get information from
the department, regardless of whether the information
is public. "Weāre adversarial parties in a lawsuit,
and thatās just the way it is," he said.
Jacobs
sent a letter to Hall on June 28 to ask that members
of the groups go through her for all future correspondence
with the department. In the letter, he said the department
believes the May lawsuit "modifies the Īright to
knowā relationship" between members of the groups
and the department and that the discovery process would
"ensure fairness throughout the present litigation."
Jim Coefield of Missoula, who volunteers for the Ecology
Center and sits on the Buffalo Field Campaign Board
of Directors, said, "I don't think that there's
a leg that the Department of Livestock has to stand
on. ... I think that itās a slam-dunk." The May
lawsuit "doesn't trump the law of the land,"
Coefield said. "They still have to comply with
state law and the state Constitution,"he added.
He also said that much of the information he and others
are seeking is in no way related to the May lawsuit.
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