| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 2/11/05 |
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| Commissioner
complains bison hunt meeting was illegal
Associated Press, Billings Gazette
2/11/05 |
HELENA
-- The lone member of the state wildlife commission
who voted against canceling Montana's bison hunt is accusing
the commission of meeting illegally, saying it didn't
give the public adequate notice of its plans to reconsider
the hunt.
But another commission member, as well as an attorney
for the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said they
believe the board followed the letter of the law and gave
adequate notice.
Commissioner John Brenden of Scobey accused the board
on Thursday of meeting illegally when it held a telephone
conference call on Jan. 6 and agreed to meet a few days
later to reconsider the bison hunt, which was set to begin
Jan. 15.
The Jan. 6 meeting came just hours after Democratic Gov.
Brian Schweitzer appointed three new members to the five-member
board.
The board set a Jan. 11 meeting and voted 4-1 to postpone
the planned hunt until November. Brenden was the only
commissioner who opposed the change.
The commission then held a second conference call the
next day, at which members decided to go ahead with a
lottery drawing for licenses for the November hunt.
Brenden, a former state Republican Party chairman, state
senator who was appointed to the commission by former
Gov. Judy Martz, said the commission acted too hastily
and did not provide enough public notice of its plans.
That, he argued, violates Montana's open meetings law,
which requires all government meetings to be open to the
public and that the public must know when the meetings
occur, he said.
Commission Chairman Steve Doherty of Great Falls, a former
Democratic state senator appointed by Schweitzer, said
he thought the meetings "met the letter and spirit
of the open meetings law."
"I think the public had notice, they had the opportunity
to participate and the opportunity to let their interests
and feelings known," Doherty said.
Bob Lane, chief lawyer for the department, agreed, saying
the agency advertised the Jan. 11 meeting for days, a
fact supported by all the members of the public who showed
up. As for the Jan. 6 conference call, the board was merely
reconsidering a decision that had been the subject of
dozens of properly noticed public meetings before. Commissioners
made no substantial decisions during that call other than
to meet again in five days and have another public meeting.
"It was just a procedural thing," he said.
During the Jan. 12 conference call, the group merely executed
a decision that had been made the day before in a public
meeting, he said.
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