Cascade County Commissioners unanimously passed a number of items during their Nov. 12 meeting, which was largely free of debate among commissioners, unlike their Nov. 6 meeting.

A number of attendees told commissioners that the were unhappy with the county’s handling of the Nov. 5 election and wanted Commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson to resign, an action they’ve called for since those two voted last year to remove election duties from County Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant.

Commissioners approved a 10-year agreement with the Town of Cascade to lease about three acres of land as a dumpsite for county residents.

Under the lease, the county will be able to construct a refuse container with a capacity of about 40 cubic yards that will include a concrete pad about 60 feet wide by 15 feet long and six inches deep; a concrete retaining wall about eight feet high by 60 feet long and one foot wide; and an access road and dumping ramp leading to the container that’s about 60 feet long and 70 feet wide.

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The county can use any fill material on the leased property for the construction of the ramp and access road, and may change the capacity, size or number of containers without prior notice, according to the lease agreement.

The county will be responsible for upkeep of the site, including spraying weeds, plowing, maintaining fences and cleaning refuse and debris from the site, according to the lease.

The county will pay the Town of Cascade $1,500 annually for use of the site, a rate that will increase four percent annually going forward. The lease may be extended by agreement between the county and town.

The town council had previously approved the lease agreement.

During the Nov. 6 work session, Commissioner Rae Grulkowski asked if the town would continue operating a burn pile on the site.

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The lease agreement, included in the commissioners documents, states, “there shall be no operational burn pile on the subject property.”

The Cascade lease agreement comes after turmoil over the county’s adjustments to solid waste fees earlier this fall.

In September, commissioners voted 2-1 with Grulkowski dissenting to raise the fees by 45 percent from $120 to $174 for those who receive punchcards, whom are county residents outside the incorporated areas of the City of Great Falls, and towns of Belt and Cascade. They also adjusted a number of solid waste related fees to help recoup the county’s costs to use the landfill, which is owned and operated by Republic Services. County officials said they also needed to increase revenue to account for capital improvements at solid waste sites, including the possible relocation of the Armington/Belt site.

The commission voted 2-1 again on Oct. 3 to revise some of their solid waste fees from the previously approved resolution.

Grulkowski and some members of the public took issue with the process by which the county considered and approved the new fees.

Mary Embleton, the county’s former budget officer who retired in late 2022, filed a lawsuit against the county on Nov. 4 over the solid waste fees, asking the court to void the resolutions on the grounds that the county didn’t follow the same process it did in 2012 for setting the fees, that associated documents weren’t available for public review before and that some discussions weren’t held in the appropriate format over the summer.

The Electric attended one of those commission discussions over the summer after getting a meeting notification through the county’s website system and no action was taken during that meeting.

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Embleton didn’t name Grulkowski in the lawsuit, but named Commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson and Cascade County.

As of Nov. 18, the case had been assigned to Judge Elizabeth Best, but for most past cases filed against the county, the district court judges have made a habit of recusing themselves and an out of county judge typically takes over the case.

Since early October, Grulkowski has been asking to put her proposal for meeting protocols on the commission’s agenda, which the other two have opposed. 

Commissioner Joe Briggs proposed a counter resolution.

In her discussions about the resolution, and other matters, she had said repeatedly that county documents should be available to the public.

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The Electric requested a copy of Grulkowski’s proposed resolution since October. Earlier this month, The Electric submitted a formal records request for the document to which the county attorney’s office responded that Grulkowski would not release her document.

Briggs provided a copy of his proposal within 24 hours to a request from The Electric and County Attorney Josk Racki provided a copy of his office’s memo on meeting protocols from last year to The Electric within 15 minutes of the request.

During the Nov. 12 meeting, commissioners approved the purchase of a new fryer for the Pacific Steel and Recycling Arena front kitchen from J&V Restaurant Supply of Great Falls for $52,025.40.

Les Payne, county public works director, told commissioners that the existing fryer was outdated and beyond repair and that the new fryer, with an accompanying warmer, would allow staff to produce food in greater quantity helping to meet the needs of high-volume events.

Payne told commissioners during their work session that the Expo Park manager had been looking to replace the fryer for years and though the purchase was estimated at $50,000, the could absorb the additional $2,025 within their existing budgets.

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Commissioners also approved a $30,322 change order for the roof replacement contract at Montana Expo Park.

They initially approved a $2,218,000 contract to AT-Klemens in January for the installation of multiple roofs in Expo Park.

Since then, the county and the contractor determined that parapet wall sheeting, a type of plywood, was needed for the exterior walls where pre-case concrete and cinderblock areas directly tie into the roof system. Installing the sheeting will allow for a smooth surface for the new roofing membrane to adhere to, tightly sealing the membrane and increasing the longevity of the new roofs, according to Payne.

The project team also decided to add antenna stand-offs to the new roofing system, eliminating antennas, mounts and cinderblocks from being placed onto the new roofing membrane causing potential damage.

There are currently multiple antennas placed throughout the roof system that are used to supply networking for various events and buildings throughout the fairgrounds.

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Instead, the antennas will be moved and placed on a standoff mounted system to be built around the north end roof where vendors can add and remove antennas without penetrating the new roofing membrane, Payne said.

The change order brings the total contract cost to $2,248,322, which is will within budget, Payne said.

Commissioners approved second change order totalling $39,966.68 for the new evidence storage building at the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.

The county approved a $1.1 million construction contract in April 2024 for the project, which is being funded by American Rescue Plan Act, or federal COVID relief, funds.

“After months of working with architects, engineers and the City of Great Falls for proper permitting, Cascade County Public Works was notified on Oct. 23…of changes that needed to be made to move forward with the build,” according to Payne’s staff report.

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The changes, which Payne said are required by the city, include some interior and exterior adjustments, walls, insulation and fire rating items.

Payne said the concrete slab for the new evidence building was in place and expected crews to begin framing walls by the end of November.

Commissioners also approved a $365,165 contract for six light duty vehicles for the public works department.

Payne said that the county went out to bid for seven vehicles and only received a bid from Bison Ford of Great Falls, despite efforts to solicit additional bids.

The bid for seven vehicles came in at $398,710, which was beyond budgetary allowances, according to staff, and the county won’t be accepting the trade-in values and will instead be selling those vehicles at auction, which Payne said had generate more revenue for the county in recent years.

Even at six light duty vehicles, Payne said it’s still over budget, but he anticipates being able to make up the overage through savings in other projects.

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Commissioners also approved a contract for $684,491.25 for eight 2025 Ford Utility cruisers and one 2025 Ford F-150 4×4 Cruisier to Duval Ford of Jacksonville, Fla.

Those vehicles are to replace CCSO as part of their fleet replacement cycle.

The county received three bids, but one was disqualified due to an incomplete bid packet.

Once the new vehicles are put into service, the older vehicles will be auctioned off, according to staff.

He said that the trade-in value was about $1,200 each, whereas the county had been receiving $6,000 to $12,000 per vehicle at auction.

Payne said that they typically replace six CCSO vehicles annually, but because of budget constraints over the last few years, fell behind and are catching up now.

He said the CCSO vehicles are about a year out and the county is expecting the vehicles it purchased last year in the next few weeks.

The eight vehicle purchase is also over budget, but Payne said they’ll make up the overage in the public works or CCSO budgets this year and the overage doesn’t include the sale of the old vehicles.

County public works is auctioning several vehicles later this month and the details are available here.

Payne said county officials met with the city a few weeks ago to look at options for the future such as building the police vehicles internally at the county shop rather than paying a third party. He said they think they can save money for both local governments, but are still looking at the numbers.

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“We’re hoping that we can save some money that way,” he said and expects to have numbers in the next six months or so to lay out a plan for commissioners.

During their Nov. 6 work session, Grulkowski had a litany of grievances to discuss with the other two commissioners.

She said that she had asked that the commission establish a solid waste committee to evaluate the existing program.

She said the other two commissioners hadn’t responded to her and she wanted to know if they’d agree to establish a committee before the next budget season.

Briggs said that he thought the county should conduct an internal review first and was not interested in creating a permanent oversight or advisory committee.

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Grulkowski asked when they could schedule the meeting and commissioners and county staff discussed possible dates, but as of Nov. 18, nothing is posted on the county calendar.

Grulkowski said that she was notified in April that a landowner in Belt where the current solid waste site is located wants to discuss the terms or terminate their lease.

She asked when they could set a meeting to which Phoebe Marcinek, a deputy county attorney, said that they were in negotiations currently with that landowner who was firm on his stance of not wanting to sell the land, looking for back payment and there was no current lease agreement.

Grulkowski said they should have a meeting that could be closed to the public to discuss the issue, but Briggs asked on what basis they could close that meeting and county legal staff there was no legal reason to close such a meeting.

Marcinek said there were some sensitive issues in the negotiations that would be best not to discuss publicly at this point but that she could brief commissioners individually in mid- to late October.

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Grulkowski said that there were discussions in July on the county print shop that had been closed since April.

She said that they hadn’t taken formal option but that she received an invoice a few weeks ago for the print shop and that she hadn’t been included in those discussions.

Commissioner Jim Larson said that there hadn’t been any discussions or decisions and that he had gone into the print shop space with Terry Thompson, election administrator, and Sandra Merchant, clerk and recorder, when they asked about constructing a wall to help with security and to keep some materials from getting wet but that nothing had really been moved forward on the print shop.

Grulkowski said that there had been movement so they needed to do a job description for the print shop.

Larson said there was no open position that he was aware of.

Briggs said that there wasn’t anything taking place without commission knowledge and that they could schedule a meeting now that the November election was over since Thompson had volunteered to take it over and would now have a better idea of needs.

Grulkowski said there was no cost analysis for keeping it open, to which Briggs responded that the finance office had presented information on the cost of outsourcing printing.

Grulkowski said she didn’t get that information.

Briggs said it was presented to all three commissioners during a public meeting.

Briggs said any discussion on the print shop needed to include elections and CCSO as some of the biggest users.

“I want to say here you just stated there’s money being spent, there’s no taxpayer money being spent, I don’t know where you got that,” Larson said.

Briggs said cameras were installed to secure the ballot stock being stored in that area.

Grulkowski said that she had instructed staff to book her hotel and travel for a training session in October and needed two commissioners to sign off for her reimbursement.

She said she was being punished for being elected and wasn’t given a reason for her travel request being rejected.

“I think you were,” Larson said.

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He said she chose not to attend the Montana Association of Counties conference with the other commissioners and instead chose to go to a finance meeting when she wouldn’t be a commissioner anymore.

“Why do you need to have schooling to be a finance person on our dime,” Larson said.

Grulkowski lost the primary election in June and then filed as a write-in candidate for the November election, which she also lost.

Grulkowski countered that nobody knew if she’d be a commissioner and that there was time left in her term.

She said that since no one in the county was giving her information she decided to seek resources outside the county, in this case a MACO training that was free but she was seeing reimbursement for hotel and travel costs.

Briggs said, “I felt it wasn’t appropriate because the training wasn’t designed for commissioners. You chose to not attend the second year of commissioner training.”

Briggs said MACO offers a two-year training program for those newly elected and that he’s personally arranged for Grulkowski to go the first year before she was in office, but then said she said in a public meeting that she didn’t want to go to MACO because it was a waste of taxpayer money, then went to a training not designed for commissioners.

Grulkowski attempted to explain MACO operations to Briggs, who serves on the National Association of Counties board, and he responded, “I’m just telling you some facts.”

Several of Grulkowski’s supporters have since said in public meetings that the county shouldn’t have anything to do with MACO or NACO, which lobbies at the federal and state level for the interest of counties.

He said he set it up for Grulkowski to attend the first year, to the legal department’s irritation since she wasn’t yet a county employee, and that it was made clear that it was a two-year program and that he told Grulkowski that the finance workshop she attended earlier this fall wasn’t an appropriate expenditure.

“You went without authorization,” he said.

In an apparent retaliation, Grulkowski said that she would now take the mileage allowance provided for county officials under state law.

She said she hadn’t taken it before but that it was “absurd” for her fellow commissioners not to support her.

County staff told The Electric that they’d informed Grulkowski of the mileage allowance when she took office.

Neither Briggs or Larson claim the mileage allowance, which is paid by taxpayer funds.

Briggs said that it was her prerogative under state law, but she’d be the first commissioner to claim it in about two decades.

“Let that speak for the actions I have to take,” Grulkowski said. “That’s terrible. You guys are terrible.”