Behind the scenes: A board dissolves

Key e-mail part of breakup of county library board

The blueprint for three people leaving the Flathead County Library Board was outlined in a fundraiser's July 1 e-mail to Flathead County Commissioner Gary Hall.

On July 2, the county commissioners did not reappoint board member Anne Moran and shifted incumbent Jerry Hanson to a seat he did not want - prompting Hanson and fellow board member Kala Lougheed to resign in protest over how the changes were made.

That leaves two people on the five-seat board, with the commissioners seeking applicants for the three openings.

Behind the scenes on July 1, Flathead County Library Foundation director Stewart Harvey had pitched the very same scenario to Hall: not reappointing Moran, shifting Hanson and provoking the two resignations.

The private nonprofit foundation's purpose is to raise money for major library projects, such as a proposed new Kalispell main library. Its board hired Harvey in December 2007.

Hall forwarded Harvey's e-mail to fellow commissioners Dale Lauman and Joe Brenneman, suggesting they follow Harvey's recommendations.

All three commissioners' votes mirrored those recommendations, although Lauman and Brenneman said they never read the e-mail until after the vote.

Hanson, Moran and Lougheed contend that they were finessed out of their seats because:

. All three opposed moving the main library to the former Tidyman's grocery site. They voted down that proposal on Dec. 5, 2007, and Feb. 28, 2008.

They believe people in the library's political world wanted to remove them so a new board would resurrect the Tidyman's proposal. The three had rejected Tidyman's because the library did not have the money nailed down to turn it into a library and because of questions about soil pollution there.

. The three formed a relatively new majority that asked tough questions of the library staff, library practices and proposals brought to the board. This ruffled feathers, they said.

Harvey, on the other hand, said that Hall had asked for his opinion on the board appointments, and "I gave a truthful opinion that was honest."

"Oddly, things turned out the way I saw it would," Harvey said.

He did not consult with the library foundation's board, and said the e-mailed opinion about changing the board was solely his own after listening to concerns from many people. He declined to name them.

Moran said: "I think it's a stunning level of impropriety. It's not much of a surprise, considering the obstacles we encountered in trying to fulfill our duties as trustees. It connects a lot of dots."

Hall, however contends that Harvey's e-mail was not the blueprint for the commissioners' actions, especially since Brenneman and Lauman said they didn't see the e-mail until after their vote.

"This was not all about Stewart Harvey," Hall said. "He was just one voice. Others in the community had spoken out. He's not the one person who convinced the board."

Hall also rejected the notion that the board's shakeup was due to a Tidyman's conspiracy. Hall said the board had become stalled by personal agendas and was not functioning.

"If a board stops functioning properly, then I'll make unpopular decisions so we have working boards," Hall said. "This has nothing to do with Tidyman's or having a board that wants Tidyman's."

Board's troubled history

Most of a roughly dozen interviewed people called the library board "dysfunctional."

But different views exist on what has been dysfunctional about the board.

Some say the board was dysfunctional until Marjorie Fisher resigned in frustration and Bob Lopp's term expired about 1 1/2 years ago - with improvements surfacing when Moran and Lougheed replaced them.

Others say board members worked well together until Lougheed and Moran joined the board to form a frequent majority of three with Hanson.

Longtime board members Dave Hilde and Hanson did not get along.

"There was bad chemistry there. You had two personalities that didn't jibe well," board member Laura Long said.

Almost everyone talked about surprises being sprung by others at meetings. Almost everyone had tales of dropped communications.

Critics of Moran, Hanson and Lougheed said the three micromanaged, were inflexible and stalled progress on projects.

"Those three board members spent a great deal of time and energy involving themselves in the minutiae of library management - what was not in the scope of the board," Long said.

"Their dwelling on detail prevented an over-arching vision," Harvey said.

However, Moran, Lougheed and Hanson said they had trouble getting charts, figures and other information from the library staff - and much of their questioning represented due diligence.

Moran said the library board has no long-term plan on the countywide system's growth, and the board members had just begun collecting information to map out such a plan.

But Long said the library board studied and mapped out a long-term plan years ago - contending that the Moran-Hanson-Lougheed bloc did not have a long-range vision for the library system.

Who represents what?

The library board traditionally has one member each from Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Bigfork - along with one at-large member.

This arrangement is heavily implied, but not specifically mandated, in some agreements among the library and the three cities. Unincorporated Bigfork is represented because it has a library branch there.

When five-year terms open on the library board, the entire board interviews applicants and makes recommendations to the county commissioners. The commissioners are not obligated to follow those recommendations.

Here was the board applicant situation on June 26:

. The Bigfork seat was empty because Hilde had resigned the previous December in frustration over the board majority rejecting Tidyman's as the new main library site.

. Moran's term - actually the final 1 1/2 years of Fisher's term - as Whitefish representative was ready to expire. She reapplied for the seat. Three others also applied, but two dropped out and a third switched her intentions. That meant that Moran was the sole applicant for the Whitefish post.

. Jane Lopp - of the rural Kalispell area and Bob Lopp's wife - also applied for the Whitefish seat, but switched to seeking the Bigfork seat before telling the commissioners she would go wherever they wanted her to go. Bob Lopp has been on a fledgling advisory committee to find a new Kalispell site. He said he will drop out of the building advisory committee to avoid a conflict of interest with his wife on the library board.

. Long moved from the Columbia Falls area to Bigfork. She was considered a serious candidate for the Bigfork slot. If that happened, the Columbia Falls seat would open.

. Hanson's at-large term and Lougheed's Kalispell term had not expired.

The library board - with Long absent - interviewed Moran and Lopp on June 26. It then recommended that the commissioners reappoint Moran to the Whitefish seat and delay action on the Bigfork opening until some policy questions could be resolved.

Hanson gets nervous

Hanson had a "gut feeling" that he should show up at the county commissioners' July 2 vote on library board appointments.

"My gut feeling came from a number of little factors - that are difficult to put your finger on - over the last several months," Hanson said. "Red flags were popping up," Hanson said.

Those factors included:

. Harvey asking Mark Johnson - who lives in Kalispell and works in Columbia Falls - to apply for the open library board seats before they were advertised.

Johnson received the impression that he was being asked to apply for a generic board seat. Later, Johnson heard that he was actually applying for the Whitefish seat. Johnson thought Moran was doing a good job in that seat, so he dropped out of applying.

Harvey said he respected Johnson and thought he would be a good library board member.

. In addition, Hanson noted that several errors appeared in the board's minutes, such as a reference to Jane Lopp applying for the board's at-large position when she had in fact applied for the Bigfork slot, and later told the commissioners she would go wherever they wanted her to.

Library Director Kim Crowley is in charge of the board's minutes, and she said the mistakes were routine ones that show up on draft minutes, which get routinely corrected. The board meetings are taped, and the varying quality of the tapes makes it hard sometimes to decipher what exactly is said, Crowley said.

Crowley said she does not get involved with the board's internal political disputes, although she personally likes the Tidyman's site for a new library. In an e-mail to Hanson, Commissioner Brenneman wrote that Crowley never criticized board members to the county commissioners.

And Harvey said she was not involved when he wrote his recommendations to Commissioner Hall.

Harvey writes an e-mail

In his first seven months as library foundation director, Harvey said many people questioned him about the lack of progress in picking a site for a new Kalispell library.

They criticized the board's three-person majority - an opinion shared by Harvey, a career nonprofit organization professional.

"I'm not sure that very apparent majority bloc was a catalyst for democratic success," Harvey said.

When Hall e-mailed Harvey for his opinion on July 1 - one day before the commissioners' vote - Harvey viewed himself as an advocate to push for what he thought would be best.

Harvey e-mailed back to Hall that:

. Hanson should replace Moran as the Whitefish representative. "I think Jerry might resign out of protest …. wouldn't be a huge loss," Harvey wrote.

. Jane Lopp should replace Hanson as the at-large member.

. Long should fill the Bigfork seat, opening up the Columbia Falls position.

. Lougheed might resign if Moran were not reappointed. "Frankly, she doesn't contribute much anyway, basically parrots what Anne says," Harvey wrote.

. A "provincial Whitefish contingency" - Moran and Hanson - would be removed. In an interview, Harvey said the pair frequently brought up Whitefish's past examples on supporting its branch as templates on what should be done.

Hall forwarded Harvey's e-mail to Brenneman and Lauman on July 2 before the commissioners voted on the library board's make-up that same morning.

The commissioners vote

Brenneman and Hall had been lobbied extensively on the board's make-up, although they declined to say who did so. Lauman was lobbied a little.

All three said they have no opinions - pro or con - on the Tidyman's issue. All three said stories of the board's dysfunctional nature factored into their votes.

"I'll only say I felt like we needed a change," Brenneman said.

On July 2, Brenneman made a motion not to reappoint Moran, to move Hanson to the Whitefish seat, to appoint Lopp to the at-large position and Long to the Bigfork seat. Hall seconded. All three approved the motion.

In a recent interview, Brenneman said he did not see Hall's forwarding of Harvey's e-mail until after the vote.

"I have to agree that is a coincidence" that his motion echoed Harvey's suggestions, Brenneman said. "But it's indicative of the fact that a change had to be made."

Lauman said he traditionally does not open e-mails in the morning prior to a commissioners meeting to avoid last-minute lobbying on that day's votes. So he said he never saw Harvey's e-mail until after the meeting.

Hall's pre-vote e-mail raises a question on whether it was an attempt to discuss a matter electronically and privately with the other two commissioners prior to the public meeting. Hall said that he and the other commissioners are careful not to discuss issues before going into open meetings.

With the other two commissioners saying they did not see that e-mail until after the vote, the issue is at least partially moot.

However, Mike Meloy, an attorney retained by the Montana Newspaper Association, said "a pretty good argument could be made" that an e-mail exhange among the commissioners could be considered a meeting.

Meanwhile, Bob and Jane Lopp said her appointment to the at-large position surprised them.

And, as Johnson put it: "It really shocked me. It looked predetermined. It was a slap in the face of volunteers." Johnson now is co-chairman of the advisory committee that is supposed to help the library board find a site for a new Kalispell library.

Hanson, Lougheed resign

As they learned of the vote, Hanson, Moran and Lougheed became shocked and furious.

All said they had no problem with Moran not being reappointed because the commissioners have the right to make that call.

But they objected to:

. Hanson being transferred to a seat that he did not want.

. The unexpectedly empty at-large seat being filled without being advertised to the public.

. The idea that all their recommendations lost out to behind-the-scenes lobbying by people whose identities they could only guess at.

At that time, none of the three were aware of Harvey's e-mail.

As a result of what they knew or suspected, first Hanson resigned, then Lougheed.

"The commissioners are saying to volunteer board members: 'We can take it away and give it to anyone who lobbies us.' To me, that's bad government," Hanson said.

Lougheed said: "There's a process, and reasons for that process [of advertising, interviewing candidates and making formal recommendations]. … I believe that process was totally disregarded, that there was a lack of respect for the board. … If it was known to the public that the at-large position was open, there would've been applicants."

But others criticized the pair for resigning. The commissioners said it was solely Lougheed's and Hanson's decision to quit.

Long said: "To me, that was a real overreaction. … I don't understand Jerry's concern about being reassigned because he still was a full-fledged member of the board."

Harvey's e-mail did not became public until July 17. The Daily Inter Lake asked for all of the commissioners' e-mails on the library board, and all three promptly provided them. A little later, Hanson, Moran and Lougheed learned about it.

"I believe that is the most amazing e-mail in my life. I find it extremely funny that he would put in writing what he had done," Hanson said.

Hanson, Moran and Lougheed believe that Harvey saw their deliberate style and opposition to Tidyman's as impeding his progress on raising money for the new branch because no site had been picked.

"We were not making it easy for him to do his job," Hanson said.

Long said Harvey - as head of an independent private foundation - is entitled to lobby the commissioners. She said: "Stewart has an interest in getting the building process going. … I can understand how that would be frustrating."

Lougheed, Moran and Hanson questioned whether he will be able to effectively raise money in the wake of the e-mail becoming public.

The library foundation still is studying how it will proceed with fundraising for a new library facility, Harvey said. Harvey does not believe his e-mail will hurt fundraising prospects.

And he sees himself as a single person voicing an opinion, not as a mastermind manipulating the board's make-up.

"I'm flattered" at the suggestion, Harvey said. "I never had so much credit given to my single perspective."

Now what?

The library board currently cannot meet because two members don't make a quorum.

The commissioners set an Aug. 8 deadline to receive applications for the three openings.

"People are excited," Hall said. "I've heard from several people who are excited about having someone from Columbia Falls on the board. I'm hoping we get really good applicants on the board."

After more appointments are made, Long will be the only board member up to speed on the library's affairs. So a lengthy learning period is expected.

The building advisory committee is in hiatus because it does not want to tackle sites until it knows what the board wants for a 21st century library operation, Johnson said.

Lougheed said: "I feel bad for Jane and Laura. It's gonna be a mess for a while."

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com