July 18, 2008
City manager responds to public records ruling By RICHARD ECKE Tribune Staff Writer
City government is studying a lawsuit in a public records ruling it lost, City Manager Greg Doyon said.
ÒWe just got it today,Ó Doyon said Friday. ÒLegal counsel will review it.Ó
District Judge E. Wayne Phillips ruled last month that the city improperly refused to release draft documents to members of the Montana Environmental Information Center last year. The ruling was announced this week. In 2007, a MEIC member and a staff member asked to see documents covering the city of Great FallsÕ relationship with the Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative, which wants to build a coal-fired power plant eight miles east of Great Falls. The MEIC particularly wanted to know what kind of development agreement the city had with SME, since the city has invested $2 million in development costs as a potential part-owner of the power plant. The city is a member of SME, along with five Montana rural electric co-ops. City representatives refused to release draft documents to the MEIC. Doyon said City Attorney David Gliko is examining the ruling, and copies are available to city commissioners. The commission will need to decide at some point whether to appeal the ruling, which would cost the city extra money, Doyon said. He added that city officials will attend a monthly SME meeting next week in Billings. The city still needs to decide whether it wants to join a new development group proposed by SME that would work to develop the power plant, he said. The city also needs to clarify its relationship with SME, Doyon said.