Great Falls Tribunedo
July 23, 2008
City gives watchdog group Highwood documents By RICHARD ECKE Tribune Staff Writer
City of Great Falls officials opened up hundreds of documents to inspection by the public Tuesday in the wake of a court ruling.
City commissioners plan to gather for a special meeting at 3 p.m. today in the Civic Center Commission Chambers to hear about the District Court ruling and consider their options.
The city lost a public documents dispute with the Helena-based Montana Environmental Information Center over the city's relationship with the Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative. The nonprofit co-op wants to build the Highwood Generating Station, a proposed $800 million coal-fired power plant, eight miles east of Great Falls.
City officials had refused to release drafts of documents involving the city and SME's energy ventures, contending that drafts were not open to the public.
That prompted the lawsuit by the MEIC. The Montana Newspaper Association later joined the suit.
In June, District Judge E. Wayne Phillips of Lewistown disagreed with the city's position, ruling the documents should be released.
The City Commission will hear from City Attorney David Gliko today and then discuss whether to appeal the case to the Montana Supreme Court.
A group of four people, all members of Citizens for Clean Energy and/or the MEIC, visited the Civic Center on Tuesday morning to examine some of the city documents that were previously denied them. City Clerk Lisa Kunz led the group to the Civic Center Rainbow Room, where the documents were laid out on tables. Gliko also spoke to group.
Group members then marked the papers they wanted the city to copy for them.
"We were pleasantly surprised," said Jerry Taylor, who belongs to both CCE, based in Great Falls, and the MEIC.
After a cursory look at the documents, Taylor said they did not appear to contain anything startling, although he added some were "very, very interesting."
He said some of the documents appeared to be the drafts that were at the heart of the legal dispute.
"Why they withheld this from the public is beyond me," Taylor said.
The group still wants to see e-mails that were sent between SME and city officials, Taylor said, as well as information Great Falls officials have gleaned from monthly SME meetings in Billings.
"We're satisfied with this beginning," Taylor said.
City Manager Greg Doyon called the release of documents Tuesday "a good first step." He said gathering e-mails is a lengthy process, noting that additional information still must be reviewed by attorneys prior to release.
SME has filed affidavits with the city specifying information that cannot be released because it contains trade secrets, Doyon said.
"We do have to exercise some caution with what was released," he said.
Environmentalists, historic preservationists, landowners and others have battled the proposed coal plant and the city's involvement in it for several years. The plant has drawn support from area labor unions, business people, the Great Falls Development Authority and others.
Financing and lawsuits filed by opponents remain as hurdles for the project.
The city of Great Falls has invested about $2 million in developing the power plant, but city officials have expressed misgivings about putting more money into the plant.