Great Falls Tribune
November 11, 2008
Group pushing city to release SME documents By RICHARD ECKE Tribune Staff Writer
An environmental group has fired another salvo in efforts to get the city of Great Falls to release more records involving the proposed Highwood Generating Station.
The Helena-based Montana Environmental Information Center filed a second motion for summary judgment late last month.
In his brief, MEIC attorney David "Kim" Wilson of Helena accused the city of Great Falls of an "unprecedented effort" to keep details about the coal-fired power plant from the public.
Wilson contended the city is trying to keep "a massive number of documents" out of the public eye. He said the city shredded documents related to Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative, the plant's developer, and also agreed to withhold 170 documents that might contain trade secrets, attorney-client information or proprietary items.
An April 2007 city letter said the city's fiscal officer decided the city would shred 11 "old and obsolete" documents rather than return them to SME, former City Clerk Peggy Bourne wrote at the time.
In his brief, Wilson argued SME "should have been aware that it was dealing with a public entity that had a duty to disclose documents and e-mails to the public."
City Manager Greg Doyon said earlier this year the city did not want to be sued by SME for releasing trade secrets. The city withheld documents at the request of SME, which has intervened in the case.
Wilson also criticized former City Manager John Lawton and Fiscal Officer Coleen Balzarini for signing a confidentiality agreement in August 2003 with SME.
City Attorney David Gliko, who subsequently advised city officials against signing any more confidentiality agreements, said this fall he does not consider the agreement important at this stage. Lawton had said the confidentiality agreement was no longer valid, although the pact did not contain expiration dates.
But private Great Falls attorney Gregory Smith, an activist who has had difficulty obtaining some Highwood-related documents from the city, contended the city and/or SME continue to cite the confidentiality pact as one reason for withholding documents.
District Judge Wayne Phillips of Lewistown has control of the case.
City government and SME have not yet filed briefs replying to the latest MEIC brief. Wilson has asked Phillips to rule in MEIC's favor and "order the immediate release of the city's files."
Gliko declined comment Monday, saying the matter should not be tried in the press. Mary Jaraczeski, an attorney for SME, could not be reached. Formal replies by attorneys for SME and the city may be filed later this month.
East of Great Falls, construction has begun on the plant, which has a state air quality permit but still faces various lawsuits, administrative appeals and financing questions.