Hungry Horse Rural Fire District has full board
By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News
Amid controversy regarding the Hungry Horse Rural Fire District, all five people who were most recently either elected or appointed to board positions remain in that capacity, according to Flathead Deputy County Attorney Jon Smith.
Those current board members are Jenny Lentz, Lori Riley, Mark Lockwood, Ross Barker and Jared Lako.
During a regular board meeting in Hungry Horse on Nov. 12, questions arose about whether all five board members were legitimately — or legally — on the board. Lentz has been on the fire district board for some time, and Riley petitioned for a seat on Jan. 26 of this year. Riley was elected to the board in May.
On file with the Flathead County Clerk are written requests on Hungry Horse Fire District forms requesting the appointment of Lockwood, Barker and Lako. The Flathead County Commissioners appointed all three to the board.
The form asking for Lockwood's appointment had the signature of one board member, Riley. Sue Allen, then a board member, as well as Riley and Lockwood signed the request for the appointment of Barker, and the signatures of Riley and Lockwood were on the form for Lako's appointment.
Smith said there is nothing in the statues that says how many signatures of board members are required to request an appointment. Therefore, the appointments of Lockwood, Barker and Lako were approved by the commissioners. County deputy clerk and recorder Diana Kile provided copies of all those documents to the Hungry Horse News.
Kile said there were no letters of resignation from any current members of the Hungry Horse Rural Fire District board as of Tuesday.
Lentz's three-year term on the board expires on May 31, 2008, as do the terms of Lockwood, Barker and Lako — all of whom are completing terms of previous board members. Since she was elected in May of this year, Riley's term expires on May 31, 2010.
Allen resigned from the board on Sept. 4.
Under the current statue, if there are not enough filings for seats on the fire district board in an election, the commissioners can appoint persons to serve — at the request of the board.
Kile said that an unidentified man appeared in the clerk's office and told her that several board members had resigned and had been replaced. But Kile said that there were no letters of resignation on file, and the office had no new letters of appointment to the board.
Resignations from the fire district board must be written and filed with the clerk's office, then must be accepted by the commissioners to be official.