Attorney challenged three minute rule at hearing, faced arrest

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board meeting last Tuesday on the River Highlands subdivision was largely a civil affair, but there was one tense moment when an attorney almost ended up in handcuffs.

It came when Lindsey Hromadka, an attorney for the Upper Flathead Neighborhood Association said she would speak longer than the three minute time limit allotted for each individual.

Hromadka argued the time limit wasn’t reasonable under Montana open meetings law because it took up three different items — a zone change, a planned unit development and subdivision and rolled them into one topic.

Hromadka began her testimony against the subdivision but when chairman Russ Vukonich told her her time was up and she needed to wrap up her arguments, Hromadka said she was going to keep going.

At that point, Vukonich called an immediate recess and Hromadka was asked to step away from the podium. Columbia Falls Police Lt. Gary Denham, then approached her and apparently informed her that she would be charged with disorderly conduct.

She then informed the board she would step down, because she didn’t want to have to charge her client for the time and fine she might incur if she were arrested.

While arresting her may have seemed a bit harsh, it was not outside the parameters of the law, noted University of Montana School of Journalism Associate professor Lee Banville, who is also a member the Montana Freedom of Information Act hotline.

Under the Montana open meetings law, government bodies “…must include a method of affording interested persons reasonable opportunity to submit data, views, or arguments, orally or in written form, prior to making a final decision that is of significant interest to the public.”

The courts, in turn, have found that a reasonable time limit is appropriate, as long as it is applied fairly to everyone, Banville noted.

But threatening to have the attorney arrested, “seemed a little extreme,” Banville opined.

Vukonich, prior to Hromadka had politely asked people to wrap up comments at the end of three minutes, or he cut them off.

Hromadka claimed she had one page left to read.

When she stepped down, some people in the audience said they would give her their three minutes, but that notion, too, was rejected.

As it was, the city also accepted and noted that written comments had the same weight as oral comments. To that end, it received more than 300 written comments opposing River Highlands, including 30 that were handed to it the night of the hearing.

As it was, the meeting lasted about 5 1/2 hours, with three hours of public testimony.