The Hamilton City Council is now firmly in the grip of the reactionary forces that are on the march all across America.

After four years of trying, the pro-development forces finally succeeded in ousting the most progressive people ever to be elected in our County.  Bob Scott, Robert Sutherland, and DeAnne Harbaugh stood solidly for environmental protection, social justice, and spending of public resource to benefit the public.   Their values derive from the political left and all three have been lifelong supporters of the Democratic Party and its candidates, when those candidates were truly Democrats.  Their record of opposing big subdivisions, reducing taxation of the poor, protecting parks, and fighting corruption at all levels is now part of the public record.  Thanks to them, City Council meetings are now audio recorded, and anyone with any doubts about what happened recently can listen to the recordings of any meeting, just by asking for the CD of the meeting in question. 

Never in the history of Hamilton has there been such a counter-reaction to the policies of any elected officials.   To recap:  Prior to 2003, Hamilton city government was firmly in the grip of pro-development interests, and city staff worked hand-in-glove with profit-driven private interests.  Most power had shifted to one individual, Mark Shrives, who set policy, ran meetings, and had little use for the needs of the public, or, indeed, of public process at all.  With his cronies in government (two of which were hired by him), Dale Huhtanen, Colleen Miller, and Ken Bell, he ran the city, if not pleasantly, at least with some military discipline.  No private project was turned away, and the full resources of the city, its staff, and its consultants, were devoted to helping powerful private and Federal government entities.  The Rocky Mountain Labs was a particular beneficiary of city largesse, receiving more than a million dollars in reduced water and sewer charges, illegally handed out without Council approval, and without Council knowledge.  Subdividers and other developers benefited by an expansion of the city water system.  More than $2 million dollars

Into this cozy arrangement came Bob Scott and Robert Sutherland.  From 2004 to 2006, to the horror of private developers (such as Chip Pigman, the Mildenbergers, and the investors in Area 3 and Flatiron) and their enablers in city government, Scott and Sutherland worked to expose the malfunctionong of city government and to change the use of city resources to benefit the people.   Although Mark Shrives and Dale Huhtanen departed soon after the election of Scott and Sutherland, Colleen Miller and then Mayor Petrusaitis hung on to try to preserve the old, comfortable ways.  They attempted several internal coups, spreading lies and gossip and stirring up enmity towards Scott and Sutherland among city employees, most of whom had never even met the new Councilors.  They enlisted the Ravalli Republic management, known to favor economic expansion and growth in Ravalli County, in a virtually continuous smear campaign against Scott and Sutherland.  Miller and Petrusaitis prevented audio recording of meetings, and used their allies at the newspaper, at the RML, and in the development community, to spread the lie that Scott and Sutherland were obstructing city government with disrespectful behavior, poor decorum, and “attacks” on city employees.  In fact, it was Scott and Sutherland who were verbally attacked.  It was Miller, Petrusaitis, and their allies that spread the hateful and malicious gossip, and created dysfunction in city government. 

Still, in spite of a steady drumbeat of lies in the newspaper and a steady gossip campaign, the public still wasn’t buying the Miller/Petrusaitis story.   Although Scott was threatened, his book business undermined and nearly ruined, his engineering license and reputation questioned, and his actions and beliefs misrepresented, he didn’t crack.   Petrusaitis and Miller even attempted to use the Hamilton Police against Scott and Sutherland on several occasions.  Still to no avail. 

Then in 2005, things came to a head.  Scott and Sutherland backed DeAnne Harbaugh and Nancy Hendrickson over the hand-picked candidates of Petrusaitis and Miller, and they won.  Unfortunately, the real powers in Hamilton, private development interests, were becoming increasingly disenchanted with their minions Petrusaitis and Miller, and backed Jessica Randazzo for Mayor and she won.  The stage was now set for a showdown.  Although the Empire had hung onto the mayorship, the Council, which, by law, wields the real power in municipal government, was ostensibly in the hands of the Scott/Sutherland group.  Something had to be done. 

Using Petrusaitis allies on the lame duck Council, Dayle Anderson and Helen Phillip, and two allies who had narrowly survived the 2005 election (Jerry Steele by 11 votes, and Mike LaSalle by a slim plurality of about 37%), Petrusaitis and Miller succeeded, albeit illegally, in ousting Scott from Council and replacing him with a known pro-development minion, former Mayor Laurel Frankenfeld.  The kangaroo court proceedings were loosely premised on the fact that Scott was being investigated (illegally and without his knowledge) by Dusty Deschamps, hand-picked by Ken Bell to convict Scott of a trumped-up charge of “assault,” cleverly arranged by Colleen Miller and her employee Chris Cobb.

 It was a desperate gamble.  An anti-democratic coup with no due process, illegal procedure, and lack of a quorum was rammed through with the help and blessing of the city’s attorney Ken Bell, always there to oblige the private interests behind all the turmoil.   This time the public was puzzled.   Deschamps was about to charge Scott with “misdemeanor assault” after a supposed investigation.  What was going on here?  Hadn’t the Ravalli Republic been saying Scott was guilty since he was elected?  Could the Mayor, Councilors and long-time city employees be lying?  Sure it seemed a bit far-fetched, but the public had been told the same story for so long now it was becoming fact. 

In spite of this, most of Hamilton, and significantly, Hamilton liberals, still backed Scott.  They came en masse to Council meetings and demanded redress.  The Bitterroot Human Rights Alliance came to Scott’s defense with legal aid.  In spite of the mounting problems, Bell, Miller, LaSalle, and new Mayor Randazzo (picking up the Petrusaitis line without missing a beat) doggedly stuck to their story.  Throwing caution to the winds, they spent over $30,000 of government money in legal expenses in an attempt to keep Scott off the Council.  They had succeeded in bringing government to a standstill and were guilty of a massive waste of public resources.   All of their energy and time was devoted to the single goal:  stop Scott and Sutherland.

In the end, Randazzo caved and negotiated, very reluctantly, the return of Scott to Council, paying most of his legal expenses, and back pay.  Yet, for Randazzo, a person irrationally determined to control all events, it was not over, in spite of the fact that it should have been.   New plans were laid to get rid of Scott, Sutherland, and now Harbaugh, who would not march to the mayor’s tune.  In the face of seeming losses on all fronts, Randazzo had succeeded, largely through the clever maneuvering of Mike LaSalle, in recruiting Nancy Hendrickson as an ally on the Council, which meant that she could count on a majority to continue to support the status quo.

 And for Scott, more ordeals were planned.  Bell, with the blessing of Randazzo, pressed on with the court case against Scott.   Miller worked furiously behind the scenes, pestering the Sheriff’s department to charge Scott, illegally publicizing investigative reports, and continuing to spread lies.  Surely, they thought, Hamilton would convict this man who had been identified more than twenty times on the front page of the Ravalli Republic as having been “accused of assault.”  

When a jury of six women acquitted Scott of the charge against him, the Mayor and her growing band of followers were devastated.  Instead of cowering, Scott had spent his own money and enlisted the help of Jeff Renz, a prominent civil defense attorney, and Craig Shannon, the best criminal defense attorney in Montana.  It was a two day trial, heretofore unheard of in city court, and the prosecution had come up empty handed.  Basically, they had no case.  It was all hype and no substance, as typical with most politically motivated charges. 

What to do?  Carol Schwan, a local liberal and long-time ally of Randazzo, decided to recall Scott from office.  It was easy for her to get petition signatures and whip up hatred, since the Mayor and the newspaper had been working pretty hard at that already.  The Mayor was building a coterie of liberals (Nansu Roddy, Deirdre Engelmann, Vivian Yang, Cynthia Fleming and others) around her that were all too easily buying into the “Bob Scott is the source of all problems” meme.  For people who had never attended a Council meeting, it was an easy sell.  After all, the steady drumbeat from the newspaper had let up only for one day, to quickly report Scott’s acquittal.  After that it was back to "Council dysfunction," always attributed to Scott, Sutherland and Harbaugh, never to the Mayor and others who were working so hard to obstruct the progress of the three Councilors. 

This time the public was truly torn.  Was Scott really bad?  It still didn’t seem too logical, but would the newspaper lie?  Would the Mayor lie?   The newspaper gleefully reported the success of the recall petition, kept it in the headlines, and called in an editorial for Scott to resign.  Scott, facing another ordeal, would surely give up this time.   Instead he campaigned with everything he had.   The recall supporters threw up a barrage of negativity.  Anonymously funded (although the likely culprits were wealthy developers) overflights pulled signs across the sky announcing “recall bully Bob Scott.” [This anonymous funding is still under investigation by the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.].  Handbills listing Scott’s numerous “offenses,” lifted without much change from Colleen Miller’s collection of lies and nonsense, were distributed to every voter.  Businessman Clayton Dethlefson distributed a letter to every voter comparing Scott to O. J. Simpson.  The Mayor and her coterie went into overdrive with their gossip campaign, but they had still not mastered the important mechanics of campaigning.  There were still enough liberal and independent voters in Hamilton who believed Bob.  Scott won the recall by two votes. 

The newspaper temporarily relented.  The voters want Scott, they said.  It should have been over.  But what of the real powers in Ravalli County?  What of the empire of capitalist investment poised to make millions on the sale of land in and around Hamilton?  This valley was their Golconda, their source of personal enrichment.  Could one man be allowed to stand in the way of profit?  If the political fight were over, it meant that Scott would go on with his progressive agenda.  All subdivisions were in danger of not being approved.  Scott had been very clear that he opposed building 800-1200 new houses on Area 3, the old Marcus Daly estate, and that he opposed the Flatiron subdivision with its proposed 600+ houses. 

The answer was clear for the private real estate, banking, and development interests:  The fight must go on.  Learning from the Mayor’s success, and learning from the campaign techniques of Scott, they found a weakness, and poured all their resources into it.  As long as liberals and independents supported Scott, Sutherland, and Harbaugh, they would win, since right-wing conservative faction in Hamilton, which is accorded such power by conventional wisdom, actually amounts to only about 35% of the voters.  The trick was to get liberals and independents to vote against Scott, Sutherland and Harbaugh. 

The Mayor had shown the way.  So far, she had pulled off the trick of convincing the public of her liberal persuasions while simultaneously working to preserve the conservative power structure.  She was Hamilton’s Hillary Clinton.  As long as the liberal/independent groups in Hamilton never attended City Council meetings, the Mayor and the newspaper would be able to create whatever reality they wanted.

 And so it went.  Two Democrats, a disgruntled loser in a legislative race, Deb Essen, and an alleged liberal Commissioner, Kathleen Driscoll, were the perfect combination to stop progress in Hamilton.  The Mayor provided the content (Bob Scott is disrespectful and engaged in “fighting”), Scott’s former campaign strategies provided the mechanics (direct mail, door-to-door, professional-quality campaign material, voter list analysis, yard signs, etc), and the development interests provided the money. 

 Big developers including Jim Schueler, Brad Mildenberger, and Peter Van Tuyn leaped eagerly to support Essen’s PAC, and contributed more than half of the reported contributions so far.  Wealthy landowner Howard Rapp added a smaller , but significant funding,  [Rapp had past reasons for wanting Scott gone:  Scott had lead the struggle for a new sewer system at Rapp’s mobile home court at considerable cost to Rapp, and was probably identified by Rapp as leading the struggle to make the Daly Mansion Preservation Trust more publicly responsible.]  Their contributions alone were more than double the total spent by Sutherland, Scott, and Harbaugh together, and the reporting is not yet complete for Essen’s PAC, the “Committee for Effective Government.” 

A clever slogan, “Stop The Fighting” was concocted by John Kauffman (apparently the consort of Randazzo supporter Nansu Roddy), and it, together with slick, expensive advertising turned the Republican opponents of the three true Democrats, into warm and fuzzy people who would be “respectful”  Opposing the three true Democrats in the November 2007 Council election were Al Mitchell, conservative Republican businessman, Joe Petrusaitis, virulently anti-liberal fundamentalist and former Mayor, and Jenny West, offspring of  Republican developer Mike West and someone of seemingly malleable political character.  None of these candidates had ever lifted a finger to support Democrats, and in the cases of Mitchell and Petrusaitis, had actively and publicly opposed Democrats. 

The clincher was to have the endorsement of newly elected County Commissioner Kathleen Driscoll, a practitioner of the Schweitzer-Baucus school of Democratic politics.  Slick advertising with her picture, the mayor’s picture, and others turned the tide.  Mayor Randazzo had laid the groundwork, but the PAC campaign finally convinced the liberals and independents to abandon Scott, Sutherland, and Harbaugh. 

The Empire had organized, found defectors, and told the Big Lie.  They had struck back with a vengeance.  Their fight to stop “fighting” had carried the day.   The voters, after four long years had become full participants in the Big Lie.  As has been said before, tell a lie often enough and long enough, and pretty soon people, given no other real information from those in power, will come to believe it. 

So what of the future?  Since the Empire is victorious and on the march across the country (look closely at the 2008 Presidential race – only Edwards, Kucinich, Paul, and Huckabee have dared challenge the forces of the established empire, and, as a result, they are facing either media hostility, dismissal, ridicule, or blackout).  The future looks grim for the forces of Light.  But no empire lasts forever.  Quite the contrary, they all fail. 

Here in our town, the local representatives of Empire sit victorious on the City Council.  But all victories contain the seeds of their own demise.  Development, banking and real estate interests have no doubt perceived the weakness of their victory.  Their candidates are not in power with a mandate to give development the green light, but rather with a mandate to “be respectful” and “stop fighting.”   The winning candidates, in order to lull the public, campaigned to “control growth.” “give back to the town she loves so much”, and be “compassionate.”  Given this situation, how is it that Peter Van Tuyn will get approval of the Old Corvallis Lift Station?  How will Jim Schueler and Brad Mildenberger get approval of Flatiron?  How will Wal-Mart be able to build?  Taking out the known opponents of Flatiron and Wal-Mart is a start, but the public could still catch on. 

My own prediction is that much will be down behind the scenes.  Every effort will be made to keep the public in the dark, or give them public, but meaningless tasks to perform.  Much will be done in confusing ways to keep the public from spotting who has the ball.  Dennis Stranger, Hamilton’s Anti-Planner Planner, has already given us a clue.  Abandoning his work at the city to pro-development “consultants,” he has become an advisor to the County.  Where the City will not work, the County can be made to, and Stranger will see to it.  His first official pronouncement is that everything is hunky-dory with County subdivisions.  Lo and Behold!  They pay their way; the county is in a break even situation!  This stunning piece of bullshit will probably be lapped up by County government, even though they know state law requires a balanced budget for local governments (i.e. they have to break even or they would be breaking the law).  A real analysis would examine what needed expenses (for law enforcement, road maintenance, schools, general services, etc., that were not made because there was no money). 

But Stranger is just one arm of the coming obfuscation and managerial shell game that will be played out.  The City will quietly, and out of the public eye, return to the days of unfettered support for private interests.  Expect to see a lot of grandstanding by the Mayor on diversionary issues.  And the empire has grand plans for the county, too.   Yes, it has wan there as well.  Stayed tuned for “The Empire Strikes Back, Part 2 - Ravalli County” coming soon.