by Ken Toole | Oct 25, 2024 | Elections
If you’ve been following the Grulkowski scandal in the discrimination case Rina Moore filed, you already know that the county has paid more than $50,000 for Moore’s claim. In addition, the county provided an attorney to represent Grulkowski in the matter. That is above and beyond the private attorney the county hired.
State Law Provides “Indemnification” for Government Employees
This happened because state law requires it. 2305 (2) MCA states, “In any noncriminal action brought against any employee of a state, county, city, town, or other governmental entity for a negligent act, error, or omission, including alleged violations of civil rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983, or other actionable conduct of the employee committed while acting within the course and scope of the employee’s office or employment, the governmental entity employer, except as provided in subsection (6), shall defend the action on behalf of the employee and indemnify the employee.”
But Not For Actions Beyond The Scope of Their Duties
At the very end of that section providing for the defense and indemnification of an employee, there is an exception. It reads, “In a noncriminal action in which a governmental entity employee is a party defendant, the employee may not be defended or indemnified by the employer for any money judgments or legal expenses, including attorney fees, to which the employee may be subject as a result of the suit if a judicial determination is made that:
(a) the conduct upon which the claim is based constitutes oppression, fraud, or malice or for any other reason does not arise out of the course and scope of the employee’s employment;
Grulkowski’s Action Was Clearly Beyond The Scope of Her Duties
If the county allowed the case to be litigated, it would not be responsible to provide a lawyer for Grulkowski, because her participation in the hiring decision which resulted in the discrimination claim did not, “arise out of the course and scope of the employee’s employment.” That’s because the commission adopted a resolution which moved the elections office from the clerk and recorder’s office to the county commission. The county included the following language:
“WHEREAS, appointing an Election Administrator to serve at the direction of the Board of Cascade County Commissioners will eliminate the appearance of impropriety as any single Commissioner whose seat appears on the ballot in a given calendar years shall be required to abstain from all decisions concerning the operation and management of the election office during that calendar year until such time as the election for said office is finalized;”
This language clearly prohibited Rae Grulkowski from participating in all decisions concerning the elections office. Grulkowski ignored the resolution and county officials failed to make her comply. Read our blog post here, https://wtf406.com/?s=Resolution
We Are Paying Because The County Failed To Enforce It’s Own Rules
Here we are eight months later providing a personal attorney for Grulkowski for illegal acts which were clearly beyond the scope of her employment. The fact of the matter is that our elected county officials failed us in this matter and now the final insult is that we all pay for independent counsel for Grulkowski. Anyone who thinks Republicans are fiscal conservatives hasn’t been watching Cascade County.
by Ken Toole | Sep 27, 2024 | Elections
Well, the long sad saga of Rae Grulkowski just keeps getting more and more bizarre.
Conspiracy On The High Plains
Grulkowski first appeared on the public’s radar when the New York Times published a long story (some might call it an expose) about the falsehoods she circulated opposing the Big Sky National Heritage Area designation in October of 2021. She was thoroughly exposed as a purveyor of phony conspiracy theories. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/politics/montana-misinformation-national-heritage.html
Grulkowski And Merchant Take Over County Offices
In 2022, she appeared as a candidate for the Cascade County Commission. Relying heavily on the same bag of tricks she used opposing the Heritage Area, she defeated incumbent Democrat Don Ryan for the District 3 county commission seat. Very quickly she established herself as difficult to work with. She also pursued her personal agenda for elections with her comrade in arms, Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant. Grulkowski and Merchant immediately began making hard right conspiracy theories the basis of changes in the elections office, filling numerous vacant positions with their pals from the “election denier conspiracy” ranks. The county human resource office never addressed the hiring of elected officials’ political cronies
Election Protection Committee Forms
Seeing the emerging mess in the elections office, a group of Great Falls citizens formed the Election Protection Committee to monitor the elections office and to demand professional administration of elections. Throughout the fall of 2023, the Election Protection Committee exposed problems in Merchant’s office. They advocated removing election duties from Merchant’s supervision and placing them under the county commission. https://wtf406.com/?s=Election+Protection+Committee/
Grulkowski Removed As Commission Chair
After several lawsuits and a district court ordering an outside monitor to supervise the library mill levy election, County Commissioners Briggs and Larson had enough. They drafted a resolution removing the election functions from Merchant’s office. After a six hour public hearing held on December 12th, 2023,the commission voted two to one to move the election functions to the commission’s office. Included in that resolution was a specific provision which prohibited a commissioner who was on the ballot in the next election (Grulkowski) from participating in supervision of the election office. They also removed Grulkowski from the chair position she held since her election. https://theelectricgf.com/2023/12/12/county-commission-votes-to-strip-election-duties-from-clerk-and-recorders-office/
Grulkowski Continues Screwing Up The Elections Office
The commission advertised for an election administrator. The applicant pool included former clerk and recorder, Rina Moore. Despite the fact that she had 16 years experience successfully administering elections in Cascade County, they offered the position to Terry Thompson, who had no experience or training in administering elections. Thompson had worked for the local realtors association and had assisted Grulkowski in opposing the Big Sky National Heritage Area. Grulkowski fully participated in the hiring decision despite wording of the resolution prohibiting her from managing functions of the election office. Briggs and Larson rated Moore as their top choice. Grulkowski rated her fourth and gave her a low enough score to remove her from the top position. Formal legal action is now pending over the county’s decision to offer the position to Thompson.
https://wtf406.com/2024/03/grulkowski-plays-dirty-did-we-really-expect-anything-else/
Grulkowski Loses The Republican Primary. Now Running As A Write-in
As the next primary election approached, Grulkowski filed in the Republican primary to retain the county commission seat she now holds. Local businessman, Eric Hinebauch, filed against her. Hinebauch ran as a centrist Republican and Grulkowski made her conspiracy based ideas the center of her campaign. In the election held on June 4th, Hinebauch roundly defeated Grulkowski by more than 1500 votes. Instead of calling and congratulating her opponent, Grulkowski announced her intention to run a write-in campaign. She made her announcement at the local Pachyderm Club, the home of the far-right faction of the local Republican party.
Grulkowski Continues Playing Dirty Pool In Her Write-in Campaign
True to form, Grulkowski is fabricating facts in her write-in campaign. Perhaps the most glaring is claiming that she is the only candidate “Endorsed by the Great Falls Election Protection Committee,” which worked hard to expose her and her actions relating to the county election office. (See copy of the flier above) Grulkowski also has a video circulating on Rumble (a right-wing media platform) which lifts liberally from a Tik Tok produced by Jasmine Taylor, which urged Democrats to cross over and vote in the Republican primary against Grulkowski. Without explanation, Grulkowski claims that 11% percent of the voters in her Republican Primary race were Democrats.https://rumble.com/v5fhb8t-democrat-plot-to-subvert-elections-discovered-in-cascade-county-montana.html
But wait. . . .there’s more. On September 25th, the county commission held a meeting to address a concern raised by the current election administrator, Terry Thompson, that write-in candidates who used name stickers for their supporters to place on their ballots to assure proper spelling, would clog vote counting machines. Grulkowski participated in the discussion, specifically arguing that ballots with stickers would be counted by hand. While her position is reasonable, she did not disclose her self interest at any point in the discussion.
A Snow Ball’s Chance In Hell
Grulkowski’s chance of actually winning her write-in campaign? About the same as a snowball’s chance in hell. It will be interesting to see where she goes next. Our bet is she will get a job in Sandra Merchant’s office. Stay tuned.
by Ken Toole | Aug 25, 2024 | Elections
Rea Grulkowski announced her intention to file as a write-in candidate for Cascade County Commission at The Pachyderm Club meeting held on August 22. Back in June she lost her Republican primary race to Eric Hinebaugh by a wide margin. It seems she is unwilling to accept the primary results. Instead she is opting for organizing a write-in campaign for a seat on the County Commission.
No one should be surprised Grulkowski won’t accept the fact that she lost an election. She is a core activist in the local election denier crowd. She was also the major driver in the controversy which engulfed the Clerk and Recorder’s office after election denier Sandra Merchant took over in the last election. Ultimately, the full County Commission removed the election duties from Merchant’s control over the strenuous and often unethical objections raised by Grulkowski.
As of Friday, August 23, she had not filed a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate with the Election Office as required by state law. She has until 5:00 September 3rd.
Write-in campaigns are rarely successful. They require strong organization and an aggressive education campaign. Most serious write-in campaigns have stickers printed to make sure the candidate’s name is spelled correctly on the ballot. With a name like Rea Grulkowski supporters who want to vote for her could easily misspell her name and have their vote thrown out.
The Secretary of State’s office has a rule on the use of stickers for write-ins. It advises candidates to consult with their local election administrator to assure the stickers can be used in the equipment local election offices use.
See Jasmine Taylor’s Tik Tok on this topic.
https://www.tiktok.com/@montana_jasmine/video/7406314192745319726?lang=en&q=jasmine%20taylor&t=1724452544645
by Ken Toole | Mar 15, 2024 | Elections
Most of us who were watching the selection process for the new election administrator for Cascade County, Terry Thompson, knew it was a rotten kettle of fish. We suspected that the cause of the putrid smell was Commissioner Rae Grulkowski. Now we have the proof.
Rae Grulkowski’s biased scoring
Thanks to Ann Brust filing an information request with the county, we can see exactly what the scores of each of the county commissioners in the selection process were. It reveals a rogue county commissioner manipulating a government hiring process to hand the job to a person she worked alongside opposing the Big Sky Country National Heritage Area back in 2020. At that time Terry Thompson was CEO of the Great Falls Realtors Association and Grulkowski was one of the main organizers of the opposition, which was steeped in ridiculous conspiracy theories about people losing their property rights if the Heritage Area was established.
Where’s the oversight?
Perhaps even more disconcerting, the county entities which should be acting to curb the corrupt conduct of a local elected official have been sitting on their hands and even covering up for Grulkowski’s outrageous conduct as a county commissioner. We are referring to the county attorney’s office and the county human resource office. Even though they were both engaged in the selection process, they allowed Grulkowski to ignore the law and standard government personnel practices by manipulating her scores to guarantee that the most qualified applicant, former election administrator Democrat Rina Moore, was denied the position and gave it to her former, less qualified, political ally, Republican Terry Thompson.
We commend Commissioners Briggs and Larson for having the political courage to remove Grulkowski from the chair of the county commission and for passing County Ordinance 23-62, which took the election duties away from Grulkowski’s political crony and incompetent administrator Sandra Merchant. But we are baffled by their failure to enforce the provision of the ordinance which prohibited Grulkowski from participating in any decision dealing with the election office, which obviously included hiring new election administrator Terry Thompson. Larson has told people that the ordinance did not apply to Grulkowski, because she had not filed for re-election. Maybe he thought that, but he was mistaken. (See the language of the ordinance below.)
“WHEREAS, appointing an Election Administrator to serve at the direction of the Board of Cascade County Commissioners will eliminate the appearance of impropriety as any single Commissioner whose seat appears on the ballot in a given calendar years shall be required to abstain from all decisions concerning the operation and management of the election office during that calendar year until such time as the election for said office is finalized; and”
We have to wonder why Deputy County Attorney Carrie Anne Haight and Human Resource Officer Jeff Mora, who sat through numerous commission meetings dealing with this hiring decision including the applicant interviews, did not insist that Grulkowski follow the law. Perhaps we should not be surprised at the apparent dereliction of duties, since neither Haight nor Mora have raised objections as Sandra Merchant filled vacant positions in the Clerk and Recorder’s office with numerous individuals whose sole qualification appeared to be the fact that they had signed an election denier petition with bizarre demands that mail in balloting be eliminated, doing away with electronic vote counting machines, and requiring every Cascade County voter to come in and reregister to vote. Those who did not actually sign the petition were either in personal relationships with those who had or were family members of far right Republican officials like Randy Pinocci.
So, here we are now looking right at the smoking gun, the scoring of the individuals who applied to be the election administrator. There can be little doubt that Rae Grulkowski used this process to advance her own ally and subvert the competitive hiring process for the county which is required by state law, professional personnel practices, and the county’s own ordinance. She has done so with impunity and those who should have, and could have, raised objections have apparently remained silent.
Scoring Matrix for Hiring The Cascade County Election Administrator
Grulkowski was moving an agenda to help Terry Thompson and sink Rina Moore
For those readers who don’t like looking at tables, we point out that commissioners Larson and Briggs both ranked Rina Moore as the most qualified and Grulkowski rated her as the least qualified . . .by a large margin. On the other hand, Larson and Briggs ranked Thompson third and fourth respectively and Grulkowski rated her number one. . .again by a large margin. Obviously Grulkowski was moving an agenda which resulted in Terry Thompson getting the job.
But it is election season again!
We want to take this opportunity to remind the voters of Cascade County that it is election season. Former City Commissioner Eric Hinebauch is running against Grulkowski in the Republican primary, and Don Ryan is running on the Democratic ticket in the general election. If we can’t count on county officials to restrain this kind of impunity, we have to turn her out at the ballot box.
by Jasmine Taylor | Nov 14, 2023 | Elections, Militia and Hate Groups
Today’s County Commission meeting saw heated discussion of Commissioner Rae Grulkowski’s performance, or rather her failure to perform. Grulkowski is finishing a the remaining two years of a six year term which was originally held by Jane Weber. The puppeteer behind the inane ventriloquist dummy that is Sandra Merchant, Grulkowski has thus far spent her time in office acting as Merchant’s body guard. At public meetings, Grulkowski has prevented Merchant from answering questions, and even tried to stop public comments that were critical of Merchant. It’s no surprise that Grulkowski, like Merchant, is a conspiracy theorist. In fact, she got her pollical start by spreading lies about the proposed National Hertiage Area. The damage she did to our community was so unprecedented and severe that the New York Times featured her in their article “Where Facts Were No Match For Fear.”
From the article:
“Ms. Grulkowski had just heard about a years-in-the-making effort to designate her corner of central Montana a national heritage area, celebrating its role in the story of the American West. A small pot of federal matching money was there for the taking, to help draw more visitors and preserve underfunded local tourist attractions.
Ms. Grulkowski set about blowing up that effort with everything she had.
She collected addresses from a list of voters and spent $1,300 sending a packet denouncing the proposed heritage area to 1,498 farmers and ranchers. She told them the designation would forbid landowners to build sheds, drill wells or use fertilizers and pesticides. It would alter water rights, give tourists access to private property, create a new taxation district and prohibit new septic systems and burials on private land, she said.
None of this was true.”
You can read the entire article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/politics/montana-misinformation-national-heritage.html
The New York Times put it best when explaining that Grulkowski and her ilk are “divorced from reality” a condition which has clearly impacted her ability to function as a County Commissioner.
