with Rev. Dawn Skerritt and First United Methodist Church:
As members of the clergy, we know that words have power. Power to heal or to harm, to build up or to tear down. We know that for those in positions of leadership, that power is magnified, and thus should not be taken lightly. Carelessness with words—particularly from those who have been vested with authority and charged with responsibility—is dangerous, even in the absence of any malice.
We do not know if Sheriff Jesse Slaughter has malice in his heart. That is known to him and to God alone. All we have are his words and actions.
These we condemn in the strongest possible terms.
In a radio interview on October 27th, Sheriff Jesse Slaughter used his words and social capital to make misleading, and even cruel, statements against the Rev. Dawn Skerritt, the First United Methodist Church, and the local unhoused population. A few days prior, an unhoused woman died on the property of First United Methodist Church. Her name was Dianna, and she had endured a lifetime of violence and neglect, and like so many people rich and poor, she suffered from the disease of alcoholism. Dianna died, according to the report released by Sheriff Slaughter in his role as coroner, from “natural causes” related to chronic alcoholism. Dianna had sought local resources and had tried to find a way to move forward in her life. However, the resources available and the care she needed were difficult for her to obtain. The two-fold struggles of alcoholism and homelessness can be insurmountable for many individuals. In Great Falls, the local Rocky Mountain Rehab program can cost in excess of $23,000. Psychiatric care is difficult to access, and providers are often scheduled out several months, even for critical cases and for folks who have good insurance.
In the interview, Slaughter blamed Rev. Dawn Skerritt and the First United Methodist Church for Dianna’s death, saying, “People are paying for it with their lives.” He was referring to the outreach at the church even though his own report made clear that Dianna’s death, while tragic, was the result of natural causes related to chronic alcoholism.
Sheriff Slaughter spoke in a demeaning way about Rev. Dawn Skerritt several times, but more than that, he belittled her title, authority, and education. Referring to Rev. Skerritt as “preacher or whatever,” Sheriff Slaughter with his words undermined seven years of post-secondary education, an arduous process to serve in the capacity of minister within the United Methodist Church, and the many years of service she has dedicated to the church.
This is an irresponsible, reprehensible use of the platform he has been given. Whether the words were spoken in outright malice, carelessness, or dangerous ignorance, Sheriff Slaughter’s comments are baseless and unbecoming of a public official.
If the community at FUMC did not exist and Dianna had never been there, would she not have still died from the disease of alcoholism? Maybe not. It’s possible that without a community of care, her life would have been claimed sooner by the violence she regularly experienced. Or else she might have frozen to death elsewhere due to lack of shelter.
In late March of this year, the remains of another unsheltered person—who remains unidentified—were found on the First Presbyterian Church property, having lain there through the winter. That church has not been blamed for the person’s death. If one church is culpable for the death of a person on their property, are all churches responsible in the same manner? How much more is a city or county culpable for the neglect and lack of care that allows such things to happen and be summarily forgotten? Sheriff Slaughter offers no such diatribe like the one he leveled at a person and a group of people attempting to solve the problem of unsheltered people in Great Falls that so many would prefer to ignore—or rather, to displace and forget.
No one is claiming that the work of First United Methodist Church, now led by Rev. Skerritt, is an ideal solution. But an ideal solution does not exist, and as long as there are people in need, the Church will continue to try to meet those needs in spite of petty bullying by elected officials.
In this interview, Sheriff Slaughter claims that the church is not inviting folks inside and caring for them, but FUMC is still providing warm clothing and food, and has even opened their building up as a warm space to spend the cold winter hours of evening when no other shelter is available. The exact solution that Sherriff Slaughter himself mentioned is what FUMC is doing, and trying to gain partners in trying to keep all of our community members safe and alive this winter.
Sheriff Slaughter has a choice to make: a choice between embracing a spirit of collaboration in fighting the ever-worsening crisis of homelessness in our community or living into a narrative of fear and bigotry. We pray that as a servant of the people he will choose the former, rescinding his hateful comments and pledging to work with those he has a duty to serve, whether they are housed or not.
But until that time, we stand in solidarity and love with Rev. Skerritt, First United Methodist Church, and all who are victimized by a culture of neglect and fear.
Signed, the clergy of the Great Falls Ministerial Association.
Rev. Tammy Bull, New Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Jessica Crane-Munoz, Sunrise Presbyterian Church
Rev. Barbara Gwynn, retired ELCA clergy
Rev. Scott Hedegaard, Redeemer Lutheran Church
Rev. Marcia Lauzon, Episcopal Diocese of Montana
Rev. Jessica Obrecht, Bethel Lutheran Church
Debra Oldfield, S.A.M., St. John’s Lutheran Church
Rev. John Ritchie, PCUSA clergy at-large
Rev. Lynne Spencer-Smith, First Congregational United Church of Christ
Rev. Stephen Underwood, Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Let’s start with the easy stuff. Matt Rosendale is a bigot and a liar. His race baiting statement in opposing the Juneteenth Holiday was a blatant racist dog whistle. His stomping around the state in a cowboy hat and big belt buckle calling himself a rancher when he owned no cattle and didn’t even have a registered brand was and is a bold-faced lie. Just two examples. I will support whoever I think will really go after him . That person is Gary Buchanan.
I am a lifelong liberal Democrat having run twice successfully for the Montana Senate and once for the Montana Public Service Commission. I served as a local Democratic Central Committee Chair and did a stint on the State Executive Board. When I was in the State Senate, I also served as one of four board members of the Montana Legislative Campaign Committee. This is the first time in my life I have supported an independent candidate for anything.
In my career in politics, I learned how to look at the numbers of past elections. The simple fact is that it would take a truly extraordinary democrat to win in the Eastern Congressional District. At a minimum, that person would have to have name recognition across the district and connections beyond the usual Democratic constituent groups. More importantly, that person would have to be able to raise enough money to be a serious contender against Rosendale’s bank roll provided by the far right. Looking at the field of Democrats in the primary I simply didn’t see anyone who met these basic criteria.
I’ve supported plenty of Democrats over the years who were unlikely to win. To me it’s about more than that. To beat Rosendale, we need someone who will aggressively and effectively go after his record in Montana and in congress. Win or lose Gary Buchanan will do that. I know it from personal experience.
The electric deregulation mess is fading into the past. Just remember that it is the worst economic disaster in our history. When the bill passed in 1997, I was amazed at the broad support it received from politicians, big business, and even organized labor. The opponents at the time were seniors, low-income advocates, and environmentalists. It was a lop-sided political battle, but Buchanan didn’t care. He saw the economic folly of the proposal and got active. I watched him give testimony, read his editorials, and had numerous discussions with him about deregulation and its politics. He was fearless and forceful. He did not give a damn about partisan politics or who he might offend.
I don’t agree with Buchanan on lots of things. I’m not impressed that he has worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations. I’m not enamored with his profile as a serious businessperson or the support he is receiving from so-called moderate Republicans. I’m not persuaded by those who argue that he will split the Democratic vote and be responsible for Rosendale’s re-election. A traditional Democratic campaign, underfunded and over matched, has almost no chance of winning anyway.
I know that Buchanan will say what he means and do what he says. He’s not going to play a bunch of political games to get elected. He understands that Matt Rosendale is an embarrassment to Montana. He has the character, experience, and personality to call Rosendale out.
President Biden’s recent announcement prompts us to take another look at the marijuana issue here in Great Falls. But first, for those who may have missed Biden’s announcement on marijauana, here are the salient points.
Offers pardons to 6500 people with convictions for simple possession of marijuana
Directs the Department of Justice to review whether marijuana belongs on Federal Schedule 1 of dangerous drugs along with fentanyl, heroin and other drugs
Encourages states to make similar moves on marijuana policy
Let’s review some of the facts about people’s attitudes toward marijuana here in Great Falls. Remember that numerous attempts to liberalize marijuana laws in Montana have failed numerous times in the Republican dominated legislature. Advocates of legalizing marijuana finally decided to take it directly to the people through the initiative process, gathering signatures for two ballot measures. One was a statutory measure (which theoretically could be repealed or amended by a simple majority of the legislature), and the other amended the state constitution to allow legal marijuana in Montana (much harder for the legislature to change.) So, after gathering the required signatures across the state, both measures qualified and appeared on the ballot in the 2020 election. You remember that one. Trumpers swept the Montana elections, carrying “conservatives” into office up and down the ballot. But despite that, both ballot measures passed by wide margins.
Despite overwhelming public support, Republican legislators in 2021 still supported bills to restrict and limit marijuana in Montana. So here’s a table with some relevant numbers.
Please note that some of the incumbents are not running in the same district they represented in 2021.
House District
% for Initiative 190
% for CI 118
Republican Legislator 2021 session
Democratic Challenger 2022
21
56.56%
56.84%
Ed Buttrey
Lela Graham
22
61.41%
60.14%
Lola Sheldon-Galloway
Nick Henry
23
59.26%
58.66%
Scot Kerns
Melissa Smith
24
57.21%
58.18%
Stephen Galloway
Barbara Bessette
25
61.17%
59.59%
Steve Gist
Jasmine Krotkov
26
63.19%
60.20%
Jeremy Trebas
Casey Schreiner
But the story doesn’t end there. After the election and the legislative session ended, local governments weighed in. Here in Great Falls the City Commission flubbed it. To make a long and painful story short, the city commission basically bent to a small, vocal group of people who wanted to prohibit marijuana sales in the city.
Historically, cultivation and sale of marijuana has been prohibited by city zoning code. After the new law was passed making marijuana legal in Montana, the City Commission could have (and we believe should have) simply repealed the old zoning code and adopted a code which allowed marijuana sales in city limits. Instead, the Commissioners took the easy way out and referred the question to the ballot. Only one commissioner, Eric Hienbaugh, voted against the referral to the ballot. Unfortunately the ballot wording is confusing, because a “For” vote means you want to prohibit marijuana sales in the city. So, if you want to allow marijuana sales in the City of Great Falls, you should vote “Against,” which means you support marijuana sales in the city..
This has been a long and tortured process involving petitions, lawsuits, numerous hearings, and public meetings. Hopefully the measure will pass on the ballot making it legal to buy marijuana in city limits, and we can move forward as the voters in Montana intended in the first place.
Greg Gianforte has been busy. And by busy, I mean attempting to overhaul and turn professional licensing requirements on their head in Montana. His office recently released the first draft of their Red Tape Reduction Initiative, which has been described as Gianforte’s cornerstone achievement for this upcoming legislative session. The bill is meant to remove some regulation involving state boards and state licensed professionals, but to my surprise in the first draft was the elimination of the license requirement for my profession: architecture.
Most of the general public might think of architects and luxurious design as synonymous. However, at the very minimum, our job is to provide safe and healthy building design solutions that fit within building, energy, ADA and fire code standards. State licenses are important, because the factors of building design in every state are different, especially those involving weather and geography, and we must ensure that anyone coming from another state meets the necessary requirements to design in Montana. If we lose our licenses or our state board, it opens the flood gates for the lowest bidder to come from across the country to design in Montana….no license needed. This will cost taxpayers more for design errors in publicly funded buildings, it will cost building owners and developers, and allow any architect around the country to immediately design Montana buildings creating unlimited, unregulated business competition for those of us already here.
Architects from warm, flat regions pose the biggest threat. Outside of the obvious heavy snow loads and frigid temperatures we endure for many months of the year, we live within a special wind zone because of our Chinook winds. Dealing with our unique topography, high winds, cold weather, and drifting snow in building design is not something that most architects outside of our region are familiar with. I grew up in the southeastern US so I know firsthand; there are many ways they design buildings in the south that would be impractical at best to construct here.
We first heard rumblings in July that professional license and state licensing board changes were coming and could be aggressive. As an architect working within Great Falls, I can confirm that most of my colleagues were blind-sided to find out that not only was our state architecture board in peril, but that our licensure process was at risk of being removed. The new bill will go to the next legislative session in January, potentially derailing our entire profession in the matter of seven months.
Building design is rigorous work, often requiring many days of long hours to see a project through to completion. We continuously give back to our communities by fostering development, volunteering for groups, organizations, and committees who need a local architect on board, and help local businesses succeed with bringing state-of-the-art design to our cities, towns, and rural areas. I know architects who are good, hard-working people that voted for Gianforte, because he had a business-first identity. Why would this administration turn on its own supporters, especially those who are heavily intertwined in the positive development of Montana communities?
Gianforte’s state website includes this excerpt on the Red Tape Reduction Act: “Revising, rolling back, and repealing unnecessary, burdensome regulations will help open Montana for business, grow our economy, increase access to greater opportunities, and create more good-paying Montana jobs.” One could easily conclude that he considers licensed architects as unnecessary and burdensome. This will open Montana to irresponsible development that will cost our taxpayers, close small businesses like the one I work for, and destroy the local fabric of our Montana communities. We need our cities and towns to be designed by people who live within them, not by out-of-state architects who ignore our best interests.
The Gianforte Administration regularly acts as if laws, ethics, and norms don’t apply to them. Gianforte has demonstrated his ethics (or lack thereof) ranging from physical assault, stripping protection from public lands, to illegally hunting. It’s not surprising that his Lieutenant Governor, Kristen Juras, would flout norms too. Enter Cascade County District Court Judge David Grubich.
Judge Grubich is in a race to retain his seat following his interim appointment by Gianforte in 2021. This appointment itself was an astounding violation of non-partisanship. The Republican-led Montana Legislature refused to confirm the appointment by Democratic Governor Bullock of Michele Levine to the Cascade County District Court. It was the first time in 50 years the Montana State Senate failed to confirm an interim judge.
In a clear violation of the Judicial Conduct Code, Juras hosted a fundraiser on behalf of Grubich on April 14th.
Cover image for Facebook event, page accessed on April 4th, 2022.
Perhaps Judge Grubich doesn’t know the rules are different for judicial candidates versus legislative or executive branch officials? By accepting the Republican Lt. Governor’s partisan endorsement with a sponsored fundraiser, Judge Grubich is violating the Montana Code of Judicial Conduct. The Code specifically spells out the following:
Rule 4.1 – Political and Campaign Activities of Judges and Judicial Candidates in General.
A judge or judicial candidate shall not:
(7) seek, accept, or use endorsements from a political organization, or partisan or independent non-judicial office-holder or candidate.
The accompanying General Considerations text for Rule 4.1 explains why judges are held to this higher standard of impartiality and independence.
“Rather than making decisions based upon the expressed views or preferences of the electorate, a judge makes decisions based upon the law and the facts of every case. Therefore, in furtherance of this interest, judges and judicial candidates must, to the greatest extent possible, be free and appear to be free from political influence and political pressure.”
Does Judge Grubich appear to be free from political influence by accepting the partisan endorsement of Lt. Governor Juras? No.
How can we trust that Judge Grubich will be impartial and independent as a judge, if he’s willing to welcome a partisan endorsement to raise money for his campaign? Judges are not above the law, and Grubich’s failure to follow the Code of Conduct is a grim beginning to a “nonpartisan” campaign.
Is anyone else getting tired of whiney Republicans? The most recent example is an editorial sent across the state by 57 Republican Legislators (including Great Falls Legislators Wendy McKamey, Scott Kerns, Jeremy Trebas, Steve Gist, Steven Gallloway and Ed Buttrey). Their complaint is, once again, a screed against the judiciary. Didn’t any of them take 8th grade civics classes? What part of “checks and balances” don’t they understand?
This time around they are griping that a judge found several laws passed by the last legislature unconstitutional. The laws in question make it more difficult for people to vote. Why make voting in Montana more difficult? As usual, they trot out false arguments about voter fraud which have been proven repeatedly to be fake news. This is part of an effort by the Republican Party to undermine our faith in elections because Donald Trump lost the last one. . . never mind that Montana Republicans won all the state-wide offices and picked up many legislative seats in the last election. It’s ironic that so many Republican legislators think their own victory was rigged by Democrats.
Republicans in the last legislature repeatedly demanded confidential documents from the Montana Supreme court, which the court refused to provide. So, the legislature enlisted Republican Attorney General, Austen Knudsen, to complain on their behalf, taking their case all the way to the US Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. It was a complete waste of resources to assert the legislature’s inflated view of their own power.
It’s bad enough that they waste time and money on these efforts to protect and preserve their power, but every time they lose, they revert to slinging insults like school yard bullies. In this last editorial they say the judge they disagree with is an “activist judge who doesn’t like common sense.” They go on to accuse the judge of being part of an imagined conspiracy, stating, “Judge Moses unilaterally blocked all these commonsense laws at the request of the Montana Democratic machine.” Quite an accusation considering the Republicans are in complete control of state government.
As a part of their continuing war with the judiciary, the Republican legislature eliminated the Judicial Nominating Commission so that Republican Governor Greg Gianforte could appoint whoever he pleases to judicial vacancies. Once again, the Republicans complained about being treated unfairly by “activist judges.” And, as a result, handed complete power to appoint judges to their Republican pal in the Governor’s office.
Many people think this is all just political posturing. That’s true. But the Republicans are preoccupied with creating smoke where there is no fire. While they are pointing fingers at the liberal judiciary, they whine about the border wall, wolves stalking our mountains, gays, trans, antifa, and socialists behind every tree, they are ignoring real problems that affect the day to day lives of Montanans.
Where is their concern about the fact that the Warm Springs State Hospital is failing the patients it is meant to take care of? What are they doing for farmers and ranchers who face manipulated and unfair prices for their products? What are they doing about the thousands of people who can’t find affordable housing? What about replacing and maintaining our aging infrastructure? These are serious issues, but Republicans don’t talk much about them.
Instead, Republicans are taking books out of local libraries, telling school boards what to teach in history class, arguing about masks, and promoting myths about election fraud. At the end of the day, these things have little to do with the quality of life here in Montana. The serious problems we face will not be addressed by the whining of overblown, self-important Republican legislators.
Ken Toole is a former state senator and former vice Chair of the Montana Public Service Commission. He is now retired and lives on an off-grid farm south of Great Falls.
