Time Capsule: From the archives of local weeklies

Solons back consensus Project resolution 

Alan Mikkelsen, executive director of the Flathead Joint Board of Control, returned last week from a signature-hunting expedition to Washington, D.C. 

“It was an expensive trip, but not as expensive as litigation,” Mikkelsen told the board at its monthly meeting Monday afternoon in St. Ignatius. 

While in Washington, the JBC representative convinced all four members of the Montana Congressional delegation to sign a letter requesting the Department of Interior’s support for a “a consensus-based, conflict resolution process to settle the contentious issues” surrounding management of the irrigation division of the Flathead Project. 

The tribal council passed a resolution last month to evaluate the feasibility of managing the irrigation system. That motion came on the heels of the joint board’s announcement that it had dropped the last of its lawsuits against the Department of Interior to facilitate discussions on the future of the irrigation project.  

While Mikkelsen said obtaining the required signatures from Senators Conrad Burns and Max Baucus and Representatives Pat Williams and Ron Marlenee was “touch for political reasons,” he added that the letter represents the first time all four members of the delegation have “unanimously signed a letter concerning the Flathead Irrigation Project.”

The joint board also discussed a second letter, addressed to the joint board from the tribes. The two-page letter, signed by tribal council chairman Michael Pablo, is dated Dec. 5 and responds to a letter from Mikkelsen, dated Nov. 23. 

According to Mikkelson, he received two copies of the tribal correspondence from members of the Congressional delegation before the original copy reached the joint board office in St. Ignatius. 

In the letter, the tribes stress their commitment to negotiation as a preferred means of settling disputes here. Their effort to negotiate a hunting and fishing agreement with the state "demonstrates and underscores the tribes’ commitment to talking before litigating,” it reads.  

The letter charges that five lawsuits filed by the joint board over the last four years “have destroyed channels of communication and have divided our community.” It also urges the joint board to cease repeated efforts to influence Department of Interior policy by urging lawmakers to delay confirmation of high-ranking officials. 

Salary woes outlined 

The Polson City Council was apprised last week of a pending salary dilemma for Joe Menicucci, who serves as city administrative assistant/building inspector, as well as director of the Polson Community Development Corporation. 

The city pays the corporation about $1,250 a month as a salary for Menicucci, with the corporation kicking in about $7,000 a year. 

But Dick Wollin of the corporation board told the council that this year’s disastrous cherry harvest has impacted its lease agreement on the Flathead Lake Cherry Growers plant on Finley Point, which accounts for most of the corporation’s income. Most immediately, he added, the corporation is looking at a shortfall in several thousand dollars worth of sick and vacation leave that Menicucci has accumulated. 

Wollin said the problem needs to be addressed by Jan. 1, although Mayor Pat DeVries noted that Menicucci contract runs until the end of the fiscal year, on June 30, 1990. The council voted to meet with Menicucci soon to discuss his contract and salary needs … 

Supreme Court upholds tribal lawsuit ruling 

POLSON— The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a local District Court ruling that dismissed a civil suit between two tribal members last summer for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. 

In a Nov. 15 ruling, the high court agreed with District Judge C.B. McNeil’s dismissal of lawsuit filed by Rio Liberty, a self-employed Dixon truck driver and heavy equipment operator. Liberty, a school board trustee in Dixon, had charged that his contract with the tribal post and pole yard there was unfairly terminated after he had voted against hiring the wife of the yard manager Aaron Jones for a teaching vacancy. 

Jones, who was represented by tribal attorney Dan Decker, asked the court to dismiss the suit in May of this year due to the lack of subject matter jurisdiction, since both parties are tribal members. McNeil did so on June 12, citing tribal court as the proper forum. 

In appealing the decision, Polson attorney Jim Manley turned to Public Law 280, which spells out the shared court jurisdiction the Confederated Tribes and state entered into almost 25 years ago …