Fresh off a 20-year career with the Montana Highway Patrol, Shawn Smalley was sworn in as a Mineral County commissioner on Dec. 27.

During his stint in the state law enforcement agency, Smalley attained the rank of sergeant. He served as supervisor for Mineral and Sanders counties while raising his family in Superior. 

Now he's focused on learning a new role in the community.

“The interesting thing is that where I’m at right now is that I’ve seen a lot of the front side of this and now it’s going to be learning the back side of the job, which is something I’m looking forward to,” Smalley said. 

Since his retirement, Smalley has been at the weekly commissioner meetings watching and listening to the interaction between the elected officials and residents while learning about the issues that he’ll become much more involved in.  

“I’ve been trying to keep a good dialog going with the Treasurer and the Clerk and Recorders Office as I see these departments having information and answers to questions that will be coming up,” he said. 

Smalley said he understands that everything that he is looking at is not his decision but a conversation with the other commissioners and with the public. Technology efficiency is something he’d like to explore because he thinks there might be cost savings for the county. He also stated that the county has made better investments with a new investment company. 

Smalley is also aware of the needs of nonprofits that are critical to the residents of the county such as the Mineral County Food Bank and the Superior Senior Citizens Center.  

One item Smalley campaigned on was examining shifting the weekly commissioners' meeting to the afternoon rather than morning.

Smalley replaces Dawn Terrill who was appointed to the commissioner position when Laurie Johnston resigned in 2022. 

“I’ve been blessed by God to serve my community, and I want to thank this community for supporting me over the years," Terrill said. "It was an honor to serve, and I do wish Shawn the best of luck.” 

“Dawn made some good changes when she got on board,” said Roman Zylawy, Mineral County commissioner. “She made us more professional, if you will, and made us more organized. We all got along. We didn’t vote the same way but we could joke and laugh and interact without any hard feelings or animosity.” 

“On average, we only meet once a week, and you got to get stuff done," County Commissioner Duane Simons said. "You have to communicate. You have to be able to talk to each other or nothing is going to happen. Yep, [Terrill] deserves a big thank you from a lot of us.”