August lawsuit lists errors since January, asks for a re-try of the hearing in 2024
By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Editor’s note: after this story was published, one sentence was modified to clarify why Commissioner Bill Todd declined to comment.
A lawsuit filed on Aug. 6 claims that Madison County officials mishandled a petition signed by more than 200 Big Sky residents.
Big Sky stretches across Madison and Gallatin counties, and the petition sought to withdraw the Madison County portion of Big Sky from the Madison Valley Hospital District. A group of Big Sky leaders, including health and wellness providers, believes that the Madison Valley Medical Center is not reasonably accessible to Big Sky’s Madison County taxpayers. Located in Ennis, the hospital is nearly an hour away for those with access to the private Jack Creek Road, or roughly 90 minutes away via public roadways—not accounting for adverse road conditions common during winter.
If the petition and subsequent withdrawal were successful, the group would seek to establish a hospital district, or “Wellness District,” that encompasses all of Big Sky and funnels tax dollars toward Big Sky’s own health and wellness providers.
Last December, the group now known as the Big Sky Wellness Coalition submitted the petition to Madison County. Following standard procedure, commissioners scheduled a hearing for Jan. 18, 2024. In the hearing’s opening remarks, the petition was rejected based on methodology used by the county which resulted in 219 of 242 signatures being rejected.
When the petition failed, leaders of the coalition—befuddled by Madison County’s methodology which recognized only 23 signatures, less than 10% of all who signed—suggested the effort was not dead.
Nearly eight months later, it was revived in Montana’s fifth judicial district court, which covers Madison, Beaverhead and Jefferson counties.
Plaintiffs claim two signatures were not counted
According to the complaint filed Aug. 6, plaintiffs seek preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, asking the court to order that commissioners reschedule the hearing within the 2024 calendar year.
Plaintiffs claim that even following the methodology used in January—which reduced eligible signees to just 48 residents—Madison County Clerk and Recorder Paula McKenzie was erroneous in her omission of two residents that did sign. Two was the exact number of names required for the petition to reach 51% and warrant the January hearing.
Furthermore, the filing claims that McKenzie, as clerk and recorder, “had no authority” to deny the petition, which must be considered and decided on by county commissioners.
“The Commissioners—not Mckenzie (sic) or anyone else—have decision making authority on the Petition, including ‘the merits’ and ‘all objections.’… This necessarily includes reviewing and making a final decision on whether the signatures collected were sufficient to meet the 51% threshold,” the filing stated (page 14).
An Aug. 7 press release from the Big Sky Wellness Coalition explained the grounds of the lawsuit, noting that the filing followed “months of unsuccessful attempts to communicate with and obtain records from Madison County regarding the Madison Valley Hospital District,” and the county commissioners’ refusal to hold a hearing even after the additional two signatures were recognized in February by McKenzie (page 16) and in July by the Madison County Attorney’s Office (page 19).
“Despite the coalition’s best efforts, the Madison County Commission refused to reconsider the Clerk and Recorder’s erroneous methodology and signature tally and refused to hold a hearing on the merits of the petition,” the press release stated.
In addition to seeking injunctive relief—through which the hearing would be ordered to occur—the complaint asks the court to order that Madison County commissioners cease levying taxes on Big Sky residents, “given that it appears the special hospital district does not legally exist and/or is not legally operating,” the filing stated (page 21).
According to the coalition’s press release, “The petitioners assert their tax dollars should fund services within their community that they actually receive and use, rather than fund services they cannot and do not access.”
Madison County Commissioner Bill Todd, whose jurisdiction includes Big Sky, was advised by legal counsel to decline to comment to EBS. McKenzie also declined to comment.
The Big Sky Wellness Coalition did not respond in time Wednesday to requests from EBS for comment.
