By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Following a commission meeting featuring a closed session regarding the acquisition of the Green River Gravel Pit, the item appeared publicly with an update on the letter the Commission intended to send to the Bureau of Land Management. However, no letter was sent, creating tension between Commissioner Dennis Worwood, Commissioner Keven Jensen and County Attorney Micheal Olsen.
When the item was presented, Commissioner Jensen stated he was curious for an update on the project as in a closed session in a previous meeting, they had decided to send a letter to the BLM regarding the pit. Attorney Olsen explained he had met with the BLM and the road department to purchase this property.
Olsen explained that this process would be extensive, taking up to two years to complete. The other option would be to harvest the gravel royalty-free, something the Road Department had expressed concerns about.
“We made the motion that you send him a letter saying we requested to have that property,” stated Jensen,” Do you not have that letter?”
“I told you if you wanted me to handle it, I’ll go ahead and do that. If the Commission wants to send a letter, you can send a letter,” rebuked Olsen.
“This Commission was undermined. And it’s really sad it was undermined. We had that closed session, and I thought we made it pretty clear what needed to happen,” spoke Jensen. Commissioner Worwood intervened,” Attorney Olsen called me about the letter wondering what the tone of it should be. My suggestion to him was to talk to Kyle Beagley at the BLM and that would direct our course forward. After talking to Kyle and the others over there, it appeared that we were three steps down the road from where a letter would have gotten.”
Worwood concluded his remarks, saying,” I think the end result is we’re moving forward with the gravel pit … This, to me, appears to be the way forward.”
“What’s a little bit frustrating is that we took a commission action. And I’m pretty much left in the dark,” expressed Jensen. “And when a commission goes and makes an action like that, and then a commissioner or the attorney goes and talks to BLM, it really needs to be up-front with the commission.”
Olsen responded,” I sent you a memo that we didn’t have a cause of action.” Jensen interrupted,” No, you didn’t … We can go through the email history … That’s what’s pretty disconcerting: I’m over the road department, I’m over public lands and I’m being left out of what’s happening. And that’s pretty frustrating.”
Worwood’s last volley of the debate was,” We’re moving ahead, and I think that’s a positive.”
This conflict led to the closing item of the meeting with the County’s legal counsel, Attorney Olsen. Commissioner Jensen said he was concerned about remarks made by Olsen, claiming that he had made the statement that he does not have to do what the commission requests because he is an elected official. Another cause for concern for the Commissioner was an email that the County may not be eligible for 501c3 money.” The response that was given was pretty troubling to me was, ‘Your duty is to follow the direction of your supervisor if and when the time comes.”
Jensen continued,” This is what we’ve been dealing with for a couple of years, and I don’t know why. I don’t understand. As a commission, we need counsel. I want to be put on record and talk to the Commission about it. I mean, our attorney said he does not have to do it because he’s an elected official.”
Olsen returned fire,” It looks like you wanted to talk to me about something that was said in the closed meeting. The next thing you wanted to talk about was the 501c3. Why didn’t you put that on the agenda?”
“I had more than 30 emails, probably that I could present and I didn’t know which one to pull from,” replied Jensen. “But what really broke the camel’s back is when you said to us you don’t have to do what we ask, and you’re our counsel.”
“With respect to that, if you’re going to put something on the agenda to discuss it, you’re required to put it on with reasonable specificity,” stated the attorney. “I didn’t ever say I didn’t ever have to do anything the Commission said. What I said was we do not have a legal action to obtain that property short of purchasing it. I’m not required to do that if there’s not a cause of action. We don’t have legal footing to stand on. You can’t force me to send a letter. It’s just that simple.”
Commissioner Jordan Leonard interjected, stopping the argument,” I think it would be nice to communicate more. I mean, there are personal feelings, there are challenges we’re working through, and heavy things that we’re working on every day. I think we need to communicate more; I truly do.” He added,” I don’t know if we need to sit in a room and yell at each other for a minute; I don’t know what the solution is. But we need to at least get on the same page somehow so we can work for the betterment of the County.”
This speech ended the debate until the elected official reports at the end of the meeting, where Olsen fired the final shot of the argument, stating,” I’m not concerned if I don’t meet Commissioner Jensen’s approval on every singlething. I am an elected official. I answer directly with the people. If anyone has a concern, I urge them to contact me.”