[0:02] Uh, 24 questions. Um, pretty in-depth, but yeah.

[0:07] Good to go? All righty.

[0:12] We are good. We have anybody joining us?

[0:15] » Yes, you have Ashley Taylor, Kim Bird, Brad Tomerup, Lacy Lincoln, Margaret

[0:21] Miller, Riley Keeler, and a smiley face. >> Perfect.

[0:26] Hello that smiley face. >> And just to be clear, questions by the

[0:29] commission only. Uh, people on are just going to be flies on the wall.

[0:34] » Yep, and same questions for all candidates.

[0:36] » Correct. >> Uh, you want to get started this time,

[0:39] Mr. X? >> Perfect.

[0:40] » Uh, Clay, thank you for coming in. Thank you for stepping up.

[0:43] » I appreciate it. >> to this

[0:45] job. Uh, and you're willing to be interviewed for it.

[0:48] » Um, >> what is your knowledge of what a

[0:51] commissioner's duties are and what the job entails?

[0:58] » Commissioner's duties are

[1:01] you know, a lot of it is is motivation. It's dealing with resources.

[1:06] It's allocating resources to the right spot.

[1:11] Uh, the county has lost a lot of funds over

[1:15] the past, you know, 15, 20 years from oil and gas revenues down to

[1:21] almost nothing sometimes. And uh,

[1:25] communicating with the public, uh, communicating with you know,

[1:31] individuals on certain items that uh,

[1:35] you have to you have to work it out. I mean,

[1:38] everybody has a different life, they have different experiences, and uh,

[1:44] their point of view is going to be different than than um, ours or

[1:49] whatever. So, yeah, it's and you know, it's just working with

[1:54] um, the public.

[1:56] You've got You've got unfunded mandates that you have to do that come out of our

[2:01] taxes. Uh you've got issues that

[2:05] that uh hopefully grants and stuff that will support

[2:09] what the county does that the commissioners have to look at, but in in

[2:13] actuality roads, health, you know, just the basic

[2:19] things that normal people cannot do. They can't set up water systems. They

[2:23] can't set up sewer. They can't set up uh areas, airports, or or roads and and

[2:29] that type of stuff. So, who's taking care of that? So, that's that's

[2:32] responsibility that I see as a commissioner.

[2:37] » Definitely.

[2:43] » Your turn. >> All right.

[2:45] So, the big question, let's just get it out

[2:48] of the way. Why do you want to be a commissioner?

[2:51] » You know, I've asked myself that. >> [laughter]

[2:55] » Um I've got

[2:58] between 34 and 40 years of experience with Hill County.

[3:03] Uh there's a lot of

[3:06] I've dealt with a lot of county commissioners. I've dealt with every

[3:09] single um

[3:12] courthouse uh office uh dealing with everything from A to Z.

[3:18] Uh there's there's wisdom in that. There's learning.

[3:23] Um I've had nine different programs and

[3:27] with that comes nine different budgets. Uh trying to make extend a limited

[3:34] amount of funds, you know, into a specific area that you

[3:39] have to deal with. But the laws as you have to deal with

[3:42] even if you don't have the funds to do it. Uh so, in dealing

[3:47] with that um

[3:50] I've dealt with the public a lot. All the regulations, all the things that

[3:55] I've done over that 35 to 40 years of, you know, trying to make sure they

[4:01] understand why the rule is this and and why we're trying to get this across,

[4:05] whether it's public health or or landfill issues or junk vehicles or

[4:10] zoning issues, any of that stuff. Uh And I think that would come into use in

[4:17] this job. It's not just a a one,

[4:21] you know, topic thing. There's so many issues that have to come in

[4:25] uh to do this. And I And I've been through a lot of that, so

[4:29] I think that's the reason.

[4:32] » Would you have any personal conflict personnel conflicts? Per- Sorry. Let me

[4:38] start over. Would you have any personal conflicts with the county if chosen for

[4:44] the commissioner seat? >> No.

[4:46] No, I've Again, I've dealt with a lot of people

[4:50] here. There are a lot of new employees, a lot of new people that I've had some

[4:54] dealings with, but uh you know, it's a job. You're here to to

[4:58] serve the public, to deal with uh issues that come up, and

[5:03] that's what you're here for.

[5:07] » All right. >> [clears throat]

[5:09] » What do you see as being a top priority as a commissioner? Please explain why.

[5:16] » Uh

[5:19] You know, I I had I had thought about that uh you know, over the

[5:22] past week or two. One of the main issues is

[5:28] to communicate with people and to listen to

[5:33] people and their stories about why they believe what the topic is that they want

[5:39] done or or that type of thing. Um

[5:44] It's It's very important to hear both sides of a story. and then for them it's

[5:48] very important for they hear that you are limited in what you can do according

[5:53] to both the law and resources and that type of thing. So,

[5:58] um >> [clears throat]

[5:59] » motivating employees, trying to make sure that what is

[6:03] under the state law for jobs that need to be done get taken care

[6:10] of and and uh you know, training and stuff like that.

[6:14] So, yeah, that's that's probably the biggest issue.

[6:18] Definitely.

[6:22] » How would you build consensus among people who strongly agree? Strong

[6:28] strongly disagree. >> [laughter]

[6:34] » Uh again, and you're going to get that and I've seen that in this office for

[6:38] years and years. Very few people come in here and and

[6:42] pat you on the back for doing such a fine job. It's always,

[6:46] you know, this has to be done and and my way is the only way.

[6:50] Uh people have conflicting views on

[6:55] everything. And again, it's their story. It's it's how they've grown up. It's uh

[7:01] it's things that they've done in their life and

[7:03] um they have to listen. They have to be

[7:06] willing to hear both sides. They have to be willing to

[7:11] uh basically

[7:13] say, "Okay, you know, I can see your side of the story." Communication is the

[7:18] big issue. If they don't communicate, the problem just festers and it gets

[7:22] worse and worse and worse until at some point you don't want to hear. And I

[7:28] guess it's it's starting with that communication and then uh trying to work

[7:31] out the issue. Things are not black and white. I've

[7:35] learned that forever that there are gray areas,

[7:38] there's areas in between that you have to deal with. Uh if it was black and

[7:43] white, it would be yes, no. We don't have to deal with anything

[7:47] else, but uh you have to start with communication.

[7:58] » All right. What experience [clears throat] do you have managing

[8:01] budgets and public funds?

[8:05] » Um like I said earlier, uh nine different programs.

[8:10] Uh that's all the way from landfill to planning, subdivisions, zoning,

[8:15] uh junk vehicle, public health, um I even did uh civil defense uh for the

[8:21] first couple years that I was here. >> Oh, wow.

[8:23] » Uh sanitarian's budget I've worked with and almost, well, at

[8:28] least half of those uh are either grant or or fees for

[8:34] service issues. The others come underneath uh taxpayer type things and

[8:40] you have to deal with it. You have to deal with the fact that everybody is a

[8:44] taxpayer here and you want your funds spent properly.

[8:49] Um and that you it just comes down to

[8:54] allocating what you have to the right spot and, you know, not necessarily

[9:00] limiting it, but finding ways to use them more appropriately.

[9:11] » How would you improve transparency in county finances?

[9:20] » I don't I don't think that the public really understands

[9:25] what the county gets versus what the school district gets versus what the

[9:31] city gets versus all the other 20-plus things that resources go to. It all adds

[9:38] up to this this big amount at the end. And and that I really have appreciated

[9:44] looking at, you know, how much goes to the weed district, to the airport, to

[9:49] all those things. And that that has to be gotten across that, you

[9:54] know, the county doesn't get all this money. You're paying this, but you are

[9:59] limited and because the

[10:03] oil and gas revenue's gone from millions down to just 100,000 or 200,000,

[10:08] whatever it is. Uh

[10:10] that's education and it's getting across.

[10:13] It is being made harder and harder because we don't have a newspaper.

[10:17] Uh we can we can publish things and put it on bulletin boards, but that doesn't

[10:22] necessarily get it out to people that need to know this because again

[10:27] everybody has their own views and if they don't hear the facts,

[10:30] they just stay with whatever they've heard and and social media

[10:35] makes that a little bit tougher because somebody can put something out there

[10:38] that is completely untrue and all of a sudden it is

[10:42] the fact that everybody knows. So, um again, trying to find ways uh whether

[10:48] it's talking to groups, whether it's uh I don't even know what a podcast is, but

[10:54] to put there has to be ways to get that across to people and I I think this

[10:58] office is doing as much of that with, you know, the the media thing. Um

[11:04] um and it's

[11:06] every meeting you go to, okay, here's the facts, here's what we have to deal

[11:10] with as three commissioners uh that's what you have to do.

[11:15] » Definitely. >> [clears throat]

[11:18] » All right. What are your priorities for roads,

[11:21] bridges, and rural infrastructure?

[11:27] » I heard priorities. People have to get to town. They they do

[11:32] their own roads. So, that has to be something that

[11:38] the local government, being Hill County, has to take care of and do. Yes, there

[11:43] is a there is a limited amount of money that

[11:46] that can be put into this. Bridges Bridges wear out. They're no

[11:51] different than driving a school bus part-time. If you

[11:55] don't work on them and keep them up to standard, all of a sudden the cost has

[12:00] gone from not a lot to a huge amount that you don't have.

[12:04] Roads, bridges, and infrastructure. Again, those are issues the public

[12:10] cannot do. They can't do water and sewer. They

[12:13] can't do street lights. They can't do the things

[12:18] that we have talked about, and so it has to be budgeted. It has to be done such

[12:23] that the north side, it's our own it's all

[12:26] our SIDs to where they have to pay a certain maintenance, and you have to

[12:31] have good people that will go in there and

[12:34] keep it up. Otherwise, it just falls apart.

[12:38] We've looked at the flood control dike. That has gone on for years, and that

[12:42] that is an issue that again one person cannot do. It has to be the

[12:47] governments that work together to say we don't want to be in the flood plain. We

[12:51] want to make We want to manage this. Pump systems, you know, they're they're

[12:56] put in in the '50s, and I just had an a

[13:01] electrician in there, and he just looked at those things and went, "Oh my gosh.

[13:05] You know, these are old." And a lot of those types of systems are used in

[13:09] irrigation pumps and stuff, and so there's there's some information that

[13:13] can be gathered on that, but

[13:17] you got to do maintenance. You have to do it, and anything that, you know,

[13:21] requires more money, you know, it's either going to more maintenance type

[13:26] stuff or finding grants or trying to come up with

[13:30] uh better ways

[13:32] to take care of it cuz this is the only group that can do it. Individuals can't

[13:36] do it. >> Correct.

[13:37] » Yep. Thank you.

[13:43] » What are your views on the role of law enforcement in our county? And how would

[13:48] you support both public safety and community trust as commissioner?

[13:55] » Uh law enforcement is very important. Uh there I mean we have books on rules and

[14:00] regulations and those rules and regulations are there for reason.

[14:06] Uh hopefully

[14:09] the the county sheriff can, you know, motivate deputies to make sure they're

[14:15] doing education to make sure that they are getting the word out to people.

[14:19] Uh jails are [snorts] one of the issues

[14:23] that an individual cannot take up. It is an unfunded mandate. The county or the

[14:29] city has to do as far as uh you know, keeping people uh

[14:35] in a locked-up situation. Um again, communication about why we do

[14:41] this. Uh it is not a high priority when it

[14:45] comes to taxes because everybody wants the things that they use all the time

[14:49] versus trying to deal with, you know, a

[14:53] a jail situation. Well, but it's a it's a must.

[14:58] Uh the sheriff needs to work with county

[15:00] attorney. Uh they have to work with all the different laws that are there and

[15:05] try to get people to understand why we do this. Um it's no

[15:09] different than anything else. It's it's unfunded. It has to be funded by

[15:13] taxpayers and we have to work with it. >> Definitely agree.

[15:20] » [clears throat] >> What experience do you have working with

[15:22] unions or participating in collective bargaining bargaining negotiations?

[15:28] » Um the landfill that is the Unified Disposal Landfill is unionized.

[15:34] Uh and I have dealt with the union out there for a lot of years.

[15:40] Um Teamsters,

[15:42] I can't remember the the number that's on it, but

[15:45] uh there's a reason for unions. Uh and the biggest one is that there was

[15:50] a lot of unsafe situations that employees had to deal with and by

[15:55] unionizing they can say, "Okay, you know, we have

[15:59] to have these safety issues because people are getting hurt. They can't go

[16:02] home to their families. They can't do things they want to."

[16:06] Uh and those really need to be pushed. Um

[16:10] so I I've dealt with uh unions, a little bit with the road department. Um

[16:15] not too much more than that. All right.

[16:22] » How have you been involved with the community and how would you continue

[16:26] engaging with the residents as a county commissioner?

[16:33] » Obviously, going to functions. Um we've got a lot of community uh

[16:39] um organizations that

[16:42] are doing things for our community, for the citizens that are here.

[16:46] Uh trying to get across, you know, what the county can do.

[16:50] Uh there's things that that we are limited by

[16:54] law to be able to do, even though everybody wants uh I guess their cake

[16:58] and eat it, too. It doesn't work that way.

[17:01] Um you know, just

[17:05] you're going to get talked to at every single event that you go to

[17:09] and listening, communicating, we can discuss

[17:13] this. We can uh you know, try to figure out a solution.

[17:19] Um, so I think you're representing

[17:23] the local government that's here that taxpayers are paying into and at least

[17:30] letting them know that you heard them. It's an issue that has

[17:35] to be gone through and figure out what to do

[17:38] and uh um, work from there.

[17:45] Cool.

[17:48] » Uh, [clears throat] please share an overview of your career experience and

[17:52] any leadership roles that have shaped your approach to public service.

[18:00] » I think the jobs that I've had with Hill County and others prior to that,

[18:06] uh, the the planning office, zoning, landfill,

[18:10] uh, all those different types of jobs have

[18:15] shaped what I feel needs to be done

[18:19] for the public that's here. Um,

[18:22] calling the state of Montana, you can get information, but in reality, there's

[18:26] not a lot of resources that they are going to give you other than just,

[18:30] you know, here, here here's some guidance, you

[18:33] know, try to do this. Um,

[18:37] I feel that every one of those people say, "Well, you've worked by

[18:42] yourself on all of these jobs, whether it's the zoning, planning, civil

[18:45] defense, whatever, whatever." But, that job cannot be done without this office

[18:50] going through and discussing why it's done. Can't be done without the county

[18:54] attorney's office, can't be done without the clerk and recorder's to look up the

[18:58] laws to figure out why we're doing this. Uh,

[19:01] the whole the whole addressing system, you know, we needed that for

[19:06] 911 and that benefits everybody as far as emergency services,

[19:12] uh, mail, everything. Everything is GPS'd

[19:15] anymore and to try to uh

[19:18] get from point A to point B when you're in the middle of nowhere it's not easy.

[19:22] Um but there's a lot of stuff that I have gone

[19:26] through for years in those particular issues. Running a landfill is not a lot

[19:31] of fun. I mean, 22,000 tons of garbage a year that this area produces.

[19:38] Um we don't like garbage. We don't like

[19:42] waste, >> [clears throat]

[19:42] » but it's a fact of life and so you have to be able to lead and put up

[19:49] with you know, the comments or concerns that

[19:51] people have. Um and that I've learned a lot in the past

[19:58] 30 years of doing that.

[20:12] Hello? Okay.

[20:15] » Uh tell us about a time you had to deal with an angry resident or difficult

[20:19] stakeholder. How was it resolved?

[20:25] » I've got a lot of those. >> [laughter]

[20:27] » Let me just say a sanitarian probably never had to deal with that.

[20:31] » Um

[20:34] we're in Montana. People don't like to be told what they can do.

[20:38] Uh I've had a lot of issues with subdivisions, with zoning issues, with

[20:43] um you know, just junk vehicles. Oh my

[20:47] gosh, you know, that's junk vehicles, that is a that is a

[20:52] source of revenue. It's a it's a prized

[20:56] you know, trophy to have this thing. Well, there's rules that you have to

[20:59] screen it. You got to take care of that. Zoning

[21:03] zoning is a tough thing, man. People don't understand you don't want

[21:08] you don't want to have a residential house be negatively impacted by a

[21:13] commercial business that's going to have lights and motors and and uh

[21:18] traffic and everything goes on. You try to separate that. Um we have we have

[21:24] setback issues that are there for a reason to be back from streets and

[21:29] street right-of-ways. Uh there were some people who were not

[21:32] very happy that went ahead and built

[21:36] um a big concrete floor about 6 ft from her

[21:41] road and didn't get a permit. They were not happy. Uh they went to the zoning

[21:46] board and because this is a fairly common known

[21:52] issue that you had to get a permit for putting in

[21:55] uh things that are permanent. Uh we sat

[21:59] down with them and said, "You know, this is not going to go over. This is

[22:04] not Well, people brag about the first street

[22:07] down here and having all the businesses within a a sidewalk's distance of their

[22:11] front door. That's the reason the county has

[22:14] setbacks. Um we've mostly been able to resolve things. They might have to tear

[22:19] this stuff out and redo it again, which would suck to have to do.

[22:22] Um Again, there's some things over at the

[22:26] dike that we looked at that people don't like

[22:31] the water issue. They they don't like a lot of things, but through communication

[22:35] and figuring out who is actually responsible for this stuff uh and at

[22:39] least getting the facts out there, and that's probably the best thing that I've

[22:43] had to deal with that a lot.

[22:49] » Describe your process in evaluating an employee's performance.

[22:55] » Evaluations are very important. Um

[23:01] I've done evaluations for quite a few years and that evaluation needs to note

[23:07] both the positive and then if there are things that need to be worked on, it

[23:12] needs to be put on there and and I think if done right,

[23:16] it's appreciated by the employee to say, you know, this is something you have to

[23:20] work on. Okay, you know, here here's our business, here's what the law says,

[23:25] here's what we need done. You know, let's get some schooling,

[23:28] let's get some training on this. Uh but

[23:31] you you have to do those, otherwise everybody just thinks that everything is

[23:37] is perfect. Um which in a lot of cases in most cases it's not. There's always

[23:44] things you can work on and and that's just part of an evaluation to go through

[23:48] that. Even more

[23:50] um evaluations, if that person needs more training because they're not doing

[23:56] correctly what they're supposed to do, then it's the supervisor's job to make

[24:01] sure that that is done and then is, you know, I guess followed up on to make

[24:07] sure that that gets followed through, the training, whatever

[24:11] it takes to do it. Uh but um yeah, it's it's [snorts] very important

[24:16] to do that. All we can do.

[24:26] » All right. Describe an ethical challenge you faced at work and how you resolved

[24:31] it.

[24:39] » Ethical challenge.

[24:43] Um there's a lot of issues again with the

[24:46] the budgets and the topics that I had to deal with

[24:50] uh that I believe it has to be done this way.

[24:56] Uh and in communicating with other people around the state, communicating

[25:02] with this office, uh, county attorney, um,

[25:08] my way is not always the right way or the perfect way to do things. And,

[25:13] uh, I've had to basically say, "Okay, let's try to do it

[25:18] this way." Sometimes you feel that you just want to go at it, you know,

[25:24] headfirst, and you really just need to calm down,

[25:29] write out the issue, figure out what the law say, figure out what other people's

[25:33] opinions are, and, uh, learn. Learn. Probably learning is the

[25:38] biggest thing that that I have to do in others that I don't

[25:42] know everything. Uh, that I need to learn what's there and communicate what

[25:47] has to be done. >> Mhm.

[25:55] What does good governance mean to you, and how do you intend to show

[25:59] accountability and transparency?

[26:05] » Good governance, you know, it's again, you are representing not any one

[26:11] particular group of people. Uh,

[26:15] you are there to spend the money that the taxpayer has

[26:20] given you wisely. You are there to communicate those

[26:24] issues or problems, uh, to the people who are paying that,

[26:29] uh, and get that across to

[26:33] the individuals that maybe see this courthouse once or twice a year. Uh,

[26:39] again, not having a paper, not having some of the resources that people would

[26:43] read, it is more difficult. But,

[26:47] uh, communicating, being able to, uh, you know, talk to people at

[26:52] different functions, [snorts] you know, attending meetings. Uh, some people are

[26:57] 30, 40, 50 mi from here and they don't get down here.

[27:00] Uh, it's nice to have people from different

[27:03] areas, Dukes from regular area and and, you know, deal It's different to deal

[27:09] with people who are farming versus people who are ranching versus people

[27:13] who are just business in town here. Uh, and there's different ways

[27:18] that those people get together. Could be at church, could be at uh,

[27:22] uh, you know, at civic organizations. Could

[27:24] be a lot of places and that represents what Hill County is trying to do with

[27:30] the resources that they have. Yep.

[27:39] » All right. There is an aspect of our county government you could change, what

[27:43] would it be and why?

[27:53] » You know, I in some ways, you know, I I have thought

[27:58] about over the past couple of weeks here that

[28:03] some of the rules, some of the things with uh, state laws,

[28:08] we've kind of lost our way in some areas and some of that is because we've got a

[28:14] lot of brand new people that maybe have not been trained of what needs to be

[28:19] done. Uh,

[28:21] you you can you can read something, but there's a lot of facts and issues

[28:26] that go with that statement that if you don't know

[28:29] all the things that go with it, you're not going to do it right.

[28:33] And that not doing it right affects other offices. It affects uh, people who

[28:40] come in, you know, to get certain things.

[28:43] Um, I think it's it's learning what the

[28:47] rules are, you know, being motivated to do what the job entails.

[28:54] Uh and

[28:55] then, you know, backing it up with okay, here's an evaluation, here's what we

[29:00] need to do um to represent those things.

[29:04] The people in Hill County expect the courthouse to keep

[29:10] records. No other place does that. They expect county attorney to deal with

[29:16] crime and uh civil problems. They expect the sheriff to, you know, deal with

[29:21] handing out warrants and so on and so forth.

[29:25] They expected my office to deal with zoning issues and and uh

[29:31] uh licensing issues or or addressing issues.

[29:35] Nobody else can do that. And so

[29:39] but I can't do that without other offices helping

[29:42] figure out why and where and how this is done. So, yeah, it's uh

[29:49] trying to work together. There's there's enough issues there that I think

[29:53] trying to get more cohesive organization, communication, talking to

[29:57] each other. That's that's got to help.

[30:05] » Man, you got a book there. >> Right?

[30:07] We're getting there though. We're getting there. This is for the

[30:09] commissioner position. [laughter] >> We got to be thorough.

[30:13] » That's right.

[30:26] » Did you want to do this three parts again?

[30:30] Number 18. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. I think that would be appropriate. Um

[30:34] so, I'll I'll start with you with the first part of this question. Okay. How

[30:38] do you view your relationship with other elected officials.

[30:45] » Uh I don't I don't have any problems with elected officials.

[30:49] Uh I know they are elected for the reason

[30:53] that the public feels that they can do the job that that office requires.

[31:01] Um and that's that's all I would ask or if you know if

[31:05] I'm on the outside that okay the law says this I need this done.

[31:10] Um I don't have any problems with with

[31:12] that. >> And then how will you go about building

[31:17] a strong relationship with new elected officials?

[31:21] And then this this other lead on how do you maintain those relationships with

[31:26] both prior elected and newly?

[31:31] » A new elected official comes in here with

[31:34] limited knowledge of what everything is done. That's why I make a lot of has

[31:40] conferences to

[31:43] help build uh

[31:45] you know a get a a

[31:48] a foundation for that elected official to say

[31:52] here's what your responsibilities are. You know

[31:57] you have to come into the job with the ability to communicate to be able to

[32:01] talk to people uh and then you learn how that is done with certain jobs that the

[32:08] county requires. Um

[32:11] I used to come up in this office once a week whatever

[32:16] and we would just sit and say yeah this is a person's uh proposing this

[32:22] subdivision or I'm having problems with this uh restaurant or food facility or

[32:28] we've had you know 30 people get sick from something that we're not sure of

[32:33] but we're doing investigations on this this this.

[32:37] Um you have to you have to represent your

[32:41] office and the job that you are supposed to do

[32:45] to the commissioner's office because they only know

[32:49] what you tell them or that what they hear on the street.

[32:53] Um it was nice to hear stuff in the

[32:56] newspaper, but uh in in reality

[33:00] just having a normal conversation about what is going on in your office. Um and

[33:06] there's usually plenty of things that they're not aware of. Commissioners

[33:11] have their own concerns. They have things they have to deal with, but but

[33:15] they're not They don't know what goes on with a certain dog bite or somebody got

[33:19] bit by a bat over here and we're looking at, you know, a lady's uh

[33:23] um problem or, you know, a lot of those

[33:27] things, but it's interesting for them to hear that so that they know what your

[33:31] office is doing. Elected officials,

[33:34] I mean, the same thing. They they only get what you give them. And if I don't

[33:39] tell you anything, they may consider that

[33:43] you're not a priority and there must not be a lot going on. So,

[33:48] keeping them up to up to up to par.

[33:58] » All right. >> [clears throat]

[33:59] » What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment relating to employment?

[34:09] » I think probably two things. Some people would disagree with this, but

[34:13] uh the addressing system that we needed in the county was very important for

[34:17] emergency services. Um and there are many, many ways of

[34:22] doing an addressing system. Um

[34:25] but hopefully with a, you know, 1 to 100, you kind of

[34:31] know where you are in there as far as streets. It's like a street and avenue,

[34:34] you first street, second street, so and so forth.

[34:37] Uh that's something that needed to be done.

[34:40] Another accomplishment that wasn't really easy, well, there's two of them.

[34:45] Um the border patrol station that we have out here.

[34:49] Uh the zoning in that area was not correct.

[34:53] And listing the procedures you have to go through to make sure that that can

[34:59] still be done if the public you know, after public

[35:04] meetings considers it important uh to be able to work through that.

[35:09] Sometimes we can get caught up in paperwork and not really

[35:14] use some common sense as to why we're doing this.

[35:18] Um another instance, uh fish and wildlife over by the dike that's over

[35:22] there. You know, they need a bigger place.

[35:26] What a better place to put something than down close to a

[35:30] river, close to a lot of habitat things to where kids can learn,

[35:35] whether it's And And again, that was not zoned appropriately at all. Uh and it

[35:41] had to go through some changes, and those changes then had to go to a zoning

[35:45] board, which again you have public meetings

[35:48] uh to make sure that that certain things are taken care of and it does not

[35:54] destroy or cause problems in the residential area that it is. Um

[36:01] Those Those are the three items that were enjoyable to work on and try to get

[36:05] taken care of in a timely manner. So, yeah.

[36:10] » Why should we appoint you over the other candidates?

[36:16] » Um I know the other candidates are good

[36:19] people. They They work in this office. They know more about, you know,

[36:24] commission meetings and that type of stuff.

[36:27] Um the thing that I had thought about

[36:30] experiences were something and I have not been in this office, but I've been

[36:35] in this office many, many, many, many times with issues

[36:39] uh that we've had to try to resolve. Um

[36:43] 34 to 40 years of experience dealing with the public, dealing with

[36:48] regulations. Uh

[36:51] you know, just trying to do stuff on the

[36:55] outside versus the paperwork that's on the inside. I feel I've got those skills

[37:00] uh to do that

[37:02] and um

[37:06] I've had to communicate with a lot of people. I can't just bull rush through

[37:10] things and say this is the way it is. It's It doesn't work that way.

[37:14] Uh and so I've I've I've had to learn that over 40 years of uh

[37:20] dealing with people, dealing with their their side of the story and uh working

[37:25] it out. So, I would say that.

[37:29] » Thank you. >> [clears throat]

[37:32] » Uh this is also a three-parter.

[37:36] First one. How will you approach short and

[37:40] long-term planning processes?

[37:45] » Short and long term?

[37:49] » Short term, you know, you deal with uh public

[37:52] comments, you deal with issues that you have

[37:55] at at a particular time in space uh and you have to make a decision on

[38:01] it. Uh one of the areas that I have I've

[38:04] thought about a lot is this office has to look 10, 20, 50 years

[38:10] down the road. We are planning for our kids, our grandkids. You know, what do

[38:15] they expect? What will they work for? Uh what kind of jobs are available? What uh

[38:20] what issues uh need to be maintained so that

[38:25] you know, the millions of dollars we put into it now is still worth something 40

[38:29] 50 years from now. We don't want to have to do it again.

[38:32] Um so, short-term yeah, you you've got to make a decision.

[38:37] Long-term, you have to look at decisions that are made now will affect people

[38:41] a long ways down the road, which you know,

[38:44] that's what you do. Your family expects things to be in good shape

[38:49] 20 50 years from now. So, keeping it up. >> Definitely.

[38:55] What system do you use to set goals and objectives?

[39:02] » First off, identifying what the problem is

[39:07] and then coming up with at least two or three

[39:10] objectives as to how to deal with that problem.

[39:14] Um we've had to do that quite a bit in in

[39:19] both um planning process for civil defense for [clears throat] disasters.

[39:23] You know, this could happen. This train could fall off this uh you know, tornado

[39:28] could come through here. Okay, what objectives do we need to have

[39:32] to make sure that those things can be planned for. Maybe it's early

[39:36] warning system. Maybe it's uh you know, shelter systems. Um

[39:41] um it was interesting the just a quick story.

[39:46] Um years ago, probably in

[39:49] 1985 86 uh I don't remember.

[39:54] Jake, you were probably around. Both Amtrak trains had to stop here because

[39:59] there was an issue with uh possibly [clears throat] a

[40:02] bomb or some type of nuclear thing. And

[40:08] all those people had to be taken off the train.

[40:11] Think about the the total amount of people that were involved in this.

[40:15] Uh and the train then had to be searched by border patrol and other people, what

[40:21] do you do with these people? We got the school district involved with buses,

[40:25] went up to the uh, middle school. Uh, luckily it was a Saturday to where a lot

[40:30] of people could be in the gym and in the different areas that were up there.

[40:35] We had the Red Cross. We were able to get uh, food up there.

[40:38] Uh, Hill County does have some stores of

[40:41] cots and blankets and pillows um, to

[40:45] help with an issue that is unexpected. And

[40:50] so, dealing with that,

[40:52] you you you have to look to the future and say,

[40:55] "What could happen?" And then uh, um,

[40:59] at the spur of the moment, what was that?

[41:01] » Yep. Yep, sure.

[41:03] And last but not least, how do you monitor progress against these goals and

[41:08] objectives?

[41:12] » Um, monitoring, it can come down to evaluations.

[41:16] Uh, it comes down to uh, I know our

[41:21] disaster committee, you know, looking at whether fire, uh, law enforcement, uh,

[41:27] public schools, all those things. You listen to what updates or what people

[41:33] have pushed forward in in their mind as to

[41:39] you know, what are what our school district need next over the next 10

[41:42] years. What uh, law enforcement the jail is a big issue. You know, that

[41:47] has to be looked at. Um, you [clears throat] know, just

[41:52] And again, that communication with the people who are responsible for those

[41:56] particular areas, you have to talk to them and then set a goal that says,

[42:01] "Within this period of time, this needs to be done."

[42:05] » Mhm. >> And the job of the commissioners may be

[42:09] to monitor that and push it, but also, how do we fund it? And then how do we

[42:13] get the public to acknowledge that this is what we're doing with some of

[42:18] your tax funds, but hopefully there's other ways to to fund this stuff, but

[42:23] evaluations and and communication is probably the biggest

[42:27] issue. Everybody has their own thing, so >> [clears throat]

[42:30] » Thank you. How do you encourage staff to stay in an

[42:35] organization?

[42:43] » Well, obviously pay is one thing.

[42:48] Uh but it's sometimes it's not pay, it's the working conditions.

[42:53] Uh if the working conditions are such that

[42:56] um there's too much negativity, there's too

[43:00] much uh infighting, uh there's not enough knowledge of the

[43:05] job, and people are constantly complaining about this is not getting

[43:09] done. Um

[43:11] so having having the the knowledge to do the job

[43:16] that's there, so that you are are confident in what you are telling people

[43:22] uh that needs to be done. Um

[43:25] so you know,

[43:28] it's just things that you have to work through, and uh

[43:34] I guess work with each office and go from there.

[43:45] » All right. Tell us about your experience with uh

[43:49] TIFs and RSIDs.

[43:58] » I don't know if I know a lot about TIFs. >> That's pretty new. Um we just got our

[44:02] first TIF district uh recently, so um yeah, that's that's

[44:07] uh that's a new thing, so. >> Well, but

[44:10] uh if it's similar to [snorts] RSIDs, uh Hill County is

[44:15] one of very few counties in the state of Montana that

[44:20] have RSIDs. Um

[44:24] there's not a lot of laws on those on how you do them, and

[44:29] more often than not, you know, the the the counties will just go to uh

[44:34] um funding it through taxpayer dollars or

[44:38] or uh maybe uh just SID and town. A lot of

[44:43] RSIDs that the county has had were taken over by the city

[44:47] uh for years. You know, once you get water and sewer established and the

[44:51] roads, all of a sudden the city looks and says,

[44:54] "I need to expand our tax base, so we're going to take this in and expand it in."

[44:59] Um the whole north side of Havre is under

[45:03] several RSIDs for sewer. They don't have water.

[45:06] Uh and I don't think they want water, even though the water over there has got

[45:11] consistently harder and um

[45:15] hard on things in their house. It's it's gotten worse. The more you use it, the

[45:19] more you draw in and you get a lot more minerals and stuff.

[45:22] Um the west end of Havre all the way out to

[45:25] what used to be Big Bud, now Fergusons, uh that was an RSID and that was not

[45:31] easy to put in because one person owned a lot of the land and

[45:35] that person almost went bankrupt because of the

[45:40] costs that were associated with people's property to pay back

[45:45] uh the the funds for the RSID. And now, you know, it's caught up and things are

[45:51] going pretty good with them. Uh it is a funding tool,

[45:55] uh but

[45:57] there are state rules on how you have to do it,

[46:00] and it's it comes down to 50 or 51% of people involved in it or of the land

[46:06] that's that's in that particular area.

[46:10] Um 50 people cannot make one person that

[46:14] owns most of the land do something. It's It's got to be,

[46:18] you know, back and forth. So, I've had quite a bit of

[46:21] dealings with artist ideas as far as sewer and water and and roads and stuff.

[46:37] » Last question. What questions do you have for us?

[46:43] » Uh >> Your turn.

[46:45] » [clears throat]

[46:48] » You know, I I hit on listening a lot here because

[46:52] people have their own ideas and their own their own lives have had

[46:58] different circumstances uh

[47:01] other than what mine are. Um

[47:05] the commissioner's office you have to deal with

[47:09] tons of different areas and you depend on

[47:13] the the uh

[47:16] elected officials or the department heads to to know their job and inform

[47:23] you as to what they feel should be done so that

[47:27] uh you get the best information possible uh to do this.

[47:32] Um

[47:37] The biggest thing that I would like to see, and I I know this office is pushing

[47:41] this with Bear Paw Development and other things, is

[47:44] you want your community to at least grow or be sustained such that

[47:51] you know, we're What are we, the seventh largest city in the in the state? Are we

[47:56] right in there somewhere? >> That ball park, in that ball park. The

[48:00] 12th most uh populated. We have the sixth, almost fifth most county roads in

[48:06] the state. So.

[48:08] » The the the understanding of county roads,

[48:11] trying to figure out what an open section line is. And a lot of counties

[48:14] don't have open section lines. So, I think we're

[48:17] » 54 out of 56 do not. >> Yes. It's uh and that's a that's a whole

[48:22] issue that some people don't like you driving on the land, but yet it's an

[48:25] open section line and as long as you stay within this area.

[48:29] Um So, so dealing with that issue.

[48:32] Um I know that this office has to deal with a lot of of

[48:37] road issues, monetary issues. Um

[48:42] and doing budgets, I'm okay with that.

[48:47] But, I'm really

[48:50] when I when I look at my checkbook it better not be at zero. I want to make

[48:54] sure that, you know, there's always some reserve in there to to work on stuff.

[49:00] And I know that's a big area up here with all the different functions. And

[49:05] that's just part of the duties. I wrote down, you know,

[49:08] » [clears throat] >> you want community involvement. You

[49:10] you're responsible to help deal with the fairgrounds, the weeds, the flood plain,

[49:15] roads, airplanes, jails, water and sewer, parks, law enforcement. All these

[49:21] things either have some grants, but are a lot of unfunded mandates.

[49:26] And decisions on those as to I have this much money. How much do I put here and

[49:31] here? And I can shift this around, but um

[49:36] that's probably the biggest issue is trying to make sure that that people can

[49:40] do their job, but the taxpayer knows that they don't

[49:45] want that money to be I guess in areas that

[49:50] they're not getting served correctly. >> Right.

[49:52] » And and I know this office does the best job you can and people need to

[49:56] understand that. That you can support something. It may not be

[50:01] monetarily, but you can help write letters. Maybe you can deal with the

[50:05] state or federal people to get stuff done. And I don't

[50:10] know how much I don't see what that is done up here as far as dealing with our

[50:14] Congress or or state legislators or whatever, but

[50:20] is do we deal that much with them? I know Paul gets involved in stuff, but

[50:25] who else? >> We we do touch base with our our

[50:28] representatives at the state level. Um they do pop in the office every now

[50:32] and again, but um no, we have the representatives in our phones. Uh

[50:38] they're local people. Like their offices like

[50:41] Danes's office and and Downing's office. And they'll pop in every now and again,

[50:46] but you know, we actually have a really good work relationship with our

[50:50] delegations. And you know, if something does pop up

[50:53] where, you know, we're very uh

[50:56] very passionate about. And you know, if we get uh

[50:59] people coming in and asking about that uh certain things. You know, we're

[51:03] getting a lot of stuff on data centers right now. And you know, a lot of people

[51:07] are against the data centers. So, you know, these are things that we keep in

[51:10] the back of our mind that when our delegation representatives do come in,

[51:15] we will have those conversations with them. So, um the nice part is, yeah, we

[51:19] work with uh quite a few of our local delegates uh

[51:23] from the state level. And we do talk with them quite frequently. So.

[51:27] » The industrial park. Has anything happened with that for years?

[51:31] » Uh we're still working on the covenants and uh we've had we've had some interest

[51:35] in it. Um and we do take those into consideration.

[51:38] Uh Bear Paw Development just sent us the name of uh organization that uh is

[51:43] interested in purchasing it. So, um yeah, we continue you work on that.

[51:48] So. >> Well, it's it's things like that. We've

[51:50] had that for years out there. And with the all the development we've had

[51:55] around here, I don't know why people don't want to do more out there.

[52:00] Um when you've got a well, when you've got a road, when you've got utilities

[52:03] and all that, you would think that that would be a plus, but it's um I don't I

[52:08] don't know why it [clears throat] just hasn't taken

[52:11] off. >> Uh the

[52:14] the way it was drawn up in the beginning was very

[52:17] restrictive. >> Oh, that was very restrictive, yeah.

[52:19] » So, you know, that and that's something that we're looking at because we it's

[52:23] tough to, you know, we we want businesses to come in. We want to get

[52:28] that into a working area for Gila County, you know, get that tax base and

[52:33] whatnot. Um but the covenants were so restrictive

[52:36] in the beginning. Uh so, we're working on that right now to make it less

[52:39] restrictive, to make it more uh palatable for people to come in.

[52:43] » It even has a railroad that goes, you know, a spur that goes right next to it.

[52:47] And stuff could be And they use it and use it to store a lot of cars on, but uh

[52:53] » [clears throat] >> I'm trying to think if there's

[52:55] much else that uh I would have questions on. I've been up here a lot. I've been

[53:00] in this office. We moved stuff in the back. We've been in downstairs. So, it's

[53:05] not a new building. >> All right.

[53:07] » [laughter] >> Yeah, but we

[53:09] » Um no, I appreciate your time and uh >> Likewise.

[53:13] » If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer them, but

[53:16] um we'll You guys good?

[53:19] » I'm good. >> I'm good to go.

[53:20] » We can call this >> Yeah, we'll adjourn the meeting.

[53:23] Thank you, Clay. >> Yes, sir.

[53:25] » Thank you for being willing to step up. Thank you so much.

[53:28] » on everything.

Commissioner Interview with Clay Vincent 09/04/2026

Transcript