MEIC Wins Highwood Public Records Case

(April 2010)  Three years ago the City of Great Falls and Southern Montana Electric (SME) barred MEIC and the public from reviewing City documents relating the Highwood Generating Station. In Montana, the Constitution requires state and local governments to allow public access to nearly all documents in their possession. In March 2010, a State district court judge upheld this legal principle and slammed the City and SME for their brazen attempts to hide thousands of pages of public documents from public review. 

MEIC had filed its lawsuit to determine the extent of the City’s involvement with the Highwood project. Since the original suit was filed, Judge Wayne Phillips has issued two decisions in MEIC’s favor. After each decision, the City and SME have successfully begged him to give them more time to explain why the documents should be kept secret. Each time Phillips agreed to an extension.

Finally, in the Fall of 2009, Phillips ordered the City and SME to give the documents to him with a detailed explanation of why each document should be withheld from the public.

SEE THE "SECRET BOX" OF DOCUMENTS!!

Instead of complying with his order, the City and SME dumped two large unorganized boxes of information on him, and only provided a generic list of reasons why the documents should be kept from the public. It appeared they wanted to overwhelm him. And while they did just that, the tactic backfired quite badly.

After Phillips spent 12 hours reviewing one-third of the documents he reached his “exasperation quotient,” and threw up his hands. His blistering decision reflects a level of disgust and aggravation rarely expressed by a court. He mocked the City and SME’s attempts to label newspaper articles, a personality test of the City manager, and e-mails about hotel reservations, as “trade secrets.” He ridiculed their attempt to hide documents that MEIC already had in its possession.  He called their claims of privilege “patently absurd.” And finally, he said that he “compliments and commends MEIC and MNA (the Montana Newspaper Association)” for trying to help him wade through the documents.

Within days of his decision, Great Falls residents and MEIC staff were wading through the two boxes. The City, under new management, decided not to appeal the decision to the Montana Supreme Court. SME, however, did appeal. But now that all of the documents are scanned and available on the Internet, it’s hard to imagine what SME hopes to gain from such an appeal.

MEIC was represented in the case by Kim Wilson and Jim Reynolds of Helena. 

IN THE NEWS

• City of Great Falls told to release power plant documents (BY RICHARD ECKE • TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER • MARCH 10, 2010)  Read court decision
• SEE THE "SECRET BOX" OF DOCUMENTS!!
  
• SME files to halt document release (BY RICHARD ECKE • TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER • MARCH 11, 2010)
• Order opening city-SME files could become a landmark (Great Falls Tribune Editorial, March 14, 2010)

NEWS ARCHIVE

• Court Orders the City of Great Falls to Release its Records on Highwood (July 17, 2008)  Read the court decision (766 KB pdf)

• Great Falls Tribune Applauds MEIC (July 20, 2008).  
• MEIC back in court seeking files that may contain trade secrets (BY ZACHARY FRANZ • TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER • JULY 31, 2008)
  
• Watch the video of KFBB's news report, "Citizens want Highwood Documents from Great Falls"