The leadership of the Flathead County Fairgrounds is under fire from a group of local residents who say the grounds and its administration are on a downward trajectory, highlighted by a recently settled discrimination complaint against the fairgrounds’ manager.
However, the fairgrounds’ administration, led by manager Mark Campbell and the Flathead County Fair Board, reject the notion that the fairgrounds are under duress, and that the rumor mill is proving to be more of an instigator than any real issues.
The issue came to a head most recently in April, when Flathead County paid out an $85,000 settlement to Nuggett Carmalt, who formerly worked as the Office Assistant III in the Fair Office. Carmalt filed the complaint alleging that Campbell discriminated against her because she’s a woman.
On Nov. 23, Carmalt was back in front of the Flathead County Commission, commenting about various issues with the recent fair, such as county employees working jobs normally held by contracted workers, as well as the all-male makeup of the Fair Board.
In an interview with the Beacon, Carmalt said she’s upset at the direction the fairgrounds is headed, having worked there in some capacity since 1983. She said her goal is to ensure the traditions at the fair are upheld, while other mainstays, such as not having term limits for Fair Board members, should go.
Carmalt left her job with the fairgrounds after her complaint against Campbell was settled through the Human Rights Bureau, an arm of the state Department of Labor and Industry, but she said she misses the work.
“I never asked for money, never,” Carmalt said. “It was just about being treated the same.”
Campbell, who said he wasn’t involved with the settlement process, said he endeavored to do just that.
“On a personal level, I try to treat everyone the same,” Campbell said in an interview with the Beacon last week.
Carmalt filed her suit against Campbell in early 2015, after working with him in the Fair Office for four years. Campbell was hired in 2010 after the county made the controversial decision not to renew then-Manager Jay Scott’s contract.
The Beacon obtained copies of the investigation report and files from the Human Rights Bureau. In the report, the investigator found in favor of Carmalt’s complaints of discrimination.
In several instances, Carmalt alleges she was disciplined more harshly than her male counterparts. Much of the complaint centers on the idea of flexing hours worked in a week to avoid putting in overtime. Both male and female employees report doing it, the investigation found, but only Carmalt was disciplined. The investigator reported that Campbell disciplined Carmalt more frequently than male employees – since November 2012, Campbell had issued four disciplinary write-ups to Carmalt, compared to one letter of reprimand in 2013 and one in 2014 for all other employees.
And only female employees, including Carmalt, were required to sign a memo about giving five days notice before taking vacation time, the investigation found.
“Campbell’s actions, coupled with witness statements, support Carmalt’s contention that Campbell treats females differently than males,” the Human Rights Bureau investigator wrote.
One of those statements, from maintenance supervisor Tim Harmon, said flexing hours wasn’t an issue “until recently,” and that three years prior to the investigation, Campbell told him he has “a difficult time communicating with females.”
“Harmon does not believe Campbell treats Carmalt the same as he is treated, but he doesn’t know why,” the investigation reported.
Other witnesses listed in the investigation said they felt Campbell treated men with more respect than women, including seasonal employees. A few of the witnesses disagreed, including county Human Resources Officer Tammy Skramovsky, who said she doesn’t believe Campbell discriminated against Carmalt because she is female.
The Human Rights Bureau awarded Carmalt an $85,000 settlement. Now that she no longer works there, the fair office’s staff is entirely male.
“That’s just the way it worked out,” Campbell said.
He said he, along with a panel including two women, interviewed four people for Carmalt’s former position, and the person they felt best fit the job requirements happened to be a man.
Though she left her job in the fair office, Carmalt recently applied to serve on the Fair Board, which provides direction for the fairgrounds manager. The Flathead County Commission appoints Fair Board members.
Karen Enger, a former seasonal employee at the fair for six years, believes the all-male makeup of the Fair Board isn’t by chance. In February, after she wasn’t selected for an opening on the fair board, Enger wrote a letter published in the Daily Inter Lake, questioning why someone with her qualifications wouldn’t be chosen, calling the board a “good old boys club” without term limits.
Enger told the Beacon she intended on filing a discrimination complaint as well, because she wasn’t hired back as a runner. A runner works to get the booths and displays ready, and during the fair transfers excess money from ticket booths to the banker.
She said she was told she was the best runner at the fair in previous years, but this year was not called back to work. Enger believes it is because of her support for Carmalt and her letter critical of the Fair Board.
Carmalt has also filed another complaint against Campbell with the Human Rights Bureau, though neither she nor Campbell said they could yet discuss it due to the investigation process.
Having worked at the fairgrounds full-time as the Office Assistant III since 2008, Carmalt said she questions Campbell’s financial strategies. The goal is to turn the fair into a revenue neutral operation, meaning it brings in enough in revenue to cover its operational costs.
According to figures provided by the Flathead County Finance Office, the fairgrounds’ total, annual expenditures outpaced the revenue earned in fiscal years 2011, 2013, and 2014. These figures include employee and maintenance costs.
The pattern changes in fiscal year 2015, with $1,314,048 in expenditures and $1,372,021 in revenue, ending up with a positive balance of about $58,000. However, the department received an additional $92,000 that year, transferred by the county to offset operations costs.
Sandra Carlson, director of the county finance department, said that transfer came out of the money headed toward the fairgrounds’ capital improvement fund, and the $92,000 transfer means it will take longer for the fair to pay back the loan from the county’s general fund for infrastructure improvements.
Flathead County Commissioner Gary Krueger serves on the Fair Board, and said he believes the fairgrounds are on track for better financial reporting and operations now that there is a better accounting system in place compared to previous years.
He also said the fairgrounds hosts plenty of activities that are found to have community value but bring little in the way of revenue, such as 4H and the Future Farmers of America.
“If you would track those things that are happening out at the fair, we’re probably better than revenue neutral because we don’t charge for them,” Krueger said.
And there’s no end in sight for 4H or the FFA at the fairgrounds, despite rumors implying otherwise, Krueger said.
“I wonder where the ethics are of people claiming that, because that is an unethical statement to be making to the public,” Krueger said. “That’s cruel and that’s mean and it’s not based on fact.”
One of the fair’s new cost-reduction strategies also faced criticism, when county employees worked jobs normally filled by contracted workers. Carmalt said she disagreed with that move because it took those minimum-wage jobs from residents who depend on them.
The plan, as described by Carlson, was to have county employees use the hours they’re already paid for to work at the fair instead of paying hourly wages to outside personnel. It was part of Carlson’s six months of work cleaning up the fairgrounds books, she said.
“I called around to see how other fairs were doing it,” Carlson said. “I found that often times county workers were participating a lot more than we ever had.”
The county commission approved Carlson’s plan to allow employees who are able to step away from their desks to work the fair to do so. Carlson noted that she worked at the fair, and she’s budgeted to work for Flathead County for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.
“Where I spend that time is up to the commissioners,” Carlson said. “It didn’t cost any additional dollars.”
In fact, Carlson said, it saved the county thousands of dollars. The county paid $296,417 for contracted workers in fiscal year 2014, but after the change this last summer, that number dropped to $225,833, a savings of more than $70,000.
Public comment at county commission and the Fair Board meetings has also raised concerns about inconsistencies in sponsorship pricings at the fairgrounds.
Sponsorships make up about 10 percent of the fair’s revenue stream, Campbell said, and he wants to find solutions for interested businesses.
“I strive to find what’s important to them,” he said. “Sponsorships as a whole are incredibly important to us.”
From his unique perspective as a commissioner and a Fair Board member, Krueger said he believes the fairgrounds are underappreciated for all the good they do for the community.
Most of the attention is placed on the Northwest Montana Fair, but that’s just one week out of the year, he said. Nearly 200 days a year, there’s something happening on the grounds.
“There’s so many good things that happen at the fair. For those things not to be talked about in the community and have the focus be on other issues, on a minority mindset, is just wrong,” Krueger said. “(The fairgrounds are) a great asset to our community in all that it does.”