The effort to oust Libby Mayor Doug Roll is over after a judge signed an order last week granting an injunction against the recall.
The order, signed by Lincoln County District Court Judge James Wheelis on Sept. 1, came three months after a local woman, Tammy Brown, started gathering signatures to recall Roll and two weeks after a court hearing was held on an injunction against the petition.
At the hearing, Wheelis ruled that the injunction against the recall would continue but he later decided that recall supporters could continue to gather signatures until the mayor posted a $25,000 bond. After a flurry of motions from attorneys representing Roll and Brown, Wheelis decided to waive the bond and essentially end the recall effort once and for all.
In the findings of fact, Wheelis wrote that Roll never violated his oath of office when he unilaterally hired a temporary city attorney or failed to put an item on the agenda as requested by a city council member. Wheelis wrote that there were no grounds for a recall.
Roll said he was not surprised by the outcome.
“It was a bogus recall effort from the get go,” Roll said. “I’ve never done anything wrong and I’ve never tried to deceive anyone.”
With the recall essentially over, the city council now turns to a gamut of issues, including approving a new city budget and appointing a replacement for Dejon Raines who announced she was stepping down earlier this year. However, any hopes of burying the hatchet and trying to work together as a council seemed like a tall order. In an interview with the Beacon, Roll criticized councilors who supported the recall effort, including Allen Olsen, Brian Zimmerman and Brent Teske.
“The council has no idea and they’ve never been trained on what it takes to do this job,” Roll said. “They have no idea how city government is supposed to work. Of course, they would probably say the same about me.”