GREAT FALLS — The acting Glacier County attorney says the county commissioners demanded that she cut her office’s budget request by 20 percent out of retaliation for her campaign practices complaint against one of the commissioners.
The Great Falls Tribune reports Carolyn Berkram is asking a District Court judge to order the commissioners to rescind the request and fund the office at a level “to reasonably conduct her statutory duties.”
Berkram’s argues commissioners Michael DesRosier and Tom McKay demanded she cut $80,000 from her office’s $418,000 budget without offering a rational explanation.
Berkram’s affidavit said that when commissioners were reviewing her office’s budget request on Sept. 29, Commission Chairman DesRosier that he disapproved of her filing the campaign complaint. The state commissioner of political practices found that DesRosier did not include the state mandated party affiliation and campaign “paid for by” language on some of his primary campaign materials.
DesRosier and MacKay did not return phone messages seeking comment on Friday.