Flathead Conservation District Asks Judge to Reappoint Planning Board Member Amid Dispute with County Commissioners
Commissioners last year chose not to ratify the appointment of conservation district supervisor Michale Kopitzke, leaving his position vacant in what attorneys say is a violation of state law
By Maggie Dresser
The Flathead Conservation District (FCD) is asking a judge to decide if county officials were within their legal rights when they refused to reappoint a supervisor to the Flathead Planning Board and instead appointed a different individual within the organization who did not apply for the position, did not want it, and was not recommended for it by the conservation district.
According to a petition for declaratory judgment filed in Flathead County District Court, the FCD is also asking Judge Danni Coffman to order the county to ratify the appointment of Michael Kopitzke, the FCD supervisor who served on the board in 2025 and was recommended to serve again this year. The position has instead sat vacant in 2026 in violation of state law.
After the FCD recommended Kopitzke serve again in 2026, Flathead County commissioners appointed his colleague, Bill Yankee, to serve instead. After Yankee submitted a letter expressing “his personal inability to serve on the Planning Board and his unwillingness to do so,” county officials still did not ratify Kopitzke’s appointment for the position despite his recommendation, resulting in the absence of a conservation district supervisor among its membership, which is required by law.
Since at least 2003, the planning and zoning department has solicited a recommendation from FCD for one of its members to serve on the planning board. The appointment of a FCD supervisor to the board was historically the district’s choice, according to the petition filed by attorney Caitlin Overland.
But in the fall of 2025, the planning department sent a different letter directly to Kopitzke — as opposed to FCD — asking him to submit a letter of interest for the position rather than asking the conservation district to make a recommendation as it has done in the past.
FCD Resource Conservationist Samantha Tappenbeck in a declaration described a different “tone” to the 2025 letter compared to letters from previous years. In it, the planning department informed Kopitzke that his term on the planning board was expiring and asked him to submit a letter of interest if he wished to continue serving. She also wrote that “the unexpected appointment of Yankee has caused confusion and discord regarding the role of FCD within the Planning Board and the relationship between the two entities.”
On Oct. 27, 2025, FCD voted to recommend Kopitzke to continue serving on the planning board, forwarding the recommendation along with his letter of interest and credentials to the planning and zoning department.
County commissioners during a Dec. 9, 2025 meeting appointed Yankee — who had not submitted a letter of interest and had not been recommended to serve by FCD — to the planning board without explanation, according to the petition. Yankee informed officials in a January letter that he did not wish to serve on the board.
While no laws have been enacted that would prompt a change in the appointment procedure, House Bill 782, sponsored by Rep. Steven Kelly, R-Kalispell, was proposed during the 2025 Legislature and would have made the appointment of a conservation district supervisor discretionary if it had passed. However, the bill failed.
State law requires at least one conservation district member to be on a county planning board, but House Bill 782 proposed a change that would have allowed county commissioners to appoint a conservation district member.
Overland, the attorney representing FCD, wrote in the petition that “the law does not allow the Board of County Commissioners to conscript a supervisor at random to hold the position; nor does it allow that seat to remain vacant because the Commissioners dislike the FCD’s nominee for the seat.”