Helena schedules meeting to discuss rescinding immigration resolution

The City of Helena is considering rescinding an immigration resolution that had large backing by the public following an investigation announced by the state’s Department of Justice.

Mayor Emily Dean also invited the state to attend to talk through the resolution, but at least one commissioner who voted for it wants to know why the city is considering a rescission.

The Helena City Commission is planning to host a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Civic Center regarding the city’s immigration resolution, which is under investigation by the state’s Department of Justice.

In an agenda posted for the meeting, the first item will be consideration of rescinding the immigration resolution passed earlier this year. The state announced the investigation at a Feb. 11 joint press conference with Gov. Greg Gianforte and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in the weeks following the resolution, saying Helena violated sanctuary city laws.

In response to the state investigation, a City of Helena press release stated, on Feb. 11, “The resolution was drafted with careful consideration of applicable local, state, and federal law, and the City believes the resolution is consistent with those legal requirements.”

Now though, the city appears to be considering backing off the resolution, and it’s unclear what has changed. The topic has come up twice at city commission meetings in recent weeks — updates were given by Helena City Attorney Rebecca Dockter on March 18 and on March 23.

But some commissioners want answers to questions they’ve gotten from their constituents.

After quoting part of the Feb. 11 press statement, commissioner Melinda Reed asked Dockter multiple questions on Monday.

“Why are we considering rescinding the resolution in full? Now, what parts of the resolution do we feel are not consistent with legal requirements? And the second question is, why is the staff recommendation in the special meeting packet to rescind the resolution and not to amend portions that may need to be changed to be more in line with legal requirements,” Reed said during Monday’s meeting.

Dockter, in response, said those were questions to defer until Thursday’s special meeting, though she spoke briefly to the city staff recommendation.

“Obviously, it’s your decision, and you can change those motions however,” Dockter said. “It might come up during the meeting on Thursday. I offered one option. I didn’t want to list them all, so that’s really why it ended up that way.”

A letter was sent to the Helena City Commission by the state on March 10, asking it to respond to four questions following the Jan. 26 resolution. The state has threatened financial penalties if the city is found out of compliance with the law, and gave the city a 15-day response time, which they are now pushing up against. Some organizations have pointed to the investigation as a local control issue.

Helena has also retained the services of Natasha Jones, an attorney with Boone Karlberg who played a key role in Missoula’s long and protracted legal battle to acquire Mountain Water Company. When asked how much Jones was being paid, a City of Helena spokesperson directed the Daily Montanan to file a records request.

Jones has met with city commissioners individually, officials said on Monday night, and those meetings also included Dockter and the city clerk. It is unclear what was discussed in those meetings, with Dean saying on Monday that the city is claiming attorney-client privilege on those conversations.

Montana law states, “A meeting may not be closed to discuss strategy to be followed in litigation in which the only parties are public bodies or associations described in subsections,” which the conversations with Jones, the hired attorney, seem to have avoided as commissioners were spoken with individually.

Dean also invited the state to come talk with commissioners during Monday’s meeting. She told the commissioners that she listened to a podcast interview with Gianforte, and the governor had said, to those that disagree with him, ”if they have a disagreement, they should come and let’s have a conversation,” Jones said, quoting what the governor said during the interview.

“I know sometimes they tend to do things a little bit differently at the state Capitol complex, but in local government, this is a place where we really have to talk things out and find common ground, especially when there are disagreements,” Dean said. “And so with that, I’d like to extend an invitation to the attorney general, as the governor suggested, to come and have a conversation with us, for us to find a path forward.”