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Sivertsen says asked to resign, calls for a hearing

Commissioners decline to comment on fair board issue

Editor’s note: This version adds information received after printing deadline that the issue is on the agenda for the Hill County Commission business meeting 10 a.m. Thursday.

Great Northern Fair Board member Bob Sivertsen said in a letter he has been asked to resign after being accused of misdeeds at the fairgrounds and has requested a public hearing to tell his side of the story.

Employees at the fairgrounds accused Sivertsen, who was appointed to the board by the Hill County Commission in April, of taking actions including pouring motor oil on the fairgrounds as mosquito repellant, cutting a line to disconnect the air conditioning in a pickup truck used at the fairgrounds, and holding employees in a manure-filled stall in the fairgrounds horse barn when they wouldn't listen to his instructions and continued to work as Fairgrounds Manager Frank English told them to instead.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson refused to confirm that the commission sent Sivertsen the letter, saying it was a personnel issue, and refused to comment further.

He and commissioners Diane McLean and Jake Strissel had not responded by print deadline to a request to send Havre Daily News a copy of the letter.

Sivertsen provided a copy of the letter to Havre Daily News. In it, the commissioners write that they believe his resignation would be best, but they have the issue on the agenda for their business meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday — the agenda only lists “Fair Commission” under the heading “Board Appointments” and does not specify removing Sivertsen from the board — and that the commission would vote on his removal if he has not resigned by then.

Sivertsen said this morning the commissioners need to hear his side.

"The public needs to know the truth about what actually happened, I can't believe how the commissioners and fair board rendered the guilty verdict without allowing me to defend myself," he said. "I said, 'See you in court' because they were considering filing a lawsuit so I didn't want to comment."

In his letter, printed in full in the Opinion page, A4, of today’s edition of Havre Daily News, Sivertsen said the Hill County Commission didn't allow him to defend himself.

"I am disappointed that the commissioners have made the decision based on false allegations," he wrote in the letter. " ... It is disappointing and of concern that you folks have such a disregard for fairness and justice under the law."

" ... I have never witnessed anything like this," he added in the letter. "I served on the fair board for 25 years, chairman 24; we had a working fair board that worked with the manager and grounds keeper."

Fairgrounds secretary Anita Stevenson said she was one of the people Sivertsen refused to let leave the stall in the horse barn and that she saw him doing things she believes are inappropriate from when she first started her job July 1.

She said she and others had been complaining to the fair board about Sivertsen's actions for some time before the fair started but the other board members would do nothing or they would even make excuses for him.

"They just brush it under the rug," she said.

No fair board member has responded to requests made Sunday for comments on the issue.

 

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