What Is Happening at the Gallatin County Courthouse?

Citizens of Gallatin County, are you aware of what your county officials have been doing? They have been changing how county government is run without your vote.

Over the last decade, the County Commission has passed a series of resolutions that shifted authority away from your elected officials and handed it to hired staff. Voters were never asked. Montana law requires voter approval to change a county’s form of government.

Commissioner Zach Brown has said it was his intention to “professionalize” county operations. At this point, the commissioners have assigned oversight of 23 county departments to the hired Administrator. That leaves the commissioners supervising basically one person, the Administrator, while each still makes about $100,000 a year.

If an elected official wanted to professionalize their own department, that is within their job. They can ask for the budget and hire the people needed to carry out the duties voters elected them to perform. The commissioners should be helping that happen. They should not be taking powers that Montana law and the voters gave to elected officials and moving them under a hired administrator.

They also cut the County Superintendent of Schools from 40 hours a week to 24. He still makes about $100,000 a year.

In earlier articles we covered the changes to the Treasurer’s office and the upcoming change to the Clerk and Recorder / Election Administrator’s office. The Clerk and Recorder is set to lose a third to half of his duties. His pay stays about $100,000 a year.

Through all of this, the commission says the form of government has not changed because voters never officially approved a new form. Montana law treats “county manager government” as a specific legal form. It is adopted only by a vote under Title 7, Chapter 3, MCA. Gallatin County has not held that vote.

You know the saying. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it is a duck. It does not matter if you changed its legal name.

What the Study Commission said

The Study Commission put this in plain language in its draft supplemental report. The Accountability section, attributed to Commissioner White, stated:

“Gallatin County is an Elected County Official Form (ECOF) of government. With the official resolution assigning oversight of 23 county departments to the County Administrator’s office, it has migrated to a ‘Manager Form’ of government.”

That is the dispute. One side says the structure has already changed. The other side says it has not changed because no one held a referendum.

What the commission did

On May 3, 2016, the commission passed Resolutions 2016-065, 2016-066, and 2016-067. Those created a County Administrator with management and supervisory authority over county departments, including Finance, HR, IT, Planning, and Facilities. All three cited §7-5-2101, MCA. Commissioner Don Seifert introduced them. Commissioner Steve White moved them. They passed unanimously.

On May 4, 2021, the commission passed Resolution 2021-050. That transferred financial duties from the elected Treasurer’s office to the Finance Department under the County Administrator.

In January 2024, the commission passed Resolution 2024-004. It returned some operational treasury duties to Treasurer Horton, because she fought for them. The resolution kept three limits. The commission kept supervisory authority over all Finance Department employees. Horton could only use Finance employees “as determined in the sole discretion of the Board.” Sole bank signatory authority stayed with the commission. The CFO and Accounting Manager were named as authorized signatories, not the elected Treasurer. An Investment Committee was created with the Treasurer as one of eight members. She could perform her statutory duties only with the Finance staff the commission chose to allow her to use.

In late 2025, the commission passed Resolution 2025-097. It continued the County Administrator structure and moved supervision of the Emergency Management Director to the Administrator.

Resolution 2025-105 creates an Election Department overseen by the Election Administrator. Under the existing administrator structure, every county department falls under the County Administrator. But §13-1-301(1)(b) requires the election administrator to report directly to the governing body, not to an appointed administrator. If the Election Department is placed under the Administrator instead of directly under the commission, that conflicts with the statute the resolution itself cites. That is an open question the public should have answered.

The structure has shifted, whatever they call it. Power has been moved under the County Administrator by resolution. It is time for answers, and for accountability to the citizens and voters of Gallatin County.