Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times -

Having read the Roundup City Council Meeting minutes from our May 19th, 2022, meeting to discuss the interdepartmental agreement providing law enforcement within the City of Roundup. First, I find that the minutes read more like a transcript than what I would call normal minutes, but that being said I did find several inconsistent statements that I feel need correcting. I'm sure I never said that, "We are hoping not to mill, but if we have to, we will." I have never considered raising the mills for any reason and would never make such a statement. I don't know why it was stated that the "Shortfall is in the county budget.” It makes no sense, we have no shortfall. Sheriff Lesnik made a good point in his research into what other cities and counties, with the same situation, are paying and Roundup by far is paying less per resident than any other entity. Also, the line in the minutes where Sheriff Lesnik said "Pay more or receive less services." He was talking county wide not just the city. I was quite taken aback that Mike Turley's statement about the where the money for the intercity fines was being placed, he joked that is going into a kickback fund, this was obviously a joke and should have never been put into print. The bottom line is that we left that meeting with what we thought was a reasonable agreement where it was agreed on that we would get a 2% raise, which we all know is way less than the rate of inflation, this raise was not to be in effect only after two years. We know the city has limited funds to work with, but believe it or not, so does the county. We are all facing hard times in this new fiscal world we are living in; we have to budget the best that we can and try to mitigate the impact to our residents. The county wants to have a working and congeal relationship with the city, all we ask for is the city understands that the we know we are all part of the same group and we need to get along. The minutes that I read seemed to put the county as the bad guy and the Commissioners in a bad light, I hope this wasn't intentional.

Musselshell County

Commissioner

Mike Goffena