Montana
Montana local governments prepare for new law requiring recorded meetings
EAST HELENA — Monday, July 1, was the effective date for a new state law that leaders say is intended to give the public a clearer picture of the work their local government is doing.
House Bill 890, sponsored by Rep. Brad Barker, R-Luther, requires many local government boards to record their meetings and post the recordings online within five business days. Now, it’s up to local leaders to make sure they’re following the law.
“It’s been a little bit of a learning process and a learning curve, understanding how we’re going to comply,” said Dan Rispens, superintendent of East Helena Public Schools.
Under HB 890, cities with more than 5,000 residents, counties with more than 4,500, most school districts with more than 1,000, and local health boards have to record the audio and video of their meetings. Smaller counties and cities with between 1,000 and 5,000 residents will only need to record audio.
Barker said when he was elected to the Legislature, one of his biggest concerns was a lack of trust in government, and he hoped steps like this would boost trust by providing transparency.
“The more that we put sunshine on the various things that we do – whether it’s discussing and approving budgets, approving contracts, all of the things that are involved in our public boards and entities – I think that it improves not only the process, that transparency also helps the public have a better understanding,” he said.
Most leaders MTN spoke to said the new law isn’t forcing major changes to their policies. For example, the city of Helena has been posting its meetings to Youtube since 2021, and the Lewis and Clark County Commission started doing the same last month. Commissioners in Jefferson and Broadwater Counties said they got used to streaming their meetings online during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it wasn’t a big step for them to get ready to record them as well.
The East Helena school board has also been streaming its meetings online since COVID, but that’s now changing. Rispens said the district decided for now to stop broadcasting them live and focus on the required recording.
“We’ve got a few people in the district – I think maybe two – that completely understand how to operate the equipment and make sure that the recording gets put down properly and is ready for posting,” he said. “So until we’re a little more comfortable with that process and we’ve got a few other folks who understand how to make sure it works, we just want to take it one step at a time.”
Rispens said it was difficult for the board and district staff to make sure that everyone had a full chance to participate equally in the hybrid meetings.
“You really need somebody full-time in the meeting who’s operating that Zoom meeting and monitoring the folks who are participating on Zoom and ensuring that people’s microphones are turned on at the appropriate time or turned off, and so it does become a little bit of a concern and a burden as to who’s going to do that,” he said.
EHPS uses a small Owl Labs camera that spins 360 degrees in an attempt to follow whoever is speaking. While they most often hold board meetings at the East Valley Middle School library, Rispens said they’re also able to use the camera when they’re meeting in other places.
“The problem with it being mobile is it’s not super high-quality video or audio production,” he said.
Regardless of the quality of the recordings, Barker says it’s important for the public to be able to get a clear, authoritative view of what happens in these meetings, as a way to push back against misinformation.
“With all the advances that we’ve had in technology and more recently at a much more rapid pace – artificial intelligence, the ability to create digital fraud, deepfakes – I think it’s important that we start as a government to take steps toward safeguarding,” he said.
During the 2023 legislative session, Barker also sponsored House Bill 724, which required local government boards to publish their agendas before meetings. That law took effect last year.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 20, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 20 drawing
16-20-44-48-50, Powerball: 15, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from June 20 drawing
08-14-31-41-52, Star Ball: 04, ASB: 03
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from June 20 drawing
09-22-25-26, Bonus: 11
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Montana Cash numbers from June 20 drawing
05-22-28-30-34
Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Montana
Planning For Life After Coal Cost a Montana County Commissioner His Seat – Inside Climate News
Robert Pancratz couldn’t believe it.
The Musselshell County commissioner had been defeated in the Republican primary for his seat by a two-to-one margin earlier this month. Mark Olson, who lives in Musselshell and serves as the undersheriff in Golden Valley County, won by 26 percentage points.
“That just blew me away,” Pancratz said. “All of my campaign, I had not a hint that there was that much opposition.”
At stake, from Pancratz’s perspective, is the fiscal future of his community, which includes Roundup, Montana, home to Montana’s only longwall coal mine. The mine, owned and operated by Signal Peak Energy, sits on the eastern side of the continental divide in a staunchly conservative part of the state, where its presence provides jobs and its profits generate taxable revenue for local governments. (The vast majority of its coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, goes to markets in Asia.)
But that revenue could potentially be diminished by tens of millions, according to calculations by Pancratz, if a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., passes Congress. The Crow Revenue Act would convey federally held coal to Signal Peak through a land transfer to a private intermediary, depriving Musselshell County of its share of the taxes Signal Peak Energy pays to mine coal on federal land.
If the Crow Revenue Act does not pass Congress, Signal Peak says it could be forced to shut down if it loses a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana challenging the “energy emergency” the Trump administration used to grant the mine access to federal coal. That outcome would wipe out all the mine’s tax revenue and hundreds of jobs, the company claims. This month’s election hinged on Pancratz’s position on the bill and, by extension, the mine.
Musselshell County’s three commissioners, Mike Goffena, Mike Turley and Pancratz support keeping the mine open. But they also fear Musselshell County would need to raise taxes and cut services to balance its books if the Crow Revenue Act passes as written. After studying the county’s finances, Pancratz, who works as a risk analyst consultant, concluded that the county could lose as much as $11.6 million if the Crow Revenue Act passes and the price of coal is high. The commissioners have lobbied for changes to the bill that would guarantee the county some revenue from the land transfer.
Pancratz says he was just doing his job.
“As a risk manager, I have to develop a contingency plan for the possibility that the long-term stream of coal revenue could be disrupted or ended,” he said. “We needed to have a plan to effectively transition to other revenue sources. When I used the word transition, they took that as I was an environmentalist that was against coal.”
“Why anybody would have a problem with that is baffling to me. But that’s what happened.”
According to Pancratz, Signal Peak Energy branded the men as environmentalists who want to see the company shut down forever and this willful mischaracterization played a large role in his defeat.
“The picture they painted of me was totally false,” he said.
In a recording of a commissioner meeting posted to a local Facebook group by a Signal Peak Energy employee less than a month before the election, Pancratz, Goffena and Turley can be heard strategizing how to express their concerns about the Crow Revenue Act to Daines, whom they describe as unresponsive to their concerns.
Pancratz suggests asking for a $100 million endowment to transition from coal to “scare” Daines and Signal Peak Energy. Turley states that with funding at that level, they wouldn’t care if the mine was open or not.
“Exactly,” Pancratz responded.
Comments on the video show viewers expressing outrage that the commissioners would “play chicken” with the future of the mine, which provides hundreds of jobs in the surrounding area.
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Pancratz said the conversation was recorded without the commissioners’ knowledge. Montana is a two-party consent state, meaning all parties must be aware of and consent to a recording, but he allowed that it was possible one of the commissioners forgot to close a virtual public meeting after it concluded.
Pancratz said the conversation occurred when the commissioners found out there would be no money in the Crow Revenue Act for the county. The bill’s supporters, including Signal Peak Energy, had told them that the county would not lose any revenue under the bill, he said.
“We were upset because we felt we’d been lied to,” Pancratz said.
Signal Peak Energy did not respond to a written message and phone call seeking comment. For a time after Signal Peak took over the mine in the late 2000s, it was plagued by malfeasance, including embezzlement, a faked kidnapping and safety and environmental violations, according to reporting by The New York Times.
Olson said he entered the race due to a “lack of transparency” from the commissioners over how the county was spending its money.
But the mine played a role in his decision to run, too. As he was weighing his options, Olson said his cousin, Alan Olson, a former state legislator and former executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association, visited him and urged him to run to support the mine. After that conversation, he was convinced the mine’s survival depended on the Crow Revenue Act passing, and that trying to amend it would jeopardize the legislation.
“The more money we can get for the county, the better, but I don’t think it’s worth risking the mine closing,” Olson said. Losing federal revenue was better than losing all the jobs and the tax base if the mine closes, he concluded.
Olson added that Parker Phipps, Signal Peak Energy’s CEO, has briefed him on the mine’s fiscal relationship with Musselshell County.
Olson’s background in law enforcement could add a new perspective to the county commissioner meetings, given Goffena and Turley’s background in ranching, he said, but the minutiae of the county’s budget will be new to him.
“I am by no means an expert in any of this stuff,” he said.
Some worry that, with the mine facing a lawsuit, an unpredictable global coal market and the uncertain future of the Crow Revenue Act, the commissioners cannot afford to lose momentum in their efforts to attract new industries to the area.
Olson’s win in the primary will “set [economic diversification planning] back long term,” Nicole Borner, a former Musselshell County commissioner, who thinks Olson was hand-picked by the Signal Peak Energy to run and is not informed about what the job entails.
“We will always just have a few crumbs to duct tape a few issues,” she said. “We’ll never be able to fix the prior forty years of being in a coal bust and our infrastructure just literally falling apart.”
Olson will likely run unopposed in the general election.
In his remaining time in office, Pancratz said he will continue to push for economic diversification in Musselshell County. He holds no animosity towards Olson, who calls Pancratz “a wonderful guy.” Instead, he laments not addressing concerns over his position on the mine sooner in the campaign. But he believes Signal Peak Energy’s political and social influence—the company operates a charity in the region—is what swayed the election.
“You can’t say anything that even remotely implies that you’re trying to prepare the county for the possibility that coal revenue may not be steady or high … There’s this attitude that the county is in debt to that coal mine. And the message I tried to get out is, it’s more the reverse,” Pancratz said.
“I personally don’t believe the mine really cares about the county.”
About This Story
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Jake Bolster reports on Wyoming and the West for Inside Climate News. Previously, he worked as a freelancer, covering climate change, energy, and the environment across the United States. He holds a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 19, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from June 19 drawing
13-16-21-26-50, Mega Ball: 12
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from June 19 drawing
05-12-14-30, Bonus: 03
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 19 drawing
02-20-28-51-54, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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