Old accusations surface in city manager debate

City Attorney Charles Harball took over as Kalispell's acting city manager Monday, volunteering to fill in after the departure of Jane Howington and after David Nielsen declined to take the job.

It was a tough first day for Harball, who has been city attorney since 2005.

The situation turned to confusion at Monday's City Council meeting, with council members not sure if Harball should be an acting city manager or interim city manager - or if it really made much difference.

Confusion was fueled by a string of emails about Harball that Scott Davis, the spokesman of Quiet Skies (a group against expanding Kalispell City Airport), sent out over the weekend.

The emails contained statements reportedly sent to Davis by John Stokes, who alleged that Harball faces perjury charges for alleged false statements he made in Stokes' 2009 bankruptcy case, and that Harball has had a role in a number of other alleged misdeeds, including forgery, false statements and improper tax deals involving Todd and Davar Gardner.

Stokes owned KGEZ radio and was a controversial talk show host until the station was shut down in 2009 as part of a bankruptcy ruling against him.

In 2008, Stokes had been ordered by a jury to pay $3.8 million to Davar and Todd Gardner for making false and malicious statements about them on his radio show. That award was part of the bankruptcy proceeding, and the Gardners later bought the radio station and its two towers from Stokes' creditors.

"I don't think it's a good idea to have Mr. C Harbal [sic] as city manager right now, I have read some documents that disturb me and maybe you," Davis wrote in one of his emails, sent to the Quiet Skies mailing list.

In Davis's emails, Stokes reportedly alleged that Harball committed perjury by telling the bankruptcy court that Kalispell had no plans to expand Kalispell City Airport, an action that could have required the city to buy the two radio towers.

Harball said the bankruptcy court was trying to establish the value of Stokes' property at the time, and that Stokes' creditors called him in to testify on whether the city of Kalispell would have to buy the property as Stokes alleged.

Harball said he told the bankruptcy court that the city had not decided whether to expand the airport and that it was not clear if the city would ever need to buy Stokes' property.

"When I said that, Stokes took offense and said, ‘That's a lie! You guys have been talking about expansion!' I said talking about expansion is one thing, but actually doing it and making commitments is another," Harball said. He added that three years later, the City Council still has not made a decision about expanding the airport.

"[Stokes] filed a motion, kind of an interesting thing, a motion in bankruptcy court, that I should be found guilty of perjury. Like two weeks later he withdrew it with prejudice," meaning the complaint could not be refiled.

Harball called it a moot issue now.

According to Davis' emails, Stokes now is appealing the bankruptcy court's 2009 ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and alleging the "charges of perjury" against Harball could resurface.

"A perjury charge was filed, and now held in abeyance. All city council members and mayor were served a copy and did nothing, making them co-conspirators," one of the emails from Davis said.

Davis stood by the content of his emails Tuesday, saying Stokes is a credible source of information and alleging that Harball's statements about the airport expansion unfairly devalued Stokes' property in bankruptcy court.

"If [you] put Stokes and Harball side by side and asked me which one is credible, I'd say Stokes," Davis said.

Pointing to Davis's emails, council member Bob Hafferman said at Monday's council meeting he would not be comfortable making Harball anything more than acting city manager.

"All I know is there's a court action in the process and I don't believe we should be appointing as an interim city manager a person who may be involved in that process," Hafferman said.

Other council members weren't so certain.

"I couldn't have any less concern about what John Stokes says than any other human being. I have found him libelous and slanderous... I don't care what John Stokes says and I don't take anything he says to be truthful at all," Mayor Tammi Fisher said. "If those are the court filings we are referring to, then I have no concerns whatsoever."

Fisher said the council will vote at its next regular meeting on Jan. 23 on whether to make Harball interim versus acting city manager because it was not on the agenda this week. "I think it's something we should vote on, because Mr. Hafferman needs to have his voice heard," she said.

After Monday's meeting, Harball said he doesn't care whether the council keeps him as acting city manager or makes him interim city manager. "I don't think it makes much difference. Give it the word temporary. Temporary is good," he said.