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Great Falls Residents Protest Outside City Manager's Office, Want Documents Released

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Mar 12, 2010 at 6:23 PM MST

Story Updated: Mar 12, 2010 at 6:37 PM MST

Some residents of Great Falls say the city is in contempt of court, and they want answers.

About a dozen people protested outside of the city manager's office Friday morning, arguing the city needs to release documents related to the planned power plant east of Great Falls. You may recall on Tuesday, a judge ordered the city release almost all documents that had been sealed, regarding its deal with Southern Montana Electric.

SME and the city have been working for years to build a power plant just outside of city limits. SME says it is appealing that decision, so the city says it won't release the documents yet. But these residents argue the appeal hasn't been ruled on, and the city is in contempt by not releasing the documents. They also question why there is so much secrecy surrounding the city's dealings with s-m-e.

Protester Travis Kavulla adds, "This is just kind of symptomatic of the entire SME business strategy, which the city's own experts, the consultants the city hired, called one of the most secret public partnerships in energy business, anywhere in the United States, that they had seen."

SME argues there are trade secrets in those documents. The judge says he will rule on the appeal on Monday, and won't force the city to disclose the documents until he's made his ruling.

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Matt said on Friday, Mar 12 at 8:25 PM

Sounds like the health care bill.

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