(Spirit Lake)– Conflict of interest allegations against a County Supervisor came to a head at today’s (Tues.) Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting. The allegations were leveled against Supervisor Tim Fairchild by a group opposed to any new wind turbines going up in the county, siting leases signed by him and his family. Fairchild again today (Tues.) denied he has a conflict of interest…
“The point is that if I would abstain, 20 percent of Dickinson county doesn’t have a vote. Remember, some people in my district really want turbines, some don’t. So I was actually looking for the easy way out and I didn’t get it. But the key was if you own less than five percent, and I can assure I own less that five percent of that company, and I’ve had no involvement in that company.”
County Attorney Steve Goodlow says they consulted with other legal experts and the State Campaign Ethics and Finance Office and determined there were no concerns…
“We came to this table about this question March of last year. I mean all of this that brings us to the head for this meeting has probably been, I’m goin to say, in the last 90 daysish, maybe a little more than that. So we’ve looked at this and we did take measures to make sure we’re okay, you know. If it was not okay, and Mr. Fairchild has said to me many times, at any point if I thought he was not okay to tell him. And when I rely on the ISAC representative and the Ethics Board, Mr. Goodrich, take their guidance, at this point, things change, but at this point, my advice to Mr. Fairchild was we don’t have a conflict.”
Many of those in attendance at today’s (Tues.) meeting again argued otherwise. Randy Heikens was among them…
“As far as conflicts of interest, does it make it easier to, for someone to benefit financially on this board, if they are voting for something like that. You see this is where we get into trouble with conflicts of interest.”
Chris Van Kleek is with the group DC3. She says to her, transparency is also a concern…
“So that’s my point, is you do have influence. You have influence on those other people on those boards. You have influence just by the words you say. And, you know, we’re not allowed to look at the YouTube video following the meeting so you either have to be here or watch it online at that point. I think as a citizen it’s our right to have access to that information. You do represent each of your districts and you do represent the county.”
There was also a call for the county to revamp its conflict of interest policy. Patrick Kelly…
“Reach out to try to develop some consensus, because if you don’t, what’s going to happen is we’re going to have just an unending political struggle here that’s going to get much nastier and much uglier.”
The supervisors took no action during today’s (Tues.) meeting which lasted nearly an hour.
