GREAT FALLS — Cascade County commissioners approved a $52,500 settlement Friday with former Clerk and Recorder Rina Fontana Moore to resolve a discrimination case Moore filed with the Montana Human Rights Bureau.On a 2-1 vote, Commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson approved the deal during a special meeting on Friday. Commissioner Rae Grulkowski voted against it.Fontana Moore, a Democrat, alleged that the county discriminated against her political beliefs while appointing an elections administrator earlier this year. The complaint hasn’t been released.Commissioners said Friday the settlement potentially avoids a more costly process down the road.“This was a business decision,” Briggs said in an interview after the meeting. “This was one that we could settle today for a known number. And once the finding came up, if there was a finding, that number could multiply several times.”The settlement was the result of a mediation session held in September while the case was in the initial investigation phase, according to Jordan Crosby, an attorney retained by the county. An investigator would be required to determine whether or not there was “reasonable cause” for the case to move forward. A ruling in Fontana Moore’s favor could mean a more costly settlement and the requirement for the county to pay legal costs. That process could also involve public hearings.In addition, Crosby said that Fontana Moore had raised concerns about the appointment process that led her to believe a reasonable cause finding could happen.“There was risk to the county for some substantial damages and fees,” Crosby said at the meeting. “And so I think in my opinion that this is a good settlement. I think it is in the best interest of the county. I think it is a good business judgment to make and resolve this to end this matter.”One of those risks involved may have been the actions of Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, who was named as a defendant in the case. During the appointment process, Jacobsen emailed commissioners and urged against appointing Fontana Moore or any member of her administration.“I think that had something to do with it,” Briggs told Montana Free Press. “We were not talking with the [Human Rights Bureau] investigator — our counsel was.”Jacobsen’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter Friday.Fontana Moore oversaw county elections as the former clerk and recorder, a position she held for 16 years. She lost a close election in 2022 to Sandra Merchant, the current clerk and recorder.Merchant wasn’t named as a defendant in the discrimination case, but multiple public commenters mentioned her name during Friday’s commission meeting.In 2023, multiple complaints surfaced about Merchant’s handling of elections, leading to lawsuits and the appointment of a special monitor to oversee the public library funding vote early in the year. Citing those complaints and Merchant’s inexperience, county commissioners chose to remove election administration from the clerk and recorder’s duties in December. The commissioners then began the search for an appointed elections administrator, for which Fontana Moore was an applicant.The vote to remove election duties from the clerk and recorder was 2-1, with Grulkowski dissenting, a pattern that has been common among the board.On Friday, Grulkowski pointed to that decision as the beginning of a sequence of events that led to this settlement.“I think that, like was expressed today, all of this could have been avoided,” Grulkowski said.Commissioners chose former Realtor association CEO Terry Thompson as elections administrator in February 2024 from a pool of four applicants, including Fontana Moore and Lynn DeRoche, who had been an elections supervisor under Fontana Moore. Fontana Moore filed this discrimination case 11 days after the decision to appoint Thompson.Fontana Moore is now running as a Democrat for House District 20 of the Montana Legislature. She did not return requests for comment Friday.The county will end up paying the settlement out of its budget, as the Montana Association of Counties doesn’t provide coverage for political belief discrimination claims, according to county documents. Because County Attorney Josh Racki was initially named as a defendant, commissioners sought outside legal representation. In another example of the division among commissioners, county documents note that Briggs and Larson retained an attorney from the firm Ugrin Alexander Zadick, where Crosby is a partner. But Grulkowski retained separate counsel from the firm Christensen and Prezeau.In-depth, independent reporting on the stories impacting your community from reporters who know your town.The post Cascade County approves $52K settlement in discrimination case over elections administrator appointment appeared first on Montana Free Press.