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First, there was Kyle Fouts.
He was the top administrator at the Montana State Hospital, the state-run adult psychiatric campus in Warm Springs, for years. His tenure included the facility’s public scandal of four patient deaths, safety risks and significant staff turnover. That constellation of grim circumstances led the hospital to lose federal certification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2022.
Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration removed Fouts from the CEO position not long after that. In hindsight, his departure kick-started a rotating door of leaders at the essential and beleaguered health care facility.
As the hospital’s problems mushroomed into public view, Gianforte’s state health department tapped Carter Anderson, a longtime health executive and administrator in Montana, to serve as the hospital’s CEO in an interim capacity. About a year later, Anderson was out for unspecified reasons, sidling into an abrupt retirement. A new CEO, David Culberson, took the helm in March 2023, also in an interim capacity.
Charlie Brereton, director of the state health department, touted Culberson as an experienced hospital administrator with decades of facility management in other states. But, months later, several hospital employees told Montana Free Press they began noticing Culberson having lapses in attention and memory (they requested anonymity to describe the behavior of hospital leadership). In January 2024, the state ended Culberson’s contract prematurely and without public explanation. A health department administrator from Helena, Jennifer Savage, took over the post while the agency’s top brass said they would continue to search for permanent leadership.
Savage’s management style, coupled with the state’s decision to hire a contracted, off-campus doctor to serve as the hospital’s chief medical officer, helped thrust staff discontentment into the limelight once again. Several highly trained clinicians left their positions during her tenure, citing mistrust of decision-making and concerns about patient care. Savage was removed from the interim CEO position, as well as her prior administrative role with the health department, in July 2024.
Next in the hospital’s leadership procession came Kevin Flanigan, an administrator and licensed physician from California, hired as the permanent CEO in August of last year. In public appearances with lawmakers, Brereton emphasized that Flanigan was not an interim executive and that, as a medical professional, he brought valuable perspective to the job. Flanigan testified repeatedly during the 2025 Legislature, advocating for budget investments and against bills to change various hospital protocols.
But this month, the health department again announced a leadership change. Flanigan, they said, had chosen to resign. The press release about his departure did not reference a motive, and Flanigan did not respond to a request for comment from MTFP.
The facility’s latest administrator — again with an “interim” title — is Daniel Bemporad, a forensic psychiatrist and former state hospital employee who left his position in 2024. He will be the hospital’s sixth CEO in less than four years.
In some ways, Bemporad’s leadership may come at the most critical time for the facility and the Gianforte administration. The state health department has said it intends to apply for federal recertification at the end of this calendar year — inviting fresh scrutiny from authorities with a laundry list of requirements for the facility’s operations.
Bemporad’s reputation is strong among his former colleagues and other state employees invested in the hospital’s success, though several have told MTFP that the facility still faces substantial hurdles.
In a public statement announcing the latest CEO replacement, health department Director Brereton gave assurances that Bemporad is the person for the job.
“I welcome Dan back to DPHHS as an employee and believe he is the right psychiatric leader for MSH at this crucial time,” Brereton said.
—Mara Silvers
Verbatim 💬
“In terms of property taxes at Montana Renewables, now after the last bills we just passed, they will be paying, I believe, $7 million a year — up from $5.5 [million] or something like that. So their property tax bill is going up about $1.5 million.”
—Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, during a May 28 legislator town hall in Great Falls
What constitutes a “fair share” of property taxes for refinery company Calumet and its biofuels subsidiary Montana Renewables has been a hot topic in Great Falls. The company has pursued a number of tax breaks, including an effort to make the entire biofuels plant tax-exempt. The legacy petroleum refinery division, which operates on the same site as Montana Renewables, is litigating a three-year tax protest that has created seven-figure revenue gaps for local governments.
But like any Montana property taxpayer, Calumet will see impacts from the new property tax structure that will be phased in over the next two years. Fitzpatrick, who was House majority leader when the legislation passed earlier this year, indicated that the refinery site could end up paying more as a result of the legislation.
Fitzpatrick was pretty close on Montana Renewables’ current tax liability. County records show the company paid $5.7 million on its most recent property tax bill. The petroleum refinery division, Calumet Montana Refining, is separately taxed and paid more than $4 million on its most recent property tax bill, though $2.3 million of that was paid under protest as part of the company’s ongoing appeal.
Fitzpatrick said during the town hall that Montana Renewables is among the largest industrial taxpayers in the state.
—Matt Hudson
The Viz 📈
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a proposal for a prescribed burn in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. The project includes 2.3 million acres, spans seven mountain ranges and crosses the Continental Divide. The acreage included is twice that of Glacier National Park.
The project, illustrated in the map above, will require the collaboration of several federal agencies as well as fire protection forces from Helena, Lincoln and White Sulphur Springs. In an email to Montana Free Press, Adria Mikulecky, an administrative support assistant for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest office, wrote that the project will unfold over the next 20 years.
The size and health of the forest are factors in the timeline of the project. Significant portions of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest are considered “high risk” for wildfires. Forest officials wrote in their comments about the proposal that risk factors include “the current density of trees across the forest — which collectively creates conditions that make many areas susceptible to high levels of mortality, disease, and severe and dangerous wildfires.”
Asked whether recent federal workforce reductions will impact staffing on such a major project, Mikulecky wrote, “This project gives us flexibility to pull staff from neighboring forests and districts to support prescribed burns when/where they are most effective.”
Forest Service officials anticipate that the agency will finalize the plan in October and begin implementing it — i.e., initiating prescribed fire operations — shortly thereafter.
—Leigh Walden
Roll Call 🟢🔴
The Montana Land Board on Monday voted 4-1 to authorize Montana’s water right regulator to file protests on 18 privately held water rights that are used to irrigate State Trust Land.
The vote follows last year’s heated debate over the ownership of water rights developed on private land but used, at least partially, to grow crops or water livestock on leased state land. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation had argued that the state retains a partial ownership in such water rights — which are often quite valuable — because they aren’t worth as much without their use on “appurtenant” school trust land. The Montana Supreme Court unanimously agreed, noting the contributions state trust lands make to the state’s public K-12 system.
The Supreme Court’s decision incensed the Senior Ag Water Rights Alliance, which argued that the state’s approach to such water rights is “government bureaucracy gone insane” and pushed the Land Board, which is composed of Montana’s top five elected officials, for more visibility into DNRC’s administration of water rights. All five Land Board members are Republicans.
The agenda item on this week’s Land Board meeting reflects that transparency push — kind of. Forty minutes into the Land Board meeting, Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras (who ran the meeting in Gov. Greg Gianforte’s absence) closed the proceedings to the public, citing a forthcoming discussion of “strategies of litigation.”
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen argued against the meeting closure, saying the public deserved more notice and information on the nature of DNRC’s objection to the 18 upper Clark Fork river water rights in question.
“I don’t think we should be having these discussions behind closed doors. This is simply an approval. I don’t think this is litigation strategy,” said Knudsen, who registered the lone dissent in the subsequent vote.
After Juras reopened the meeting to the public, James Brown, the state auditor and insurance commissioner, emphasized that the Land Board’s vote doesn’t close the books on the matter. It merely gives the DNRC the opportunity to “participate in the Montana Water Court process in order to protect the rights of the trust beneficiaries,” he said.
—Amanda Eggert
The Gist 📌
After reaching a settlement agreement with a group of Montana families, students and tribes aimed at improving how the state teaches Native American history and culture, the Montana Board of Public Education is grappling with how to actually implement those changes.
The state Legislature appropriates about $3.5 million annually to Montana school districts for implementing what’s called Indian Education for All (IEFA), and plaintiffs in a 2021 class action lawsuit alleged some school districts improperly used the funds.
The board, via the recent settlement, has agreed to improve financial accountability measures, classroom content standards and tribal consultation, among other things. The concept of tribal consultation, however, was a sticking point at a July 16 board meeting.
The settlement specifically requires the board to encourage school districts to work with tribes when developing IEFA plans. While the settlement does not define tribal consultation, tribes in Montana define the term in their constitutions.
Office of Public Instruction Tribal Student Achievement Director Brooke Gondara told the board that while OPI has a model for tribal consultation, “it has not been very effective at all.”
“We know there’s overall guidelines and rules for what [tribal consultation] should be, and we are not meeting that expectation at this point in time,” she told the board, adding that she plans to work with OPI to improve the system.
Some school leaders said they didn’t know what tribal consultation requires.
“I’m thinking about all the schools in [Richland County], all the districts in the county, and who do they need to go to?” said Tim Tharp, the board chair and superintendent of Richland County Schools. “Which person? … Who do we reach out to? I mean, do you go to the Yellow Pages and look up tribal consultation? How do you find it? That’s where we’re struggling.”
Board member and Marion School Superintendent and Principal Julia Maxwell said she’d called tribal offices in years past but wasn’t sure “who to contact and what to ask.”
“I just called every single tribal office I could think of and go, ‘I don’t know what questions to ask, but I want to make sure I’m doing this right because that’s what it says I need to do,’” she told the board.
Several board members said written guidance on how to approach consultation would be helpful, especially for younger educators who may not have connections to tribal communities.
Jordann Lankford-Forster, Indian Education for All instructional coach at Great Falls Public Schools, said OPI is forming relationships with tribal community members who could visit schools as guest speakers or work with teachers on implementing IEFA. Others suggested the board should host more in-person meetings in tribal communities to continue building relationships.
—Nora Mabie
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
- Lobbying groups reported spending more than $9 million trying to sway lawmakers this year, with varying degrees of success.
- The city of Big Timber is set to sell millions of gallons of its water to Crazy Mountain Ranch to keep the luxury development’s golf course alive.
- Montana hasn’t seen many acres burn in wildfires this summer. Experts explain why and when that might change.
On Our Radar 
Nora — What if everything we know about Sacagawea is wrong? Hidatsa elders have reason to believe that Sacagawea lived into old age — a narrative that runs counter to the popular belief that she died just a few years after the Lewis and Clark expedition, when she was in her 20s. This piece in the New York Times is a fascinating look at how history is told and who gets to tell it. I particularly enjoyed reading the Hidatsa descriptions of Sacagawea — how she was great at swimming breaststroke, loved to drink coffee and took care of those around her.
Brad — I don’t remember what drove me to buy “Diary of a Madman” at Sam Goody in 1981 (surely it wasn’t the record’s clown-horror cover), but by the time I saw Ozzy Osbourne play live at Houston’s The Summit in 1996 (here’s a clip from that tour), my motivation was already steeped in nostalgia. What I remember most is Ozzy’s sloppy-sprite stage presence, a disorientingly approachable counterpoint to the off-putting machismo of too much mid-’90s metal. Ozzy, who died this week at 76, went on to become a reality TV star, The Summit now houses a megachurch, and I’m in physical therapy for a shoulder impingement that keeps me from even picking up the tennis racket I used to air-shred “Flying High Again” with. “Changes” indeed.
Mara — If you’re looking for a tug on the ol’ heartstrings (and proof of shared humanity), check out this Texas Tribune story about volunteers in Texas trying to connect lost items of sentimental value with their owners after the devastating flooding earlier this month.
Amanda — I was delighted to discover a copy of William Finnegan’s “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” in my neighborhood Little Free Library. I loved that Bryan Di Salvatore, a favorite University of Montana creative writing professor, featured prominently in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir. (Finnegan and Di Salvatore, who died in 2024, spent 1978 and 1979 plying the South Pacific for waves and maintained a longtime writing correspondence.) Now I’m casting about for more of Finnegan’s writing. Recommendations? Email me.
Tom — Years before Donald Trump declared that cane-sugared Coca-Cola, aka “Mexican Coke,” would join the company’s U.S. lineup this fall, beet farmers in Montana toasted the eventually discontinued “throwback” Mountain Dew, bottled in Worland, Wyoming, for eschewing corn syrup and instead using crystal sugar. Billings is beet country and sugar beet farmers, who grow malt barley on rotation, are extremely brand-loyal. The Molson-Coors elevator in Huntley casts shade on Budweiser sales all the way to the Blue Cat Bar & Grill.
Holly — This essay explains the joys of putting babies in bright clothes with as many clashing patterns as possible. I couldn’t agree more!
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