Former commissioner sues Helena over alleged open-meeting violations 

A Helena business has filed a lawsuit against the city of Helena, alleging that the work of a committee leading efforts to hire a new city manager has violated Montana’s open meeting laws.

The complaint was filed Monday in Lewis and Clark County District Court by Brothers Maintenance Corp, a New York business that owns property in Helena and is registered to Andres Haladay, a former city commissioner. The lawsuit asks that the court order the city to release all requested documents and information related to the recruitment of a new city manager. 

The lawsuit also asks the judge to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the city’s manager relations subcommittee to halt any further meetings unless the meetings are open to the public.

“The City refuses to notify the public of Committee meetings or let the public observe the Committee’s work,” the lawsuit alleges. “The City has taken the position that it can hide all information, deliberation and discussions by the Manager Relations Committee.”

Haladay, who served on the commission from 2014 until 2022, is the president of Brothers Maintenance Corp. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Brothers Maintenance by Helena attorney Will Dyekman of the firm Delli Bovi, Martin and Reed.

“All we want is the ability for everyone to have a transparent process,” Haladay told Montana Free Press in an interview Tuesday. 

He added that he would be satisfied if the city simply complied with open meeting laws as required by the Montana Constitution.

“ They could shut us up and make us go away if they would just agree that they’ve mucked this up and that they need to show these meetings publicly,” Haladay said. 

In response to an inquiry from MTFP Tuesday, City Public Information Officer Amanda Opitz said that the city does not comment on pending litigation.

On Sept. 30, current Helena City Manager Tim Burton announced his plans to retire at the end of the year.

During a city meeting soon after Burton’s retirement was made public, Mayor Wilmot Collins announced that the commission-manager relations subcommittee, made up of himself and Commissioner Sean Logan, would meet with local consulting firm Communications and Management Services and initiate the process to find Burton’s successor.

According to the complaint, the subcommittee meeting was neither noticed nor open to the public and resulted in the commission entering into a $20,000 contract with CMS during a special meeting Monday, Oct. 6, along with recommendations on the hiring process.

Another special meeting was called the following week by Commissioner Melinda Reed, who had explicitly requested documents or notes from the subcommittee meeting to understand the recommended hiring process and timeline. Reed also raised concerns that the proposed 11-week timeline to hire Burton’s replacement might impact the public’s ability to participate in the process. She told MTFP Tuesday that she was not involved with the filing of the lawsuit.     

During the special commission meeting, Logan stated that there were no notes from the subcommittee meeting and that he and Mayor Collins had discussed with CMS managing consultants Drew Geiger and Jim Kerins a process that the city used when it hired Burton. (Geiger previously served on MTFP’s board of directors.) 

“Not sure what the objective of this lawsuit is, but it seems not to be in the interest of good government or to allow the citizens of Helena to have their elected government do their job,” Geiger told MTFP Tuesday.  

District Court Judge Mike Menahan is assigned to the case. If the judge grants the temporary injunction sought by the lawsuit, a hearing will be set to discuss whether the injunction becomes permanent. The timeline is at the judge’s discretion, according to County Court Clerk Lisa Kallio. 

This story was updated Oct. 22. 2025, to clarify that the commission, not the subcommittee, approved the city’s contract with CMS.