Montana Senate Ethics panel adopts conceptual amendment, directs staff to finish committee report

The Montana Senate Ethics Committee on Monday approved a conceptual amendment encompassing multiple editorial changes to its committee report on procurement and contract questions involving Agile Analytics and directed staff to prepare a clean, track-changed draft for review at 11 a.m. the following day.

The panel’s action came after roughly 50 minutes of line-by-line review and debate over how to present testimony from the legislative auditor and other witnesses, how to quote audit findings, and how to record that the respondent, Senator Ellsworth, did not testify. Committee members asked staff to incorporate agreed wording, add exhibit citations where missing, and retain block quotations from the auditor where appropriate.

Chair Mandeville opened the meeting noting a quorum and that the committee was returning to "continue our discussion of [the] committee report." Members and counsel walked through suggested edits circulated by Senator Pope and others, turning parenthetical language into declarative sentences, aligning block quotes with exhibit citations, and debating whether to delete or reframe paragraphs that summarize the legislative auditor’s conclusions.

Members repeatedly referenced testimony from Legislative Auditor Angus McKeever (cited in the draft as Exhibit 33) and discussed how to treat his finding that exigency procedures "deprive the state of the financial benefits of open competition and procurement and therefore constituted a waste of state resources" (quoted in the draft from McKeever's March 14 testimony). The committee agreed to keep direct block quotations from the audit where the language comes verbatim from exhibits, and to avoid editorial summaries that might restate the auditor’s conclusions in the committee’s own voice.

The committee also reviewed procedural items memorialized in the draft: staff noted that a sole-source procurement justification (Exhibit 9) included the statement that the preparer "was unable to find anyone that could perform the services that are desired other than through Agile Analytics," and members asked staff to include the full justification paragraph for context rather than a single sentence summary.

Members discussed witness appearance issues. The draft records that Todd Everts and Matt Regier were called to testify at respondents' counsel's request and that a subpoena was issued for Bryce Eggleston, who "asserted his Fifth Amendment right," language that committee members refined for clarity and citation. Committee counsel noted an adopted committee rule (E 10 50, subsection 3) limiting subpoenas for a respondent's testimony and stating that a respondent's election not to testify "shall not be noted in the record nor shall it be considered by the committee in drawing any of its conclusions." Members flagged that language as relevant to how the report should present the respondent's choice and potential floor questions.

Senator Smith said she could not approve a report she had not read in final form and asked for time to review the incorporated changes before signing. Staff (Mr. Carroll) and special counsel (Mr. Dirk) said they would produce a clean document and a tracked-changes copy so members could see what the committee had agreed to and what editorial work remained.

Two formal procedural actions closed the meeting: Senator Smith moved to reconvene at 11 a.m. the next day; the chair called the voice vote and the motion carried. Later, Senator Boat moved to adopt the committee’s edits as a conceptual amendment and to authorize staff to make necessary editorial changes; the motion passed on a voice vote.

The committee scheduled a 15-minute reconvening to review the clean document and consider signing the report once members had time to review the updated draft.

The meeting record and the revised draft will show which paragraphs remain quoted verbatim from audit exhibits and which are the committee’s findings of fact. Staff and counsel said they will add exhibit timecodes and citations where members requested them and will attempt to locate testimony lines referenced in members’ suggestions before the reconvened session.

Ending: The committee adjourned after approving the conceptual amendment and setting the reconvening time; members emphasized the goal of producing a fair, fact-based report that preserves direct quotations from the audit while avoiding editorial language that could be construed as the committee adopting the auditor’s conclusions as its own.