GREAT FALLS — On Monday morning, the City Ethics Committee hosted a public hearing to address complaints filed by Great Falls resident Jasmine Taylor against City Commissioner Rick Tryon.
Taylor filed her ethics complaint on October 4th, which consisted of two separate issues against Tryon.
Both issues were discussed and voted on by the committee in Monday’s hearing.
“The complaint was kind of two-pronged; firstly, that there is an undisclosed employment relationship between Commissioner Tryon and the production company, Stray Moose Productions, which also appears to own the blog E-City Beat that had never been disclosed,” said Taylor. “As Commissioner Tryon frequently writes on the blog, identifying himself as a City Commissioner, I believe that's an ethical conflict.”
Taylor’s second issue against Tryon was that his involvement as a contributing author to the E-City Beat violates the integrity and code of ethics of the City Commission.
Ultimately, the Ethics Committee decided in a unanimous vote that both of Taylor’s issues were not substantiated based on the information and testimony presented in the hearing.
Tryon was not present at the ethics meeting; however, later in the afternoon he told MTN: “I believe the committee’s decision speaks for itself - Ms. Taylor’s complaint was baseless, which is reflected by their decision.”
“It’s unfortunate that Commissioner Tryon chose not to appear, and he also chose not to cooperate for requests for necessary documentation that ultimately led to this being unsubstantiated,” said Taylor.
You can read all of the documents associated with the case by clicking here and scrolling down to page 23.
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