The President’s Corner: Being Involved Matters

By Bonnie Jones

MFTA Board President

Bonnie Jones, Tri-Lakes FSA

For those that don’t know me, I’ll do a quick introduction. My name is Bonnie Jones. I am a native Montanan and a fourth-generation rancher in the Helena Valley. I am married and have 5 children. As if “momming” and ranching isn’t enough, I work part-time as a Mineral Title Examiner and am currently serving on five boards which include; Tri-Lakes Volunteer Fire (19 years), Montana Fire Trustees Association (MFTA) (6 years, President for 3 years), Montana Fire Alliance (3 Years as Vice President), Lewis and Clark County Farm Bureau (6 Years Women’s Leadership Committee, Chair), and Helena Folkstyle Wrestling Club (6 Years and have held multiple officer positions). Goes without saying, I love to be involved and serve my community.

I’m going to jump right into one of the many reasons being involved matters. Last session there was a bill, HB694, which was titled “Revise laws related to special districts”. Ultimately this bill stalled out in the Senate and died, but was passed through the House unanimously. The meat and potatoes of this bill was to “Create the offense of dereliction and to provide penalties” after having gone through many edits. Personally, I was not against the idea of the bill and thought it had some merit, however, I do think that there has been a steady decline in the number of people willing to volunteer and serve their communities out of selflessness and want to help accomplish the greater good. I also believe that the majority of those who continue to volunteer are doing so with the best intentions. That being said, there are definitely those out there that are doing it for some sort of personal gain or gratification and don’t find that following the laws we are held to all that important. It’s unfortunate that there are districts out there that are run so poorly or negligently that the desire for a bill like this needs to be formed. The original draft of this bill, in my opinion, would have been very detrimental to being able to sustain volunteers/elected officials on special district boards due to the severity of personal liability that was proposed. Through the process, and immense lobbying effort by John Semple and the Montana Fire Alliance, it was amended to be less severe in some of its verbiage.

I have not heard whether or not this bill will be reintroduced in the next session or not, but we will keep our eyes and ears open.

Issues like these are the primary reason we exist. First and foremost, as the MFTA, to educate our members and provide as much training and tools to help each of us be successful.

Secondly, as one of the Montana Fire Alliance associations, that provides funding for our lobbyist to work in our best interest in advocating for or against bills on our behalf. I wholeheartedly believe in supporting and being members of the Montana Fire Trustees Association for these very reasons.

Please don’t ever hesitate to contact any of us on the board if you, or your department, have any questions. I hope to see you all at the Conference this fall.

Kind Regards,

Bonnie