HARDIN - After hearing assurances that a California company will have nothing to do with providing law enforcement in Hardin, Big Horn County commissioners voted Tuesday to allow the city to create its own police department.

The city and county have been exploring the possibility of deconsolidating law enforcement for three years, but in recent weeks the proposal seemed to be threatened by the bizarre developments surrounding the city's empty jail.

As former City Attorney Becky Convery told county commissioners Tuesday morning, "somehow we went down this other path that sort of sidetracked everything."

Before commissioners voted on deconsolidation, Convery and Hardin Mayor Ron Adams assured them that the city of Hardin had nothing to do with American Police Force, the California company that was angling to lease the $27 million jail for 10 years.

Two weeks ago, company frontman Michael Hilton showed up with several associates in Mercedes SUVs bearing detachable decals that said "City of Hardin Police Department." Hilton said he only meant to show his commitment to helping Hardin start its own department, but the stunt caused an uproar and fanned rumors of rogue police groups and government occupation that spread across the country.

Big Horn County Commissioners John Doyle, Chad Fenner and John Pretty on Top seemed satisfied with the explanations offered by Convery and Adams, and they asked no questions.

Before the unanimous vote in favor of deconsolidation, Doyle was the only one to speak, saying commissioners went to every community in the county and heard mostly favorable comments from residents about deconsolidation.

After the vote, Doyle said, "So, that starts the clock ticking."

The Hardin City Council had already voted in favor of deconsolidation. Convery, who has been working with the city as a contract employee on the deconsolidation issue, said Yellowstone County District Judge Russell Fagg also has to approve a stipulation agreed to by the city and county.

Law enforcement services in the county were consolidated in 1976 by a public vote. The stipulation would allow deconsolidation to take place with the approval of the City Council and County Commission but without another public vote.

An interlocal agreement between the city and county calls for the county to continue providing law enforcement in Hardin and the rest of the county until July 1, 2011, by which time Hardin is to have started its own police department.

Adams, whose term as mayor runs out at the end of this year, said the city's first step will be to hire a police chief and set him or her to the task of organizing a department. If all goes well, he said, a chief could be hired before Adams leaves office.

Under the agreement, Hardin is to continue paying the county $300,000 a year for law enforcement services, though that sum can be reduced by whatever amount the city pays out in salary and benefits to any law enforcement personnel it hires.

"It'll start slow and progress as money comes in," Adams told commissioners.

It's not clear where the city will get the estimated $1 million a year it will cost to run a department with a police chief and seven officers. A preliminary contract between American Police Force and Two Rivers Authority, the city's economic development arm, would have steered a $5 per-inmate-per-day fee to city coffers. The jail was designed to hold 464 inmates and APF promised to have it full by next spring.

Recent events have thrown that contract into doubt. Hilton was identified as an ex-convict with a long criminal history, and members of the TRA board discovered that Hilton had been lying to them about important aspects of his mysterious company.

On Monday, for instance, TRA board member Bob Crane reached the Ohio man whom Hilton identified as the person he'd hired to be chief of operations at the Hardin jail and military training center, only to learn that the man had had only preliminary talks with Hilton, and wanted nothing to do with Hilton or APF.

Hardin School Superintendent Al Peterson, vice president of the TRA board, said Tuesday that he spoke with Michael Harling, the vice president of Municipal Capital Markets Group in Texas, who brokered the sale of bonds to finance the jail.

He said Harling has asked Hilton, who reportedly is back in California, to produce a detailed income statement and a statement of financial activities. If Hilton does not produce that information, Peterson said, he will consider discussions with APF at an end.

"If we get that, we'll continue discussions," he said.

Becky Shay, the spokeswoman for APF in Hardin, said Monday that Hilton still plans to return to Hardin next week for a two-day job fair concerning employment at the jail.

Related

• American Police Force won't give up info sought by Montana AG
• Dozens ask chief of Hardin schools to resign his post
• Hardin officials claim new interest in empty jail
• Was Hilton just the latest to seek gains from Hardin?