Human rights complaint against Polson City dismissed

POLSON – A Hearing Officer for the Human Rights Bureau dismissed a discrimination case against the city of Polson on Wednesday.

Polson resident Murat Kalinyaprak had filed a complaint with the HRB on March 31, 2009, following a disagreement with the mayor at the October 6, 2008 Polson city council meeting.

In a published administrative decision, the Hearing Officer, Terry Spear, wrote that the city of Polson did not illegally discriminate against the complainant, Kainyaprak, “because of his national origin” and did not illegally retaliate against him for “engaging in protected activity, when it enforced the ‘3-minute’ rule.’”

According to the council minutes, the incident began during a discussion of the Polson Bay Golf Club’s standards governing who is eligible to buy a discounted “couple’s pass.” Kalinyaprak, who was attending the meeting as a community member, stood and commented that he was against the couple’s pass; he said that the standards for the discounted rate were not consistent or reasonable.

Then-Mayor Lou Marchello advised Kalinyaprak that 3 minutes, the time allotted for public comment by City Ordinance 613, had nearly passed. However, Kalinyaprak continued speaking, and when Marchello asked him to return to his seat, he refused.

The incident concluded when Marchello asked the Sergeant at Arms to remove Kalinyaprak, and Police Chief Doug Chase, acting as Sergeant, escorted him back to his seat.

According to Polson City Attorney, James Raymond, Kalinyaprak filed a complaint against the city following the meeting. In the complaint, he asserted that he had been discriminated against on the basis of his national origin, which he defined as Turkish. He also claimed that the 3 minute rule was unfairly enforced against him as retaliation for voicing his opinion at previous council meetings.

In response, the city assigned an investigator to examine the validity of Kalinyaprak’s claims. That investigator found that the city had not discriminated against him on either basis.

Raymond said that Kalinyaprak then chose to appeal the investigator’s decision, and his case was transferred to the Human Rights Bureau for an official hearing.

In the three-day hearing, the city, represented by Raymond, and Kalinyaprak, who represented himself, presented evidence and testimony. Spear acted as an impartial party and moderated the hearing.

Spear issued his decision, that Kalinyaprak’s discrimination claims had no merit, on Wednesday. In response to Kalinyaprak’s second claim, Spear wrote that the city had applied the 3-minute rule in order to continue the meeting in an orderly fashion and to ensure that other persons would have the chance to speak.

He concluded that “the City was enforcing its time limit in a manner that was speaker and viewpoint neutral. The facts establish that, more likely than not, Kalinyaprak went out of his way to challenge the time limits, provoking confrontations about them because of his violations of them.”

Kalinyaprak has fourteen days to file an appeal. If he chooses not to, the decision will become final, and will not be appealable to district court.