Clerk blamed for mailing-list cancellation

The head of a North Carolina company says it was must a mistake -that it was a mail room clerk who demanded his company be taken off the mailing list of a Flathead Valley economic development agency.

Missoulian

The director of Jobs Now, Elizabeth Harris, recently said Trinity Partners of Charlotte, N.C., sent her a notice attached to a news story about a Flathead County militia group accused of plotting to kill area law enforcement officers and judges.

Trinity Partners returned a newsletter from Jobs Now with a handwritten demand on it- "Please take us off your mailing list immediately" – and "immediately" was underlined.

"That was our very unfortunate 15 minutes of fame," Harris had said. "For millions for people, that’s the sum total of what they know about Montana- that and that it burns down every year."

But company manager Gary Cheeson said it was a mail room clerk that sent the notice, and the company didn’t even know about it until it started getting critical e-mail.

"A mail clerk opened our company mail, saw the newsletter, made the connection and sent back a request to unsubscribe, " Cheeson said. "We were completely unaware of this event."

Cheeson said the mail clerk’s note does not represent his company’s views.