Candidates Vie for Votes

SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council hosted two candidate forums, April 9 and 11, covering eight races with 31 candidates in attendance. All candidates on the May 8 Special District Mail-in ballot and June 5 primary were invited. Ballots for the May 8 election were mailed April 18.

Prior to the June 5 primary, the Pathfinder will feature each race from the Candidate Forum. This week the Pathfinder features the candidates for Missoula County Commissioner. Previous coverage of the Seeley Lake Rural Fire District, Seeley Lake Sewer District, Missoula County Sheriff, Justice of the Peace and House District 92 are available at http://www.seeleylake.com.

MCAT also recorded both candidate forums. They are available by following the links:

• April 9 Forum including U.S. Senate, Missoula County Commissioners, Missoula County Sheriff, Justice of the Peace and Seeley Lake Rural Fire District: http://69.144.69.99/Cablecast/public-site/index.html#/show/8653?channel=1

• April 11 Forum including U.S. House, House District 92 and Seeley Lake Sewer District Races: http://69.144.69.99/Cablecast/public-site/index.html#/show/8654?channel=1

Commissioner Candidates Address Local Concerns

Missoula County Commissioner (Partisan – 6 year term) Incumbent Jean L. Curtiss is running in the Democratic Primary June 5 against Josh Slotnick. The chosen democratic candidate will then run against Independent candidate JeffreyJames Halvorson in the Nov. 6 General Election.

Halvorson (I) lives south of Arlee, Mont. in Missoula County. He runs a free guest ranch for young adults and veterans and has a car lot. He used to have a cabin in Seeley Lake. He was sued for $1 million for giving people free food and a free place to stay. He fought Missoula County for five years, attended commissioner meetings and his comments were ignored.

"We have a big problem in Missoula County and that is the way we represent with our county commissioners. There are three county commissioners that represent 106,000 people. In the city limits there are 66,000 people that can outvote everyone else who lives in the county. People in the outlying areas feel underrepresented because they don't have their own representation in the county."

He thinks there should be more commissioners with different districts so everyone has their own representative who answers to them alone. He also believes in more democracy involving taking issues including taxes, legalization of marijuana, social issues, building permits, etc. to a vote of the public.

Slotnick (D) came to the area as a teenager, attended the University of Montana and served in the US Peace Corps. When he returned he started farming in the Missoula Valley and he continues to do that today. He helped start an organization that helps grow food for the Missoula Food Bank and other emergency food shelters. During his time, he's seen a lot of change. Growth wasn't an issue when he first came to Missoula and now it is. He thinks that accidentally and somewhat intentionally things were cleaned up and it was made beautiful, accessible and created a vibrant local culture. Access to beautiful land and the local culture is a draw.

The in-migration rate into Missoula over the past 20 years crush the national average. More than 60 percent of the growth in population is because people choose to come to Missoula. He said in the future, the amenities that draw people to the area need to be protected so it can continue to be prosperous. At the same time, the prosperity needs to be more inclusive. In Missoula County the average cost of housing far outpaces the wages.

Curtiss (D) has served as a Missoula County Commissioner for the past 17 years. She said the Seeley Lake Community Council was the first council in the state of Montana and was shortly followed by Lolo Community Council. She said under her leadership in 2009, five more community councils were added. She counts on the citizen-led councils to bring information and advice to the county. She said it has been her honor to serve for 17 years.

While she was born in Missoula, she was raised on a farm in the Swan Valley. She used to put up hay up to 40 miles from her home.

She has a proven record of bringing people together. In economic development, she wrote an application to the EDA to establish the BitterRoot Economic Development District (BREDD) that serves Ravalli, Mineral and Missoula Counties. She has been the president of that organization since 2002. She was a founding member of the Missoula Economic Partnership, a public-private partnership.

What is your position on the proposal of setting aside 50 percent of subdivided lands in Missoula County for agricultural use? If in favor, what happens to conservation easements?

Slotnick (D) said that not every subdivision requires 50 percent of the land to be set aside. The proposal was if there is land where the soil is of a certain quality at the point of subdivision, the county can ask for remediation for the land lost. He did not agree with the decision the commissioners made but he also didn't agree with the proposal. He feels the county needs to take a hard look at preserving the best agricultural land only where it is vulnerable to be lost. In Missoula County that is less that two percent of the county and on top of that there needs to be more concern about which land is most valuable to be lost.

The answer to conservation easements is good design, not an all or nothing strategy. Where there is good soil, focus on smaller lot sizes, community septics and making sure the landowners get value out of their property. Design in the context when not all land is the same. Preserving value means preserving in ways of a conservation easement and protecting the best land.

Curtiss (D) voted against the proposal when it came to the commission. They did adopt a right to farm and ranch ordinance for the county and established three committees to look at how it could be done in a different way.

Curtiss feels figuring out what land needs to be saved needs to be done before subdivision is proposed. She said that voluntary conservation easements work the best. The neighborhood in Woodworth Meadows is a prime example. They decided what they wanted their area to look like in the future, worked together and have conserved almost all of it. The Open Space Bond has allowed the commission to set aside 30,000 acres with conservation easements, 6,115 acres is prime farmland. She agreed that there are ways to do it but subdivision is too late.

Halvorson (I) believes the property rights belong to the property owner. The county should provide incentives to people to preserve agricultural lands that are not mandates and may or may not apply to everyone equally. The system needs to be fair for everyone and equal property rights for that. Incentives are the way to do that.

Halverson supports open space but would like to see that used for access to hiking and river trails and community gardens. Soils of Conservation was just a way to put the expense of open space on a person who is buying that home and subdividing and not the entire community that profits.

How do you address Missoula County's stringent subdivision regulations and expense to developers in regards to affordable housing? How would you simplify the process?

Curtiss (D) said the cost of land is the highest cost and what drives the costs up. "We've been discovered. When people want to move here and bring their money with them, it raises the price." The county joined in the study to look at housing.

Halvorson (I) said that the county fees assessed, like impact and building permit fees, are passed off to the homebuyer adding a lot of cost to a home. He said subdivisions need to be streamlined by making set rules that are fair for everyone. He also would like to identify areas that are best places for subdivisions and provide incentives. He said there is no way to keep people out and if they did then it would only be for the rich and none of the youth will be able to live here.

Slotnick (D) agreed that the subdivision process is often opaque and hard to navigate. Developers, builders and consumers don't like how it is. However, he disagreed that that is the reason there is not affordable housing. He believes there is not affordable housing because everyone wants to move to Missoula County. Demand has driven the cost of housing up. The focus needs to shift to getting people into their first home and start building equity.

There are a lot of unmaintained county roads in the area. What would you do to bring maintenance to these roads that taxpayers are paying for?

Halvorson (I) feels that more and more tax dollars are going to run a bloated government. If services or infrastructure are needed, then another tax needs to be added. He proposes trimming those unessential services and departments. He feels that services are worse in the city than in the county. So he feels he needs to look out for areas when they are being proposed for annexation.

Slotnick (D) said he would look towards the decentralization of some of the services. Taking care of the roads in Seeley Lake is not dependent on the order of roads being taken care of in some other place.

Curtiss (D) said she has come up to help with trying to get Seeley Lake incorporated. Seeley is unique because there are several local boards and has the one and only decentralized public works office. All of School District 34 from the Summit to Salmon Lake and out to Woodworth Road pays $188,000 in road tax. That doesn't go very far.

What do you consider non-essential services that you can cut?

Halvorson (I) said he would have to go line-by-line in every department and that will take a lot of time to do. He's run a business for many years and he's had to make cuts. He feels that since the county works with tax dollars, they should be as serious at auditing budgets as they are with the means by which they collect.

Slotnick (D) said he didn't say he would cut non-essential services.

Curtiss (D) said every year as they go through the county budget, they have never found anything to be non-essential. There are requests for things to be more but not non-essential.

What are you going to do with all the potholes – for example the hole in front of the Post Office?

Curtiss (D) said the federal post office should be taken care of by the federal government not the county government. State law says the county can collect road taxes and it must be used on county roads that are petitioned, deeded or dedicated. The Post Office is not one, neither is the school yard so that is why we do it that way.

Halvorson (I) said this points to the fact that there is not someone representing the people of Seeley Lake. There should be more commissioners on the commission with separate districts so each community's voice is heard by someone from their district.

Slotnick (D) recommended this issue be taken to the Seeley Lake Community Council. They can then take it to the commissioners and have it dealt with. It sounds like an acute problem that should be dealt with.

What are you going to do to provide recreation opportunities for the elderly and handicapped, the fastest growing segment of the population?

Halvorson (I) said he was a member of the ATV Association in western Montana. They mapped a lot of trails, presented it to the Forest Service and the Forest Service bulldozed them all and gated them. There was a public forum where Forest Services officials were paid overtime to come and listen to everyone, it was a packed house where people yelled and screamed, and they went home and did whatever they wanted to do at the end of the day. Because those people are not elected. "If you don't have an elected representative that represents you alone, then you have no say in government."

Slotnick (D) said it sounds like the Forest Service has let you down. Also, he said it sounds like an ADA issue and maybe a case should be taken up. He pointed out the anger he felt from the person asking the question regarding the millions of dollars spent on parks and trails. Those are investments. People come here because of those amenities, they spend money, buy a house, build business and help people out. Admittedly, they seem to exclude people and that is not right.

Curtiss (D) the $5 million to build the trail from Buckhouse Bridge to Lolo was a federal grant from federal gas tax dollars. A lot of people don't like the bridge that goes over Reserve Street but that had nothing to do with your taxes or anyone else's taxes that live outside city limits. That was a decision by the city on how to spend their money. Fort Missoula was brought to the commission, there was a survey done that needed a majority of the county to support it to be put on the ballot and it was a voted levy. It has a lot of ADA stuff.

Closing Statements

Slotnick (D) over the last 20 years there has been a huge influx of growth into Missoula County. Wages have only increased in real value by one percent yet the per capita income has increased by 100 percent. This means that people who have resources are choosing to move to Missoula County. On one hand there is more tax revenue to do things and people spend more money and start businesses. On the other hand, the prosperity has not been very inclusive. It is the commission's big challenge to make sure this county stays beautiful and wonderful with a live, vibrant and real authentic culture and at the same time anyone who wants to live here can live here. He wants to work on both of these things simultaneously, "If we do one without the other we are not there." He added that climate change needs to be taken seriously.

Curtiss (D) comes to work everyday because she believes Missoula County makes a difference and she believes she has made a difference as a commissioner. When she meets with businesses about expanding or moving to the county, they say there is a good work ethic, hard working people and there is a great quality of life. There are really important things like saving soil and fixing potholes but "we only do half the roads because that is all the money we have. The road on Redwood is not built to standard so that is probably why that road is not maintained."

Curtiss said the county is very fortunate to still have Pyramid Mountain Lumber. They are the anchor business for Seeley Lake. However there is growth in other areas of the economy like recreation. She works hard in Missoula Economic Partnership so Seeley Lake is not forgotten. She looks forward to serving for another term.

Halvorson (I) wants to reform how the county is run, how the administration is run and for whom people vote. He wants to send important issues to the ballot box. While he has his opinions, he wants to hear people's opinions and wants to see people vote on issues, even if it is just a poll.

Halvorson wants to work to repeal building permits because he doesn't feel it is fair that they were put in by three people in a county of 106,000 people. He doesn't feel citizens need to beg their masters to replace their water heater or roof or anything else. He won't impose zoning on private land and he believes government should work to help people to use their land, not prohibit it.

He doesn't think government can save Missoula. He thinks private industry can and government should help private industry and not work against them. He has watched and helped his neighbors move because they couldn't afford their rent or had their homes foreclosed on because they couldn't find good paying jobs. "We need jobs, we need money and then we have more money to spend on those kinds of things. Until we stop being so poor we can't afford everything."