Being there

Attendance issue splits Bigfork land-use board

In a change of pace from the usual growth disputes, the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee recently split over attendance.

Two members of the committee, John Bourquin and Phil Hanson, sent a letter of protest to the Flathead County commissioners last week, asking that two other members be dismissed because they've missed too many meetings.

"We contend that Scott Hollinger and Tim Calaway should have been dismissed [during the committee's last meeting on Dec. 29] for each being absent five times in a calendar year," they wrote in the letter.

The seven-member committee, which is made up entirely of volunteers, provides recommendations to the Flathead County Planning Board on subdivisions, zone changes and other growth-related issues in the Bigfork area.

It met 11 times in 2005. Attendance records indicate that Hollinger and Calaway each missed five of those meetings.

Unlike the county planning board, whose attendance rules make allowances for excused absences, the Bigfork committee bylaws state that any member who misses three consecutive meetings or five meetings in a year "shall be dismissed and replaced."

During a discussion of this issue at the Dec. 29 meeting, Hollinger and Calaway both said their absences were excused.

Calaway, according to the meeting minutes, said the committee also had made provisions for excused absences years ago, reflecting the fact that it meets during business hours, even though most members work full time.

That amendment, however, was never officially incorporated into committee bylaws.

Bourquin pointed out that another board member was dismissed two years ago because of attendance.

He also questioned how anyone could miss more than 40 percent of the meetings last year, excused or not, and still adequately represent the community.

Committee member Bob Keenan suggested that the attendance issue was a de facto "coup" attempt by the Bigfork Steering Committee.

The steering committee is an unappointed body that initially formed several years ago to write the Bigfork Area Neighborhood Plan.

More recently, the committee began updating the neighborhood plan. It has been critical of the commissioner-appointed land-use committee for not adequately maintaining the sanctity of that plan.

Calaway and Hollinger in particular have been the focus of much of the steering committee's ire. If they're forced off the board, the land-use committee would be free to appoint two new members.

That's essentially what Bourquin and Hanson asked the commissioners to do.

At the Dec. 29 meeting, Bourquin made a motion to dismiss Hollinger and Calaway. Hanson seconded the motion, which failed on a 5-2 vote.

Calaway later made a motion to allow excused absences, which passed on a 5-2 vote.

The Bigfork committee is converting from an appointed to an elected body. Hollinger's appointed term ends on May 31; Calaway's ends on May 31, 2007.

The county commissioners have agreed to meet with the land-use committee at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com