Rule No. 1: Listen Flathead County Commission: A day in the life

By WILLIAM L. SPENCE

The Daily Inter Lake

It's 8:45 a.m., and the Flathead County commissioners are listening to someone complain.

A brief public comment period is typically the first thing on the commissioners' morning agenda, so their day often begins this way, with someone grumbling to them or about them.

Sometimes no one shows up. Sometimes it's just a taxpayer asking them to look into something. Other times it's a roomful of people begging them not to do this or that or they'll ruin the valley forever.

Today, it's about a family transfer request that the commissioners will consider later in the day.

Family transfers allow property owners to split their land into smaller pieces, without going through subdivision review, so they can give a portion to their children or spouses.

Many people consider this a fundamental of property right and resent any government interference. However, there's also ample evidence that some landowners scam the system, using the exemption to avoid subdivision review and create lots that they immediately turn around and sell.

That's what this morning's speaker thinks is going on.

"This is a poster-child case of family transfer abuse," he tells the commissioners. "These guys did another family transfer adjacent to us, and they had the property listed for sale even before it was approved."

As much as anything, this is what a county commissioner's job is all about: listening to one constituent complain about another and trying to decide how to respond, trying to decide what's the right thing to do.

On Nov. 7, local voters determine who will be listening to them for the next six years.

The election pits Democrat Mark Crowley against Republican Dale Lauman. The two are vying to replace Commissioner Bob Watne, who is stepping down as the District 3 representative after two terms in office.

Whichever candidate is victorious, he will take on a job that tests his philosophical beliefs and decision-making abilities. The agenda items may vary, but on a daily basis commissioners grapple with fundamental issues: property rights and taxation, economic development and public safety, the proper role of government, how to pay for services and who should pay, the rights of individuals.

In America's ongoing experiment with representative democracy, elected officials such as the Flathead County commissioners are frontline troops.

"You need to have an open mind," Commissioner Joe Brenneman said of the job. "You can't approach it with the idea that you know all the answers. You have to learn the facts and consider different viewpoints. You shouldn't have any agenda other than doing what's in the best interest of Flathead County residents."

8:55 a.m. - Fairgrounds manager Jay Scott comes in to update the commissioners on various matters, including a couple of festering disputes with building contractors who didn't do adequate work and now refuse to correct the problems.

There's also a brief discussion about whether to bring horse racing back for next year's county fair.

The races were canceled this year because of concerns that the county was losing money on them. It was an unpopular decision with some, but none of the race fans volunteered to take over the event.

Scott tells the commissioners that attendance was off by about 7,000 during the 2006 fair, which some people attribute to the loss of horse racing. However, initial figures also indicate that net profits were up.

"Missoula ended up about $10,000 in the red [on horse racing] this year," Scott says. "They were pretty excited. That's about the best they've ever done."

He tells the commissioners that a decision needs to be made soon about racing here next year. He asks the commissioners which way they're leaning.

"I think the fair board needs to review the financial situation," Brenneman replies. "If they want to make a case for racing, I'm willing to listen - but if we netted more money this year without racing, there needs to be a pretty compelling reason to bring it back."

9:35 a.m. - Laurie Rebuck with the juvenile detention center comes in to discuss space needs.

She'd like to have a visiting room, where kids could meet privately with their attorneys. She'd also like a "quiet room," where individuals could be separated from the detention center's main population.

Various options are discussed, but federal law restricts some of the possibilities.

"We've gone round and round on this," Rebuck says. "If we expand outside of our current walls, we have to put in an elevator and make it handicapped accessible. If we're part of a new county jail facility, the juvenile side needs to have its own staff and be entirely sight-and-sound separated from the adult side."

To an astonishing degree, the commissioners are limited in their ability to dictate how county government operates.

In many cases, federal or state laws constrain what can be done and inhibit creative problem-solving.

Additionally, most major county department heads are hired by and answer to quasi-independent boards - or they're elected officials themselves, with their own ideas about how things should work.

Consequently, the commissioners would be hard pressed to fire any of their management team. They have to find other ways to accomplish anything.

"We don't have nearly the power of a corporate CEO," Brenneman said. "But that's the American style of government: We sacrifice the efficiency of CEO leadership in order to have a more direct interaction with our government, especially our local government."

The only real cudgel the commissioners hold is the budget: They are solely responsible for authorizing the annual spending plan, even for areas like the landfill that receive no property tax revenue.

That power earns them a certain amount of respect and consideration, but it's hardly the case that county government moves and responds to the commissioners' every whim - even though they're the ones who typically get blamed if anything goes wrong.

"Patience is a key trait," Commissioner Gary Hall said. "Anyone who runs for this office needs to realize that government moves slowly, but it's a rewarding process if you're willing to press on."

10 a.m. until noon - Several minor issues are addressed, including a half-dozen public hearings regarding new road names, a tax refund for a duplicate assessment, and three preliminary subdivision plats. Emergency Services Director Mark Peck also updates them on some jurisdictional disputes.

Between agenda items, the commissioners frequently run upstairs to return telephone calls or answer e-mail messages.

"I get an average of 30 to 50 e-mails a day and maybe a dozen calls," Hall said. "That's actually one of the biggest parts of the job, trying to get back to everyone. By the time taxpayers get to us, they've already tried calling someone else, so they're usually pretty upset. You have to be able to listen to them, understand that the situation is important to them and work for a solution."

It's impossible to please everyone, though: Brenneman recently took a call from someone who furious because her road was being paved.

"I keep a log of all my calls," he said. "It's a huge variety. Most just want something explained. I make no promises other than that I'll get back to them. It's hard to over-emphasize how important it is to get back to people."

Besides their morning meetings, when they formally vote on specific agenda items, the commissioners typically have afternoon or evening meetings to attend.

Hall represents the county on 11 boards, including the county Economic Development Authority, the Long-Range Planning Task Force, two transportation committees and three boards that deal with forest and natural resource issues.

Commissioner Watne is appointed to the landfill board and Flathead City-County Health Board, while Brenneman sits on a dozen boards that deal with various mental health, social services and emergency services issues, as well as the Flathead Basin Commission.

The meetings frequently receive little or no attention, but they may be one of the most important ways that commissioners affect local government operations and their constituents' quality of life.

Because they attend so many meetings "the commissioners may be uniquely positioned to know what's going on in the community," Brenneman said. "You know which entities are doing different things, and you're able to make connections that might not be made otherwise."

For example, he's currently working with Burlington Northern Santa Fe and various state and federal agencies to resolve a communications problem in the "dark" territory between Bad Rock Canyon and the Continental Divide.

The different entities had been working on independent solutions to the problem, but because he sat on two different committees, he became aware of the dual approach.

"If I hadn't been on both committees, I might not have made that connection," Brenneman said. "But good things happen in a number of different ways. Although it's tempting to blow off some of these meetings, you can make connections like that and make things work a little better."

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