PAC questions councilor's residency

Detective agency hired to find out where Muhlfeld lived 60 days prior to election

By RICHARD HANNERS - Whitefish Pilot

With less than a week to go before the Whitefish City Council chooses between two candidates who were tied in this year's election, another candidate's election to the council has been called into question.

Common Sense in White-fish Government, a political action committee formed by Rick Blake, retained a Kalispell attorney to find out if John Muhlfeld satisfied the residency requirement to be an eligible candidate.

"Our clients have information that you are living at the home of your fiancee, and were during the 60 days prior to the Whitefish City Council election," Duncan Scott, the PAC's attorney, wrote to Muhlfeld on Dec. 26.

Scott addressed the letter to the fiancee's Northwoods address, outside the Whitefish city limits, adding that his clients "also have information that you had leased your house on Somers Avenue in Whitefish to a third party prior to the 60 days preceding the election."

Citing state law, Scott noted that "we also are told that you discussed your qualification problems with city attorney John Phelps prior to the election."

Apologizing for the fact that the letter was sent during the holiday season, Scott asked Muhlfeld to provide information about his residency "on or before Jan. 2."

"In the interest of speed, I would urge that you or your attorney call me immediately to discuss this matter," Scott said in his letter.

The Pilot contacted Scott last week. When asked how someone would prove where a person has been living, Scott replied, "That's a very good question."

"The intent of the letter is to ask John Muhlfeld the truth," Scott said. "We just want to know the facts."

Scott said he would file for an injunction in Flathead County district court if Muhlfeld didn't respond or if Muhlfeld's answers indicate he wasn't eligible to run for city council. Scott said the injunction would stop the council from seating Muhlfeld.

"We simply want to know what the facts are," Scott said. "It's not intended to be a giant microscope into John Muhlfeld's life."

Muhlfeld and other newly-elected officials will be sworn in during the council's Jan. 7 meeting.

"We're in a fact-finding mode," Scott said, "albeit a short time-frame."

Muhlfeld told the Pilot last week that he hadn't received Scott's letter but that he had talked to Phelps about the matter.

"My attorney and I have responded immediately despite the short notice and the holiday season, and we have been extremely forthcoming with Mr. Scott in response to his letter," Muhlfeld said. "The ball is now in their court. If they choose to file a lawsuit, bring it on. I have nothing to hide, and I'm very confident that I've done nothing wrong. If they demand that this be decided in court, I think that would be a shame. But I now have done everything I can, and I certainly cannot control their motives."

Muhlfeld and his attorney, John Lacey, of Kalispell, met with Scott on Monday.

Phelps acknowledged that Muhlfeld fully disclosed "his situation" prior to the election.

"He wanted to know if it would jeopardize his seat on the council," Phelps told the Pilot.

Phelps said he researched state law and concluded that Muhlfeld was an eligible city council candidate. People are allowed to leave an area for jobs or a long vacation so long as they don't make their move permanent, he said.

"It's hard to change residency once it's established," he said, adding that the recent action was "sour grapes" because Muhlfeld won and the candidates backed by Blake lost.

Dennis Konopatzke, a Whitefish attorney who helped Blake set up his PAC, said rumors about Muhlfeld's residency "have been kicking around for a while."

"It's a question worth asking, but at the end of the day, Muhlfeld's a pretty good guy," he said.

Konopatzke said a number of people have expressed concerns about people who could live in two places and then sit on the council.

"It doesn't pass the smell test," he said.

Konopatzke said his own political action group, Quality Whitefish, is not pursuing the matter, but he felt Phelps incorrectly interpreted state law on residency.

MCA 7-4-4401, the section cited by Scott, describes the "qualifications for city council member," while MCA 13-1-112, the section cited by Phelps, describes rules for determining residency "for registration, voting or seeking election to the legislature."

"In the end, the decision would be made in a court," Konopatzke said.

Ike Eisentraut, a private investigator with Moonlighting Detective Agency, in Kalispell, acknowledged he had investigated a Whitefish city council candidate, but he said he worked for a "private entity" and never heard of Blake.

He acknowledged hearing of a company called Woodtech, which is owned by Konopatzke. Campaign communications for Blake and Common Sense in Whitefish Government this year often originated from Woodtech, a Columbia Falls manufacturing business.

Daily Inter Lake reporter Lynnette Hintze said in a Dec. 27 article that Eisentraut interviewed her "a couple of weeks ago as part of that investigation."

Blake did not return a phone call to the Pilot. He and his wife, Alicia, are well-known philanthropists in the Whitefish community, having given sizable donations to the Middle School auditorium project and Glacier National Park Fund. They are also associated with the Hope Ranch-Star Meadows Academy board.

North Valley Hospital received a $250,000 donation through his father-in-law's organization, the Robert Tucker Hayes Foundation, and an emergency room there is named in honor of the "Rick and Alicia Blake Family." The Foundation has donated money to numerous medical organizations.

Bob Hayes is an owner of the Eyrie Shotgun Ranch on Farm To Market Road near Tally Lake Road. A Harvard graduate with more than 40 years in the automobile sales business, Hayes was the second-largest Avis licensee in the U.S. and the honorary consul of the Fiji Islands in Dallas, Texas.

Reaction to the Muhlfeld investigation has been mixed, with some people saying a candidate should expect to be checked out and others saying it's gone too far.

Jill Zignego, at Five Star Rentals, never rented out Muhlfeld's home on Somers Avenue, but she had an opinion on the residency requirement.

"I don't care if a person on the council lives inside or outside the city so long as they have business inside the city," she said.