Letter from the editor

Last-minute change shows flawed system

Last Tuesday should have been a joyous occasion for the many volunteers who have labored over the Bigfork Neighborhood Plan for the last four years. Certainly those who have traveled up and down the roads to Kalispell to attend meeting after meeting in the last two years — and were in the commissioners chambers on Tuesday when the plan was adopted — should have been ecstatic.

Instead, many of them are beyond mad; they are disappointed.

And, like a child who would much rather suffer his parents' wrath than their disappointment, the Flathead County Commissioners should be ashamed.

The fact that the voluminous Bigfork plan has taken such a long time to reach their desks is a testament to the bureaucratic process working as it should. There has been time — so much time — for opinions to be voiced and compromises struck that it has, at times, felt like it would never end.

Even at the penultimate stage, the Flathead County Planning Board, the plan was stalled for a year. The board went through the 100-plus page document literally line by line in a public forum, twice. Tiny tweaks have been made, as have additions and subtractions large and small.

And as the plan has toiled through the meetings and levels of approval, the obedience to the public process has been scrutinized and even challenged. The veracity of the survey, the number of meetings, the public forums and notices have all been documented, questioned, and eventually applauded by the governmental bodies that have reviewed the plan — even the county commissioners.

All of which makes the decision to change three properties' future land use designation at the last minute even more egregious.

Commissioner Joe Brenneman threw a fit, calling it exactly what it was: A 'return to the good ol' boys system."

For all of the pains that have been taken to ensure the public was heard every step of the way, the commissioners' decision undermines what little authority the document may have had to begin with.

The merits of the case — and there are merits to the request — are beside the point. Tuesday was a fine day for the hundreds who have worked to see the plan through to fruition, but it was a dark hour for the cause of an open, honest and transparent government in Flathead County.

— Alex Strickland