New council agrees on $2.5M to lower bond

Whitefish City Council made a decisive

vote of unity Jan. 3 when they agreed to allocate $2.5 million in

tax increment money toward lowering a high school bond.

The Whitefish School Board needed a

verbal commitment from the council that night so they could set a

bond amount at their Jan. 10 meeting. A $2.5 million disbursement

from the city allows the board to set the bond at $14 million, as

opposed to the originally reported $15 million.

The unanimous decision didn’t come

easy. Three new councilors — John Anderson, Frank Sweeney and

Richard Hildner — showed hesitance in approving the $2.5 million

request. Councilors Phil Mitchell, Chris Hyatt and Bill Kahle were

staunchly behind it. After hours of deliberation and public

comment, newly seated mayor John Muhlfeld called for council to

“send a strong and meaningful message to the community” by

unanimously agreeing upon and approving an amount.

Anderson was the first of the new

councilors to bend and say he’d get behind the $2.5 million amount,

despite some misgivings.

“I think it’s most important the

council be unanimous,” he said.

His vote was a near 180-degree turn

from the start of the meeting when he moved to table the

discussion. He said the bond issue had created a significant amount

of rancor and political unrest and that there were legal issues yet

to be answered.

Sweeney seconded the motion, saying he

was uneasy with the changing requests from the school district.

Muhlfeld broke a tie vote to table the

issue and moved the discussion forward.

Kahle quickly reminded council that the

$1.75 million initially discussed was an amount the city created,

not what the school district asked for.

City manager Chuck Stearns devised a

plan in November to give the school district $1.75 million in TIF

funds to help lower the bond amount, which included a $750,000

matching grant. Stearns said that amount was the middle ground in a

diverse situation.

At the end of December, superintendent

Kate Orozco sent a letter to former mayor Mike Jenson asking the

city to contribute $2.5 million to help lower a bond request to $14

million — a number that she said would be more likely to pass in an

election.

“I would be devastated if at the end of

the line we missed that vote because some people thought that $15

million was too much,” she said at the meeting.

Bayard Dominick of Steeplechase

Development Advisors, and school board members Pat Jarvi and Dave

Fern all reiterated that $14 million was the “magic number.”

It was noted at the meeting the

difference between a $15 million and $14 million bond is about $10

annually for the average tax payer. Sweeney wasn’t sure $10 was

enough to sway a bond vote one way or another.

“I don’t want this to become a

political battle over $10,” Sweeney said. “The fact we would hold

$10 as the breaking point, I find it very hard to swallow.”

Chris Kelsey of Steeplechase said there

was no math that rationally explained why voters would be more

likely to approve a $14 million bond.

“Voters, for whatever reason, fixate on

the bond amount,” Kelsey said. “We’ve made the argument that it’s

just $10, but for whatever the reason they focus on the bond

number. We believe, having listened to hundreds of people, that

number is important.”

He said they’ve been called “wimps” and

were pressured to ask the city for as much as $7 million in TIF

funds.

“We’ve also been told we’re asking for

too much,” Kelsey said.

Anderson said that while he wanted to

help the school, he wasn’t convinced more money from the city was

going to help pass a bond.

“I’ve got two sons I’d rather not wear

coats in history class,” he said. “I’m just not hearing any

information that going from $15 million to $14 million is going to

help.”

Hyatt responded that it came down to

the voter’s perception.

“The perception is that it’s $1 million

dollars,” he said. “I would hate for us to lose [another bond

election]. Three strikes and we’re out.”

Two past high school bond elections in

Whitefish have failed. The most recent was for $21.5 million in

2008.

Mitchell said that if the bond fails

again, long-term changes in Whitefish would follow.

“What is the downside if this fails for

the third time?” he asked. “We will see Glacier High School get a

lot more kids and will see a dwindling high school here.

“I don’t want the community to turn

into tourists and retired people.”

Most who spoke during public comment

were in favor of the $2.5 million amount.

One downtown business owner, Rhonda

Fitzgerald, told council to consider the long list of TIF projects

waiting to be started. The TIF fund is projected to have a cash

balance of about $10 million when it ends in 2020. TIF supported

projects mentioned include a new city hall, helping build a

downtown hotel and rehabbing the vacant Idaho Timber and North

Valley Hospital sites.

“Schools are built with school bonds,

economic development is done with TIF,” Fitzgerald said. “Which

projects will we not be doing? We have to keep focused on what this

money was meant to do.”

Kahle said a new high school would

positively impact the local economy and help lure new families to

the area.

“The redevelopment of those other areas

without a new high school is irrelevant,” he said.

The city-county planning board will

look at the resolution of intent at their meeting Jan. 19 before it

heads back to council for final approval.