No headline

Mitchell should be held to higher standard

I am offended by Commissioner Phil Mitchell’s total disregard for the property he swore to protect when elected commissioner. His request that county officials “treat me no differently than they would treat any other citizen” is even more offensive. County officials should hold him to an even higher standard with respect to charging and sentencing him in district court. Any official in a position of trust to its citizens should bear a heavier burden in this regard. I hope that this is grounds for removing him from office and I would support anyone who has the knowledge to achieve such a move against him. This is disgusting! —David Mosby, Kalispell

Remove Mitchell from office

Phil Mitchell needs to be removed from office. If he were an honorable man (I have seen no evidence of that) he would resign, write a check to the county for $30,000, and quietly return to retirement. He is a disgrace to the county Board of Commissioners, to the Republican Party and to the law-abiding residents of this community.

I thought that the racist comments he directed toward the Confederated Salish & Kootenai tribes during the water-compact discussion should have cost him his job. Now, he has admitted to destroying $30,000 worth of PUBLIC property — the very same public property which he took an oath to protect. Sadly, he has a history of destroying trees in this same park. The Whitefish Pilot reported some time ago that he was caught cutting down large conifers in the park, and later he was caught building a landscaped “island” at the intersection of his driveway and the entrance to the park. The island was in the county’s right-of-way and it appeared that his intent was to hide the entrance to the park, or to make it difficult for people to enter the park. He was later forced to remove the island.

This is not his personal park and those were not his trees — they belonged to every one of us. And he owes every one of us not a canned apology (which was offered only after being caught and charged with a felony), but a letter of resignation. Immediately.

A recent Inter Lake editorial characterized the destruction of $30,000 worth of public property as a “mistake” by Mitchell. No, a mistake is adding 2 and 2 and getting 5. A mistake is turning on West Edgewood Drive when you’re looking for East Edgewood Drive. What Mitchell did was a deliberate, arrogant, malicious act that the law considers a felony. This from a clown who touted his integrity while campaigning for the office that he has now disgraced. Time to go, Phil. —Brian Wood, Whitefish

Another apology!

Reference: Daily Inter Lake on Aug. 11, “Commissioner apologizes for killing trees.”

How long do the citizens of Flathead County have to put up with the actions and behaviors of a county official?

Mr. Mitchell’s first indication of his incompetence came in January of 2015, when he publicly made some very derogatory comments about Native Americans, i.e., Salish-Kootenai.

Now we have actions where cottonwood trees have apparently deliberately killed by Mr. Mitchell that weren’t his. He has made some half-hearted apology about the issue.

Replacement costs are estimated to be $30,000 dollars; it should be that much per tree. Six times $30,000 equals $180,000.

The electorate and other two commissioners need to ask for his resignation, before further harm comes to the good name of Flathead County. —Craig Wagner, Bigfork

Destruction of old- growth trees inexcusable

This letter is in response to recent articles in the Daily Inter Lake regarding the deliberate destruction of old-growth trees in a county park on Whitefish Lake. Such actions are, to me and hopefully others, never excusable. I applaud the actions of the Flathead County Parks and Recreation Department and this paper in bringing this event to the public’s attention.

The resources provided for public use and enjoyment are invaluable and we as residents of this beautiful valley obviously need to be aware and active in safeguarding them. I wish to express my gratitude to Jed Fisher and the entire parks and recreation staff for leading the way. —Mary Yeats, Whitefish

Commissioners must follow same rules as rest of us

The needless killing of trees and the idea that rich people live under different sets of rules than the rest of us are the two most enraging things about the repugnant behavior of our county commissioner, Phil Mitchell. As a tree farmer, I find the needless killing of trees to be egregious offenses against the laws of nature as well as against our state and federal laws no different from shooting big-game animals without proper permits.

As a citizen, I find this action to be the same type of behavior symptomatic of affluent people who look at the law and believe they operate by a different set of rules. Rules determined by the scale of the fine they will be made to pay for their breaking of the law. This behavior is taking place here in the Flathead by our monied politician, Phil Mitchell, across capitalist culture, and in fact throughout the business history of our current president.

What else is deeply disturbing here are the breeches of both the letters of the laws as well as the spirits of the laws. The spirit of the laws that we all operate under in what we affectionately refer to as a “lawful society” have still been broken even if clever and cunning lawyering were able to outfox the authorities in any given situation between the killing of trees and the non-payment of contractors in bankruptcy court. It is incumbent upon all of us to get up, stand up, and call out criminal behavior and the criminals who commit crimes against our civic standards.

Affluence should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card, while too often it seems it is. While these criminals may get out of their crimes by paying fines, the spirit of the laws has still been broken without repair. —David Fischlowitz, Kalispell