Consensus is that growth here will take a hiatus and then resume

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

Handing off the baton

While most people in the U.S. were sitting at tables loaded with turkey, yams and pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving Day, Whitefish's new city manager was driving here from Georgetown, Colo., pulling a small U-Haul trailer behind him.

Chuck Stearns is familiar with Whitefish. He lived here as a self-proclaimed "ski bum" from 1980 to 1982, taking time off between graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in finance and graduate school in public administration at the University of Montana.

Stearns, who is a telemark skier, says Big Mountain was the first place he ever saw telemark skiers. He recalled mostly skiing in bounds but sometimes going out to Lodi, where the Bigfoot T-Bar is now, and to the West Bowl, which is now served by Chair 11 and is called Hellroaring Basin.

"I've got my ski pass," he said, adding that he also likes hiking, backpacking, flyfishing and huckleberry picking.

"I used to play some golf, and I hurt my knee so soccer is out," he said.

Stearns' education and experience in finance will come in handy as Whitefish hunkers down with the rest of the country's state and local governments under the worsening global economy.

After taking another year off for skiing after completing his master's at UM, Stearns took the head finance officer position in Missoula in 1987. He held the job until 1995 before moving to city manager-type positions at Mount Crested Butte and then Georgetown, Colo.

Whitefish's new fire chief, Thomas Kennelly, also has a strong background in finance, and coincidentally, Kennelly moved here from Conifer, Colo., about 30 miles from Georgetown, Stearns pointed out.

Stearns said he talked with mayor Mike Jenson and city councilors about the aftermath of the Wall Street meltdown, and the consensus is that growth here will take a hiatus and then resume.

"The city was growing so quickly not long ago," he said, adding that the new global marketplace makes predictions difficult to make.

"If conditions continue, we will have to set priorities," Stearns said, adding that "there's usually more unanimity when cutting a budget than when adding to a budget."

The city budget will grow, however, as the city hires six more firemen and moves to providing 24/7 emergency services. Stearns noted that he was the finance officer in Missoula in December 1984 when the city annexed 10,000 people and had to establish a new fire station.

He also worked on Missoula's downtown master plan and created a tax-increment finance district in Mount Crested Butte — the first ski town in Colorado with a TIF district, he said. As for architectural review, Georgetown has the oldest historical preservation ordinance in Colorado, he pointed out.

"That was a big part of tourism there," Stearns said. "A city can improve things without affecting the city's character."

Affordable housing is a "huge" issue in Colorado ski towns, Stearns said. Mount Crested Butte has two ordinances, including mandatory inclusionary zoning for commercial development and another calling for employee mitigation. Whitefish has a provision for voluntary inclusionary zoning.

"Everyone (in Colorado) tried voluntary, and when it didn't work, they turned to mandatory," Stearns said. "That's not to say I'm advocating mandatory here. It needs to be right for the community. It can be very controversial."

Whitefish, however, wouldn't want to see its city workers and teachers priced out of town, he said, recalling that it happened to him at Mount Crested Butte, and a Colorado town recently lost a city manager candidate for the same reason.

Stearns' starting salary will be $110,000. The city hired Seattle consultant Greg Prothman to head up the search after Gary Marks departed Aug. 5 for the city manager job at Ketchum, Idaho. Prothman narrowed a list of applicants down from 64 to 14 candidates.

As of Nov. 6, Prothman had received $14,666 for his services, but he hadn't yet billed the city for travel, meals and other costs associated with bringing six city manager candidates here for city council interviews in early November. The city will pay for lodging costs at Grouse Mountain Lodge.