Election 2011: Wise touts business expertise

Candidate Doug Wise is ready to bring

his business sense and positive attitude to city council.

Originally from Morehead City, N.C.,

Wise has a degree in business administration and 40 years of

experience as a senior executive. He’s worked with Merv Griffin

Entertainment — creator of TV game shows “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of

Fortune” — and in marketing and sales with Southwestern in

Nashville, Tenn.

He first visited Whitefish in 1995

while on a Backroads bicycle tour through Glacier Park with his

wife. They looked at real estate in Whitefish while they were here

and bought the first house they walked into on Birch Point.

“It felt right,” Wise said about the

decision to move here. “Whitefish has the feel of a community, not

a resort. There’s a big difference.”

They moved here full time in 2006.

Wise is active with the Rotary Club and

serves as sergeant-at-arms, he was elected to the Whitefish Lake

Golf Association and is now the vice president, and he is active

with the WAG dog park board among other city and community

groups.

Wise aims to bring business planning

and strategy to city government, namely in how the TIF district is

managed. He wants to see a priority list of TIF projects set out in

writing, and a budget and timeline for how those goals will be

reached.

He thinks the top priority now should

be helping fund a new high school bond — not a city hall.

“I don’t know of anything more

important in this community than to have a new high school,” Wise

said. “The heart of our community is our children and their future

is determined by the direction we give them through the school

system.”

He says a revamped high school will

also help attract new businesses that are looking to hire people

who might have children. When they look at real estate, he says,

they also look at the schools.

Wise wants to see a formal plan for

funding a new city hall and to have it on a TIF priority list.

“We’ve got to have a business plan that

says this is how much it will cost, and this is how we are going to

pay for it,” he says. “That’s what a business person does.”

He likes the potential city hall site

north of the library because it’s still downtown, and would create

a “synergy” with the library, Depot Park and the O’Shaughnessy

Center. The site was originally suggested in the Downtown Master

Plan.

“Somebody spent a lot of time on the

Master Plan,” he said, “so why are we pushing it away?”

Wise says city regulations are hurting

new business growth opportunities.

“Control is important in any

situation,” Wise said, “but we’ve put in restrictions that have

reversed what we tried to accomplish. We wanted to slow growth — we

didn’t slow it up, we stopped it.

“I have not talked to a businessman

that wants to do business in Whitefish. The permit process is hard

to deal with, and we need to simplify that. We need to remove

barriers for businesses. The perception is that business is not

welcome here. That’s a perception, not a reality, but we’ve got to

change that.”

The county and city need to seek a

compromise in the doughnut planning area, he says, and the city

should avoid more litigation.

“I look at all of 59937 as my

neighbors,” Wise said. “They may live in the doughnut, but if I ask

where they live, they say Whitefish. The law prevents us from

letting them vote, but it doesn’t prevent us from listening to what

they have to say. Do we want common ground and compromise, or do we

want to sue?

“I’d like to see us work with the city

gateways toward a common cause.”

Wise challenges everyone to vote in the

off-year election.

“We are a community that can accomplish

so much,” he said. “We need to set a record for voter turnout.”