County commissioner race: Scott looks at the bottom line

Like others who have stepped into the Flathead County commissioners office for the first time, interim commissioner Cal Scott says he’s impressed by the job of helping oversee a county the size of Connecticut with a $75.2 million budget.

“I’ve been energized by the position more than any other job I’ve held,” he said. “I look at the wondrous things that I can do that can help people, which is my passion in life, and to do so in a responsible manner.”

In the five months since he was appointed interim commissioner to replace the late Jim Dupont, Scott said he was happy to have helped the county save $2 million in its general budget and to help bring the Montana Association of Counties annual convention to Kalispell in 2014, an idea initiated by commissioner Pam Holmquist.

“MACO unanimously approved the idea at its Great Falls convention,” he said. “It will bring millions of dollars to the Flathead for one to two weeks.”

Generally, Scott says he likes to take a business-like approach to commissioner work.

“What’s the return on investment?” he asked. “What is the return to taxpayers in services? They must be for public health and safety, or essential services. In today’s economy, we can’t afford to be ideological. We need to be pragmatic. There is no free money, no free lunch.”

Scott, who lived on Fourth Avenue in Columbia Falls as a child and recalled jumping off the Red Bridge in summertime, described some local actions he’s been involved in since he took the job.

After he learned the Woodlawn Cemetery Association was facing difficulties meeting new insurance costs and other bills, Scott said he helped get a 0.4 mill levy on the ballot this fall for the cemetery. The levy will raise about $6,000 per year over 10 years at a cost of about $1.10 per year for a home with a $200,000 market value.

“They couldn’t work through the bills the way they did the past 20 years,” Scott said. “Many of the association members have not been reimbursed for all the work they’ve done over the years.”

Scott said he’s talked to locals about how the historic Old Main building at the Montana Veterans Home could be better utilized. Like the Glacier Discovery Center on Nucleus Avenue, which had been promoted as a future branch county library, the problem is money.

“Does it pencil in?” Scott asked.

Scott also met with a dozen property owners in Vetville who wanted to know why their northern neighbors got repaving work while they were stuck with a dusty gravel road. The original paving work went back 30 years, when the southern neighbors opted out, Scott found out.

After talking with the residents, Scott said they agreed to sign on with the county’s “dust share program,” where local property owners split the cost 50/50 with the county to regrade the road and apply bentonite and magnesium chloride to control dust without paving. Instead of an expensive RSID, the property owners will pay about $500 for the work, he said.

“The county came out like a hero on this,” Scott said. “We need to meet with the people in the county — that’s one of my goals. I’ve been very successful with that, and it makes me feel good.”

The county has received about 1,000 comments on the updated growth policy document, and he’s been going through the 15-inch high stack on his desk. He expects the commissioners will vote on it in the next month.

“We’re not in a growth environment now, and the document is due for another review in two years,” he said. “I’d like to put it to rest so we can focus on real issues.”

He said zoning regulations need to be “reanalyzed” as to permitted and allowed uses. He would support a zoning text amendment, for example, that loosened restrictions on home-based businesses on agricultural properties. As to cluster development and directing business growth to urban areas, Scott notes that 85 percent of Flathead County is public land.

“We’re already urbanized, if you compare us to Seattle,” he said.

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Candidate details revealed in media

Hungry Horse News

In the time since the Hungry Horse News interviewed county commissioner candidate Cal Scott in April for the Republican primary, two issues have emerged in the local media.

The first involved he and his wife Laurale’s filing for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte in August 2009, which wrapped up in August 2011.

According to court records, the Scotts had $342,621 in secured claims for a home in Marion and another home between Columbia Falls and Whitefish. The Scotts lost the Marion home and kept the Flathead Valley home, where they settled in a mobile home.

The August 2009 filing reported $173,663 in unsecured debt accrued on 22 different credit cards, along with a 2008 Subaru valued at $28,564 that was repossessed one month earlier. Scott reported earning $114 a month as a teacher at Flathead Valley Community College and $1,377 a month from his real estate consulting business. That left the Scotts with $4,768 in monthly expenses and an imbalance of $3,285.

Scott began earning more than $5,200 per month after he was appointed interim commissioner on April 16. Commissioners Dale Lauman and Pam Holmquist said in May they were unaware of Scott’s bankruptcy but remained comfortable with their decision to appoint him.

The second issue involved Scott’s educational background. In April, he told the Daily Inter Lake and the Hungry Horse News that he had a civil engineering degree from the University of Nevada-Reno. In September, he told the Bigfork Eagle he had associate degrees from various community colleges.

Then on Oct. 2, after letters to the editor questioned his educational background, Scott told the Daily Inter Lake he does not have any bachelor or associate degrees. Instead, he said he has 30 years of continuing education in real estate and mortgage lending.