O'Neil seeks third term in the House

With seven legislative sessions under his belt, Rep. Jerry O’Neil, R-Columbia Falls, is running for his third term representing House District 3.

The controversial legislator has belonged to the Libertarian and Republican parties at the same time. He was term-limited out of the Montana Senate and sat out two years before running for the House in 2010.

Some of O’Neil’s proposals have raised eyebrows across the state — a bill allowing convicts the option of being caned in lieu of incarceration, a request that his legislative salary be paid in gold, a bill that would eliminate the minimum wage for high school dropouts, and suggesting that laws to strengthen families could help prevent school shootings.

While his critics point out that few of O’Neil’s bills ever make it out of committee, his persistence in the fight to open up the state’s legal system to people who never attended law school or passed the bar exam might have paid off in the end.

O’Neil began working as a paralegal in 1984 as Kalispell Mediation Services. That same year, he became licensed to practice law as a lay advocate on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Three Flathead County District Court Judges sent a complaint about O’Neil to the Montana Supreme Court’s Commission on the Unauthorized Practice of Law in 2001. Following a two-day trial in 2004, Lake County District Court Judge Deborah Christopher found O’Neil in contempt for practicing law when not authorized to do so. Her ruling was upheld by the Montana Supreme Court in 2006.

Then in a complete about-face, the Montana Supreme Court dissolved the commission in 2010, noting that the court was not authorized to regulate the unauthorized practice of law, and that what is authorized “is, by no means, clearly defined.”

O’Neil later said it came down to money — the commission’s budget was a paltry $2,000 a year. “I think I broke them,” he said later. “I lost every battle, but I won the war.”

On issues currently facing the legislature, O’Neil said he needs more time to study the proposed Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact before taking a position, and he would like to see a long-term fix to Montana’s teachers and state employees pension plans.

“If they’re underfunded, we need to put a tourniquet on them and then use surplus money to bail them out,” he said. “But I’m not willing to bail them out if they’re going to go back into debt again.”

O’Neil said a defined-contribution pension plan, like a 401-K, is needed, but two bills sponsored by Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, that would have done that died in the House in 2013.

A bill he might carry to the House if re-elected would require people to pass a drug test before they can receive welfare payments.

“If my constituents must take a drug test before they can work and pay for welfare, then it’s only fair,” he said.

Cleanup work at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. smelter should be done by local workers, O’Neil said. The government should set the cleanup standards, but what happens to the site afterwards should be up to Glencore.

“It’s their plant — let them sell it to whomever,” he said.

As for transferring federal lands to the states, O’Neil suggested Montana only take possession of the Whitefish Range as a test case. Enough of it has burned that a catastrophic fire is not likely in the future, he said. Also, the state could finalize a deal with Canada to halt coal, oil and gas development in the North Fork and make up the lost revenue with increased timber harvesting.

Looking back at his political career, O’Neil said he’s still in the minority when it comes to shrinking government, “but more legislators are joining me.”