Council should be easier to reach

If you want to engage your elected representatives in respectful dialogue on an issue of importance to you in Kalispell, Whitefish, or with one of our County Commissioners, you simply go to the web page for that local government to find these elected officials’ phone numbers and their individual city or county email for easy contact.

And when you reach out, those elected officials respectfully respond and listen or arrange a face-to-face meeting, if that is your request. It is our democratic process at its best.

 Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The City of Columbia Falls is blessed with a City Council and Mayor who bring a wealth of experience, wisdom, and a dedication to service in their elected but unpaid positions. Yet if you go to the City of Columbia Falls’ web site to find out how to contact these elected officials, you will not find their phone numbers, you will not find their individual city emails. 

At the Aug. 5th City Council meeting, during public comment, I asked that the Columbia Falls City Council review and adopt as part of their web site, like their sister cities and county commissioners, ways for the public to directly contact the mayor or city council members as individuals.

To my surprise, I was told by the Mayor and City Attorney that such one-on-one contact was illegal between individual members of the public and individual council members. The City Attorney later emailed me that he had misunderstood my question and that individuals could meet with council members as individuals. This confirmed what I knew to be possible under state law with only a few exceptions, such as, I could not meet with a quorum of the council unless they posted public notice of such a meeting. 

Additionally, I could not meet individually with a council member on a pending subdivision application, but could still go to required public hearings for such subdivisions and testify during a public hearing for that purpose. I went back to the Council meeting on Aug. 19th to ask when I could expect that the Council phone numbers and city emails would be posted. 

I was told however, by the Mayor at the end of the meeting, that the City had no intention of ever making such contact information publicly available.

 I ask that other members of the public join me in asking that the Council as a whole reconsider their current position and make their contact information available as do Kalispell, Whitefish, and the Flathead County Commissioners. Respectful and open dialogue are essential tools to finding ways forward as the Flathead and Columbia Falls moves through this time of rapid transition with so many issues confronting all of us.

Mayre Flowers

Citizens for a Better Flathead