Doughnut politics

The story about Whitefish City Councilor John Muhlfeld’s residency fails to point out a glaring irony in that people who live outside of the city of Whitefish, but have a Whitefish address, do not get to vote on issues that affect them.

Muhlfeld, recently re-elected as a city councilman, apparently doesn’t live in the city he represents. Instead, he lives with his fiancee in the so-called “doughnut” area.

But the doughnut, a two-mile circle around Whitefish, exists as a no-man’s land, where the city and the Whitefish City-County Planning Board can make rules affecting the area without allowing the folks who live in the doughnut a right to vote.

Taxation without representation is a pretty basic American taboo, going all the way back to the Boston Tea Party.

The solution is to either give the people in the doughnut a say in Whitefish or disband the doughnut concept altogether and return representation outside of the city to county government, where it belongs.

As for Mr. Muhlfeld, he needs to figure out where he lives.

Phil Cardan

Whitefish