Commission candidates Hall, Dupont debate merits

By CHRIS PETERSON/Hungry Horse News

Jim Dupont and Gary Hall know their way around county government. Dupont, 61, was Flathead County Sheriff for 16 years, and a popular one at that.

Hall, 60, was mayor of Columbia Falls for five years before he ran for county commissioner and won six years ago.

The two will square off in the Republican primary for county commissioner on June 3.

Dupont says if he's elected to office, he'll only serve one term. Both men claim to champion property rights. A hot topic as of late has been the "doughnut" issue. Doughnuts are planning jurisdictions in land around Whitefish and Columbia Falls. They give cities the right to make land use and zoning decisions on lands that aren't in the boundaries of the city itself.

Whitefish recently ran afoul with the county on plans for its doughnut and two entities are headed to court. Columbia Falls and the county are now working on a new, more amenable agreement.

Doughnuts, Dupont notes, are taxation without representation. But he admitted in an interview last week that he didn't even know Columbia Falls had a doughnut until a reporter brought it up.

Dupont said he "didn't even know what a doughnut was until he started campaigning."

Hall has opposed Whitefish's doughnut and his moves to dissolve it spawned the lawsuit.

But doughnuts aside, both men claim to have the experience to run county government.

Dupont claims the county is now being run on the basis of who you know rather than what is right. He said commissioners are micro managing departments and "that's not the way it should be."

He also said he objected to planning rules and regulations that are brought in from other cities and put in place here — rules that don't necessarily fit Flathead County. He claimed the county needed a good set of regulations for planning and zoning and then it needed to stick to them. He also claimed planning decisions were being made without landowners being notified — in reference to changes made in the Canyon Area Land Use Regulatory System zoning.

He said he inquired about the changes (which are still in draft form) and was told they were listed in the newspaper legals.

Dupont claimed individual homeowners should be notified by mail when zoning changes are in the works.

"Who reads the legals?" he asked.

But zoning changes and future growth are something Gary Hall takes pride in. He said his greatest accomplishment as a county commissioner was to get the growth policy completed. It was a long process with hundreds of meetings, he noted. He said he made 60 changes to the document himself and went to countless meetings on the plan, working with county planning staff to ensure it was a solid document and blueprint for the future.

Hall also claimed to be in tune with his constituents. He said he's on 13 different committees and said he goes to countless meetings each month. He also oversees 29 budgets — Dupont oversaw just one as sheriff, Hall claimed.

"It's a different county than when he was sheriff," Hall said.

Hall also took issue with a claim Dupont made that taking care of dusty roads and other county projects was based on where you lived and who you knew.

"In my six years it's never happened once," Hall said. "It deeply offends me."

Closer to Columbia Falls, both men claim that federal agencies should get more involved with the dust problem on the North Fork Road.

Dupont said he'd like to see the Park Service get involved in helping control dust. The Park, he notes, creates most of the traffic, particularly north of Camas Creek.

Hall said he's been meeting with citizens and federal officials as well to come up with a solution. Paving the road doesn't seem in the cards, either man notes.

It's simply too expensive and the money isn't there to get the job done.

The winner of the primary will face Democrat Steve Qunelll in the general election.