Commends candidates for city council

I commend the five candidates who have filed to run for the Whitefish City Council. Their willingness to step up to the plate and commit the time and effort to make this community better are admirable, particularly because these will not be easy jobs.

Whitefish is no longer the small, simple ski town it once was. Today, it confronts modern problems and it requires diligence and skill to address these challenges. Moreover, the legacy of this city council is especially troublesome. This city council is responsible for more poor decision-making than I have yet seen in my time in Whitefish. This is a course which must be redirected.

As a result of the council's faulty decision-making, our community has lost something special. The eating-disorder clinic ran for the hills, the real estate market is at a standstill beyond what the nation's troubles would indicate, more workers are unemployed, and no new business has looked seriously at locating here in recent years.

Fees are about to increase, revenues are in decline, and our city budgets are unintelligible. Our city council ignored a plea from more than 600 of its citizens to reconsider the downtown streetscape because "they know better."

Our schools are in decline, as students leave for Glacier and Flathead high schools. Our council created and adopted the critical areas ordinance, ensuring that our regulations for building are so unclear that homeowners need an attorney to determine whether they can add a deck to their home.

And, to top it all off, our city attorney has been engaged for more than a year in a lawsuit with a small business owner over an ice cream cone fresco.

Throughout it all, when citizens have given voice to these concerns, they have been subject to ridicule and high-handedness by members of the council. Debate has been quieted, dissension eliminated. Listening has become rare within our own town hall.

So, I commend those who are running. You who win will have much work to do. For those of you who currently serve on the council, I would urge you to look closely at how you have contributed to the problems confronting our corner of paradise and take responsibility and lay out your plans to improve the course of Whitefish's future.

For those of you who are new to service, I would ask you to make clear to us all how you will address these concerns. It is imperative that we all come together now to improve and advance our wonderful community.

Peter Elespuru lives in Whitefish.