Election: Cal Scott a property rights advocate

A red tote bag overflowing with binders and stacks of documents sat next to Flathead County interim commissioner Cal Scott’s desk last Friday. Hundreds of comments were sent to the commissioners offices regarding proposed changes to the county growth policy and Scott was planning to read through all of the material over the weekend.

“That’s my bag of goodies,” Scott said during an interview at the Flathead County courthouse where he has comfortably settled into the confines of his third floor office. Above his desk hangs a photo of his great-great grandparents ca. 1905 who lived in Polson. Another photo shows Scott in front of the old Kalispell post office.

“At this job you have to be open and receptive to anything and everybody. You can’t have a closed mind,” Scott said as he eyed the stack of comments in the red tote bag.

Scott, 68, of rural Columbia Falls, was appointed District 1 interim commissioner in April, replacing the late Jim Dupont. The interim position expires after the November general election in which he faces Democrat Gil Jordan. The winner will fill the final years of Dupont’s term.

In his six months on the job as interim commissioner, Scott says he’s become quite familiar with the challenges facing the county. On the top of the list is the economy.

“The economy is everything,” he said. “It affects everyone, from families trying to decide if they should have hamburgers for dinner on Friday, to those who had money and have lost it.”

The county should focus on providing the essentials for the taxpayers, Scott said, then get out of the way. Over regulation, he said, is hampering new and existing businesses and job growth.

“It restricts our ability to a free economy,” he said, “and that cuts down on jobs.”

The county, he said, “should focus on the essentials — public health and safety.”

Scott is a property rights advocate and says when considering the growth policy and other regulations the county shouldn’t tolerate individuals or groups who intend “to inflict and impose themselves on our individual people.”

“If a property owner is not endangering the public health, and safety, and well-being of those around them, then they should be left to live as they see fit. [A property owner] should be able to exercise that within reason and not be dictated by the few.”

He says he’ll take that red tote bag of information and comments and make decisions about the growth policy based on “what makes the most sense for the most people in the county.”

Scott has owned property within Whitefish’s two-mile planning doughnut since the late 1970s. He says those within the doughnut shouldn’t be dictated to by a governmental body they can’t vote for.

While doughnut residents can vote for county commissioners, “If the city of Whitefish is controlling that doughnut, commissioners can’t do anything to help them,” he notes.

Scott would be willing to sit down with the city once litigation has been settled over whether the city or county has planning jurisdiction in the area.

“Whatever the courts do, there we are,” he said. “Once we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s start over.”

Scott says he understands why the city of Whitefish wants planning control over the approach to the city.

“That city is something to be proud of, the people have worked hard to make it what it is,” Scott said. “I can understand how the surrounding areas affect the urban area. But if we’re candid and fair and lay our cards on the table and give up this selfish, centered, humanistic, self-imposed, ridiculousness, we can work forward on some of these issues. I’m not sure we’ve ever experienced that.”

He’d also like to see the relationships between municipalities improved for the betterment of the entire county.

“We are no longer a community separated by a horse and buckboard,” he said. “But we still have some of that mentality. We need to understand that at all economic levels, we’re in this together. No one community can survive on their own, we need to work toward healthy relationships.”

Scott says he takes seriously the job of interim commissioner and considers taking care of county residents his top priority.

“I have about 91,000 bosses out there,” he said. “I feel that very personally. I do understand the huge responsibility.”