Incumbent says she'll retain conservative focus

After nearly six years on the job, Flathead County Commissioner Pam Holmquist said she thinks she’s “grown into the job really well.”

Holmquist, a Republican, is seeking a second six-year term and faces Democrat Eileen Lowery in the Nov. 8 general election.

“I’ve learned a lot being the chair [of the commission] for four years,” she said. “The experience of running meetings has been good for me. I’m more relaxed about speaking out.”

In county government, “every day is a new challenge,” she added.

The longtime Evergreen businesswoman charted her political course toward less government, lower taxes and fewer regulations when she first ran for commissioner. She believes she’s done what she promised to do and intends to keep her conservative values.

Holmquist has not strayed from her conservative focus.

She voted against the South Campus Building. When it was first proposed it was envisioned as a separate facility for the Agency on Aging, though later on plans for the building included the relocation of the election and planning departments plus space for the environmental health division.

“I felt like we were spending too much,” she said.

The county recently wrapped up $11 million in capital improvements with the South Campus Building and County Attorney office complex in the refurbished historic jail building.

Holmquist said the county’s cash reserve has taken a hit because of the building projects.

“It was around 30 percent when I took office and now it’s at 19 to 21 percent. We’re working on that,” she said.

And there are more capital improvement projects bearing down on the county, she acknowledged.

A $1.3 million addition to the county jail — a temporary measure to add 36 beds by converting a portion of the Justice Center’s second floor — will start this month.

The commissioners recently learned the county may have to provide a new courtroom and office space for a proposed fifth Flathead district judge.

“I don’t know how to fit a new judge, plus staff” into the Justice Center, she said.

The county is now setting aside money for the future construction of a new jail, but it wasn’t something Holmquist initially supported. She voted against the county levying the maximum amount of mills to begin saving money for a jail, though she voted for the mill levy the past two years because it is being earmarked for a pressing county need.

Holmquist envisions a jail facility that also would house the Sheriff’s Department and space for mental-health or other treatment facilities.

“There’s so much up in the air,” she said. “It will cost a lot of money so we best prepare for it.”

She believes the state should provide more treatment options for the incarcerated population, and pointed out how the closure of the Montana Developmental Center in Boulder has left a void.

Holmquist has been very involved in local economic development efforts, serving on the Montana West Economic Development board since she became a commissioner. She testified in support of the funding needed to finish the U.S. 93 bypass, and also supported the federal grant that was awarded to create the Glacier Rail Park.

Fostering economic development isn’t necessarily about always spending money, though, she said.

“It’s supporting business and lobbying and creating relationships to move toward common goals,” she said.

Holmquist declined to comment on the proposed water bottling plant near Creston because the commissioners have not yet weighed in on a citizen-initiated proposal to expand the Egan Slough Zoning District, a move that could hamstring the bottling plant.

It’s not the county’s decision, she pointed out, whether Lew Weaver, who wants to build the bottling plant, gets the required state permit and water right.

Holmquist proposed a property owners’ “bill of rights” that was included in the 2012 growth policy, and she plans to make sure it’s part of a growth policy update that will begin next year.

She stands by the letter the commissioners sent earlier this year to the U.S. State Department saying they do not support the relocation of refugees “without a legitimate vetting process and an analysis of refugee impacts to our local community.”

“We live in a different world now,” Holmquist said. “There are homeless teens and veterans and a lot of people in the community we should put before these refugees.”