Council candidates share vision for Whitefish at forum

Seven candidates vying for three open seats on Whitefish City Council shared their visions for the city at a forum Tuesday evening inside the Oktoberfest tent in Depot Park. About 80 residents were in attendance.

Incumbents Frank Sweeney, Rebecca Norton and Steve Qunell were joined by challengers Nancy Schuber, Jim Ramlow, Nathan Dugan and Kent Taylor. Each addressed topics ranging from growth and housing to tourism and public safety.

The event was sponsored by the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and the Whitefish Pilot, with Daily Inter Lake regional editor Matt Baldwin moderating the forum.

Election Day is Nov. 7.

GROWTH

The rapid growth of Whitefish was at the heart of every other topic discussed at the forum. The current population of the town is about 9,000 according to projections based on the most recent census and it is expected to reach 11,500 in the next 20 years.

Taylor, owner of the Hidden Moose Lodge, said he would like to see the town be like it was 20 years ago but would settle for seeing it stay as it is today.

“If you took a snapshot today of downtown the neighborhoods and the charm and character that exists today, in 20 years from now, I'd still like to see that,” Taylor said. ”Our charm and character are being eroded.”

Nonetheless, he added that there is room for growth.

Ramlow, a lawyer who was born in Whitefish, said the town used to have three major drivers: the railroad, the aluminum plant and tourism, but only one of those remains.

“I care about the town’s appearance but what we’re missing is a broader economic base,” Ramlow said. “I don’t know if Whitefish’s future can stand on one leg of being a tourist town.”

He said it was important to diversify the economy.

Retired fitness trainer Schuber said she is dedicated to keeping Whitefish Lake pristine, then mentioned several changes to the roadways including left-turn arrows, a roundabout or a light at 13th Avenue and Baker Avenue and another viaduct.

“Perhaps a bus system running between Columbia Falls, Kalispell and Whitefish to bring workers to town without cars,” Shuber said.

Incumbent Sweeney said that it is important that the community makes the decision on how the community will grow.

“One of the things that was important to Paula and me [when moving to Whitefish] was we didn’t want to change it to make it someplace else,” Sweeney said. “We wanted to be part of this community. This is a real place with real people and yes, it has less economic drivers than we may have had 15, 20 years ago or 30 years ago and I think we need to work on that.”

TRAFFIC

The increased population causes stresses on parking, road maintenance and traffic.

Incumbent Qunell agreed with Sweeney that the town needs another parking garage, more parking in the downtown corridor and more public transportation.

“We’re fortunate that we have our resort tax … to provide ongoing maintenance to the trail system and continue to put money towards the road,” Qunell said. “Winters are changing and that’s causing a lot of different kinds of challenges that we haven’t had in the past.”

He added that in the past, roads would freeze and stay frozen for months, but the current climate sees a freeze/thaw cycle much more often.

Dugan, president of Shelter WF, challenged the premise that an increase in population automatically equals more people driving and parking. He said he doesn’t think that's the case.

“We need to expand our public transportation. I’ll definitely be somebody that’s on the bus all the time,” Dugan said. “The people visiting will take [public transportation], if it's more convenient, if it runs year-round and you don’t have to wait two hours in the middle of the day.”

Taylor mentioned that the Federal Transit Administration has a $13 billion budget to award grants to communities, in part, for electric buses. He named several towns, including the Teton Village, Sun Valley, Hailey and Bellevue.

“Park City gets $7 million for buses. The next grant cycle comes up in April,” Taylor said. “We have time to apply and learn as much as we can about these programs and take advantage of them.”

Incumbent Norton leaned on her experience as a city councilor to answer the question. She said the city is looking at how to pull traffic off U.S. 93 and build new routes through town.

“We do have a transportation plan that we completed… it's quite extensive and actually shows how the city is going to grow,” Norton said. “We also have done a parking survey which is pretty extensive and we also did an employee survey to see who would park in which parking lot.”

TOURISM

Questions for this round came from the survey that Explore Whitefish ran this summer gauging residents’ attitudes toward tourism. Candidates were asked if the overall benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts.

Schuber was the only candidate to say that the negative effects of tourism outweigh the benefits overall for those who live here. She added that the millionaires and billionaires buying second and third homes here don’t contribute to resort tax but once a year.

“We’ve been found out. It's not a secret anymore. They’re still coming. They're going to continue to come. We’re going to spend a lotta money trying to manage them,” Shuber said. “I think sustainable tourism is an oxymoron.”

Qunell said the benefits far outweigh the negatives, and that Whitefish has always had a tourist economy and always will.

“I really cringe and it bothers me a lot to hear a we-versus-they mentality. It is not a we-versus-they mentality. It's all of us. We helped create this town. We made it what it is and we continue to make it what it is and that’s why people come here,” Qunell said. “If we continue with this we-versus-they mentality, people aren't going to feel welcome here and they're not going to want to come back here.

“We are an open community and we should always be that way and we need to take care of that,” he added.

Taylor said the tourism industry is needed and without it, the resort tax would not exist. He said he is not interested in making town more busy in the summer but in spreading visitations throughout the year.

“If you don't take care of the tourist part of that, it’s going to wither and die. If you attack it, which people are doing currently, it's going to wither and die,” Taylor said. “You need to support tourism. Take care of it and support it.”

Ramlow agreed with Taylor.

“I’m a fan of tourism,” he said. “ It's an important reason we have the resort tax revenue that we have.

Dugan said that tourism has ramped up like crazy, especially through the pandemic, and people are tired. He suggested a bit of education would help tourists tread more lightly.

“The most important thing about sustainable tourism going forward is our resources, [with] more people out there… the trails get beat up, there’s more risk of trash… in the water,” Dugan said and added that the solution begins with the residents. “And with us being friendly to the people that we meet. Show people around, show them the right way to do things. We can’t expect them, necessarily, to do it on their own.”

HOUSING

The candidates were asked if they were in favor of the reallocation of resort tax funds for affordable housing initiatives.

Sweeney was ardent in his response and said he fully supports the reallocation of the resort tax.

“I think one of the best things that we, this council, has done is come to the conclusion that we can do that and we should do that,” Sweeney said. “We tried to take some pretty innovative steps to address our affordable housing through some of the Legacy Homes Programs that we put in place before they, quite frankly, were ripped away from this city and this community by our state Legislature.”

The other lawyer on the panel, Ramlow, had an opposing view of the state Legislature but he does support the tax reallocation for housing.

“A good use of that money is the proposal Housing Whitefish made for rent subsidies,” Ramlow said, and added that he agrees with the Housing Whitefish report that the program is not a permanent solution but a temporary fix for a long-term problem.

“The only way you're going to solve the long-term problem is to reduce the amount of regulation consistent with the state legislation we heard about a couple times tonight,” Ramlow said. “I wish we would cooperate with our legislature, not fight it.”

In order to build housing faster, Dugan advocated for private/public partnerships.

Shuber supported the reallocation of the resort tax for housing and reiterated her desire for a bus system to run throughout the valley.

Taylor targeted the lack of regulation for short-term rentals regarding owner occupancy, a law that is mandated by the state for bed and breakfasts.

“If you require the owner/operator to live on a property you will immediately flood the market with rental units because they can no longer rent nightly/weekly,” Taylor said. “They have to rent to [the] workforce. We should be moving toward that. It’s unbelievable how this has impacted our community.”

Norton supported the resort tax reallocation, calling it a “no brainer” and added that it will help the city take care of community housing. She asked the crowd to vote yes.

“I was on the Strategic Housing Committee for two and a half years. The city has looked at a lot of different models for solving things,” Norton said. “I totally agree with Kent that the short-term rental deliberation in the county, which we don't have any control over … has been really detrimental to the city.”

PUBLIC SAFETY

With the population growth in Whitefish, the number of fire and police calls have increased. Candidates were asked how the fire and police departments can keep up.

“You probably know, we are the number one safest city in Montana,” Norton said. “We try to fund our police and fire as much as we possibly can.”

She said she thought the biggest problem with public safety happens when there is an event like a festival that brings an influx of visitors. Overall, she said she is happy with Whitefish’s police and fire departments.

Qunell recognized that keeping the departments fully staffed is not just a Whitefish issue, but a statewide, national issue. He said ”people don't want to put their lives on the line for not much money” and that the source of funds to pay the police and fire departments more is impact fees that make sense, are fair, and don’t put an extra burden of development on taxpayers.

“Our fire and police are the best that there are,” Sweeney added. “They serve this community and they treat people fairly.”

PRIOR TO the forum, Daniel Sidder, executive director of Housing Whitefish, told the assembled residents that the resort tax ballot initiative is not a new tax, it’s a reallocation.

“The Haskill Basin bond has been paid off and has given us an opportunity to say, ‘What we value and what are our needs?’ and we’re saying that’s community housing.”

Sidder added that the money will go to affordable housing development and programs to help people who need immediate assistance, like the new Whitefish Workforce Assistance Fund.

Mayor John Muhlfeld is seeking his fourth term and is running unopposed. He gave opening remarks in support of the ballot initiative regarding a reallocation of 10% of the resort tax to go toward easing the housing crisis.

“We need to help our businesses.We need to help those who want to continue to live and work here and not send our workers to other places,” Muhlfeld said. “Vote yes on the resort tax initiative come November. And let’s help out our local workers.”