Tempers flare at council meeting

The flare-up came out of nowhere Monday. It spiked for about 15 seconds and then disappeared.

It came during a minor technical issue before the Kalispell City Council.

Council member Bob Herron and Mayor Pam Kennedy vehemently snapped at each other before Kennedy gaveled down Herron.

The exchange left Kennedy visibly shaken. And it led to Herron skipping a short council workshop session immediately after Monday's formal meeting.

Both Kennedy and Herron said later that the other was interrupting during the flare-up. Each denies that a personality conflict exists between the two, and each portrays their differences on a more philosophy-of-government level.

"What you saw that night was two strong personalities," Kennedy said Tuesday.

However, this was the second time in a month that Herron has said something in a council meeting that reflected an undercurrent of tension between him and Kennedy over how strong a mayor she should be in Kalispell's form of government.

Herron contends Kennedy is wielding more power than a mayor legally should.

"The mayor is rude, arrogant. … and she runs these meetings like she's the queen of Kalispell," Herron said on Tuesday.

Some other council members apparently also believe Kennedy is exceeding what they believe is the proper role of the mayor - to chair council meetings, handle ceremonial duties and not go beyond a minimal interpretation of those duties.

"The mayor is overstepping her bounds. … Leadership is supposed to be with the entire council," council member Bob Hafferman said a few weeks ago.

However, Kennedy contends she runs tight meetings to keep council members focused on issues. She said Herron has trouble adjusting to being one of nine equal council members.

Meanwhile, several council members don't see Kennedy as exceeding what is legally proper for her post, contending she does extra legwork on issues to the same extent than any council member can do additional homework.

They said they are comfortable with how Kennedy fills her role.

A few weeks ago, council member Jim Atkinson said: "I've seen our mayor more actively involved than other mayors. I think that's because of the personalities involved."

Monday's flare-up came more than two hours into the meeting as council members slogged through several changes they wanted to see in a proposed overhaul of the city's sign laws.

Herron wanted to loosen restrictions on the amount of sign square-footage allowed on individual buildings on land zoned for use by health-care professionals. He said the current allowable signs were inadequate to meet the needs of the public and businesses.

Kennedy expressed concern that billboards could come into play in the health-care zone if not directly addressed in an overhauled sign law. Herron disagreed and noted that the mayor had used a billboard during her election campaign in the vicinity of the hospital.

"I will strongly remind you about your billboard across the highway [from the Buffalo Hill medical complex] at the last election," Herron said.

Kennedy snapped back: "I'm perfectly aware of where my advertisements were during my election, and I believe that remark is totally ridiculous."

At this point, Herron's and Kennedy's remarks tended to run together; anger was the only thought obviously being communicated.

After a few seconds, Kennedy rapped her gavel: "Councilman Herron. Councilman Herron. That's enough!"

The council meeting then continued as if nothing happened, although tension could still be seen on both faces.

Herron then skipped the council workshop session, which ended up lasting only a few minutes because most of the discussion items were postponed. The other eight council members all attended the abbreviated workshop sessions.

On Tuesday, Herron criticized the council's practice of holding late-evening, discussion-only workshops after its regular meetings, saying the mayor controls those agendas too much.

A month ago, Herron also brought up a topic whose roots were partly buried in the tensions between him and Kennedy over how she conducts herself as mayor.

At the council's Sept. 6 meeting, Herron suggested that whenever a developer briefs the city government in depth about a project - including proprietary information - that three of nine council members meet with the city manager and the developer, then three more council members, and then the final three. A group of three council members is not explicitly a public meeting under Montana open meetings law.

In an early September interview, Herron said the idea is that all nine council members learn everything possible about a development project, including proprietary information, so they can make intelligent decisions.

He contended that many council members have been kept out of the loop on some developer-related information that only Kennedy and City Manager Jim Patrick were privy to - and therefore, the council voted on some development decisions with incomplete data.

"Things tend to get rammed down our throats," Herron said.

Herron said one example, but not the only one, was the council's quickness last summer to annex the proposed Old School Station industrial park south of Kalispell.

While he supported the annexation, Herron said Kennedy and Patrick were the only city leaders full briefed on the developers' detailed plans, and the council felt pressured to approve annexation quickly.

Herron characterized his suggestion of serial three-council-member meetings as an information-gathering tool and not as a potential violation of Montana's open meetings laws.

However, an attorney with Montana's Freedom of Information Hotline said Herron's suggestion could very likely violate Montana's open meetings law. One potential penalty is that any decisions adopted as the result of an illegal meeting could be nullified, the attorney said.

Interviews with several council members found that the overwhelming majority are uncomfortable with Herron's suggestion because of openness issues, and don't believe such a move is warranted.

In a September interview, Kennedy characterized her role in the Old School Station annexation as being involved with some preliminary contacts, but then being no more active than any other council member in the city's communications with developers Andy Miller and Paul Wachholz. Kennedy said the City Council, not she, controlled how and how fast it addressed Old School Station matters.

"Bob Herron has a perception that I'm in an inside loop on development matters. It's solely a perception. … I understand I'm one of nine on the council," Kennedy said.

While council member Hank Olson believes talk about a Kennedy-Herron tiff should be downplayed, he also sees the tension as a natural and healthy flexing of strong personalities.

Olson said everyone in a leadership or council position "oversteps their bounds until someone stops them. … Controversy in a democracy, in my mind, is good."

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com