Candidate backs planning, property rights

Pam Holmquist doesn’t see property rights and planning as adversaries. In fact, just the opposite is true, the longtime Evergreen businesswoman contends.

“Protecting property rights requires good planning,” Holmquist said. “The county is polarized [over these issues] and it doesn’t need to be.”

Holmquist is vying for the Flathead County Commission District 2 seat currently held by Democrat Joe Brenneman.

A Republican, she faces Howard Gipe and Patrick Nickol in the June 8 primary election (absentee voting begins May 10). It’s her second bid for commissioner; she ran five years ago for the seat now held by Dale Lauman.

She sees her 32 years of local business experience as an asset to serving as a commissioner.

“I have a vested interest in this county, and the only way my family business survives is if Flathead County thrives,” she said.

Holmquist also feels called to public service, to give back some of what the community has given to her and her family.

Jobs will be a major issue for the Flathead Valley in the coming years, she said. Holmquist said she believes the county needs to be courting new business and supporting existing businesses. To that end, she would like to see a coalition of commissioners, mayors and legislators to represent collective interests in lowering taxes and bringing jobs here.

“I look forward to working with our legislators,” she said. “I know most of them and they’re awesome.”

She will spend the time needed to work with the Legislature on lowering taxes.

“The reappraisals were based on flawed data,” she maintained. “They used values taken at the height of the market. It’s the first time in history that taxable value is in excess of market value. Property appraisals need to reflect actual value, not inflated value.”

Holmquist said her business experience would give her a good understanding of the county budgeting process. She remembers the tough times in the early 1980s with sky-high interest rates and how important it was to spend wisely and frugally.

“I’ve always been a penny pincher,” she said. “You put away in the good times, so you have a buffer in the tougher times.

“The basis for all decisions [as a commissioner] is a recognition that it’s not my money we are spending, it’s the taxpayers’,” she said.

Holmquist supports a continuation of the hiring freeze imposed to help the county cut costs.

Reining in spending falls in line with Holmquist’s philosophy of less government. She wants the county to provide basic services that protect the health, welfare and safety of its residents — no more, no less.

The budget will dictate what can be done to improve county roads, she said. With more than 1,100 miles of county-maintained roads, there’s no way to pave or curb dust on all of them. But the cost-sharing program seems to be working well, she said, and rural special improvement districts could be a tool, provided there’s neighborhood buy-in.

Neighborhood support also is important in zoning and neighborhood plan proposals, Holmquist stressed.

“No one should have their property zoned without their knowledge,” she said. “You need to be knocking on doors” before public meetings are scheduled, not afterwards.

“Zoning and developing a neighborhood plan are difficult processes and they should be. Essentially a law is being created,” she said.

Holmquist weighed in on a recent proposal by the American Dream Montana property-rights group to overturn the county growth policy, saying she doesn’t believe it should be a regulatory document. If the growth policy were put to a public vote, Holmquist said she supports the voting rights of the public.

“A good group of people worked on writing the growth policy,” she said. “Eliminating [it] will not eliminate the divisiveness.”

The Whitefish planning jurisdiction or “doughnut” debate also is on Holmquist’s radar screen. She would resolve the issue by having a joint Whitefish City-County Planning Board review all applications in the two-mile doughnut area, with the ultimate decision given to the commissioners.

Protecting water quality in the Flathead has been an important issue for Holmquist for years, evidenced by her 14 years of service on the Evergreen County Sewer and Water District board.

And it’s not just about quality, she noted; it’s also about water quantity and preserving water rights so they “aren’t undermined by the federal government or Indian tribes,” she said.

Holmquist is ready to go with a massive door-to-door campaign as the primary election approaches. It’s a crucial election, she said, with crucial issues.

“I want to be part of the process,” she added.

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com