Brenneman proud of collaboration

Joe Brenneman doesn’t hesitate when asked what his biggest accomplishment has been during his six years as Flathead County commissioner.

“Getting people to work together,” he said. “When you’re a minority member [the lone Democrat on the commission] you can’t do anything without the support of the other two commissioners.”

During his campaign for re-election, Brenneman stressed that one of the reasons he feels he’s been successful in moving projects forward is his ability “to come up with an idea and put in place the framework for the community to solve the problem.”

His collaborative efforts weren’t enough to get him re-elected, though, in a heavily Republican county and with Americans in an anti-Democrat mood. He lost by a wide margin to Republican Pam Holmquist in November’s general election.

“I realize that in the last election Daffy Duck, running as a Republican, likely would have beaten me,” Brenneman said, “but I have great respect for those courageous individuals, both Democrat and Republican, who realize the county commissioner should not be a partisan position but should be chosen based on experience and ability and wrote a letter to the editor or displayed some other form of support. It doesn’t take bravery to be a bully, but it takes tremendous courage to take a stand against one.”

Brenneman said he’s taken an analytical, pragmatic approach to decisions he’s made as a commissioner, adding that he can defend any of those decisions with a sound rationale.

“I knew that politically some decisions weren’t popular,” he said.

The Creston dairy farmer perhaps took his biggest public beating — figuratively that is — over his vote on the North Shore Ranch project at the north end of Flathead Lake.

He voted against the subdivision planned next to a wildlife preserve, the developers sued the county and the county had to pay a $1 million settlement. The case became a poster child for property rights advocates, but through it all Brenneman stood by his vote against the subdivision, saying he couldn’t in good conscience support a project that he believed would adversely affect the environmentally sensitive area.

Brenneman voted against the lawsuit settlement on the premise, too, that no one can put a price tag on the qualities that make the Flathead Valley the special place it is. He wanted the lawsuit to go to trial.

“The soul of the area is the one thing we can’t destroy,” Brenneman said last March. “It includes our ability to hunt and fish and have clean water ... if there is a jury who feels we should spend [this amount of money] to give to an out-of-state developer, then in fact we’ve probably already lost our soul.”

Brenneman said he feels he’s leaving county government in much better shape on many fronts, from a budget that has withstood the pressures of the recession to a much-improved state of emergency preparedness.

He pushed for consolidation in county government and was surprised when proposals such as consolidating the elected position of superintendent of schools with the Treasurer’s Office were met with heavy opposition, especially since smaller government is a value Republicans traditionally tout.

“I believe the commissioners should bring these ideas up,” he said of consolidation proposals. “To not ask the questions doesn’t serve the taxpayers well.”

Brenneman was very involved in getting the new 911 centralized dispatch center up and running. The switchover has not been without its challenges, he admitted.

He likened getting all of the new equipment and data transfers coordinated to getting both knees replaced at the same time. It’s going to take a while before the kinks are worked out. Switching radio equipment from analog to digital has added another layer of challenges, he added.

Some of Brenneman’s accomplishments never made headlines, such as his effort to get the county, state and federal government all on the same page in fighting wildfires and pooling resources.

The outgoing commissioner has been actively involved with the Northern Tier Interoperability Consortium that is establishing a new communications network to link law-enforcement and government agencies across Northern Montana.

He also has networked with various state agencies and associations to put Flathead County on the front burner, particularly for grant funding. He got $4 million for a new digital radio system for the county and brought in $1.3 million for Bigfork’s stormwater system.

Brenneman got a $90,000 state grant to help the Flathead County River Commission develop a strategic plan for countywide wastewater treatment.

The river commission, which emerged out of concern from riverfront landowners, will continue, and Brenneman hopes someone will step up to coordinate grant funding.

“There’s significant money available,” he said, “but you need to coordinate with the tribe, the Northwest Power Council and Fish, Wildlife and Parks. I was just making inroads into that.”

Brenneman hopes his networking wasn’t all for naught and that the other commissioners will pick up where he’s leaving off connecting with various state associations.

He’s also hopeful that the commissioners will do what’s necessary to take care of the Flathead’s valuable resources, whether they relate to timber, farming or tourism.

“I wonder if people will realize that we can have good growth with proper planning if we do it analytically and not emotionally,” he mused. “We can do all kinds of things if we work together.”

As Brenneman heads back to dairy farming full time, the first order of business is taking care of some long overdue “deferred maintenance” at his Creston dairy.

“I’ve really had two full-time jobs,” he said, adding that the dairy often has taken a back seat to his commissioner work.

He also is contemplating a trip to Haiti to help with earthquake recovery efforts. He spent a semester in Haiti in 1979 doing service work as part of his college curriculum.

A lifelong Mennonite, Brenneman is ever mindful of the church’s mission to help other people and make a difference, wherever that may take him.

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