Mayor wants her city to prosper

Four years from now, Tammi Fisher wants her role as Kalispell mayor to be judged against three measures — transparency, accountability and accessibility.

When those are in place across the board in city government, she said in the infancy of her mayoral term this month, the citizens will be well-served.

“If we make key changes that are not necessarily difficult, we can accomplish that,” she said. “We can’t be afraid to discuss failures and successes …

“Nothing in government should be secret. I really think that all the people of Kalispell want is, if you screw up, acknowledge it and move on.”

The 33-year-old attorney and mother of two announced in June that, if elected to office, she intended to bring accountability to the city’s fiscal affairs, to air out the decision-making process as it takes place on the city council bench.

Now she’s beginning that process.

At her first council meeting Jan. 4, Fisher initiated a compromise on a proposed group home that helps the city adhere strictly to its zoning laws.

On Jan. 11, when the council began crafting an annexation policy, she quizzed police and fire officials on their current ability to serve outlying subdivisions, the city manager about the financial footings for Old School Station — and got dismal reports. She asked the city attorney to develop annexation alternatives.

“I’ll ask tough questions of department heads,” she said — questions designed to see what needs to be changed in the way the city is run.

“Changing directions doesn’t mean anything other than you’re looking for what’s best in a situation,” she said.

In the early going, Fisher said she is pleased with the diverse, lively discussion taking place at council meetings. Her role, she said, is to facilitate that discussion, to pick up on the salient points and continue a dialog on the proper role of city government.

“Bob Hafferman always brings it back to the ratepayer, to the taxpayer — and that is the focus of the council,” she said.

Revisiting annexation policy questions, Fisher said she’s no fan of using non-contiguous annexations as a means toward infill development. There’s already enough open space within city limits to accommodate healthy development, she said.

“At the end of the day, if it doesn’t make financial sense to the taxpayers,” she asked, “how are we going to [proceed] with that?”

A proposal for a mixed-use development north and east of Evergreen prompted the annexation policy discussion, but it also reminded the council of a less-than-productive track record when Kalispell has tried to venture into that territory.

So now she’s encouraged by City Manager Jane Howington’s offer to enter into talks with Evergreen leaders and hammer out a cooperative working relationship between Evergreen and Kalispell.

“For the greater good of the community, we need to have these discussions,” Fisher said.

There’s a certain similarity between Fisher and Howington: Neither backs away from tough tasks.

But one that Fisher thinks should be tackled is the question of where the city can make administrative cuts. She supports researching pay scales and administrative structures in Montana’s primary cities, looking in other jurisdictions to see how they’re dealing with tight finances.

She’s anxious to pile into the city budget process for 2010-11. Informational sessions began in November with explanations of city structure and departmental functions. Last week’s meeting continued with a look into human resources.

Fisher sees a need to establish a fiscal policy as the city moves forward: If the council wants a cash reserve at the end of the year, what will department heads have to do to get there? If a balanced budget is the priority, what will that take?

She will get an overview from Finance Director Amy Robertson, but said she’ll stop short of micromanaging.

And she’ll take a hard look into what was a prime campaign issue for her: ownership of City Hall. The city’s decision, she said, to sell the building to a New York finance firm when the city bought and remodeled the former Wells Fargo building, leasing it back until paid off, was foolhardy.

But she wants to know more.

“If that really is the only way to finance City Hall, then the financier should be local. I have a lot of heartburn with a New York firm,” she said.

She wants to get a feel for interest from local bankers, talk with the council, talk with City Attorney Charles Harball, then follow through. A period of close scrutiny is called for, she said.

“The city is in a tenuous position,” she said, “and how did they get there after a period of boom?” City Hall renovation was to be paid for with proceeds from sale of the armory, yet a cost overrun led to the questionable financing decision, she said.

“At that time we had a poor city manager with a lack of skills and a lack of transparency,” she said. “That atmosphere has changed.”

Part of the change came with Howington’s arrival.

“I have high expectations of Jane and I have no reason to think she can’t meet up to that,” Fisher said. “As the highest-paid city official, she should. They should all be held accountable. But the buck stops at city council, so I will hold Jane accountable.”

Perhaps the council’s biggest current hot-button issue is what to do with Kalispell City Airport. Public interest late last summer rolled the city into a series of discussions and a scoping process that officially began Nov. 30. The second session in that scoping process is Monday at City Hall.

“This fall’s approach has been a good process, which has been taking a step backwards before going forward,” Fisher said. The city needs to “be deliberate about gathering information.”

An approaching decision at the first council meeting in February on whether to enter into an agreement with Stelling Engineers as a consultant for the airport should not be threatening to airport opponents.

“Spending money to get additional expertise doesn’t mean we have our mind made up,” Fisher said. Potentially spending a reasonable amount on a study into the airport’s feasibility, she said, could help prevent a multimillion-dollar mistake later.

“Slow and deliberate is the way I look at the airport question,” she said. “I’m not going to be rushed to judgment by anybody else’s timeline … If you go in without a bias, you ultimately are forced to gather information before you make a decision.”

She’s happy with the trend highlighted by the process — citizen participation.

“It’s nice to see so many people take an active interest in local government. All that debate is good for government, good for the community,” she said. “People are getting involved in their community and they care. If you get that many involved, it’s a good thing.”

The goal for everyone, it seems, is a better community.

And, Fisher would ask, isn’t that the point?

Seared into Fisher’s memory is a picture of former Chrysler Corporation Chairman Lee Iacocca that her grandfather kept tacked up in his shop as she was growing up.

It still guides her today.

“It said, ‘Our only mission is to be the best. What else is there?’” she recalled.

“If I have a goal for Kalispell, it’s to prosper, socially and financially, on an individual and a collective basis. It’s to prosper.”

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com