County picks Grieve as top planner

Flathead County Interim Planning Director BJ Grieve took the reins Thursday as the new county planning director.

The county commissioners unanimously approved an employment contract for Grieve, choosing him as the top candidate among three finalists. Nine people applied for the job.

Grieve, 33, formerly was the assistant planning director and filled in as interim director when Jeff Harris left the job July 30. Grieve will be paid an annual salary of $62,500; Harris was earning $85,000 a year.

The assistant planning director position was eliminated due to a significant downturn in county growth the past two years.

The commissioners decided in April not to renew Harris’ contract.

During his five years as director, Harris led the Planning Office through an unprecedented county growth spurt, but later became the target of the American Dream Montana property-rights group that accused him of impropriety and wrongdoing that ranged from inappropriate e-mails on county computers to violations of open-record and open-meeting laws.

A county-funded investigation cleared Harris of any wrongdoing.

Grieve said he will focus on making sure he and his staff are consistent and predictable as they handle the county’s planning business.

“My talent lies in communicating and relationship-building,” he said. “What I’ve tried to do throughout my time here is to come to work, treat people fairly and have good communication with both sides of an issue, be up front, be reasonable.”

“I hope the public feels that has worked for me,” he added.

Grieve joined the planning staff in March 2004 after working for a year on a local surveying crew.

A Wisconsin native, Grieve has a degree in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a master’s degree in geography from East Carolina University, where he completed his thesis on “The Influence of Catchment and Bathymetry Characteristics on the Spatial Distribution of Sedimentation in Alpine Lakes.”

While geography is a broad discipline and his coursework included classes in planning, becoming a planner wasn’t immediately on Grieve’s radar screen as a career.

He jumped in as Flathead County was undergoing significant residential and commercial growth and quickly saw the value of consistency and transparency in planning work.

His knowledge of planning issues over the past six years gives him a jump-start to his new job.

“I can’t imagine just showing up in Flathead County and starting this job,” he said.

Grieve said his focus will be both the inner workings of the Planning Office and outreach to county residents.

“We’ll shift internally to make sure we’re doing the best we can so there’s a predictability and consistency of the [planning] process,” he said, adding that policies and planning templates will be fine-tuned as needed. “Before we launch big projects we need to make sure the process is consistent. And anytime we take on new projects, the county commissioners need to be on board.”

Among Grieve’s first outreach efforts will be holding community listening sessions in West Glacier, where business owners want to expand commercial uses. In the past he has met with professional associations for engineers, surveyors and with agricultural producers.

“I love getting that feedback, even if they’re hammering you,” he said. “It helps in your daily decision-making. Some of the most educational presentations were where I got beat up pretty good.”

Grieve is well aware that he’ll be under the microscope of groups such as American Dream Montana, but said he takes an open-minded approach to every request.

“I’m not here to push an agenda but to listen with a reasonable ear,” he said.

Grieve is also aware that American Dream Montana wants the county growth policy rescinded, and said if the group is successful in gathering enough signatures and convinces the county is should be scrapped, “we’ll administer repealing it.

“We can provide factual information, [but] it’s not our role to use public dollars to convince people why they should or should not” support the growth policy,” Grieve said.

Grieve invites people to stop by the Planning Office or call him with any planning-related questions.

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