Challengers critical of FVCC election

After the last two Flathead Valley Community College trustee elections had no contested races, this year’s May 3 election has awakened more interest.

Five candidates — Tim Baldwin, Ed Berry, Michael Hebert, Roland Horst and Glenn Wehe — have filed against incumbents Shannon Lund, Tom Harding and John Phelps for three of four open college trustee positions.

According to Berry, an engineer and atmospheric physicist, the granting of an extension of the filing date changed this election from a non-election with just the four incumbents to a competitive race with trustee candidate choices.

He criticized the college for closing races too early, as well as not advertising the open trustee positions and the final date for filing.

“By not making public announcements, the board of trustees pretty much assured that no one except their invited friends would apply,” Berry said. “The present board of trustees appears to be incestuous, which is to be expected when the general public does not openly compete with incumbents.”

In recent years, incumbent trustees had no opponents in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. Candidates challenged Harding in 2005 and trustee Phelps and Harding in 2008 to represent the Bigfork, Columbia Falls and Whitefish high school districts.

According to college President Jane Karas, the college followed every requirement of Montana state code with the board passing and publishing a resolution declaring vacancies and setting the election date. She said the college also sends out press releases announcing the openings and the final filing date and time.

“We’re not required to publicize it, but we do,” she said. Press releases also are posted on the college website, www.fvcc.edu.

Berry said he went through local newspapers for several weeks and reviewed the college website but found no information about openings and filing information.

“On March 25th I went to the president’s office and said I’d like to apply for a trustee position,” he said.

Because filing had closed at noon on the day before, Berry said he was told he could not file, leaving only an option to run as a write-in candidate. Another candidate, Michael Hebert, a Farmers Group Insurance agent and graduate of the community college, faced the same problem a day earlier.

Berry and Hebert looked into the election law and found that community colleges may keep filing open up to 30 days prior to the election. Hebert said he and Berry started a grass-roots effort to reopen the filings to the last legal day.

“The state election board got involved,” Hebert said.

 Karas said she never was contacted by the state board. She said she asked for and received legal advice that she could extend the filing to April 4 at 5 p.m., so she did in response to public requests.

“That gave me time to tell a few more friends about the positions that were open,” Berry said.

 Hebert said Berry had suggested that he file at a local event after hearing him ask pointed questions of the speaker.

 Berry also encouraged candidates Horst , a medical office manager; Wehe, technical director for Evergreen School District; and Baldwin, an attorney, to file for election. Berry said he became acquainted with these men and their qualifications through conservative organizations such as the Pachyderm Club and Freedom Action Rally.

He said they are running to offer their varied backgrounds and give voters an open election with a choice of new perspectives to guide the college in the next decade.

“I do not have specific programs or changes to recommend — other than to be sure the trustees publicize candidacy opportunities beginning next year and that they follow Montana Code Annotated in their election procedures,” he said.

Berry, Horst and Wehe threw their hats in the ring for the two open positions representing Bigfork, Columbia Falls and Whitefish high school districts. Incumbents Harding and Phelps also filed seeking further three-year terms.

Even with the election date extended, Berry’s and Hebert’s filing problems continued.

Berry had intended to file for the Kalispell High School District seat held by trustee Bob Nystuen, president of Glacier Bank and board chairman. Nystuen is unopposed in the May 3 election.

Berry collected new signatures and changed positions when he found he lived just over the border in the Bigfork High School District.

 Baldwin and Hebert filed to run for the remaining two years in the Flathead High School trustee term filled since March by Lund. The trustees selected Lund to replace John Engebretson, a longtime trustee who resigned in February.

When Hebert realized that Nystuen had no opponents, he asked to switch his filing to that position since he had collected two petitions of signatures. He said the problem was that both were attached to his filing for the two-year seat.

Karas said his request was denied because both petitions specified the two-year term so the second could not be used as a nominating petition for the three-year seat.

Hebert said he accepted the president’s decision on the petition. He added that he felt the petition with signatures from the same district should have been accepted to make the election as open as possible.

 He said he would like to see a change to a more distant official making decisions about trustee elections.

“If the president has a close relationship to the board and it’s a big factor in her position, it’s a little too close for comfort,” Hebert said.

Baldwin said he shared Hebert’s and Berry’s concerns about limiting access to the ballot with early closure or inadequate publicity on closing dates for filing. He practices in a variety of areas of law but said he has a special passion for constitutional law because those issues have political and philosophical impact on every citizen’s life.

“I think it’s important in every free society to have an exchange of ideas and competition of qualifications,” he said. “What we want to do is inform people of issues and see what other people are thinking.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.