FVCC hopefuls square off

Friday’s Glacier Country Pachyderm forum started out with some sharp jabs with candidates for four Flathead Valley Community College trustee positions as the main event before the Republican group.

Candidates participating were Robert Nystuen, the single candidate for the Flathead/Glacier High School district three-year term;  Tim Baldwin, Michael Hebert and incumbent Shannon Lund, vying for a two-year term for the Flathead/Glacier district; and Ed Berry, Roland Horst, Glenn Wehe and incumbent Tom Harding seeking the two positions representing Bigfork, Columbia Falls and Whitefish school districts.

John Phelps, the other incumbent for the three-district seats, missed the forum due to a business meeting in Missoula.

Drawing the starting position, Berry, a certified consulting meteorologist and physicist, launched into allegations against incumbents similar to those he had presented Wednesday to Flathead County commissioners.

After listing his degrees including a doctorate in physics, Berry claimed the trustees committed election violations as well as other improprieties and said commissioners should suspend them.

He claimed that trustees committed fraud by appointing Shannon Lund a month before the election, used college photos in their campaigns, had an improper audit that did not disclose trustees’ banking conflicts of interest, and were derelict for not removing trustee Tom McElwain after he was absent from the district 60 consecutive days.

Berry said the trustees have the burden of proof to show his charges weren’t true. He quoted a remark from a citizen that this was the first “open” trustee election in years.

Hebert, an insurance agent, took more shots by criticizing trustees for canceling elections.

“It’s a real failure of democracy to cancel elections,” he said.

Hebert also accused incumbents of being fiscally irresponsible because they invested money in bricks and mortar rather than in the “hearts, minds and souls.”

Horst, a medical office manager, and Wehe, a school technical coordinator, also hammered incumbents for what Wehe called perceived corruption and blatant nonconformity with election laws.

Harding, a retired businessman, and Nystuen, a bank president, came prepared for combat.

Harding began with a quote he attributed to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “In God we trust — all others bring data.”

He cited the achievements in his 21 years as a trustee, including the enrollment growing from about 400 full-time-equivalent students studying in old buildings downtown to more than 2,100 today with a 170,000 square-foot campus.

Harding recalled how in 1990 the school had fiscal problems but in 2011 received a legitimate audit by the legislative fiscal division with no findings. He said that perfect audit included reviews of all federal funds received by the community college.

“That’s very difficult to do,” Harding said.

Nystuen listed the elections in 2004, 2005 and 2008 that attracted challengers. He said the problem was that very few people chose to run in many of the other trustee elections.

He thanked the challengers for coming forth and “giving us a good challenge.”

Harding said two elections were canceled in accordance with Montana law that allows election by acclamation when only one candidate has filed for an open trustee position.

“In two years that saved $15,000 to $20,000 that was put into classrooms and student support,” Harding said.

He said the college followed Montana code and publicized the open trustee positions with two news releases and postings on the school’s website.

“The college even extended the deadline” for filing, Harding said.

He said that was more than the law requires.  Harding said he also appreciated having competition but added he wished they weren’t “talking about these issues.”

Wehe brought up an issue he said had not been talked about. He asked what the college planned to do when the market was saturated with people trained in various programs.

According to Wehe, the college needs to develop programs for better-paying jobs, a theme echoed by some other challengers. He also said the college trained people for work opportunities outside Montana.

Lund, a Xerox account executive, stuck to promoting her qualifications for the trustee position. She cited her involvement in the college and community and her interactions with a wide variety of socio-economic groups.

She said that she had the time to serve and wants to share her talents with the college.

Baldwin, an attorney and one of her challengers, criticized Lund for campaigning with the other incumbents as a group.

He said they were trying to “coattail each other” instead of standing on their own merits. He also pointed out that Lund had only become a trustee in March.

He said he was a better choice because he was the age of the new majority of students in the 31- to 32-year- old group. As a young father, he said he knows their concerns about their own lives and their children’s lives.

Baldwin objected to his characterization by some as “a tea party take-over candidate.” He said he is a well-qualified candidate who is very interested in the school and the community.

In his opening, Baldwin acknowledged this election had “caused quite a stir.” He called that a good sign.

“The American spirit is alive and well in this valley,” he said.

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