Rod Bernhardson - County Commission District 1

Rod Bernhardson, a Republican candidate for the Flathead County District 1 commissioner position, is very clear about his intention to fill out a vacant term, not to become a career politician.

If elected, he would not run for a full term in the 2014 election, he said.

“I can’t commit six years, but I want to fill out Jim Dupont’s seat because he was so well respected and so many of my friends urged me to file,” Bernhardson said.

“So many things get out of control and I want to fix them,” he said. “I want to slow things down, deal with the big issues and let people make a better choice” for the next full term on the commission.

“We’re in the middle of the recession still and we need to slow it down,” Bernhardson said.

One issue he wants commissioners to work on in the next two years is addressing traffic flow in and out of the Flathead Valley as it relates to getting locally made products out of the area.

“We’ve bottled ourselves in here so we can’t get our products out of here, except at the airport,” Bernhardson said.

However, he does not think the solution to traffic flow is to build the second half of Kalispell’s west-side bypass.

Flathead County has good water and a good climate, Bernhardson said. Those conditions mean the area “should revel in agriculture.” He sees potential to produce cheese for export and to export grass-fed beef, but worries transportation limitations could hamper such endeavors.

Bernhardson says the best way to resolve the pending litigation to determine which entity should have jurisdiction within the Whitefish “doughnut” is “to start over — clear the table.”

Residents of the doughnut “have the right to vote their own destiny,” Bernhardson said. “I would make sure they can vote their destiny. They need to have their say.”

The only way to accurately assess the preferences of doughnut residents about whether the county or the city of Whitefish should govern planning in the area is to conduct an official vote of those residents, Bernhardson said.

Whatever the results of that vote are, the two governments should abide by it, he said, and quit wasting people’s time on litigation.

Generally, Flathead County is involved in too much litigation, he said.

“There are too many lawyers involved in everything and lawsuits get held over the heads” of government leaders, he said.

He supports some sort of penalty against people whose lawsuits are determined to have been frivolous, so the winning party can at least recoup its costs.

Without being privy to specific details of pending litigation, Bernhardson said it’s hard to say how the county should respond to lawsuits.

One of the easiest ways to increase the efficiency of Flathead County government would be to consolidate work crews whenever possible, he said.

With cross-training, in some cases a crew from one department might be able to do the work that otherwise might require a second crew from another department, he said.

Bernhardson said there might be instances where it makes more sense to contract out some types of work “in the farthest reaches of the county,” instead of sending employees out to jobs it takes hours to travel to and from.

But, he doesn’t support that approach if it means county equipment sits idle.

In theory, the suggestion made by some that Flathead County have full operational control of the 911 center makes some sense, Bernhardson said. Typically that approach leads to cost savings, he said.

“But to change the system — I don’t know. It would be really hard to change it all.”

He said he would want input and suggestions about any operational changes from all the involved at the dispatch center.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.