Committee appointments a matter of dispute

A local attorney whose offer to volunteer on Kalispell’s impact fee committee was turned down is criticizing Mayor Tammi Fisher and other city leaders for instead leaving seats on the advisory board empty.

Jim Cossitt addressed his concerns to the City Council on Monday.

He questioned whether the power to appoint or not appoint is being used to squelch discussion about impact fees at the advisory board level.

Put on the spot, Fisher countered that Cossitt remains free to participate in those discussions but won’t be able to bully her into appointing him.

Cossitt is no stranger to Kalispell’s impact fees.

He said he served on the impact fee committee from March 2006 to May 2010. He applied to be reappointed in spring 2010 and did not secure an appointment and applied unsuccessfully again in April when the city advertised numerous board openings.

Fisher and other members of the City Council opted to leave two seats on the impact fee committee empty rather than appoint Cossitt or a second applicant.

Cossitt said Monday the only explanation he ever heard was that the City Council chose not to appoint anyone to the impact fee committee because it is in the middle of reviewing proposed increases in sanitary sewer and water impact fees.

The fees have not been adjusted in almost five years and now face large possible increases.

The review has continued for months at the impact fee committee level and grown to include a search for other possible funding methods to prevent large impact fee increases for the development community. Two of the committee’s three volunteer members — Chad Graham and Jason Mueller — have filed to run for the Kalispell City Council in the November election.

On Monday, Cossitt pointed to a section of the Montana Constitution that says the public has a right to expect government agencies to afford reasonable opportunity for citizen participation prior to making final decisions and a Montana law that directs municipalities that enact impact fees to establish an advisory committee to monitor how the fees are calculated, assessed and spent.

Cossitt also pointed to past turmoil involving the impact fee committee and the “hostility” of some City Council members toward impact fees.

The City Council voted 5-3 to repeal road impact fees in February 2012. That vote triggered the protest resignation of four volunteers on the impact fee committee the following day.

Three volunteers — Graham, Mueller and Larry Sartain — have since been appointed to the committee. Others on the committee are City Council member Jeff Zauner and Kalispell Finance Director Rick Wills, leaving up to two seats empty.

“Given the past history of the turmoil on the impact fee committee and the mass resignation that occurred a little over a year ago, one can reasonably conclude that the mayor and council have decided it’s easier to not appoint people who might dissent than comply with the spirit of the law,” Cossitt said.

Cossitt said he does not agree with the notion that no one should be appointed to the committee because it is in the middle of a review.

“That’s another excuse to deny citizens of this community the right to participate,” he said. “And it goes back to my basic point that the failure to appoint qualified candidates to those committees, even if they’re in the middle of deliberation on significant topics, is further depletion of human capital and that the power to appoint is being exercised to squelch informed discussion.”

Fisher bristled at the assertion that anyone’s right to participate is being denied. She defended the decision not to appoint Cossitt or a second applicant to the impact fee committee and said they still have every chance to participate.

“Any person in the public can go to any meeting and provide comments and engage in their right to comment. What you do not have is a fundamental right to appointment on a public body,” Fisher said.

She added that the City Council and all of its advisory boards accept public comment on every agenda item.

“We want participation. We want people to come offer public comment to every committee we have. We would not infringe on that right to participate, nor have we,” Fisher said.

She added: “And I won’t be bullied into an appointment. Ever.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.