Meet Ward 4 candidate for Kalispell City Council Sid Daoud

The Daily Inter Lake reached out to Kalispell City Council candidates running in the Nov. 7 municipal election. The information below was provided by the candidates and edited for spelling, punctuation and space.

Name: Sid Daoud (Incumbent)

Age: 56

Family: Wife Kristenmarie; son, Antranik (31); son, Kaden (25); daughter, Cyan (22)

Occupation: Senior consultant for Summit 7 Systems

Community involvement: Family Cancer Support, Kalispell City Council, U.S. Army veteran, three-term chair of the Montana Libertarian Party, multiple housing support nonprofits, various liberty focused nonprofits, Toastmasters board member, board member of a 527 nonprofit focused on local and state-level races.

Why are you the right candidate for the position?

I represent a good portion of the people of Kalispell that are concerned with individual rights, self-reliance, property rights and limited government. I weigh every issue initially against its impact on the government's role of protecting our God-given individual rights and I have a voting record on Council that supports this.

How can Kalispell manage infrastructure needs amid rapid growth?

We have done a good job staying ahead of water, sewer, stormwater and other city services to include public safety, but no one could have planned for the rapid growth we saw during and after the pandemic. Roads are a more intricate issue as many of the conduits we use and rely upon are county or state owned — we need to continue to push and lobby for their growth and partner with those entities as much as possible. We are going to continue to grow, that’s just the plain truth, and staying ahead of that will be a challenge.

Audits of the police and fire departments point out the need for additional staff and equipment. How should Kalispell address public safety?

I think we are doing the correct and fiscally responsible thing by bringing up the choice for expanding police, fire and ambulance to the people in the form of a near future levy. It is very important to me that citizens can make the choice of expanding these services voluntarily as opposed to government mandates and forced tax increases.

What is the role of the city in addressing homelessness and housing issues?

These are two distinct issues that should allow a full response each.

If government could successfully address homelessness, we could point to examples of other cities that have done so. All I see are situations where government has made matters worse. What we can do is support our community members and local nonprofits coming to the table to work together to address homelessness.

For housing, the best thing government can do is get out of the way. The community working with trusted developers to create more inventory is the only way we will be able to provide housing for all income levels. Government involvement through standards, rules and regulations slow down development and make units more expensive for those who need it. I will never support subsidized housing as this type of housing does nothing to provide solutions for all, it takes a small portion of housing and moves those units out of competition with all other housing, all while trapping the recipients in a cycle of perpetual poverty.

What other issues should the city be addressing?

The role of municipal government is to provide a safe and productive environment for individuals and businesses to flourish. Local businesses are critical as they make the biggest impact on our economy. I believe that we should also look at our local code and ordinances to ensure they are not outdated and still needed, simplifying life for everyone.