Letters to the editor May 24
Sterling ready to lead
I am proud to endorse Sheena Sterling for Flathead County clerk and recorder.
Over the course of my career in county government, I learned that leadership matters, but so does service. The best public servants are the ones who know their job, respect the responsibility they have been given and never lose sight of the people they are there to serve.
Sheena Sterling brings those qualities to this race.
She has had the benefit of being mentored by Debbie Pierson, the current Flathead County clerk and recorder who is retiring after three terms of service. That kind of mentorship matters. At the same time, Sheena has built her own experience through years of dedicated work in the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, preparing her well for this position.
I have also been impressed by Sheena’s commitment to customer service. In county government, the public should be able to expect professionalism, courtesy and knowledgeable assistance, and Sheena has demonstrated those qualities in the way she serves others.
Flathead County will be well served by someone who is experienced, grounded and ready to lead. I believe Sheena Sterling is ready and I encourage your support for her as our next clerk and recorder.
— Jed Fisher, Kalispell
$1.776B in taxpayer dollars
To my Flathead neighbors who’ve supported President Donald Trump in the past, are you tired of the corruption yet?
It was announced that Trump dismissed his lawsuit against the IRS. In exchange, he will set up a fund with $1.776 billion. What will he do with the funds? No one really knows. It seems some may be given to convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionists and to Trump’s friends and supporters, men like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, but no one really knows. There are no rules. Five men chosen by Trump will decide the merits of each claim.
He is stealing $1.776 billion in taxpayer dollars with no rules, no oversight and, according to Judge Kathleen Williams, no legal court settlement. He is stealing the money now because he knew that his lawsuit against the IRS had no legal basis and was likely to be thrown out.
How much does he have to take from our country before it’s enough? How much is too much? Are you tired of the corruption yet?
— Amy Weeks, Columbia Falls
Campaign attacks
For months, I’ve watched people viciously attack a woman for not being from the state she’s running in.
Not being from the state she’s running in is an absolutely laughable and backward disqualification in today’s society. What’s even more insane is demonizing her for something her husband did before they even knew each other. I wonder how people would feel if they were the ones being treated so vilely.
What it comes down to is this: People are grasping at straws to disqualify a woman who has served and put her life on the line her whole entire life to keep the communities she’s lived in safe.
The people who support the incumbent have proven themselves to be nothing but vipers, which brings to mind Matthew 12:34; “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
— Kristen Neumann, Hungry Horse
Hohman will innovate
I support Cheryl Hohman for Flathead County clerk and recorder. As a licensed land surveyor, I’ve recorded surveys or been the project surveyor on projects in over 20 different counties in Montana. I have served as the examining land surveyor for Lake County since 2006.
I’ve been working with the Flathead County Clerk and Recorder’s Office on a professional level since becoming licensed in 1997. The dynamics of dealing with this office have changed dramatically in the last seven or eight years, and not for the better, hence my support for new leadership and Cheryl Hohman.
Cheryl will actually work on embracing technology and improving workflows, internally and with the public. The survey review process has been unchanged since I dropped off my first survey 29 years ago; an archaic process of physically submitting multiple hard copies to the Plat Room and then make three to five trips during the review process. Numerous counties have electronic submittal for similar prices but with savings to all parties in handling, travel and tracking. Revising the current “one-size-fits-none” exemption application process will also bring about workflow efficiencies for the Plat Room, surveyors and landowners.
Cheryl will be a working clerk and recorder with the soft skills to restructure the current management heavy organizational apparatus of the office. She won’t need to pay vendors thousands of your tax dollars to study ways to get the job done.
When it comes to integrity, accuracy and accountability for our county records and the tax dollars used to maintain them, Hohman has the votes of the vast majority of former county employees who supervised and or worked with the other candidate. Cheryl has my vote. She should have yours also.
— Mark Roedel, Kalispell