POLSON – The Polson City Commission will take on a drastic new look after the first of the year, with a new mayor, who held the same position some 20 years ago, and three new commissioners.
And for the first time in recent memory, women will hold three of the seven positions. Pat DeVries easily defeated incumbent Mayor Lou Marchello; Judy Preston narrowly unseated incumbent Jules Clavadetscher; and Commissioner Elsa Duford is in the middle of a four-year term.
Ron Boyce won a vacant four-year term, while the commission will soon appoint someone to replace Jim Sohm, who recently resigned.
When DeVries held the mayoral position from 1986-1990 it was quite a different scenario. Since then, this town of some 5,000 residents has switched to a city manager form of government.
Under the previous strong-mayor system, the sitting mayor ran the show with the guidance of the city commission and the help of an administrative assistant. City Manager Todd Crossett is now the city’s chief administrator who acts at the behest of the commission but runs the day-to-day operations.
DeVries, a certified public accountant with an office in town, sees this as a much easier proposition than what once was a full-time job.
But she does not view the mayor’s position as a figurehead post. And she has strong opinions about why she again decided to run for office after receiving public encouragement to get involved.
“I was getting really frustrated from what I was reading in the paper about their inability to hire a city manager,” DeVries said about the commission, adding that she is a firm believer in the new system.
“I think the council has difficulty trying to accept this form of government and how it works,” she said. “I don’t think it has been a smooth transition and it just seemed to me that they were fighting that form of government.”
While several city manager candidates were sent forward from two different nominating committees for the commission to consider, it took nearly a year to replace the departed Jay Henry. Several viable candidates withdrew after talking to the commission, took another position or failed to sign an employment contract.
“I sensed there was something not working the way I thought it should,” she said. “It really scared me and I didn’t really quite understand it, and I still don’t.”
DeVries, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the Public Service Commission in the 1980s and was treasurer of Ted Schwinden’s 1980 gubernatorial campaign, also didn’t like what she saw when she attended city commission meetings.
“I was really disappointed in the lack of discussion at the meetings … about the topics that they were making their decisions on,” she said. “To me it didn’t seem like they had a lot of information in front of them.”
As the mayor, she will have no direct contact with city employees, instead dealing with the city manager. But DeVries openly questioned whether city staff is performing adequately.
“They (city commissioners) probably put trust in the people that say this is what we should do and maybe the homework hasn’t been done like it should,” she said. “You have to make sure that the staff is doing the work and their background so that you are making good decisions and you have to make sure it’s documented.”
DeVries also believes the public currently distrusts the commission and wants better communication.
The placing of a Resort tax on the November ballot – the measure failed badly – is an example, she said, and a prime reason why she decided to run.
“They made the decision to put it on the ballot without any real homework being done and that’s not the way you approach something that massive,” said DeVries. “Polson, because of being on the (Flathead Indian) reservation, is a different breed of cat and you have to take that into account.”
By Federal law, tribal members would be exempt from such a tax and tribal businesses would not have been required to participate, part of which made the measure contentious.
DeVries, a former two-term member of the Polson School Board of Trustees with a wide variety of previous state and local board experience, also views cash flow, water and sewer and the downtown as prime challenges for the future of Polson.
She has proposed a facilitated retreat with the commission, city manager and city attorney to get to know each other, set goals, establish priorities and fully commit to the city manager form of government.
“I think that could make a big difference,” said DeVries, adding that the commission has not yet supported the idea.
An Anaconda native and Montana State University graduate, DeVries approaches her new position with vigor, explaining that while change isn’t easy, it’s necessary for a vibrant community to prosper.
“There’s something to be said for history, but also a point that you need to bring in some new blood,” she said. “It gets to be a little circle and the smaller and smaller they make it, the more people don’t trust government.”