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New County Commissioner Brodehl Looks to Manage Growth

Randy Brodehl's first week on the Flathead County Commission illuminates how growth will affect future priorities

By Molly Priddy
Flathead County Commissioner Randy Brodehl in Kalispell. Beacon file photo

Every odd-numbered year for the last eight years, Randy Brodehl has been sworn in at the Montana Legislature as a representative for Evergreen’s House District 9.

This year, Brodehl is sticking to his tradition, but this time he was sworn in as the most-recently elected Flathead County commissioner instead of at the Capitol building in Helena.

Though he’s not there for the 2019 Montana Legislature, jumping into his new role in Flathead County has been just as busy, Brodehl said in his office at the remodeled historic Flathead County Courthouse last week.
“It’s been interesting and challenging and exciting,” Brodehl said. “I’m involved in things I enjoy.”

While on the campaign trail, Brodehl said that his first action in office would be delving into budgeting for the Flathead 911 Emergency Communications Center, commonly referred to as the 911 center.

After the 911 center was approved and funded by the public, the county and its municipalities chipped in to start it off. However, without a different funding structure in place, a taxpayer in a city contributes to the city’s portion of funding through taxes while also contributing to the county’s share through taxes as well. Meanwhile, outside of the cities, residents in towns like Bigfork, Evergreen, and Lakeside only pay the county’s portion.

Voters have twice rejected ballot efforts to levy more taxes for the 911 center, Brodehl said, so it’s up to the board to figure out how to make the center’s budgeting more efficient.

Brodehl also said the federal government shutdown has affected how Flathead County is able to prepare for the upcoming wildfire season, because the U.S. Forest Service employees the county works with are furloughed. Meetings have been rescheduled and postponed right when planning should be underway, Brodehl said.

Otherwise, the county is keeping an eye on the federal shutdown as it pertains to funding received locally.

“There are a lot of pass-through funds that come from the taxpayers, go to the federal government, and then come back through state or federal [programs and grants],” Brodehl said. “At some point, they’re going to get bottlenecked in the shutdown.”

Future capital-improvement project priorities could shift as well. For years, the county has been saving for a new jail, but Brodehl said that might not be as pressing of an issue after the 2017 Legislature changed sentencing laws, speeding up the judicial process in certain cases. There were 102 people in the Flathead County jail last Thursday in a facility with 152 beds.

On the county level, Brodehl said there’s a need for better equipment and more funds for infrastructure maintenance, as well as a future landfill expansion. Infrastructure maintenance has piled up over the years, he said, and it’s usually been pushed back as a problem to deal with later.

“When the county started to grow, we knew those priorities had to be developed,” Brodehl said.

He hopes to build on existing relationships with the local municipalities as well as state and federal agencies to get the area’s roads and bridges in better condition.

“We have to figure out areas we can stand together on,” he said.

At the state level, Brodehl said he will pay close attention to the Legislature in session, especially as it pertains to water issues, sentencing, and fire-related bills. He said he intends to use some of the relationships he built in the Legislature to advocate for Flathead County’s needs.

Brodehl and his wife Joyce shut down their cabinetry business last April when Brodehl started his foray into county politics, and it remains closed, he said. He wanted to focus all his energy on his new position as one of three commissioners leading the county forward, and one of the biggest learning curves so far has been understanding the intricacies of the various communities within Flathead County.

“We have a lot of communities and everyone has their own personality,” Brodehl said. “Everyone has different wants and needs, and the commission has to respect that.”