Kalispell Hosts First in a Series of Town Halls for ‘Casual Conversations’
Councilors, the mayor and the city manager will be in council chambers Monday night to chat with residents about local issues
By Zoë Buhrmaster
During the run-up to last year’s municipal election, a common theme emerged during the campaign for Kalispell City Council and mayoral seats: improving communication between the council and the community.
Over the years, projects have come before the council for discussion for weeks or even months only to receive an outburst of community feedback in the final stages of decision-making. Last year, that was the case with a proposed grant for the Main Street Safety Action Plan, a plan city officials spent more than a year mapping out and that public comment in the final hour moved councilors to halt.
During Mayor Ryan Hunter’s campaign, he said he heard from residents that they wanted more of a “back and forth” with councilors.
“It came out of the election there was a lot of talk about a general feeling or sentiment out there that there wasn’t enough engagement from city council in front of the public,” he said. “Obviously we have public comment in meetings, but it’s very restricted – we can’t have dialogue as far as meeting rules and limits in time.”
Starting Monday evening, councilors will host the first in a series of town halls to give Kalispell residents a space to informally converse with councilors about city issues. The discussions are planned for the last Monday of months with a fifth Monday, when council doesn’t normally meet.
The other fifth Mondays fall on June 29, August 31, and November 30.
Hunter said he’s curious to see whether the informal setting draws more feedback from community members on the city’s growth plan update. The council’s last public hearing on the plan received few public comments, drawing concern from councilors in light of the plan’s mandated elimination of public hearings for individual developments and frontloading of public comment.
Most of Kalispell’s councilors said they will be at the town hall, along with Hunter and City Manager Jarod Nygren.
“It’s just an opportunity to hear from folks and answer any question we can,” Hunter said.
The town hall is set for March 30 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at city hall. It will not be recorded or streamed live as it is not a regularly scheduled meeting.