Candidates discuss qualifications, ideas

Seven of the 10 candidates for Libby City Council attended a public forum Wednesday evening in Libby to discuss their qualifications and visions for the city’s future. 

Current council members Allen Olsen and Dejon Raines, both up for re-election, along with candidates D.C. Orr, Gary Beach, Joe Miller, Brian Zimmerman and Arlen Magill, answered a series of questions and pitched their plans for the city to a group of about a dozen interested residents. Councilwoman Peggy Williams, also up for re-election, and candidates Joseph Johnston and Doug Roll did not respond to invitations to participate.

The forum was civil, with the candidates often complimenting each other on their answers and comments.

The common theme of the discussion was change. Each of the candidates, in answers to various questions, highlighted the need to change the way the city functions and to get beyond the petty squabbles of the past in order to move the city forward.

Arlen Magill, the Libby resident who filed a complaint against former City Attorney Jim Reintsma, Mayor Doug Roll, council members Barb Desch and Peggy Williams and former council members Bill Bischoff, Vicky Lawrence and Robin Benson, said his history proves he is independent and willing to act according to his own conscience.

“Absolutely, I can be independent,” he said. “Especially when it comes to going out and looking up the Montana Code Annotated, I’ve proven that. I think it’s extremely important that regardless of whether you’ve known the person you’re serving next to on the city council for 20 years, or 30, or 50 years, that you need to be able to do your own research and make your own decision based on what’s best for the residents of Libby.”

Brian Zimmerman said listening to other people is important, but the direction of the city needs to change.

“I do believe that you need to listen to everybody, whether it’s your residents coming to you or your fellow council members,” he said. “I do believe that we need a change. This community has gone downhill over the past few years.”

Joe Miller stressed the importance of being independent and standing for personal values, even when the decisions being made upset people.

“Being on the City Council, making decisions for a lot of people and a lot of tax payers, you’re not always going to be their favorite person, and you’re not going to be your fellow council mates best friend either,” he said. “But your ideas are your 

own and your convictions are yours, they’re not someone else’s and you have to stand to those. Morally, ethically, responsibly. You have to, first off, respect the people that voted for you, that pay their taxes in the city and the people you work with every day.”

Gary Beach spoke about his life experience, moving to Libby from Germany before graduating high school, and the importance of Libby as his home.

“Libby’s just that place you always come home to,” he said. “That’s what it is, it’s home.”

He said the path forward will require cooperation and collaboration, people and agencies coming together to find solutions.

“Everyone works on their own here,” he said. “Nobody works together, and when you see what they do it doesn’t make any sense.”

He pointed to cooperative paving projects between the city and the county as success stories and models for future cooperation.

D.C. Orr’s primary focus was public participation.

“I have proved that you can’t fight city hall alone,” he said. “We need people to show up at the meetings. You guys need to hold the council accountable. I do know how to stand up for what I believe and how to articulate what I believe.”

Councilman Allen Olsen praised the group of candidates as an example of what the city needs, diverse minds and ideas.

“We should welcome diversified minds,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of diversified minds here. The so-called rubber stampers that we have on there right now, they all need to go. Like D.C. said, five to one votes for almost 10 years, council meetings for seven minutes, six minutes, nine minutes, that isn’t listening to not only anyone in the public, they’re not even listening to anyone on the council.”

Dejon Raines, unique in that she is running unopposed, said it is important for council members to be independent and voice their thoughts, but just as important that they listen to each other and the public.

“I was taught growing up to know what you stand for, and to stick to your guns on that,” she said. “But it’s also very important to couple that with being a good listener – we need to come to the table and give our expertise, give our opinion on things, but also listen to others so we can get their input on things as well.”

The entire forum will be broadcast on KVRZ radio, 88.9FM, at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21.