Libby mayor urges improved responsiveness

Libby Mayor Brent Teske called on his colleagues on city council to improve their lines of communication earlier this month.

Teske urged the six city councilors to take seriously requests for input, comments or suggestions. That was true whether it was an outside agency crafting a report for City Hall or a fellow city councilor reaching out for thoughts on policy, he said.

“It’s important to get back to the folks who want to know what’s going on out there,” he said.

Teske pointed to the author of the city’s forthcoming storm water delineation report as an example. That individual has received “zero” feedback despite contacting city council, he said.

But the call to action came after City Councilor Brian Zimmerman re-raised twin proposals April 19 to make it easier on developers to construct mobile home developments in Libby. The dual propositions were tabled at an earlier meeting after several city councilors said they were in the dark about the ideas.

Zimmerman said he had looked forward to getting questions, concerns and suggestions from his colleagues in the intervening two weeks. He expressed frustration after receiving none.

“If we wanted to change it, we can definitely all have that discussion and have done that,” Zimmerman said. “But that did not happen.”

His colleagues ultimately killed both proposals in quick succession on April 19.

“Reach out to whomever you’ve got questions for and ask those questions. And then bring that information to council, to the meeting,” Teske said. “I understand Mr. Zimmerman’s frustration — we need to do a better job. If you have nothing, simply email, ‘I have no comment.’”