Libby City Council candidates make their cases for office

The debate among candidates for Libby City Council maintained a decorum that was well above the first few events for Republican candidates seeking the office of President of the United States.

Tuesday’s affair at the Maki Theater included all six candidates, including incumbents Zach MccNew, Hugh Taylor and Brian Zimmerman, as well as Darrel “DC” Orr, Ian Smith and Brad Nelson. They are vying for three, four-year seats.

Most expressed an interest in keeping local government ordinances to a minimum while all expressed an interest in seeing a more united community.

Thursday’s debate ended after press time for The Western News. A report on it will be in the Tuesday, Oct. 10 edition.

Libby Vendors Market Vice President Carla Darrar was the moderator with help from President Robin Tarbert and Secretary/Treasurer Jonette Tubbs.

The format included a three-minute introduction for each candidate followed by questions from the moderators as well as members of the public who attended. Candidates also had an opportunity to rebut others’ statements.

Smith, a former police officer for the City of Libby, said he was motivated to run for office after he brought ethical concerns to city officials and, “they were swept under the rug.”

Some of his concerns about the operation of the police department while former Chief Scott Kessel led the department included enforcing small city ordinance violations.

“There are more concerns than the length of someone’s RV parked on their property,” Smith said. “City police should be making arrests for DUIs, illegal drugs, actual crime.”

Smith, who served his country in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq, said his experiences while a volunteer EMT and fire fighter make him a good candidate to work with people.

In terms of the city ordinances that have been passed and are being considered, McNew and Zimmerman said they are needed.

“We have ordinances for a reason,” McNew said. “I put a lot of hard work into my property and its value can be affected by someone who decides they want to put a shed in their front yard.”

For Zimmerman, he also said he puts a lot of work into his yard and if an adjacent property owner doesn’t care much for his land, “it affects me.”

But Orr pointed out that, “there are big differences in what some residents are able to do with their properties. I don’t think city council has to get involved in some of the ordinances it does.”

Taylor, a Libby native, said his only goal is to serve his community.

“I don’t want it to become the next Whitefish, either,” he said.

Taylor touted his rejection of city money being spent on the new club house at the golf course (Cabinet View) and that he made sure the agreement with the county Sheriff’s Office in the wake of the three officers resigning was a good one for the city.

In terms of what many consider a divided community, McNew said he thought they were too many instances of Libby having, “two of everything.”

“We have the Libby Vendors Market and the farmers market and they don’t get along,” McNew said. “We have the chamber of commerce and the Libby Business Association and they don’t get along. It would be better to see more in the community getting along and working together.”

Nelson said he was an operations manager for a large tech company. He said he moved to Libby nearly one year ago from eastern Washington, due to its, "terrible policies and government overreach."

"Unfortunately, there were hints of that here," Nelson said. "Government is to serve people not the opposite."

Candidates were asked what changes they'd implement regarding the growth of the city since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020.

"I'd do my best to ensure that things that happened before wouldn't happen again," Nelson said. "It's up to individual businesses to decide the rules."

Smith said he never enforced anything he didn't agree with unless a private business dictated it.

McNew said, "You're just one vote, the mayor holds most of the power."

But Taylor asserted that the mayor doesn't make decisions, the council does.

Zimmerman said he didn't agree with all the government mandates, "but the problem was that feds could hold back money if we didn't follow along.

"Libby has changed and while most of us don't like it, we have to accept it."

Nelson said if he didn't agree with a proposed mandate or policy, he'd vote no.

"A little less money, that would suck, but I think that could be overcome."

When residents asked questions, one woman said there were more than 100 homeless people in Libby.

“What are you going to do to help them?” she asked.

Most candidates thought the community at large should help, but didn’t believe the city should or could help.

“The homeless problem here is microscopic compared to Seattle,” Nelson said. “The community, churches and local charities should hold the responsibility to care for the homeless.”

Zimmerman said he didn’t know, “it was that many.”

“As a city I don’t…Is there something we can do? I don’t know.”

Smith, Taylor and McNew agreed that the community should be involved in serving the homeless.

In closing statements, Orr reiterated his feelings about how the current council operates.

"It bothers me that they come in and vote and there's no pubic discussion because it's already been done," he said. "It's not transparent."