County commissioner candidates share views at forum

The race for the Lincoln County District 3 Commissioner seat is now down to two men.

Democratic candidate Doug Davies announced Thursday evening at a candidate forum in Libby that he is withdrawing his candidacy.

Davies became emotional as he described his health issues that forced him to make the difficult decision.

“I recently had a MRI that led to me being diagnosed with spinal stenosis and the odds of major surgery in the next few months are very high,” Davies said. “For that reason, I’m withdrawing my candidacy and I ask my supporters to vote for Brian (Phillips).”

Davies also implored the winner of the election to, “Hold their feet to the fire. We need more fiscal responsibility and a more diversified economy.”

Davies, who walked with the assistance of a cane, said he’s already had two back surgeries and one neck surgery in the last five years.

Davies’ name will remain on the ballot.

Following Davies’ departure from the forum at the VFW Harper Erdman Post 1548, Republican candidate Noel Duram and Independent Brian Phillips each addressed questions from Tony Wickham, a member of the Lincoln County Republican Club, who supervised the forum. Following that, the candidates answered questions from some of the audience members.

Phillips, retired from the U.S. Border Patrol, said he wanted to represent county residents because of issues he felt were important in the county, but weren’t being addressed.

“We have some important things to deal with here that we should be focused on and not be so preoccupied with some of the things that are dividing this country,” Phillips said.

Phillips said he also had experience in budgets during his time in the Border Patrol.

For Duram, he said he felt the trust between county officials and its residents was being broken and that officials needed to be looking deep into the future, 20 to 50 years, in terms of how the county will determine a path to more prosperity.

“We have to increase our revenue,” Duram said. “Taxing is one way and more economic development is another. But our forests need to be looked at as a crop. We are getting $.42 per acre in PILT money, but Flathead County gets $1.38.”

PILT stands for Payment in Lieu of Taxes and are federal payments that help local governments offset losses in property taxes due to the existence of nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries.

Phillips said, “it seems real estate is the No. 1 industry here. If someone is gonna build a $6 million house, they need to pay their share. We should be talking to other counties, the Flathead Reservation about their economies to see if there are ideas we’re missing because we know you gotta be careful with partnering with the federal government.”

Revenue from the state’s marijuana tax was also discussed.

“Doug talked about this a lot,” Phillips said. “The state took in $57 million last year. There was a chance for that money to go to roads, but the governor vetoed it. We need to be strong advocates for that money. Our roads are falling apart and FWP is getting so much. We need more a voice in Helena.”

Duram agreed, saying, “Marijuana’s not going away and it’s a big business. That tax money has to come back to our county.”

After $5.6 million in administrative costs, $6 million went to the Heart Fund account, which is meant to help people end addiction through recovery and treatment.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks got 20%, state parks, trails and recreational facilities and non-game wildlife each got 4%. Veterans Affairs received 3%. $150,000 went to crime control and crime team training with the remainder going into the general fund.

Both agreed there needs to be better relationships with state and federal representatives.

Duram said today’s budget problems are the result of things that happened 25 years ago.

“They didn’t do a good job of planning for the future,” he said. “After NAFTA was passed, we should’ve begun to prepare for the future without logging.”

One man in the audience asked about commissioner meetings where he said people were not allowed to speak. It should be noted that meeting attendees may speak for up to three minutes during the public comment part of the meeting or when comment is accepted during agenda matters.

“I think it’s institutional complacency,” Phillips said. “People should be allowed to speak.”

Duram said he thinks the commissioners are paid well to listen to someone who has a complaint.

“Mocking people during the bull discussion was awful and that shouldn’t happen,” Duram said. “There’s time to hear people. I don’t care if the bull stays or goes, but if it’s important to someone, it should be important to them.”

Transparency was also talked about.

“No one seems to know what is going on until it’s done,” Phillips said. “How many people know the weekly meeting is on Zoom? At Wednesday’s meeting, there was a discussion about a subdivision in the Eureka area. The woman who did most of the talking, I thought she was an advocate for the subdivision, not a contracted employee for the county.”

Duram said he came up with an idea to connect the online calendars so people know what’s going on.

“The commissioners aren’t doing enough to inform us,” he added.

The District 3 seat represents north Lincoln County, but all registered voters in the county are eligible to vote for the seat.

Absentee ballots are scheduled to go in the mail Friday, Oct. 11. Absentee ballots must be submitted by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5. Postmarks are not accepted on absentee ballots.

Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Nov. 5.

    Brian Phillips, the Independent candidate for Lincoln County Commissioner, spoke at a forum Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at the Libby VFW Harper Erdman Post 1548. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)