22 May 2018 — 0247 mdt

Andy Shirtliff for PSC District 5 Commissioner
Vote YES on the Egan Slough zoning change ballot measure

An important office that should not be filled by an election, especially by a partisan election, and a neighborhood knife fight generating a spot zoning proposal that should not be on a primary ballot, are the subjects of today’s endorsements.

Andy Shirtliff for the Montana Public Service Commission, District 5

Montana, for reasons rooted in the state’s history of economic and political domination by corporations such as Montana Power, but contrary to good practice, elects the five members of its public service commission. District five encompasses Flathead, Lake, Glacier, Pondera, Teton, and Lewis and Clark, counties, is represented by Republican Brad Johnson, who is running for a second four-year term.

Three Democrats, Andy Shirtliff, Henry Clay Speich, and Tyrel Suzor-Hoy, all residents of Helena, are running for the Democratic nomination for PSC 5. Suzor-Hoy threw his hat in the ring on the first day of filing, 11 January. Shirtliff and Speich filed on the last day, 12 March.

Commissioners work full time, earning approximately $102,000 a year. They’re regulators, who administer the law, not legislators who make it, which is why I believe they should be appointed, not elected. The job is highly technical, requiring a mastery of energy and transportation economics and law as well as the usual skills required for making decisions as a member of a group. But elect them we do, and the only formal qualification for office is being an elector in the district they seek to represent

Of the three Democrats, Shirtliff, 38, a University of Montana graduate, has by far the most experience in government, holding a number of positions on the staffs of Democratic governors Schweitzer and Bullock.

Suzor-Hoy, a 24-year-old materials compliance specialist, works for the Montana Department of Transportation.

Speich, 64, recently retired as a driver for UPS.

All promise to work for a reasonable mix of energy technologies, but none specifies exactly what that would mix would be or what power a PSC commissioner has to achieve it. Suzor-Hoy’s campaign website is an almost insulting exercise in political minimalism. Speich has a contact web page, a Facebook page that I can’t find, and a submission to the Helena Independent Record. Shirtliff’s website was maddeningly vague at first, but he’s improved it considerably, and it serves as proof he’s taking the election and the voters seriously.

Shirtliff is by far the most forthcoming about his education, experience, and understanding of the job of commissioner. That forthcomingness, and his considerable government experience, set him apart from his primary adversaries. I’m voting for him, and urge my fellow Democrats to vote for him, too.

A parenthetical note. Shirtliff was born in Butte and grew up in Kalispell. He’s been endorsed by Rob Quist, and by Ken Toole, the last Democrat to represent PSC District 5 (2007–2011).

Vote YES on the Egan Slough zoning change ballot measure

Lew Weaver owns farmland near the Flathead River, east of Egan Slough, approximately 7.2 miles southeast (bearing 106°) of the intersection of Highways 2 and 93 in Kalispell. It’s a quiet region of rich and sparsely populated agricultural lands. Three years ago, Weaver quietly drilled a 200-foot-deep well into the aquifer, constructed a pumphouse and utility building, and applied for a right to extract 710 acre feet of water a year. If his plans are realized, his water bottling plant will fill millions of bottles of water a year and generate a steady stream of heavy truck traffic, changing the character of the area.

His neighbors are aghast, alarmed, angry, aroused, and organized. They fear, with justification, that their water wells will be adversely affected, and that their tranquil neighborhood will be spoiled by the din and dust of an industrial operation. They’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers and hydrologists, fighting the water right, the discharge permits, and promoting an addition to the Egan Slough zone that would put Weaver out of the bottled water business.

They’ve also demonized bottled water, which has been a godsend to communities such as Flint, Michigan, and raised, with little justification in my estimation, the specter of the Flathead’s being dewatered by giant water bottling operations if Weaver’s operation is approved.

Whether Weaver should be rezoned out of the water bottling business will be decided by the Flathead’s voters on 5 June. They’ll be voting on Initiative No. 17-01, Add Property to the Egan Slough Zoning District.

This is spot zoning, in principle a bad practice, but in practice sometimes the only way to solve a problem. If your principal concern is not endorsing spot zoning, you’ll vote against Initiative 17-01. But if your principle concern is not sullying a high value agricultural district with an obnoxious industrial operation, you’ll vote for the initiative.

The landowners’ organization, Water for the Flathead’s Future, hired a Denver, CO, polling company, Harstad Strategic Research, Inc., to sample public opinion on a “proposed new water bottling plant that would be located on farmland near the Flathead River, near Creston, and about six miles east of Kalispell.” Harstad’s landline and cell phone survey, conducted in late March, revealed 68 percent of probable primary voters opposed the plant, and only 25 percent supported it. The 402-voter sample has a sampling margin of error of approximately five percent. Weighting and the difficulty of predicting primary election turnout widens the error bars. Still, Initiative 17-01 appears headed for passage.

Putting an initiative on a primary election ballot also is a bad practice. Turnout for nominating elections is notoriously variable, and always lower than for the general election ballot. This initiative should be put to the voters in November, not next month.

Still, my distaste for spot zoning, demonizing bottled water, and misusing a primary ballot notwithstanding, I’m voting for Initiative 17-01. Yes, it’s a neighborhood knife fight, but it’s also not a neighborhood where a water bottling plant, a beer brewing plant, a munitions factory, or a skunk oil refinery, should be located.