Experience speaks volumes in the public-service arena.

"I've seen it all," Hank Olson said, looking back over his time in local government and local business.

Olson, retired from the auto sales industry, chaired the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce's initiative to convert to a city manger form of government, then stepped into the Whitefish mayor's office for three years in the early 1980s.

By the end of this year, he will have debated and helped decide scores of turning-point issues in his eight years as a Kalispell City Council member. It's been done solely to serve the interests of taxpayers, he said.

Now he's hoping for another four years as a council member in Kalispell's Ward 2.

He has a focus for that next term.

"We've got to do everything we can to keep taxes as low as possible and provide the best services possible," Olson said.

Cross-training city staffers to do a broader range of jobs, such as the recent proposal for building inspectors to do fire inspections while on a construction site, is a good example. The council's recent agreement to have line-item budget changes approved by the city manager is another.

It's all about efficiency and common sense, he said.

"What I don't want to have is a bunch of special interests get involved in city government because … they'll forget about the taxpayer," Olson said.

He supports proposed expansion of the Kalispell City Airport, particularly reorienting the runway to draw flight patterns away from Legends Stadium. He said he has no time for second-guessing a plan that already got council approval in 2002.

"Unless somebody can show me why it's a bad project, then leave me alone," he said.

Olson has watched the local population and its leaders grow into a "reactional society today," he said. During the recent growth boom the city came to expect added revenue of nearly half a million dollars a year, he said. But this year, with growth at a standstill, that added revenue has evaporated nearly to nothing.

"Who would have thought our budget would be zero?" he asked.

In the general fund, the cash reserve sits at $250,000 now and should end the year at $309,000. It's an improvement from early estimates of $130,000, but for a healthy budget, he pointed out, it should be $1.5 million.

With 80 percent of the budget dedicated to personnel, he said, "I still think we should eliminate some people."

He's pleased with Kalispell's new hire, City Manager Jane Howington. Her education in public administration, he said, and her long public experience are helpful to Kalispell.

"She will help get us back on solid ground," he said.

Fiscal cleanup isn't all on her shoulders, though. Olson said "we've got to have our house in order … by being transparent and by … having ourselves in place. This whole thing is about taxpayers."

Olson said the city should take its lead from the business world.

Any model that would help business thrive should be considered for adaptation to City Hall, he said. Properly handled tax increment financing districts could go a long way toward creating new jobs, something that gets Olson excited about Kalispell's economic future.

Other mechanisms should be put in place as well, he said.

"I fought hard to get [transportation] impact fees," he said. "We should have had them 20 years ago. Once you let traffic snarl, you never get it back. We allowed it to happen."

He's asking for a traffic study of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter's impact along the busy U.S. 93 North corridor, and suggesting the developer should provide a traffic solution.

Ashley Square developers, who want tax increment money to help improve the west entrance to Kalispell by paving its parking lot and making other building and landscaping improvements, also need to shoulder more responsibility, he said.

"I was a businessman for 40 years and I understand what they're saying," Olson said. "But I care about the taxpayer."

That taxpayer is going to be feeling the pinch for some time.

"Our economy is in a critical state," he said. "When we get back cooking again, we've still got to sell all the houses already built," then wait out a year's lag time before new construction goes on the tax rolls.

He wants public involvement to help carry the city through - volunteers, private donors for civic projects, possibly even an organization to lead that effort.

After all, he said, it's each person helping everybody else.

"I want to be there anywhere in the city to help taxpayers enjoy the city," Olson said. "We're way past this ward thing. The city council works for the whole city."

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com