Finding the most effective path to lead a city out of challenging financial times often means somebody new is watching for landmarks, Jeff Zauner believes.

Zauner launched his City Council campaign to represent Kalispell's Ward 2 on the premise that he's the right person to help blaze that trail.

Obviously, he said, a tight municipal budget is Kalispell's most critical issue for the foreseeable future.

"The solution is to have a new set of eyes reviewing the budget, the finances of the city, looking from department to department to see where we can do more with less," Zauner said.

"In challenging economic times we all have to look at our budgets whether at home or with the city, to see how we can decrease the flow going out."

A good place to start, he suggested, would be to revisit the council's decision earlier this year to adopt transportation impact fees.

Although the fees were reduced from originally proposed levels and projects already in the plan-review pipeline were exempted, he advocates for more openness.

Kalispell needs "transparency to not only the developer but transparency to the taxpayers," he said, "a better explanation of why they did what they did" with impact fees.

As a Flathead native who returned to start his career in the valley as soon as he left college, Zauner has a keen interest in and knowledge of local people and their businesses.

"Being active in the community is very key," he said. He pledged to "communicate with my constituents and the whole community and business community to be able to make wise and informed decisions."

Getting back on the road to financial health will take planning, he said. Just as with any venture, the city needs to have a business plan - perhaps a five-year plan, he suggested, that it implements and sticks with.

The City Council will need to "have a vision for the future and where they feel the funding should go because it is a very large business with a very sizable budget," he said.

"The direction the council should lead by is where you've been and where you are, and then set future budgets to control your financial responsibility."

Tax increment financing, Zauner said, is not the most responsible foundation for Kalispell's fiscal health. It ties up money in the tax increment district, making them unusable for the general fund and the broad range of citizen benefits it fuels.

"We have a lot of funds tied up in TIFs," he said. "They should be used in a more accessible way, they should go into the general fund. My concern would be how much money is going toward tax increment financing."

One of those tax increment financing districts includes the Kalispell City Airport.

Zauner sees tremendous potential in the airport as an asset to the city, but said he would question and re-evaluate taxpayer money put into it.

"There is a need, a strong potential for additional revenues coming out of the airport," he said. "There's a lot of opportunity for business growth used by the airport."

The city may want to look into attracting a fixed-based operation there, a station that would supply general aviation needs for a growing pilot base. It could add jobs as well.

As a businessman, Zauner is sensitive to what citizens need from the city and how much it will cost them.

He plans "to be very open with taxpayers and to help our business community survive through the challenging economic times," he said, "to where we don't have businesses going out but staying, and hiring more staff and growing and expanding."

It's also essential to bring a new level of financial accountability back to city government, he said.

Once again, he emphasized the importance of a new set of eyes evaluating what is happening at city hall.

"I, as a communicator, would ask a lot of questions of developers, of businesses, of people in the community," he said, "to be sure they all are heard."

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