Republican Bob Herron says his main goal, if elected Flathead County commissioner from District 3, would be “to work toward getting this Flathead economy up and running. I will work tirelessly to recruit new business to the valley and to get existing business to expand and grow.”

Herron said he did that as a Kalispell City Council member by playing an “instrumental” role in using tax increment funds to bring the Hilton Garden Inn and Blue Canyon Restaurant to Kalispell. He also says he played a big role in paving the way for the Glacier Town Center, planned along U.S. 93 North, which never materialized because “people who opposed it stopped it and then the economy” went into a decline.

“I’m pro-business and pro-growth,” he said.

Herron says his 35 years of experience as a small businessman and his background on the Kalispell council qualify him “to be one of the two next Flathead County commissioners.”

He also decided to run because Commissioner Dale Lauman was retiring.

Flathead County should have jurisdiction within the two-mile “doughnut” area surrounding Whitefish, Herron said.

In the 1990s, several multijurisdictional planning boards operated in the county, Herron said, including the joint Whitefish City-County Planning Board that oversaw zoning issues in a 1-mile area outside the city limits and planning issues in a 4-mile area outside Whitefish. But, he said, ultimate decisions about zoning or planning in those planning areas were made by the county commissioners.

“While frustrating at times, it worked pretty well,” he said of those boards.

When the planning system broke up, Herron said, county commissioners “got pretty frustrated with Whitefish and made the deal that disenfranchised the doughnut” residents.

Herron says the ultimate solution to the doughnut jurisdiction issue is to see that doughnut residents get their property rights back and “be represented by the commissioners.”

Lawsuits to resolve the jurisdictional debate between the city of Whitefish and Flathead County about the doughnut are pending.

Herron says his solution to the litigation “is to have everybody in the same room, solve it and get it out of the courts.”

Flathead County has been involved in too many lawsuits, he said.

“The problem is extremes” that result in lawsuits, Herron said. “Planning has been used to exclude things. I’m not sure neighborhood plans should do that.”

The end result is “a lot of bad will. The words ‘neighborhood plans’ is almost toxic,” he said “There’s so much emotion involved, it’s hard to have reasonable discussions.”

As he suggested on the doughnut litigation, Herron says “we somehow need leadership in Flathead County to get people to sit down and solve these issues.” That resolution comes with building relationships, he said.

Herron said he thinks some changes to state law should be made to require that people who file a lawsuit against a government entity be required to post a bond in order to sue. That could prevent some “frivolous” lawsuits from being filed, he said.

“I don’t like lawsuits,” he said. “As a commissioner I will work diligently to bring people to the table to come to resolution.”

Herron would carry that same approach to discussions about the budget and planning associated with the 911 center.

“We need to get the three cities and county in a room and quit blaming the county or others and get it fixed,” he said.

While having Flathead County run the 911 center would be a simple solution, Herron said he doesn’t know if that’s what the cities want. “We need leadership in the room to work that out.”

The 911 center operates through an interlocal agreement between Flathead County and the three incorporated cities in the county.

Flathead County operates “fairly efficiently” today, Herron said.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.