In their first run for public office, Ward 3 candidates Karlene Osorio-Khor and Jason Mueller are trying to unseat 25-year veteran Jim Atkinson, one of the Kalispell City Council’s longest serving members.

The owner of a building on Main Street, Osorio-Khor said she’s running as an agent of change. She said she was prompted to run for office by the City Council’s decision to try to realign and expand the city airport through the federal Airport Improvement Program. That decision is the subject of a referendum in the Nov. 5 election.

At a recent candidate forum, Osorio-Khor targeted Atkinson on the airport issue. She said Atkinson has continued to support the project despite mounting opposition in Ward 3, an area that includes the downtown and neighborhoods to the east and west.

Ward 3 covers the central part of Kalispell, generally between 10th Street and the east-west railroad tracks.

“We have had various council meetings and members of the Ward 3 constituency including myself have come forward and said we do not want the expansion of the city airport,” Osorio-Khor said at the candidate forum. “So I am going to be voting for repeal of the City Council resolution. Then I’m going to be looking forward to addressing what it is the citizens of Kalispell want to do with their city airport.”

Osorio-Khor describes herself as someone who works to get things done and works well with people with differing viewpoints to find common ground and get things done. “I see myself as a voice of change. I’m interested in being flexible and reasonable and doing the work,” she said. “There are so many issues facing us not resolved. And we need resolution.”

She points to her past work on a committee to save Central School from demolition and her ongoing work with other neighbors around Flathead High School in a grassroots effort to try to solve parking and litter problems and other longstanding issues for residents around the school.

Osorio-Khor wants a strong and meaningful push for revitalization downtown.

That could mean a push to finally solve parking issues, to help small businesses or to revisit policies and regulations that she said have “chilled” investment in the downtown. Making that push for revitalization is “extremely important” and could have started with something as simple as trying to keep the farmers’ market downtown.

“A lot of seniors do not like to drive north of town. It’s unfortunate there wasn’t a push by the city to try to keep them in town. And why not? It leads me to the conclusion that for some reason we just want to chill the downtown. I don’t think that’s the answer,” Osorio-Khor said.

She supports the core area revitalization plan developed for the railroad corridor and the expansion of the West Side Tax Increment Financing District to overlay that area as a financial tool to help spur redevelopment. But she’s discouraged the core area includes only one block of Main Street.

“That needs to be re-evaluated and looked at,” she said. “I think it’s important we revitalize our downtown, our identity, and concentrate on that and solve the problems.”

As a member of Kalispell’s Impact Fee Advisory Committee, Osorio-Khor took issue with the City Council’s fast-track decision to scrap the transportation impact fee program after tens of thousands of dollars were spent to study and implement it. More than a year later, there’s still no improved or viable program in place to raise money for road enlargement or reconstruction projects that will become needed as the city grows.

“My position has always been that everyone should pay their fair share,” Osorio-Khor said about impact fees.

At the recent candidate forum, Osorio-Khor questioned just how fair the city’s impact fees are. Impact fees totaled 1.3 percent of the cost for the new Cabela’s, 2 percent of the cost for the new Hilton Homewood Suites and 5.3 percent of the cost for the new Depot Place senior apartments, she said. Meanwhile, if someone builds a new $100,000 home, the fees total 6.4 percent of the cost.

“Clearly we need to have some discussion about impact fees. This is not everyone paying their fair share. We need to recalibrate, to look at this. This isn’t right,” she said.

Osorio-Khor said she’s actively campaigning for the Ward 3 seat on City Council and trying her best to win.

She hopes to get the votes of people who are opposed to the city airport expansion and the votes of people who are just looking for better representation and a change in their city government. “Everything changes and if you don’t embrace that idea, then the bus has left without you,” she said. “I’m running on change because we need change, flexibility and people who listen.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.