The proposed license plate reader system for downtown parking enforcement dominated the conversation at a Monday night town hall hosted by Kalispell Mayor Ryan Hunter.  

More than 20 people attended the informal gathering at City Hall intended to provide another line of communication between city leaders and the community beyond the public comment portion of City Council meetings.  

Over roughly two hours, City Manager Jarod Nygren, Hunter and several other councilors who attended responded to questions and complaints from the public about license plate readers, code enforcement and Council salaries.  

Attendees urged Council to consider alternatives to automated license plate readers for downtown parking enforcement. The technology has drawn scrutiny nationwide over privacy issues, government surveillance concerns and the potential for it to be misused by law enforcement.  

Some attendees said the city should return to its previous method of chalking tires to enforce time limits, which was carried out by a parking enforcement officer who has since retired.  

Nygren argued that the system was inefficient as the officer could only check the same spot every four hours.  

"We've been doing it this way for decades and it's not working. We hear about it every single budget season that parking is the issue," Nygren said. 

He also rejected calls to add a second parking enforcement officer, saying the added cost could not be justified given the city's growing list of needed infrastructure projects.  

Margaret Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, suggesting giving the city's newly adopted parking rules time to work before pursuing a license plate reader.  

Council in July approved higher fines for parking infractions and an ordinance targeting people who evade the downtown two-hour parking limit by periodically moving their vehicles.  

The changes are intended to discourage downtown employees and other long-term users from occupying on-street spaces and instead steer them into using the city's underutilized permit lots. 

"Maybe you'll see those behavioral changes because of all these other changes that are being made," Davis said.  

Nygren said that the ordinance targeting motorists who repeatedly move their vehicles down a space to evade time limits would be difficult to enforce without license plate reader technology.  

Nygren also said that several Montana communities, including Whitefish, Great Falls and Missoula, already use license plate readers to enforce parking. Hunter added that residents with concerns about the technology should also direct them to officials in Whitefish.   

City officials have said the system would consist of a camera mounted on a parking enforcement vehicle operated by a city employee and would not be connected to any criminal justice databases. 

While Council agreed to strike funding for the system from the budget for fiscal year 2027, the body agreed to hold future meetings about how the city would tackle parking enforcement and what a potential policy for license plate readers could look like. 

SOME ATTENDEES raised concerns about dilapidated vehicles left parked on boulevards in front of people's houses.  

Hunter said inadequate code enforcement has been a longstanding concern and argued that license plate reader technology would have freed up time for the city's parking enforcement officer to address other complaints. 

"We've heard you, we are trying to address it, but we ran into a buzzsaw in trying to address it," Hunter said. 

Nygren said that the city previously employed a dedicated code enforcement officer until the Great Recession, when multiple positions were consolidated.  

"We have not had a dedicated person to do code enforcement and certainly not any proactive enforcement for decades now," he said.  

KALISPELL RESIDENT Arthur Fretheim questioned why Council approved its pay raise immediately rather than waiting until after the next election, noting that some councilors had justified the increase as a way to encourage more people to run for office.  

Councilors last month voted to double their salaries over the current and next budget cycles, marking the first adjustment since 1997. The increase reflects nearly three decades of inflation, which has roughly doubled the cost of living since the salaries were last updated.  

Although he was absent for the vote, Hunter said he believes Council chose not to delay the pay increase because the issue had been discussed for years. He said councilors did not want to continue postponing a decision or leave future councilors to face criticism for voting itself a raise.  

"Nobody wants to do this. Politically, it's not good for us to do it," Hunter said. 

Future annual raises will be capped at 3% and tied to changes in the consumer price index, which measures the change in the cost of goods and services over time. 

 "So that way we don't get stuck in a place where 30 years from now we go back and we're still stuck at 2026 pay," he said.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 406-758-4407 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.