Article published Oct 23, 2007

New blood needed

I'll never forget the first City Commission meeting I attended. An "environmental expert" from Boston was hired by SME to lobby on behalf of the coal plant; he spoke uninterrupted, at great length. Afterward the mayor and council members quickly huddled together, voting any opposition to the plant only three minutes to speak. Those opposing were doctors, scientists, accountants, lawyers, engineers. They spoke with sound reason, facts and exposed mounting taxpayer funds already indebted to SME.

They asked embarrassing, unanswerable questions of our leadership. It was evident our leaders were eager, yet seemingly confused pawns to those few who would profit from this coal plant mess.

If you think it through, there are two reasons why Mayor Dona Stebbins denied the people of Great Falls a vote on the coal-fired generating plant, which will affect our future drastically. First, she believed the good folks of Great Falls were not intelligent nor sophisticated enough for such a decision; therefore she must decide for us. Second, she suspected we would reject the plant and deliberately blocked our right to vote. It appears that after she took advantage of the democratic process to get elected as mayor she has grown to loathe such a philosophy, all the while farming out her office to coal lawyers.

It's time to send Mayor Stebbins and Commissioner Jovick-Kuntz packing. Nov. 6 will be an opportunity for Great Falls to take back Great Falls by electing Ed McKnight as mayor, Stuart Lewin and Mary Jolley as commissioners.

— David Fritschen, Great Falls