Meet Doug Harrison, Ward 3

AGE: 53
OCCUPATION: Customer service supervisor Mountain Water Company (1983-present)
MARITAL OR DOMESTIC STATUS: Married to Rosemary, 32 years; two children: Greg, 22; Allie 19.
EDUCATION: high school diploma
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: none
PUBLIC SERVICE: City Council member for Ward 4 from 1986 to 1998; City Council president for two years; council representative to Missoula Health Board; United Way board of directors; council representative on the city-county Growth Management Task Force
PARTY AFFILIATION: None
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula Organization of Realtors; Missoula Chamber of Commerce rating: 2.8 of 3.0.
WEB SITE: http://dougharrisonward3.com/exp.html

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“I served for 12 years on the City Council from 1986 to 1998, and during that time I served on all kinds of committees and subcommittees. During that time, the City Council also elected me president for two years. I’ve also worked extensively with United Way; I’m on its board of directors. I’ve worked for Mountain Water Company for 24 years. I’ve seen the private aspect, the public sector, and I’ve seen the nonprofit sector, and so I have a pretty broad perspective of the community.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“When I was first on the City Council, the economic life of the community was dead, and we kind of resolved the financial issues of the city. From there we ended up doing the Riverfront Park system. We also did things say, in the environmental area. When a few people approached me about running, I couldn’t think of what we’d done since the time I’d gotten off. We did build the Orange Street Bridge, which I think is beautiful. It’s great. In the Montana Constitution, it guarantees you certain things, and one of them is the right to know and the right to participate. I felt like the way West Broadway was handled was all backwards. You should pull everybody together first, and then allow people to participate. If people don’t have the right to know and the right to participate until it’s done, then you kind of bypass their rights.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“I think government needs to be involved with the people aspect of the community. Missoula’s known as the greatest city for young people or the greatest city to retire in … maybe we ought to be the healthiest city. I think we could screen everybody from the age of 21 or 23 and under in a health screening. Then we’d be doing the right thing for the right reason, and it’s something the whole community could get behind. We have those issues here in Missoula. You’re going to hear about transportation and spending, but there are some real-life needs on the ground.”

What can the city do to attract better paying jobs to the community?

“We’re positioned very well to do that right now. We’ve built an infrastructure that makes people want to move here. While I don’t think DirecTV is the answer, I think it did show that when governments like the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. and the local government work together, they can pull people in here. I think we need to focus on that a little bit more.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“I think affordable housing hinges on two things: You have to raise the wage in Missoula, and you have to increase the supply of housing. When we talk about those, then you have other issues that come up. But if we don’t talk about that – increasing the supply and raising the wages – then we’re never going to address that affordable housing issue.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Missoula has a lot of real needs. I think if our local government could handle its local issues, then we’d be doing really well. I am all for freedom of speech though, but I don’t think (the City Council) ought to cost the community money by putting it on the ballot. We could use that money in a lot of other places. … I’ll not support the referendum. Decisions have to be made at different levels of government. If we can’t build three swimming facilities for $8 million, how can we even think that we should tell the national defense how they ought to run their stuff? But, at the same time, people have the right to say what they want.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem, and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“We have two major issues in transportation: Number one is the congestion aspect, like on North Russell (Street) and West Broadway (Street). And the second issue is the interaction between bicycle/pedestrian and vehicles. The last one has a lot quicker fix. And that is that we finish out the trail system and that we kind of establish an independent transportation system for bicycles and pedestrians. We can separate out bikes and cars to a good degree. … But (when it comes to) the money that it takes to relieve congestion, we’re not working very smart. I think we need to focus more on our designs and what we’re trying to accomplish with them. I think we can definitely do Russell Street and Broadway, but then we really need to focus on how we’re designing roads and our transportation systems.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

We spend millions of dollars on open space, on the trails and everything we do to enhance our quality of life. We bought open space so we don’t fill up every little inch, and we want to make it nicer here. If we spend all this money over here, it seems counterproductive to go in and trash out your neighborhoods. I think the question we ought to be asking is can we increase the supply of housing and maintain the quality of life or enhance it? I would leave the neighborhoods alone, but we have a few sites that we can build, and we can build denser there.

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“That’s a practical impossibility to enforce, to where you know who’s living in a house. You don’t want the government to have to deal with that stuff. The whole idea of zoning to begin with is how to we minimize the impact of neighbors on neighbors. There definitely is a difference between high-impact, high-noise (rental units) versus a residential (home). I think there should be places for people who want it quieter and places for higher-impact uses.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“This is a very diverse ward, really. The biggest issue right now kind of deals with the infill issue. If you walked around this ward, I could take you over where infill has been done and fits perfectly, and I can show you in the same trip where it’s just a disaster. One of the issues we’ll have to work out is how do we move ahead and placate all these different needs. Everybody I’ve ever talked to on either side of the issue has some fairly reasonable points.”