All this week, the Missoulian will run profiles of candidates for Missoula City Council in preparation for the November election. To see all the profiles and other campaign coverage, go to the Elections 2007/2008 section of Missoulian.com.
Pam Walzer likes her opponent but considers herself practically nothing like him. Walzer said that unlike the incumbent, she plans to work hard to negotiate and be effective on the Missoula City Council.
While Walzer isn't the incumbent, some have told her she may as well be. Walzer served as a member of the Local Government Study Commission and learned about how city government works during that term. She saw the importance of the council and came to believe her ward was not being fully represented. Her experience on the commission means she's ready to take the reins for Ward 2, she said.
“I'll be able to jump in very quickly,” Walzer said.
One of her priorities is working on affordable housing for the city, and to that end, she said she would like to reduce minimum lot sizes in some areas. Walzer said she lives in a part of town where nonconforming city lots are plentiful. Her house is on a double lot. While she doesn't want to develop the other lot, she couldn't even if she wanted to.
“We don't need to have the only option being a large home with a large lot. A lot of people don't want that,” Walzer said.
Walzer, though, said she understands that some people don't want their established neighborhoods to change. That's where she supports neighborhood plans. She would like to see those plans, the neighbors' visions, codified somehow.
“All neighborhood plans are a good idea, and it's a good way for the city to understand how it's growing and how it wants to look,” Walzer said.
She said if some residents don't want a certain kind of development, they can articulate their ideas in their plans.
“We don't have to have the one-size-fits-all throughout the entire city,” Walzer said.
Walzer disagreed with the idea of stripping West Broadway businesses from the Northside Westside neighborhood plan, a tactic she said showed contempt for the citizens who put the plan together. As for the road, Walzer said at first, she didn't like the way West Broadway was getting rebuilt either. It felt like it was getting shoved down people's throats, she said.
“In fact, I was mad ... but we need to get past that,” Walzer said.
Walzer has repeatedly said that the businesses on West Broadway are an essential part of the neighborhood. She said she envisions Missoula as a place of small urban villages where people don't have to drive across town to run errands.
She said she always wants to learn lessons from projects, and considers Hellgate Meadows a good model for a development that fosters a great sense of community, includes a variety of housing types and also considers space for business. And there's a big benefit to that neighborhood for Missoula.
“A lot of that is very affordable,” Walzer said.
While Walzer is backed by the establishment, she said she doesn't feel beholden to it. Walzer said she would have raised serious questions about a special improvement district to pay for England Boulevard. She suspects the future might see some people in that neighborhood driven out of their homes with too many SIDs.
Conservatives might label her a liberal, but Walzer said she is a middle child whose strength is in balancing both sides of an issue. She considers herself a radical moderate.
“And sometimes that becomes a problem because I do see both sides of the issue,” Walzer said.
As Walzer is somewhat of an incumbent, she, too, has a record to defend. Critics say Walzer became testy during some commission meetings, and Walzer didn't disagree. She said she knows how to play nice, but she doesn't have patience for conspiracy theories or innuendo.
“I'll get very angry and very forceful about that. If you have something to say, say it,” Walzer said.
If elected, Walzer will probably be on the other side of the fence of her fellow ward representative, John Hendrickson, who also can be forceful and isn't known for understatement.
“I'll do my best to work with him and try and impress on him we don't have to be in conflict,” Walzer said.
She might not be the one to initiate a coffee outing, though: “He's already in. He should be inviting me out to coffee.”
Walzer, a fan of Missoula, said people who are traditionally opposed to each other can work together in the Garden City.
“We are such smart people in Missoula. There is so much we can do if we work together,” she said.
Pam Walzer, Ward 2
Age: 52
Political affiliation: Democrat
Memberships: Zoo City Zymurgists
Volunteer: International Wildlife Film Festival, Montana State Science Fair, Missoula Downtown Association, Western Montana Fair
Vocation/profession: Self-employed jewelry artisan and substitute teacher; degrees in biology, chemistry and graduate degree in biochemical genetics. Worked in quality control laboratories of rocket manufacturer; for hazardous waste and environmental management destroying chemical weapons on small remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Family and pets: One Siamese tabby cross cat, Belle; one betta fish, Fish 4.
Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262 or at Keila.Szpaller@missoulian.com.
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