Ketchum City Councilman Larry Helzel opened Monday's council meeting with some tough words of advice for candidates seeking a seat on the panel.
Helzel said he attended the Idaho Mountain Express' Pizza and Politics forum on Sept. 30 and came away "very concerned" about who might be sitting at the table with him at bi-weekly council meetings.
"I heard claims of what people would do, if elected, that suggested powers that not even our governor has," he said.
But he didn't apply this statement to all 10 candidates.
"Except for Mayor Randy Hall, Councilman Baird Gourlay and (mayoral candidate) Mickey Garcia—and I presume Ed Simon, who didn't attend Pizza and Politics—I'm not convinced that the other candidates really understand what are the powers of elected officials, and what they are not."
He recommended that candidates read the city's 2009-2010 budget to get an idea of how Ketchum operates.
Helzel also spoke to voters, who he said need to do their own fact checking of "bald-faced lies" that have been repeated enough to "magically become incontrovertible truths."
"I've witnessed this behavior here for quite some time," he said, "and I attribute it to our steep valley walls, which sometimes, due to the climate inversion, prevent the fresh breeze of fact checking from entering our community."
Seven candidates are running for two seats on the City Council. Three are running for the mayor's seat. The election is Nov. 3.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
