Problem with mayor

By TC Richardson, TC’s RV Service, Stevensville

I feel badly that I have never met my mayor, Brandon Dewey. Not that I haven’t tried. I have met my Ravalli County Commissioners, our peace officers. They have each allowed me to shake their hands and actively engage in face-to-face conversations. I have found that all my local elected officials are cordial, they listen, and seem interested in the people of Ravalli County. Some may feel safer wearing masks, like our Ravalli County Health Board members, and even though they are appointed and not elected, they engage, act, and react to constituents of Ravalli County. Unfortunately, all I can do is observe what Mayor Dewey has done from afar and read what he writes from behind the locked doors in my Stevensville Town building complex

I was among the 30 or so business owners who were rejected from the “Zoom” meeting my mayor hosted. It gave me the opportunity to speak face-to-face with my Police Chief, Jim Marble, and a few of his deputies while standing 20 feet from my mayor. Unfortunately, he had pulled the blind to his window and his door was locked or I might have actually met my mayor. 

I have determined that my mayor is a frightened little boy, and truly does not know what to do. I have suggested that he contact the Ravalli County Commissioners for guidance. Ever the optimist, I can only hope that my mayor takes the Romans 12:10 biblical quote he used in the August 12 Bitterroot Star opinion section to “Be devoted to one another in love…” because he did the exact opposite from behind locked doors and pulled blinds. The biblical definition of love is focused favor. The opposite of biblical love is God turning His back ignoring and saying, “I never knew you.”

I have come to believe my mayor is ignorant, and like many of the grey-haired business owners who gathered at his door, we make up a vast pool of wisdom available to him if he would just listen – not with his computer, face-to-face in focused favor love.