Kalispell mayoral candidate Sid Daoud embraces 'the will of the people'
Kalispell mayoral candidate Sid Daoud embraces 'the will of the people'
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Kalispell mayoral candidate Sid Daoud embraces 'the will of the people'

🕒︎ 2025-10-21

Copyright Kalispell Inter Lake

Kalispell mayoral candidate Sid Daoud embraces 'the will of the people'

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles this week profiling Kalispell's mayoral candidates. Sid Daoud says that when local government isn’t executing the will of the people, its elected officials aren’t doing their job. That’s why the ward 4 councilor — who is making a second run for mayor — said he voted against pursuing federal dollars to redesign Main Street, which would have slimmed the thoroughfare down to two travel lanes. “For every one person that was for the plan, there were two people there that were vehemently against the plan,” he said. “I’m not going to shove anything down the throats of the citizens of Kalispell that they don’t want, even if I think it’s a great idea." His unwavering opposition sets him apart from the two other candidates vying for the city's top elected position: fellow Councilor Ryan Hunter and entrepreneur Kisa Davison. Election Day is Nov. 4, and ballots for the mail-in election are in the process of being mailed out. But there were elements of the Main Street plan that Daoud liked, such as installing raised crosswalks with flashing beacons in front of St. Matthew’s Catholic School. “I feel that it’s dangerous for me to cross at certain intersections down there during times of the day, let alone children,” he said. For Daoud, addressing public safety must be approached carefully to avoid government overreach. “Safety and security are like the opposite of freedom. Freedom is dangerous,” Daoud said. “With every public safety issue comes a loss of liberty on the other side.” One instance he noted was when Council considered a slew of ordinances limiting public park usage in an effort to deter homeless people. Daoud voted against an ordinance prohibiting structures in the park because he said it technically would have banned sun shields for strollers as well. “You can’t target a demographic when you make an ordinance or a law. When you make an ordinance or law, it affects everybody” Daoud said. “Once you get those little increments of loss of liberty it just keeps snowballing from there.” Asked how he squared supporting liberty and property rights with voting to rescind a nonprofit homeless shelter’s permit, he said the Flathead Warming Center dispute was a unique situation. He pointed to hundreds of neighbor complaints about the behavior of shelter guests despite language in the facility's permit application assuring it would not adversely affect the neighborhood. “It’s never just your private property rights. It’s your private property rights and the private property rights of the neighbors around you,” he said. Daoud said he wanted the neighbors and shelter leaders to solve the dispute themselves, but after the shelter bowed out of talks with nearby residents, the government had to intervene. After the revocation, the Warming Center filed suit against the city arguing that Council stripped the shelter’s vested right to the property. “I think, ultimately, a lot of good came out of what we did,” Daoud said, pointing to the settlement reached between the two entities that included the shelter agreeing to clean up trash in the area and create a complaint hotline. The settlement also required Kalispell to pay $140,000 in legal fees incurred by the shelter and apologize to shelter Director Tonya Horn for falsely accusing her of lying on the permit application. PRESERVING LIBERTY has always been top of mind for the U.S. Army veteran born and raised in Great Falls. Daoud joined the military at 17 years old. He served as a fire support specialist before transitioning to the medical field, being assigned to a slew of dental clinics. He last served as a noncommissioned officer managing a clinic in Heidelberg, Germany. It was in the service that he got the nickname ‘Sid.’ His legal name is Sudad, after one of his father’s friends. While his mother descended from homesteaders, Daoud’s father is an Armenian immigrant. Within his first month of joining the army in 1985 he got the name “Sid Vicious,” of the punk rock band Sex Pistols fame, “because I had really black, spiky hair,” Daoud said. He moved to Colorado after the Army and later returned to Montana to work at Malmstrom Air Force Base as a contractor for Lockheed Martin. In 2008 he moved to the Flathead Valley to work for a timber company for 11 years. Now, he works remotely as a senior consultant for cyber security company Summit 7 Systems, which moves defense contractors into secure locations. Daoud launched unsuccessful bids for the Montana House of Representatives in 2018 and 2022. In between, he made his first run for mayor. In 2024, he unsuccessfully sought a U.S. Senate seat, running as a Libertarian. He served as chair of the Montana Libertarian Party for a decade before stepping down last winter. After a failed run for Council in 2017, Daoud joined the local Toastmaster’s club to hone his public speaking skills. In 2020 he was elected to represent Kalispell’s Ward 4. His interest in the local economy and motivation to preserve personal freedoms prompted his run for City Council. “I have adult children, and I’m trying to make sure that the freedoms and liberties that our country is based on are still something that they can enjoy,” he said. Now in his second term on Council, Daoud’s children are still top of mind when addressing the city’s housing needs. “My kids can’t afford to live here, so when my kids can afford to live here, I think I’ve done my job,” he said. Daoud thinks that the city’s housing market is improving following Council’s approval of a slew of developments in the past five years. “I don’t think we need to go at the accelerated rate that we were doing before,” he said. “The growth has to be a lot more responsible now than it was before.” He suggested looking at developing pockets of county land within the city and being more selective about annexing new land. DESPITE THE city’s legal battle with the Warming Center, Daoud intends to hold regular meetings with local nonprofits to collaborate on addressing housing and other city issues. He said he hopes to partner with nonprofits to resurrect the community garden, which shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I don’t want to have to use taxpayer dollars to fund this. I think the community can fund it through these nonprofits,” he said. “We’re all pitching in together. We can grow food and we can share it right? I’m all about that.” To get the community more involved in government, Daoud wants to hold monthly town hall meetings to engage with constituents in back-and-forth conversations. Daoud’s appreciation for community-driven efforts is represented in his campaign logo, a cartoon mallard. The waterfowl is a call back to the domestic ducks and geese in Woodland Park that had overpopulated and were harassing kids in playgrounds and defecating everywhere. In the spring of 2020, Council turned to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for help. The state agency recommended several ways to kill the birds. Instead, the community rallied together to get every domestic bird adopted. “The community solved that problem. They did it efficiently, they did it without costing the taxpayers anything and it was the best outcome that could have happened,” he said. The insignia “is a symbol of the power of community over the power of government,” Daoud added. Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected]. Sid Daoud Age: 58 Family: Wife, KristenMarie; three grown children Occupation: Senior consultant for cyber security firm Summit 7 Systems Community Service: Kalispell City Council, Flathead Valley Evening Toastmasters Club president, former chair of the Montana Libertarian Party

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