JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS MISSOULA CITY COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting of the Missoula City Council was called to order by Mayor Engen at 7:00 P.M. in the Council Chambers at 140 West Pine Street. Present were Alderwomen Hellegaard, Marler, Mitchell, Rye, and Walzer and Aldermen Childers, Haines, Houseman, Jaffe, Strohmaier, Wiener and Wilkins. Also present were Chief Administrative Officer Bender, City Attorney Nugent, Finance Director Ramharter, Public Information/ Communications Officer Merriam and City Clerk Rehbein.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Minutes of the regular meeting of August 23, 2010 were approved as submitted.
SCHEDULE COMMITTEE MINUTES
The following meetings were announced:
Wed., September 15, 2010, 8:45 – 9:15 AM Public Safety and Health (PSH) Wed., September 15, 2010, 9:20 – 10:00 AM Conservation Committee (Cons) Wed., September 15, 2010, 10:05 – 11:00 AM Administration and Finance Committee (A&F) Wed., September 15, 2010, 11:05 – Noon Public Works (PW) No meeting Budget Committee of the Whole (BCOW) No meeting Committee of the Whole (COW) No meeting Plat, Annexation and Zoning Committee (PAZ) No meeting Economic Development Subcommittee (EDS) No meeting EIS Peer Review Subcommittee
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Kandi Mathew Jenkins said her comments are in consideration of the public hearing that‘s going to be going on this evening. It‘s not directed at that hearing but it is in consideration and a continuance of a thought that she would like the people to understand about the differences between sovereignty and public servants. There was a Supreme Court decision in 1886 called Yek Woe and Hawkins and it contained information about the people that were Chinese that were in this country. It‘s been totally shepardized means it‘s never been overturned and it‘s been cited 100 times. Sovereignty itself is not subject to law for it is the author and source of law but in our system, while sovereign powers are delegated to the agencies of government, sovereignty itself remains with the people by whom and for whom all government exists and acts. The law is the definition and limitation of power. It is quite true that there must always be lodged somewhere in some person or body the authority of final decision. In many cases of mirrored ministration the responsibility is purely political; no appeal line except to the ultimate tribunal of the public judgment exercised either in the pressure of opinion or by means suffrage. But the fundamental rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness considered as individual possessions are secured by those maxims of constitutional law which are monuments showing the victorious progress of the race and securing to men the blessings of civilization under the reign of just and equal laws so that in the famous language of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, the government of the commonwealth may be a government of laws and not of men. For the ideal that one man may be compelled to hold his life or the means of living or any material right essential to the enjoyment of life at the mere will of another seems to be intolerable in any country where freedom prevails, as being essence of slavery itself and this is given by Judge Jay Matthews. In consideration of the public hearing that‘s going to be held this evening she asked that the City Council would hear the people, the landowners, before they hear from anybody else because it is the landowners that are going to be carrying the extra burden and they should be heard first.
Ernest Millhouse, 817 Edith Street. The Mayor made two campaign promises when running for the Mayor‘s position. One, to stop the bickering amongst Council members. Two, to bring good paying jobs to Missoula. He asked what progress has been made on his campaign promises? After reading City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 2
Councilman Wiener‘s comment today in the Missoulian which read: ―So on top of the cuts made and the wage freeze imposed, the proposed budget also included new revenue from streets and parks districts. The tax the Council will vote on has already been added to the City budget. Certainly no one likes a wage adjustment.‖ He recalls when the Bonner Mill changed to a process 10‖ small or large. At the time about ½ of the workforce was let go. The remainder was given a $4 an hour wage cut and told if you don‘t like it, you don‘t have to report to the work in the morning. Stone Container implemented a contract on their workers. They took away six paid days off and called in on their day off. Community Hospital traded nurses, unions very poorly. We have all been through some hard times. Now the Bonner Mill and Stone Container have closed their doors. The entire community is in recession with no end in sight. All Missoula can think about is raising taxes. Why are we having a public hearing? This hearing has no meaning. It‘s already decided. Council is going to pass this resolution and raise his taxes.
Mayor Engen reminded folks that if they want to talk about the budget or the special districts this evening, that happens during those public hearings. This is for general public comment.
Ed Meskiv, 4009 Chelsea Drive, Pleasant View area, said Resolution 7545 and 7546 must be rejected by this Council.
Mayor Engen asked the gentleman to hold his remarks until we have the public hearing on those resolutions later on in our meeting this evening.
Jim Sayer, 435 McLeod Avenue, wanted to take a moment to celebrate a big event that happened for the first time in Missoula yesterday. It‘s called Sunday‘s Streets Missoula and he brought a few pictures to show to the audience so they could see what the support of this did for downtown Missoula. It was a great event and the Missoulian story described it really well. They had people from all over the City come to this event. Also there were people from Bozeman who came to see what this was like. One of the pictures showed Taylor who is a State Routes to School Coordinator and Kathy Castekez who‘s working on health programs at the state level. The racks were packed with bikes and thousands of people. He thanked Missoula in Motion and all the volunteers and staff including Alex and Jennifer who work there and did a great job of organizing the event with limited resources. They had volunteers both running on the bikes and making sure that traffic ran smoothly across the parade route or the Sunday‘s Streets Route. There were all kinds of activities and music. They had the Hellgate Percussion Ensemble on the Higgins Bridge performing. The Humane Society gave a five-minute opportunity to train your pet. Missoula Art Museum did a huge block-long art project on Pine. There was a picture of a couple that had just ridden their bikes in from France and another person was from Malaysia, who is doing a bike ride around the U.S. in 100 days. He thanked the City Council, the Mayor, the Police in helping set this up and especially to Missoula in Motion.
John Danicich, 6300 Hillview Way, commented on the new handicap accessible ramps that are being built along Dearborn Street as they head toward Sentinel High School. He has a picture of the one at the southwest corner of Dearborn and Park Street that he will email to any of the Council who wants it. It was raining rather hard when he took a picture and under water. He doesn‘t know who figured out the engineering on this but they did not take into consideration any kind of drainage or anything. It can be potentially a lawsuit.
Mayor Engen thanked him for pointing that out and will get on the problem tomorrow.
CONSENT AGENDA (1 ROLL CALL VOTE)
1. Approve claims totaling $ 424,858.71. (Detailed Claims) (Chart of Accounts) (A&F) (08/31/10) 2. Approve claims totaling $ 599,644.41. (Detailed Claims) (Chart of Accounts) (A&F) (09/07/10) 3. Approve claims totaling $ 946,221.09. (Detailed Claims) (Chart of Accounts) (A&F) (09/14/10) 4. Authorize the Mayor to direct staff to identify the appropriate City owned parcels for disposal, with a recommended disposal process, and to identify any costs associated therewith. (A&F)
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 3
Mayor Engen said, thank you, Ms. Rehbein. Anyone in the audience care to comment on any of the items on the consent agenda? Seeing none, any questions or comments from Council members? Seeing none, we‘ll have a roll call vote, and let‘s let the record note that Mr. Houseman is here as well please.
Upon a roll call vote, the vote on the consent agenda was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Haines, Hellegaard, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Mitchell, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener, Wilkins
NAYS: None
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Motion carried: 12 Ayes, 0 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
COMMENTS FROM CITY STAFF, AGENCIES, COMMISSIONS, AUTHORITIES, AND COMMUNITY FORUM
Kathy Snodgrass said she lives in the Hellgate Meadows Subdivision, behind Home Depot and she‘s a member of the Capital John Mullan neighborhood Council. It was her honor to be the chair for the Community Forum meeting August 26th and as the chair she gets to report about the important things they did. They had been a request for a small project grant which was for the City Police and they were looking for some money for digital cameras and the Community Forum voted no on that. The Community Forum agreed it was a good expenditure but not an appropriate expenditure for a Community Forum grants project. The regulations that set up the grant process for Community Forum weren‘t very specific to what they should be spending that money for. A committee was formed to make a recommendation with five members of the Community Forum on that committee, and will be bringing a recommendation back to the next Community Forum meeting. Western Montana Volunteer Center gave a presentation on their on-line volunteer system which started out with the University but now any nonprofit agency can post an opportunity and get a volunteer on their on-line site. There was also a presentation on the City‘s proposed budget and found out there‘s a City website with all the details on the budget there. The Neighborhood Liaison, Erin Scott, was asked to produce a pamphlet that they could use in outreach for the Community Forum and it turned out great. She‘ll leave one for everyone to look at.
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month
Mayor Engen proclaimed the month of September, 2010 as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.
National Senior Corps Week
Mayor Engen proclaimed September 20 through September 24, 2010 as National Senior Corps Week.
Habitat for Humanity Week
Mayor Engen proclaimed September 13 through September 19, 2010 as Habitat for Humanity Week.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Public hearing on a resolution creating/assessing a special district as authorized by Title 7, Chapter 11, Part 10 MCA, more specifically a city-wide road district entitled ―City of Missoula City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 4
Road District Number 1.‖ (Special District Proposal) (BCOW) (Strohmaier FY2011 Budget Proposal 2)
Public hearing on a resolution creating/assessing a special district as authorized by Title 7, Chapter 11, Part 10 MCA, more specifically a city-wide park district entitled ―City of Missoula Park District Number 1.‖ (Special District Proposal) (BCOW) (Strohmaier FY2011 Budget Proposal 2)
Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Bender said, so what are special districts? They are allowed by state law, they earmark funding for particular activities of an area, in other words, an earmarked funding for maintenance or improvements, and you can have them by state law for a variety of purposes. Our interest tonight is, of course, parks and roads but there‘s, in the state law, there are various interests that can be also created and have been used by county and city governments. It has to be created by the City Council and that‘s our final action tonight and it‘s per state codes on how that‘s done and I‘ll talk more detail what we‘ve been doing. Maintenance districts, which is not exactly a special district but it‘s a portion of it that deals with maintenance only, is used by the six largest cities in Montana. And particular street maintenance districts have been used for over 30 years by most of those cities. Relative to Missoula, the County of Missoula actually has a lot of sewer districts in the County and then they have one road district and so those have been existent for decades. So the cities that have been using maintenance districts or some sort of districts throughout the state, you can see the streets maintenance districts is the most prevalent…Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell all have street maintenance districts. They also have some sort of utility or district in stormwater. Four of the cities have tree maintenance districts. Billings has fire hydrant maintenance districts and also have a series of park…they‘ve got about 40 or 50 different park maintenance districts. And then Helena recently created an open space maintenance district. So the reality of this is that all the other cities have been using maintenance districts for decades. So tonight we‘re talking about what we‘re proposing and it deals with both parks and roads. Now the road district, part of the state law, Title 7.11.10 it includes maintenance and improvements to these specific activities which basically encompass most things you see in our street right-of-ways. You‘ve got traffic signs and signals, sidewalks, medians, storm drains, streets and alleys and, of course, we‘re…you know, a significant portion of your cost would be on streets where you have your pavement and maintenance and snowplowing and all the street cleaning and all those activities on the pavement surface. You can have lighting in it. You can maintain boulevards that are in the public right-of-way and you can also maintain or fund curbs and gutters and you can acquire right-of-way. So, again, the distinction for these districts is that not only can you maintain all these improvements but you actually also can fund improvements to it. So in park district the activities again are pretty typical how we understand parks. You‘ve got the surface of the parks, the turf, irrigation systems, lighting, restrooms, trees, recreational facilities, playgrounds, trails, open space or acquisition of lands. So both of these would allow acquisition of land if you chose to. The other advantages of park and road districts, and this is what the other cities have talked about, is that basically you‘re linking your costs to your services. You know where your money‘s going and it‘s earmarked to that. Additionally, unique to special districts, you can fund improvements. The maintenance districts some of these cities have very limited usages of improvements but these park and road districts will allow you to rebuild street…provide street construction or provide sidewalk improvements, curbs and gutters, all those other improvements in the roads and then also an example again, playgrounds and play fields. These are just examples but actually that list that I provided you before you can fund improvements in any of those categories, but this is just examples. So dealing with the fiscal year ‘11 budget, which is also on our hearing tonight, our key goal was to sustain services for fiscal year ‘11 but yet we were faced with a $2 million shortfall in our budget. So we had dealt with budget cuts. We had in our last fiscal year ‘10 we had a 4% cut in our operation budget again. This year we did another 2% cut so again tonight‘s issue is fiscal year ‘11. And then in additional to that for this fiscal year ‘11, we were able to have the employees, especially the negotiated contracts, the unions agreed to a wage freeze and this reduced our cost by some $800,000. So basically what we‘re proposing tonight is that we would balance our shortfall. That $2 million that we were short we were able to get $1.5 million through what I just explained, through cuts and through wage freezes so we‘re still short a half a million dollars and so what we‘re recommending is we balance the budget by funding the operations of roads and parks in order to make up that shortfall. So the City Council has been dealing with this issue basically since May of this year, so we‘ve been having a series of meetings and…Council meetings and committee meetings going on and dealing with that…if I can get it back…and then we‘ve City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 5 also had a…we did have a public hearing in July. I looked that up for certain, it‘s on that slide, that we passed the resolution of intention and then we passed the reso…the public hearing was on resolution of intention and that was July 12th. And that initiated the protest period and the notification to the public. Initially the protest period was supposed to end on August 25th and then the Council agreed to extend it to September 7th because we could manage a counting protest prior to this public hearing tonight, but the law required protests would have been ended on August 25th. So basically, like I‘ve said, we‘ve been discussing this in committees. There were almost every week or every other week in committee since May and discussed it in June and July and also August. So some of the questions obviously that we had sent out in our mailing, what does it cost for a typical homeowner, $225,000 valued house, it was $13 a year or basically 2.5% of your current City taxes. These are some of the comments and questions we‘ve gotten from the public. The City needs to perform some belt tightening on their budget rather than asking for more taxes. Have you considered that? As I mentioned, we have cut the budget by over 6% over the last two years and then again with that $800,000 cut in costs with a wage freeze, these two actions almost represent a 10% reduction in our costs. The problem we confronted was if we reduce costs further, we would result in reducing services and yet in our February, 2010 citizen survey there was strong support, almost near 80% by this survey citizens, of a modest tax increase in order to maintain services. And that‘s our whole point tonight is to…that we‘re a half a million dollars short in maintaining services. Another question: property taxes have a state-imposed cap on them, on the amount the City can assess and that is one half the rate of inflation. Is there any cap to special districts? Basically the cap is that you can only use them on specific maintenance in improvements of streets and parks, and this also specified per the resolutions in the annual budgets that are passed by the Council. Additionally, any further cost increase annually to be considered would have to be approved by the elected officials, our Mayor and City Council, in public meetings, in public hearings. Can the funds from the special districts be used for other City services? No, they can only be used for those maintenance activities and the improvements for the streets and parks for special district resolutions. And, again, it‘s that list. This is all where the money can be used. It can be used for funding personnel, equipment, materials and also improvements to all of these areas. And the road district, as I mentioned before, and it‘s the same list with parks. You can only fund those activities in those improvements in those areas, so it is limited. It has to be earmarked. We have to budget for it and we have to account for it. Why not just increase City property taxes to balance the budget? Special districts provide the flexibility for the City to be more responsive to the needs of the citizens such as improvements in sidewalks, streets, parks and playgrounds. It‘s a flexibility that all the other major cities in this state have been using for decades. Additionally, districts provide that connection between the payment of fees and the services received. So, as I mentioned, the protest ended just this last week so we had a total that…again this percent represents the assessment value so with over 1,500 protests, it amounted to an 8.60% protest but even that, you‘ve got legally there was quite a few invalid ones. Most of these were single property owners signing it and there were two or three property owners on it so there was another 300 protests that if you‘re getting legal about it, you wouldn‘t count them as being valid even though we recognized…we‘re recognizing it tonight, that we recognize those were protested. So if you were doing it legally, the valid protest is 6.77%. We did receive some other ones. We had 19 protests that did not tell us what property they owned and then we had 36 that are not in the City limits. As I mentioned before, the ones that were not valid ones that we were…mainly because they were only signed by one property owner. And that‘s it. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, Mr. Bender. Now we‘re going to do public comment, then we‘ll do questions. Alright, with that, ladies and gentlemen, this is your chance to talk to us about special districts. Please note that there…it looks like there are a number of folks who would like to talk about this, this evening, so if you could be as succinct as you can, so the next person can have a chance as well, we‘d appreciate that. And you‘re welcome to comment on either the road district or the park district. Yes, sir?
Doug McClain, 706 Continental Way, said, thank you City Council members and Mayor for this opportunity. After I read this, you‘ll know where I stand. I‘d like to thank City Council people, Renee Mitchell, Dick Haines and Lyn Hellegaard for this opinion in the paper that says you have in excess of $1,427,000 in the budget that‘s…you can use next year. That‘s what came out in the paper. I was very upset when I heard they were going to raise taxes because of all the people out of work in a recession, especially the people that I worked with all these years, Smurfit Stone Container people. When I got this notice in the mail, this little 3 by…4 by 5 card, I read it and I went more taxes for people who are out of City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 6 work, and I didn‘t think that was very intelligent to put taxes on people who don‘t work right now. I went on your website, Mr. Mayor, and I pulled up this. It says that…of course all these in…already brought this up, Billings, Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman have these special funds and then other cities in Montana that use special districts also assess tax exempt properties, which first you were for it, then you were against it and I guess according to this your own website that this is going to be voted on tonight. That‘s what it says here. Is that true? Yeah. So anyway, it also said in the paper that you weren‘t going…first of all you were going to assess them and then you weren‘t because it would cost too much money. And it says 120 districts proposal would affect 120 tax-exempt property owners. And I got to calling around on some of your information to people and checked and with other people and they say it‘s 438 tax-exempt properties in Missoula. Is that a fair statement?
Mayor Engen said, to my knowledge, sir, I don‘t have your numbers in front of me.
Doug McClain said, oh, that‘s nice. Well anyway I think they use the roads too and the parks so I don‘t see why if you can‘t figure out how to do this you could call Bozeman and all these other communities and find out how they‘ve done it. Probably call them all and see how the different ways they‘ve done it. But truly I‘m against the proposal in the first place because Smurfit Stone employees in December of ‘09, the company filed Chapter 11. I‘m sure you all know that. When they filed Chapter 11, that took 401Ks away from the employees. They had hundreds…there was millions of dollars in 401Ks out there. That‘s the first thing they take is your Stone stock. And the people that had their money in Stone stock and their 401Ks, the company said if you put 10% of your earnings in Stone stock, we‘ll give you $600 a year. Thought it was a great idea. Nobody thought Smurfit Stone was going to have Chapter 11. Well, they did. So they took all your money. Not only 413 people but there‘s probably 600 or 700 people that used to work there that have 401Ks at Smurfit Stone. They lost all their stock. So they lost all their savings to be able to put a few bucks here to pay for things like this. But it‘s a recession. At the end of 2009 the company shut down the Missoula mill and they told these employees they‘d give them six months pay. Well, do you know where that six months pay came from? They‘re 401Ks so the company didn‘t lose any money, it just took their money out of the stock and gave it to the guys and six months they got. At the end of six months was the end of June. Those people don‘t have money. They‘re losing their homes. The first one was on the market here not too long ago as a repossession of two employees at Smurfit Stone. What about the truck drivers, the chip truck drivers? What about the log truck drivers? What about the other people out of work? The Montana Rail Link people? What about the Swift people that hauled the…board to the mills? To the box plants? They‘re losing everything. This is a recession so we raise taxes during a recession? I don‘t think so. I have compassion for these people. I don‘t know if anybody else does. If you have a job, hey, it‘s not going to hurt you, is it, if you‘ve got a job. Smurfit still employs at the end of when they shut the plant down, had $35,000 in a special fund. They gave that to United Way. They‘ve been helping the United Way ever since that mill was there. Here‘s compassion, people. Have you got any compassion for these people now that they‘re broke? Do we have compassion, people, for people who don‘t have a job anymore? I think we should. I really think we should. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, ma‘am?
Michelle Hand said, I live at 6520 Danielle Lou Court which is up in the Linda Vista neighborhood. Thank you for your time today. I wanted to address a number of the issues in regards to the parks of the proposal here. I am one of the people who did officially protest it; both myself and my husband signed so I think we‘re in the count. I wanted to bring to your attention first of all that our neighborhood actually was not in the City until eight or ten years ago and then we were annexed at which time our taxes went up 12% for no change in services. Prior to that my neighborhood already has a special district for parks. I pay $50 a year towards my parks. In addition to that my homeowners association dues are used for matching funds and when you drive through my parks, you‘ll see our playground equipment that we funded. So when we talk about additional fees for funding directly to our parks, I want you to know that my neighborhood is proud to say we‘ve already been doing this two ways. Now in addition to that I have my County tax bill which shows me how much I pay towards parks and because I was annexed I now have a City tax bill, and I pay nearly $53 to parks. So I just want you to know I‘m paying for parks four ways already and if you can‘t understand why another district is not a good idea, at least consider that City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 7 people who are already overlaid probably should be exempted from yet another special district for parks or that will be my fifth way I support the parks, which by the way I also help shovel. We‘ve put up the basketball courts ourselves, so that‘s our labor as well. And I want you to understand, I‘m not against parks, I‘m against yet another way to pay for the same park. Thank you for your time.
Mayor Engen said, thank you. Yes, sir?
Jim Parker said, I‘m a homeowner and taxpayer residing at 2618 Rattlesnake Drive. I support the proposed new districts that will create designated funding for streets and parks and I‘m happy to pay for them. It‘s not that I have a lot of extra money but I think this is an important piece of what keeps our City great. I believe the City is both being responsible to the economic times we‘re in by forwarding a proposed budget including, as we‘ve heard tonight, 2% cuts in addition to an across-the-board wage freeze, and by showing responsible management of the City‘s public goods and infrastructure such as parks and streets. As my Ward 1 Councilman Jason Wiener stated in today‘s Missoulian, and I agree, ―Assets like our urban forest and transportation network were bequeathed to the present by prior generations. For us that translates into a debt owed by the present to future generations.‖ These services, such as keeping our parks in good shape and repairing our roads, are not burdens we have to endure but investments in the community we love and hope our children will love as well, and perhaps because of this support their choice to make Missoula their home. This is our future. The combined investments and visionary work are predecessors set in motion and our community commitment to maintain, restore and even enhance these public goods as we grow as a community. I, for one, do not want to drop the investment and return to the old days. I commend those of you who are moving this proposal forward. You have taken a balanced approach to these hard times without sacrificing the enviable opportunities our City offers to those who live here, those who work here and those who will choose to live in Missoula over many other places because we do believe in the value of our investments and will maintain them for years to come. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, ma‘am?
Kim Latrielle, Executive Director, Chamber of Commerce, said, I‘m here tonight speaking on behalf of my Board of Directors on the special districts and I presented each of you a letter that we sent out to our membership as to the reason that we‘re opposing this. Before I start tonight and highlight some of the reasons that the Chamber is opposing these special districts, I really wanted to take time to thank Jason Wiener and Lyn Hellegaard and Mayor Engen for attending not only our Governmental Affairs Committee to talk about both sides of this issue but also my Board meeting. If you can imagine…I know you guys all have districts of your own but when you have a membership of 900 businesses trying to get your head wrapped around a position that they can all support and understand, it took us a little bit longer than we probably would have…if we would have had them all in the same room at the same time. So we kind of bounced around on it but I do believe I come here with a very strong message from the Chamber that they really want you to consider our reasons for opposing the special districts. While city government does have the legal authority from state legislature to include such new tax structures, and while Missoula business leaders join the citizenry who want good City parks and City roadways, the Missoula Chamber of Commerce has several problems with the new district taxes as currently proposed. First and probably the most important to me personally, although I‘m speaking for the Board, I will tell you in these economic times a tax of any kind business doesn‘t want to hear. So it‘s very important that this is not the time to further an economic burden on Missoula‘s small businesses and on its households by creating a new taxing mechanism. Like its businesses and citizens who make Missoula their home, it is…for the home that it is for all of us, the City Council, as you mentioned, Bruce, in your comments you‘ve been told to tighten your belts and while we respect that the City leaders and employees have frozen their own salary, we share with the pain that we‘ve either frozen our own pay or taken large cuts in order to stay in business. We also recognize that the City has worked to cut their budget by 4% this last year and another 2% this year, however, the Chamber respectfully asks the City Council to consider cutting its budget by an additional 1.2% instead of adding taxes onto its citizens, especially in light of the new found $400,000 property tax revenue as computed by the State Department of Revenue that was not counted in on the calculations before the special districts tax was proposed. Two, another concern is the money raised through these special districts will only maintain the current level of service and they‘re not City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 8 earmarked for anything new in the infrastructure. We have significant concerns that these funds will not be used for anything new or specific and will only go to balance the general fund. The Chamber believes that using these newly created taxing mechanisms in this way misrepresents the intent of special districts of the citizens of Missoula. We also believe that any special district fund should be allocated to specific projects that have work plans and budgets. And then the third reason, the new tax can be increased each year by the vote of the Council. Citizens will not have the protection of other legislative limits and there is no mechanism for protests. If passed and implemented, each year the City Council would set the assessment for the two special districts. Under state law, unlike property and other tax, special district assessments have no set cap. There is no certainty from year to year that it won‘t be increased or only by so much or even that it will end…excuse me. If the special districts assessments are used to back additional financial such as bonds, it is most probable that these taxes will never go away. The fourth reason, special districts could easily lead to future increased tax burdens as the City can use these funds as collateral against selling bonds. If the City uses these special taxes to support other financing tools, such as bonds, that would further impact Missoula‘s households and business. Probably what I‘d like to end with to all of you is that the Missoula Chamber is the voice for business. We‘re a 124 year old organization. We‘re your partners in this community. We pay 50% of the taxes that provide to the City budget. We do care about this community but business is hurting right now. Citizens need you to listen and we really ask you to consider not this tax, not this time. Thank you.
Ed Miskiv said, thank you for the opportunity and you were esteemed until several weeks ago. Now I‘d just like to put it on you about what we really think of what‘s happening with the resolutions. They must be rejected.
Mayor Engen said, and, sir, would you mind identifying yourself one more time for the record please?
Ed Miskiv said, well, for the second time for the record, my name is Ed Miskiv, 4009 Chelsea Drive, Pleasant View area.
Mayor Engen said, thank you.
Ed Miskiv said, good?
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir.
Ed Miskiv said, thank you, Mayor. Well these resolutions are really resolutions of extortion by taxation of what you‘re planning to do here. A tax that‘s imposed by imaginary needs, a tax by admission to be funneled into other departments. These resolutions are slush funds; that‘s what it is in the United States of America in bigger cities. They‘re slush funds. You say it‘s for this and you‘re putting it into other purposes for 2011, a system that we can‘t control. Now Missoula has the second highest taxation rate in Montana. It‘s a City with a flat economic growth for the past three years. The national economy is by some said to be in a state of depression or recession. Our City has the working poor here. A husband and wife are working. They can‘t earn enough to support their family. That‘s been going on for years. Where the unemployed are strangled economically. Over 18,000 people are now unemployed here in Missoula. 18,000! Sixteen thousand are recognized because the rest have just dropped out of the picture. That‘s a serious condition. There‘s no job prospects. They can‘t pay their mortgages. They can‘t feed their children. Do you understand what you‘re doing here with this? It‘s not tomorrow for $13; it‘s what‘s going to keep ratcheting up until this depression or recession ends. Is that going to be in three years? Is that going to be in five years? We haven‘t got a good track record in Missoula. It‘s not for the want of what you haven‘t done, Mayor. You‘re a brilliant star, a long support of myself. Admired you. But this is hocus-pocus. This is blowing smoke and you cannot and must not do it. Our welfare agencies are being overwhelmed. You all know that. When we were at Smurfit Stone, we contributed heavily to everything. Those were good paying jobs and we shared that with the community. Now, as you said, Mayor, in the newspaper, the woodworking industry is gone. We knew that for years. Well, I guess we didn‘t know that at Smurfit Stone while we were paying our taxes while we were supporting our community. We gave that to each and every one of you. Now it‘s got to be fair play here. Senior citizens in their twilight years are staggering under rising costs. That‘s significant. You‘re on a fixed income. City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 9
Where are you supposed to come up with the cash? Cut, cut, cut, that‘s what you try to do. Our City becoming second class citizens in their own City. Mayor, do you understand between wants and needs? That‘s to say you have to manage by budget triage, a method of looking over what you have and what you must do. Of course all of us want many things, but do we need to have those many things? We don‘t because that‘s triage. We have to take care of the sick and the poor first and then you go on from there. There‘s nothing wrong with parks. There‘s nothing wrong with the beauty, the symphonies, the park district. My god, we all love it. But we‘re in a state of depression or recession. Well, Councilwoman Lyn Hellegaard recommended budgeting. She said that 84% employment level, that‘s what you have here, we understand the numbers. By not filling the remaining numbers we can free up literally, for sure, a half a million dollars. Now if you do that, there‘s no budget shortfall, there‘s no jobs lost, there‘s no new taxes required. We tighten the belt and we go on from there to save all of ourselves. Now about esteemed City Council. We have the rubberstamp 8 City Council members. What in the world are you here for? You‘re actions are lethargic. I have been…I‘ve been watching the programs. You just sit there. You say nothing at the table. You bring nothing to the table. You recommend nothing. You say nothing. You‘ve lost your way. That‘s a fact. You failed your constituents as well as yourself. You‘re supposed to be stars here, that‘s why you‘re on the Council. We‘ve got problems. The Mayor‘s vision…I know he doesn‘t want to cut back on his vision. I can understand that he‘s a hard-driven person but you‘ve got to back off, Mayor, and the City Council has to see to it that he‘s throttled back. And you have to run a road where we all survive this depression and when it‘s over, you‘ve got good support here. We‘ve always given it to you and we‘ll continue giving it to you. Now until these resolutions are rejected, I‘m going to join the tax protest group that‘s slowly growing. Now, Mayor, you‘ve had a wonderful opportunity to lobby this situation since May, from what Bender said, but we‘re just getting started in our retaliation and what has to put you back on the road to understand that we live in this City and you respond to us. We don‘t respond to you. We hired you. That‘s who you answer you. Now the people are demanding justice from its City Council. What I‘m asking you to strike down this resolution, live up to why we put you on the Council. Remember who you are and why you‘re here. We‘re supposed to survive together economically. We did it all the years that I worked at Smurfit Stone. We gave to you willingly, you start giving back. There‘s people out of houses, there‘s people in need. I thank you very much.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, sir?
Charlie Brutchett, 4295 Duncan Drive, said, I‘ve been here in Missoula for 25 years. Born and raised in Glasgow. It‘s a wonderful City. Mr. Bender‘s presentation was very good but frankly it‘s just another tax. I‘m sorry. I‘ve been doing…I‘m a CPA and I‘ve been doing accounting work for 40 years. I‘ve seen a lot of budgets. There are three ways to make a budget. You can increase revenue. You can decrease cost or you can do a combination of the both. I find it interesting in your…I think you need a lesson in budgeting, to tell you the truth. I find it interesting that you‘re telling me you‘re going to reduce your budget by $800,000 by having a wage freeze. Well, that may be semantically correct. You may be reducing your budget but you‘re not reducing costs. The gentleman before me I think laid it out really well. I mean it‘s pretty hard to follow that but let me tell you it‘s tough out there right now. At our small company we saw things coming two years ago. We all took…I took 15% pay cut. What did you guys take for a pay cut? That wasn‘t enough. We got rid of health insurance. We couldn‘t afford it. That‘s what we had to do to survive. That‘s what you guys need to do to have Missoula survive. You can‘t just keep adding taxes. I hear it‘s only 15 bucks. I hear that every week and I‘ve heard it for 25 years. My taxes have gone up probably 50% in the last 14 years. My wages haven‘t. I don‘t know if anybody else in the room feels the same but I think there are quite a few that do. I‘m looking around and I see that some of you guys are younger than I am, some of you guys are older than I am but I don‘t mean to insult you but I think I need to give you a lesson as to a little fatherly advice, the same thing I tell my kids when they start whining about this to that or the other thing. If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. And that‘s what this is. It‘s just another tax. It‘s nothing new and fancy. You‘re just putting another name to it. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Anyone else care to comment this evening? Yes, sir?
Andrew Drobeck, 1728 Ernest Avenue, said, I just want to comment. I‘ve heard multiple people tonight saying that the Council needs to listen to the citizens and listen to the businesses and the protest rate City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 10 was 8% so you guys are listening. I mean, I don‘t know what they want. You‘re doing what the citizens of Missoula want for this. So it‘s…you know, this is the outspoken minority. The majority of citizens want this and are willing to do what‘s necessary. And if anybody should be mad, they should be mad at me and the rest of the Missoulians. Not you guys because you‘re doing what we want. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Ms. Hart?
Fern Hart, 45 Brookside, said, Council, Mayor, thank you for the opportunity. I speak in support of the park and road district for this budget proposal. You made tough cuts last year. We‘ve talked about that and you‘re making them again this year. It‘s a hard decision to balance the budget with park and road district. I think you‘re walking way out there but it‘s the right decision. Missoula needs to come out of this recession ready to move forward. We don‘t want to be delayed and far back when our opportunity comes to grow economically. I think this is the hard decision. I believe that you and all of you elected folk will honor your public trust now and when you look at this same opportunity again in another year. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you. Mr. Anderson?
Larry Anderson, 915 Parkview Way, said, I wanted to relate a little story here because I think it applies to the districts that we‘re talking about this evening. As I was downtown going north, around the Florence Building on Higgins, there were a group of street people sitting on the sidewalk out there and probably looked like the Rainbow family, if any of you remember that from a few years ago, creative dress, creative hairdos, dogs by three or four sitting out there on the sidewalk. I watched a car with Idaho plates pull down, going southbound on Higgins. They started to pull in, in front of the Florence Building and the little businesses along there and the woman looked at those people and her mouth created a big OMG! She said drive on to the driver. They pulled out of that parking place and they drove on down the street across the bridge. Now those businesses along there possibly lost business because that person was shocked by those people sitting on the sidewalk. I walked by them. They didn‘t bother me at all but there‘s a perception out there and I‘m sure there‘s an old adage in business that one satisfied customer will tell one friend but a dissatisfied customer will tell 10 of their friends. Now those folks are going to go back to Idaho and chances are around the cocktail party they‘re going to be telling about what a horrible experience they had in downtown Missoula. And those businesses down there don‘t even know that they lost that business. They‘re busy putting together advertising budgets. They‘re probably taking out ads that they can‘t afford to take. If they‘re in the Downtown Business District, they‘re being taxed for law enforcement officers because the City says they can‘t afford somebody to patrol down there. When those folks are arrested for disturbing the peace, either the judge lets them go or they‘re kicked out of the Detention Center to make room for others. They‘re paying for downtown development plans and now you folks are planning on adding an additional burden on those small businesses with these special improvement districts. If they own the building, their taxes will go up. If they don‘t own the building, their rents will go up. So I‘m sure that in the next year we are going to see more vacant storefronts downtown and what was once a beautiful downtown is going to be a hangout for people, for empty buildings and you‘re going to see a demise. I realize you have tough decisions to make and I saw on the screen tonight where last year you cut a percentage and this year you cut 2%. Well, obviously that isn‘t enough so instead of saying, we‘ve done this, nobody‘s going to pat you on the back for making cuts but you may have to cut some more and not put these small business people out of business. And I venture to say that as you look at new businesses that will want to come to Missoula, they‘re going to look very closely at how local business makes decisions during these trying times. Are they going to pass the burden along to the taxpayers and those new businesses coming into town? Are they going to make the tough decisions that you read about everyday in the newspaper where cities are closing pools, they‘re laying off staff, they‘re doing away with parks, recreation. You see that in our own state where we‘re closing parks because we can‘t afford them. You‘ve got some tough decisions to make but you don‘t need to add this tax to the citizens of Missoula and the small business people. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, ma‘am?
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 11
Carol Ann Sourby said, I‘m a taxpayer and homeowner here in the community. I also am a real estate agent representing a lot of the community and selling their homes and purchasing and moving to Missoula. Thank you for the opportunity for me to be here to speak on behalf of myself and some of my clients that weren‘t able to be here. Missoula‘s the Garden City. You know, we have a lot of areas that are representative of our City in that regard and I think a lot of people want it to stay that way. Nobody wants to see the parks not be maintained. Nobody wants to see the roads and the sidewalks and all of that come crashing down. But the reality is that I think Kim from the Chamber specified that the money that‘s being proposed is not going to be doing anything more than what‘s already being done. And our parks and our streets are maintained as they are now. And so I think that as the community knew that the dollars were being allocated towards something specific that they could see, that they could recognize, that they could say, my tax dollars went to do that and that‘s something different than what it‘s done in years past, there might be a little bit better response by the community. In addition, I think that the process of getting either positive response or, you know, people that are opposed to this needs to be fine tuned. This is not the first time that the public has felt that at the very last minute they found out that there‘s a chance to speak out. And with the snout houses and things like that, you guys all know that that was a big issue that was kind of addressed at the very last minute. And thank you for the way that you responded to that. I think that was obviously to the benefit of the large part of our community. But so I think that if there was a better way…there was a percentage that was considered invalid as far as response or protest time to this particular tax and one of those was that, for example, myself and my husband are both on deeded…taxpayers on our property and because he was gone or out of town I wasn‘t able to get his signature. I‘m making up a story but these are examples that probably happened. It was considered invalid. So my vote didn‘t count. I think that that‘s probably a poor way of tallying up resource. So anyways I think that Missoula…the community does want to see everything maintained but I think the process of allowing people to know about what‘s going on needs to be fine tuned and I think that if there was a specific place that these funds were going to and people knew exactly what their money was going towards and they could recognize seeing that versus a possible wage increase or something like that, where they don‘t see the benefit of that, then you‘d probably have a better response. So, thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you. Yes, sir?
Dan Spencer, 20005 Highland Drive, said, I can be brief here. I just wanted to speak in support of the proposed street and park districts. I‘m represented by Dave Strohmaier and Jason Wiener and I think they have done a really good job along with all the Council members here in working through very, very difficult decisions. I‘m persuaded that we need a mix of tightening our belts, which I think people have done responsibly but I think we also need some new revenue to maintain and keep our City functioning. I commute primarily by bicycle. That has not been easy to do in and out of the Rattlesnake the last few years but thanks to the efforts of a lot of folks we now have a safe entrance through Greenough Drive and that way I can commute across the railroad tracks and in and out of the park safely. We have a renovated park in Pineview Park which functions as a really important community center. I think that the economic concerns that a lot of people raised tonight are very real and I don‘t want to diminish those by any means at all. I think that we need to pull together as a community to find the best ways to address those who are out of work, the companies shut-downs. I strongly support investing my purchasing dollars into our local businesses and support a local community and economy. But I think this is a very difficult combination of balancing belt tightening and revenue cuts with needs to address some needs, and I think this is a good approach. I want to thank all the Council members for your very difficult job here in trying to balance all these different needs but I do support the proposed street and park districts. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, ma‘am?
Lee Clemmenson, 541 McLeod, said, I also serve on the BOA so pretty well acquainted with most of Missoula as a result of that. This is going to be a long night for you so I hope to go fairly quickly through a list. There is a recession in Missoula and the more you recognize it, the better you recognize it, the more you will come to terms with what you have to do. The wages have dropped over 1% this last year, about $1,000 per employee earning $35,000 is now down to about $34,000. Fixed income people are in distress. Real unemployment is 17.5%, that‘s the unemployed, underemployed and given up looking for City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 12 work. This is from the banks. Real estate sales are very slow. Many properties are on the market, some are in foreclosure or short sales. Tax delinquencies are really high. Businesses are failing or laying off employees or simply closing. Just driving down here tonight looking at Higgins and seeing the vacant storefronts, it‘s a sad testimony where we are…testament to where we are. The construction industry is down 28%. That was according to the paper this weekend. County Commissioner Curtiss points out that growth is definitely going down. Renters will absorb the higher taxes of these tax increases. If they think they won‘t and because they don‘t own property they don‘t have any culpability or any problem with this, they better wake up to it. This is going to be shifted off to them. Now there is ever increasing costs, sewer fees are up, Northwest Energy is increasing its fees, Allied Waste, the taxes and of course health costs always go up. Now, for Mr. Mayor, you have a plan for affordability in the Last Best Place. This is counter-intuitive, to raise taxes when you‘re trying to have affordable housing, raising taxes on business when you‘re trying to build the Best Last Place or Last Best Place, whatever it is. Anyhow, if you‘re going to do that, you‘re going to have to cut the costs and make coming to Missoula, moving here, setting up a business and living here and being productive much more attractive, not unattractive. The problem with this taxation system is it‘s never ending. I could hand you my credit card and say, here, this is for my 15 bucks but you want the credit card for good. There‘s no cap. There‘s no limit. There‘s no sunsetting. It goes on forever. That‘s what people are afraid of. So I brought some numbers. In Billings for a $200,000 house it‘s 146 bucks and what is Billings taking in, four million for street maintenance, $600,000 for parks. This is a really hefty chunk out of the citizens. So let‘s get off the $13 kick. That‘s smoking mirrors, that‘s not real. Now the history of these resolutions, initially they were maintenance districts, completely tied to parks and roads. Then they became, according to Mr. Ramharter in a Missoulian article, it was going to be dumped into the general fund. It‘s no longer allocated for parks and roads specifically. It‘s wherever you want to use it. The maintenance districts became tax districts and because they are not property taxes as such, they are not limited by the CPI at ½ of a percent. Then there was a discussion at the first public meeting to consider the intention to create these districts, about how to assess un-assessed exempt properties. That means the University of Montana, St. Pat‘s, nonprofits all over the place, whatever, churches, you name it, schools and there was no set up plan at that point on how much money you are going to get from the un-assessed properties. What‘s interesting later is that if you look at the resolution very carefully it states in it that it includes improvements on a lot or a parcel for that part of the cost of the district that it‘s a taxable valuation bears to the total taxable valuation of the property in the district. Taxable value shall be determined, 1) by the Montana Department of Revenue or 2) by the city in whose…in those cases where the Department of Revenue has not made a determination of taxable value. In other words, you didn‘t even know what the amount would be on these exempt properties. They were un-assessed properties. A week later, during summer vacation, as this young man alluded to that here weren‘t enough protests, people didn‘t know about it. It was summer vacation. They were gone. They weren‘t following the issues in the Missoulian. The card that was sent was incomplete. It needed to say: If you protest these fill out this part of the card and send it back. But people didn‘t know what they needed to send in to make a proper protest and that does account for a very low number of protests. Very slick. Very well done. During summer, during Labor Day weekend. Great. You won‘t have to deal with these pesky people who don‘t want your situation. Now somewhere after the 16th of August, according to my collection of Missoulian articles, the exempt properties were removed by you, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Bender. They were not going to be included in the tax districts anymore, even though regionally we were told that this was a City-wide tax. Suddenly they were out of the picture so guess who gets screwed with it? The property owners of residential and commercial properties. They are on the hook. Now maybe the City never did want to include those exempt properties because maybe, just maybe they knew if they put the University of Montana on or some of the others and of course the University never uses the roads, right, or the parks…if the City removed those items then those big entities would not put in huge amount of protests. Now for the resolutions. They in themselves are compromised and invalidated. They reflected a taxation of the entire City taxable properties and those to be defined. That‘s not happened. So if you pass a resolution tonight, the resolutions themselves will be legally invalid. There are lawyers looking at this and they‘re going, oh my god, you can‘t be kidding. Now without changing the resolutions to reflect the change in the taxation of assessed and now exempt un-assessed, the resolutions are no longer valid and they are corrupted. In fact, the taxing districts will allow property owners no right to protest after these resolutions are passed. Now with these taxing districts in place, what can be done? You can hit people up for the Hillview for a million, Russell $40-60 million or Fort Missoula Park for $17 million. These are all items that could come City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 13 drifting in now because the City has an open access to all of our money. They can do whatever they want. I‘ve never lived in a city where it is as corrupt as this process is. Now as for Mr. Wiener contention of austerity in this budget, just look around. You guys are all getting 100% health benefits for a less than 50% time job. This should be cut. I was a labor negotiator for teachers. This would never have flown and we would never have asked our districts to do this. There are other issues. A SUV which we‘re paying for I gather and a few other things. Evidently the people in Missoula don‘t deserve to be heard. You‘ve got the eight of you, you‘ll go lock step, ram this thing through but my oh my, I think it‘s going to show up in the 2011 elections. Contrary to this what this young man said over here, people are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you.
Ernest Millhouse, 817 Edith Street, said, I‘m a homeowner and a taxpayer. From an article that was printed in the Missoulian 25% of all school children in Missoula come from poverty level homes. I would guess another 25% that have no school children are in the poverty level also. This was confirmed on tonight‘s 5 o‘clock news. The average income is $22,500. It makes no difference if these folks rent or own their own home, they will pay the next tax increase. There are 12 homes total on the street I live on. Of these 12 homes six have rental property. These six renters will pay the homeowners increase in taxes. The six homeowners like myself will pay out of their own pockets. I will pay again when I go to the grocery store, the parts house, the restaurant or any business that can raise the price of their products a few pennies so they pass the tax onto the consumer. Like Mr. Wiener states the new tax only amounts to a couple of movie tickets. Give me a break, bud. If I would have benefited like the property owners on the hill, I would be all for the tax increase. Let someone else pay for my curbs, gutters and sidewalks. These new improvements just add to my property value and only costs me the price of two movie tickets. I can hardly wait until we taxpayers start paying for gutters, curbs and sidewalks in East Missoula plus we‘ll need a new police substation and fire station. The City just flushed $1.5 million down the sewer when they had Higgins Avenue torn up. A perfectly good street but it had to be redone and widened so the Mayor and Tester could walk shoulder-to-shoulder down the sidewalk and not bump into anybody. I think the people living in poverty should have use of some of that money. Take a drive out past South Avenue, in the Schilling area. New streets, gutters, curbs and sidewalks. All taxpayers‘ money, not the responsibility of homeowners. Brook Street is another example. Nice painting job. Stupid painting job. There wouldn‘t have been much going on in Missoula if it wouldn‘t have been for taxpayers‘ money. I‘m a victim of circumstances. In 1965 I was on my way to Seattle where I had a job waiting for me. My poor old car broke down just outside Missoula. I have never gotten enough money ahead to get out of Missoula since. I thought I had just now but unfortunately the City Council and the Mayor will take this little stash in tax payments. You can‘t say I didn‘t try, however, I would feel no shame in accepting cash contributions of $100 or so from the Mayor and these Council members. And I don‘t thank the Council and the Mayor for letting me speak. I thank the founders of the Constitution of the United States of America for giving me my right for free speech. Thank you. Have a good evening.
Mayor Engen said, thank you. Yes, sir?
Bill Flannery said, I reside at 1917 East Broadway in Missoula. I want to thank the Mayor and Council for the fine job they‘ve done and the work that they are continuing to do. And I regret some of these people that contribute less than honorable words for the work you do. I know you do a conscientious job all of you. I think there are several reasons why this proposal should be supported for both roads and parks. Agreed this will not create any new improvements this year but we need to look ahead to the future and not be considering only the current situations at the present time although I sympathize with the concerns about the economy. We are starting to come out of this recession and we shouldn‘t hunker down and wait for better times to come. [inaudible, off mic]
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, ma‘am?
Ruth Link, Missoula Organization of Realtors, said, early on in this process we had already submitted to you a letter opposing the special districts for both parks and streets, and there‘s a number of reasons in there but the biggest one is right now more than any other time to put any additional costs on housing, it City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 14 just seems like the worst possible choice in timing. People are struggling. Foreclosures are happening. They‘re going up…the actual value of people‘s homes is going down although thankfully not quite as much as other communities. But this is a real crisis. It‘s not just about jobs, it‘s about people staying in their homes. I am here today, more specifically to just talk about some of the concerns my membership had with the protests. I spoke with one gentleman today who received one postcard for his multiple properties, and he protested, and he wasn‘t aware that that didn‘t include the rest of his properties which he did not actually receive postcards for. He thought that you guys will actually figure out where he is and add his up so I just wonder how many people did a similar thing, assuming that their entire property portfolio would be included for their one signature, and that just obviously was not the case. I also think that it‘s really important to talk about the fact that you aren‘t looking at increasing the mill levy as allowed by law. You could actually this raise $500,000 by raising taxes. At the end of the day we need parks, we need streets, we need all these things be maintained. You have the ability to raise taxes. You‘re adding this fee so that later on we can look at this and say, well, now we want you to put sidewalks in every single street and we want to do this and do that. And we have the slush fund, and that‘s really, really dangerous for the homeowners of Missoula. Really at the end of the day, some day this may actually be a really, really great tool. Now for today, housing doesn‘t need one more thing. And I also find it incredibly disheartening that I stand up before you today knowing that the decision has been made long before the public hearing even started. That to me doesn‘t seem like what our government should be doing to work for us. Thank you very much.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, Ms. Link. Yes, ma‘am?
Judy Smith, 224 E. Crosby, said, I own a house and I‘m on a fixed income and I went to the calculator and calculated how much I would owe and it would be $11.10. So with that in mind I want to say a couple of things about the special districts but I want to start by saying as you know very well probably the hardest job you have is listening to Missoulians because they don‘t agree with each other. So I would argue that the eight folks that are in support of these districts, and they worked hard on them, probably will be re-elected because I‘m the kind of person who vote for these people and I would say these special districts are very important, because they‘re going to do things that we aren‘t able to do otherwise, and I‘ll explain that a little bit. But Missoula doesn‘t have one voice. We have many voices and I think one of the best things about us is we try to work out some kind of solution that brings those voices together. And one more time we may not have been able to do that here but at least there was an effort to do that, and I appreciate that and want to thank all of you for trying. I support these and I know that the City needs more revenue and this is also a discussion that‘s going on throughout the state. And I plan to go to the legislature and listen to that discussion as well. And the City needs more revenue and we need to be able to maintain what we have and perhaps improve and expand on it and if we don‘t have more revenue, how do we do that? And often enough some of us just like to argue program and some of us just like to argue revenue and bringing the two together again is a discussion that we have to do. You can‘t have new programs without new revenue so I respect the fact that you brought the revenue question with the program this time and offered us something…did this go on or something? Oh, just reverberating to me…that we can have a conversation because I like…that to me makes sense that I should know what I have to pay in order to have the program we‘re advocating for. So, I know that some of this money that other folks have mentioned that say you have in your pocket and you can use…I know you have to use that in the savings account because you are really low in the savings account and folks that work with us and try to give us, you know, credit, etc. are telling you, you have to keep a big piece of that in the savings account. So that‘s not really available to you. I also know one thing that my neighborhood council talks about over and over again is that we‘ve not done a good job with the urban forest. In fact whoever mentioned the thing about Brooks, one of the most hot topics in the last two meetings in our neighborhood council is what happened to the trees at Brooks? And people were very concerned that they were going to almost all be taken out. And if you‘ve driven it, there‘s been actually I think a fairly reasonable again sort of middle way there but trees were taken out and people noticed them and people came and told us which ones were taken out and we were told by the Urban Forester they were taken out because they hadn‘t been taken care of and they hadn‘t been watered and cars had driven on top of them, and he certainly wasn‘t able to do anything about it because he didn‘t have the resources to do anything about it. So again the need that is present with us is not just that we have parks around, it‘s that things are not going well in that park or in that space on our boulevard. And some places don‘t have City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 15 parks. And some places don‘t have the kinds of sidewalks and other amenities that some of us do have. So this money, in my mind, is not just to help me have my park and my tree and my sidewalk, it‘s also to help folks who don‘t have them now and can‘t afford them to actually be a supportive community and help them get what they need. I think that it‘s an interesting thing to listen to other folks read about having to have a cap and not trust that you all will have any reason about what decisions you make. And I don‘t understand that. I‘ve watched the City Council for any number of years. I don‘t agree with the analysis that you haven‘t made good economic decisions. I know some folks here feel that way. I‘m not worried that all of a sudden you‘re going to be bringing in every project that is on the books and say, let‘s fund it through this particular mechanism. What I do think is important though, and I agree with several of the folks who have said that some of this money should go for those particular types of things. So I agree with Dave‘s amendment. I asked him at the beginning of the meeting why he picked those numbers and I‘ll still want to know and have some understanding of that. But I think the idea of saying this is for these kinds of expenditures, let‘s do it from the top, let‘s not wait until next year, it‘s doesn‘t have to be a huge amount of money, but let‘s go ahead and show our commitment to saying we‘re going to put them in there. And, as I say, in my neighborhood if we were voting, we‘d say some has to go into the urban forest, some has to go in there, we‘re dying. I also want to say very clearly that the economic downturn is real. I don‘t want to diminish that. I know people have been hurting for awhile. I have spent most of my life working with people who are hurt by this so it‘s not to trivialize it. It‘s not to say it‘s not unimportant but it is to say that we can‘t use that as a reason not to maintain the things that we have spent generations working on. And the forest, the parks, the streets to say we should just let them go into decline now and then somehow we‘ll catch up, that doesn‘t make sense to me, given the amount of money that we‘re talking about. The catching up in five years or whatever would be so much more expensive than putting in what we can little bit by little bit now. So not to demean the fact that folks don‘t have much money, certainly I can relate to that but to say that the grid that we‘re looking at here is not the good of cutting or the good of, you know, putting the belt on tighter. That‘s one of the things I always have been amazed by our Governor. He perhaps for his own reasons likes to talk all the time about tightening belts. But I think the more important thing is no, the good here is building on what we‘ve been able to do and have a community that will respond together to build even more that we need. So I‘m supporting these districts. I‘m hoping that you pass them tonight and I know the time will come when you have a hearing that you‘re going to be saying how much you‘re going to assess next year and what projects. And I assume all of us will come and tell you what we think about that and agree with each other on some things and not agree with each other on other things because that‘s the public process. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you.
Kandi Mathew Jenkins said, I did ask at the end of my short reading earlier that only property owners should be allowed to speak to begin with. And I also think that there should be a time when people that do not make their money out in the private sector should be allowed to speak either, because this is about the people that were called, try to pay their taxes, try to keep their kids, try to keep their jobs, things like that. And what we‘re talking about is something that is for the benefit of not just for those people but for 69,000 other people in the City of Missoula. And so the landowners should have been given the top billing I think, just like in Helena the citizens should be given the top billing instead of the people making presentations. I think that this City Council at this time works on an old adage that the American people can only retain a thought for maybe at the most three days. This whole shortfall started with the ballpark. I would have to say in reneging the neighborhood of $516,000 bill that they were supposed to pay. Even if more as it does, with the situation that we‘re facing as American citizens with the socialization of our country, now you can laugh at that, you can giggle at that you can even make comments of that but it‘s a known fact that‘s what‘s going on. This falls in the category of that modus operandi?. The shortfall was caused by the Ball Park. The Ball Park gets us for $516,000. We don‘t need this but we see not everybody got that message because you put that message out for this shortfall in the middle of the summer. I am a business owner. I have been one for almost 22 years. When I had a business on the street, we all know what happens to Montanans in the summer. They leave home to go to visit family, go on trips that they can‘t go on in the winter because the roads are too bad. They‘re gone every weekend if they can to the lakes and the places that we enjoy in Montana, some of the things I haven‘t been able to enjoy for a very long time because of the downfall of the economy in Missoula. The mayor stated that there were 20,000 landowners. In the paper it said that 18,000 something postcards were sent out and City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 16 that was the second mailing of postcards. I talked to 25 people just…because I went around getting signatures and of the 25 people that I had talked to one received the postcard. One had several rental properties. One had 30 rental properties. Some of them were just everyday citizens that had no idea what was going on whatsoever. Whatsoever. They don‘t read the paper. They don‘t listen to the nightly news. They listen to their AM/FM stations or whatever it is or they‘re too busy working or whatever it was. So for one fact that this City was not properly noticed and I feel that that‘s a legal question there into passing these resolutions. Again I think a couple of people included in the nonprofits, I think that the actual nonprofit number is closer to 800 in town. And they use all the amenities of Missoula, every single one of them. Matter of fact I think the University alone could carry this bill and give us a bonus to boot for their property. I heard that deals were cut and made. I can‘t say exactly what they were because I would be speaking out of turn because I wasn‘t there. But if deals were cut and made with certain nonprofits in this town and that people were not made aware of it, I would say that was a legal question. There are three specific violations in state law. John Hendrickson brought the laws that were being violated in at a public hearing that very few people attended because so many people did not know this was going on. One of the laws that was most violated is 7.11.1021 and next time you should show on the board that put the whole law, the section, in the subsection, would you please. That‘s how you show the law is to make sure that people can look it up. The second violation was in 7.11.1003 and you can read those at the Montana Code Annotated in full. The third one was 7-11-106. You can read that also. And it said that the governing body in 7.11.1007 Section 3 (A)…it‘s got two sections…three 3(A)…oh, it‘s just a thing. Okay. The governing body shall provide a list of those properties subject to potential assessment. The list may not be distributed or sold but where is the list of these properties that were supposed to be assessed? Because if that list was made available then everyone of those landowners should have had a postcard. And I know for a fact that they didn‘t. So to say that it‘s the same thing that Bruce Bender said years ago that all the businesses on South, Brooks and Russell were contacted about that intersection and that was a lie too, because that‘s one of those businesses. And to change anything in the resolution at any time needs to go back for a resolution rewrite, a new public hearing and a new vote for those of you that don‘t study the rules. What has gone on in the newspaper and around town has been directly out of 1984. It‘s called Newspeak. And one article we have the assessment being equated to the tax. From what I understand our taxes are going to be raised 3.5% so that‘s a tax raise we‘re going to get anyway. Along with the taxes that are kind of go up in the federal government as of January 1st and those are quite innumerated. Some of them will hurt very many people and especially the health care taxation things. Also because of the lack of intensity of getting the people informed in the City of Missoula, I feel that the Montana State Constitution has been violated in three different areas. Article 2, Section 8, the right to participate. People are gone on summer vacations. There is a lack of concentrated media coverage. Matter of fact myself and I think Renee Mitchell had to call the Missoulian to make sure there was an actual story in it about the extension and that story didn‘t come out until the 28th. The extension put the first protest period ended the 25th of August so there are a lot of people out there that didn‘t know it was extended and thought they couldn‘t protest any more. This whole thing has been illegal as far as I‘m concerned, unconstitutional and definitely not representative of a republic, more so of a different kind of government. In Section 9, the right to know, there are changes in the resolution violates our right to know because we didn‘t know about the little back room talking or the meeting on Thursday or the meeting on Wednesday and who said what to whom, and Dave Strohmaier coming out at the end with changes to this resolution. That changes the whole situation and it need to go all the way back to a total rewriting, a total notice of public hearings and a total revote. And also Section 17, the right for due process because the people that can‘t afford to pay these taxes will have their houses sold for taxes. I know what it feels like. I‘ve come close, very close and it‘s a very scary thing to know that somebody could put your house up for $3,700. That‘s very scary. How‘d you like to lose your house for $13? If we‘re going to get real, then we need to be real. The law is the law and we are a nation of laws and the laws have been violated here. Any kind of person that votes for these resolutions I would say are violating the law and should immediately hand in their resignation, the Mayor included. Thank you very much.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, Ms. Matthew-Jenkins. Anyone else care to comment this evening?
Jim Sayer, 435 McLeod, said, I‘m a homeowner. And I just want to say that I support the proposed special districts. I do think one take away after hearing all the comments is use it, don‘t abuse it. I think City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 17 it‘s a new district and a tool that we can use for Missoula‘s future. I think it is smart to invest now. A number of other cities are doing this right now because to be competitive you have to have facilities. I think also the City‘s done a great job on building more complete streets for all users and I hope that the new special district for roads will be able to advance that purpose too. So, I appreciate all the hard work that the Council has done and I hope you will approve both districts.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Mr. Hendrickson?
John Davey said, I‘ve lived in Missoula since 1943. I actually lived here in 1937. I was born in Montana. I‘ve lived in my house for 47 years. We‘re at 2005 South Clark. I‘ve got a question. You had the inflow that you‘ve put a lot in our neighborhood that adds more traffic to our streets. Reserve Street went through and now we have truck traffic going down North Avenue constantly. There‘s a sign up there that said: No Trucks Except for Local Deliveries. The sign got knocked down last winter. We called it in. They come out and picked up the sign and never come back. These are tearing up our streets. When we paid to have the streets and sidewalks put in they have just a little over 1/10 of an inch of asphalt on it. They‘re not made to run 80,000 pound semis up and down. So I‘d like to know, employees should be getting more money. You took us all into the City and you should have been getting more money but we‘re not getting any more services. On the same problem, the other night we had some kids come down the street, they took our garbage cans and threw them against our side of our garage. I got a concrete block and some poles to keep people from cutting through my driveway to go down the alley. They took that out, smashed it in the middle of the street. We called 9-1-1 because they were headed down towards Rosaurer‘s. They told me to call the Police Department so they gave me the number. I called the Police Department. They told me to call 9-1-1. It‘s no big deal when all the block was $2 and something and there was no damage to the garage, but I wasn‘t sure at that time, until morning. And it‘s…we‘re not getting the services that we were promised. My taxes have doubled since we‘ve been in the City limits since then. So I can‘t see paying more and more taxes because I think the money will go someplace else. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir.
Andy Link, 209 Crestline, said, I‘m the dad of Ruth Link, right over there, so if I don‘t say the right thing, don‘t hold it against her, she‘s much more…much better in the way she speaks and makes her opinions. I really…it‘s very, very simple here. I think the budget…Mayor, is the budget about $120 million? Is that about right?
Mayor Engen said, outside the general fund, yes, sir.
Andy Link said, and I think this is about a half a million dollar deal, isn‘t it? Does that sound about right? Come on guys, can‘t we find a half a million bucks? I mean I have a CPA; he‘s very smart. He‘ll volunteer from one hour he‘ll find that half a million bucks. I promise you. Okay? And I know I‘m not trying to make dementis of it but if we‘re are making dementis of the14 bucks, then the half a million relative to the $120 million is…we can find it. So, that‘s all I have to say.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Mr. Hendrickson?
John Hendrickson said, good evening. I represent Missoula Building Industry Association, probably one of the most hardest hit industries in the recession. When times are good we contribute to the City coffers quite a bit as you have found out. I‘d like to say I‘ll be brief but that‘s not within my nature. You know that and I‘m sure I‘ll be reigned in. I am the third business entity to come before you, the Chamber and MOR have come before you. Between the three of us we represent over 2,000 businesses and business people within the community. And although the numbers on the screen say you only have got 1,500 letters of protest there‘s a lot more out there in the community who are not…do not agree with these districts. We oppose the districts because the taxes collected are not going towards any improvements. By the City‘s admission, next year the half a million dollars that is collected, the Parks and Streets Departments, budgets will be cut from the general fund and I would imagine the year after that and the year after that. In the Missoulian County Commissioners are quoted as saying: ―The next two years are City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 18 the ones that will probably be the tough ones.‖ So people‘s fears, like the $13 will become $15 or $20 are not unfounded and quite reasonable in my opinion. The taxes collected also I believe was not the intent of the special districts when they were created by the Legislator in Helena. They‘re intent was not for municipalities to balance the budget. In 7-11-1025 and I quote: ―The governing body shall pass and finally adopt a resolution specifying the special district assessment option and levying and assessing all the property within the special district with an amount equal to the annual cost of the program and improvements.‖ There is no program other than the fact that the budget was presented. Two-thirds of the taxes collected are going towards salary. There are no improvements. There is no work plan which I believe, in my opinion, violates another statute. But saying that, in your resolution of intent, under Section 7 Assessing Methods, and I quote: ―All eligible properties located in district are to be assessed for a portion of the cost of services listed in Section 1.‖ In both those things all eligible properties does not mean that the unassessed properties are assessed at zero dollars. To me that is a major change in the resolution. Mr. Nugent has on many occasions has told you that any major change is allowable but the process…a new public hearing has to be held and the process has to start all over again. You‘re not in violation of that until you pass the resolutions tonight. Right now it‘s a consideration but that brings up another matter that on August the 18th Mr. Bender and the Mayor sent out an email to School District 1 and I‘m not really sure if they sent it out to anybody else, but I did hear from a couple of the other unassessed properties that they were not going to be included in the districts. They did that on their own as an agent of the City, not the City Council, so therefore there is major change in the protest. That should have triggered another 30-day protest after the City Council considered it, of which you did not. Now is not the time to raise taxes. Your businesses, as you have heard from many in the business community and residents are feeling the pinch of the recession. Thirteen dollars may not seem like a lot. People on fixed incomes, on Social Security have not gotten a raise in two years. They are…you know, Mountain Water…excuse me, Northwest Energy will pass this along to the ratepayers. So their $13, they live in a $225,000, will now become $16 or $19. I believe there‘s a gentleman or a lady in the audience who said businesses will also pass this along to the consumer if at all possible. That‘s a fact. Are there other avenues for the Mayor and the City to raise taxes? I say you betcha but nah, I‘m not going to go there. There‘s over $1 million on un-levied taxes sitting over here which the City can assess at any time. Well, not at any time, before the budget is passed. Mr. Strohmaier brought up an amendment to last Wednesday attaching part of that. I believe a couple hundred thousand dollars of the…or maybe $400,000, I forget what your amendments say. But that is available to you. Why are you raising the taxes on the other end, when the citizens are not going to see any improvements or benefits? You have the option of cutting unessential…essential positions and programs. I think Ms. Latrielle said that $500,000 is like 1.2% of the budget. You know, it‘s not that hard to go in and I‘m very familiar with the budget, to find a half a million dollars to cut. There‘s been testimony...well, we can only raise taxes half the rate of inflation…the CPI. As the paper said, the tough years are yet to come. In 2007 was the last year of the building boom. In 2008, 2009, 2010 not so much. Revenues are going to drop next year. You‘re faced by budget shortfalls from the state, that million dollars will be taxed. If not this year, next year in its entirety. You‘ve got over $1 million worth of raises you‘ve got to cover. You have the potential of over $200,000 in insurance premiums you have to cover because you‘re responsible for the first $35 of any insurance premium raises to your employees. You‘ve got the entitlement program, $100,000 potential cut or more from the state. So I know that million dollars will be taxed. If you do not like the method that the state employees allows the cities and municipalities throughout the state to raise property taxes, then change that at the state level. That‘s one of the reasons why this was enacted, was to keep city budgets in line. Not to say Missoula was guilty of that but other places were. It was a city…it was a citizen initiative that started that, that led to this and you are circumventing this. I‘m not saying this was not the intention of the statute passed to balance the City budget; it was for improvements that people could enjoy and see. Thank you for your time.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Anyone else care to comment this evening? Mr. Nicholson?
Don Nicholson said, thank you for asking us. I will be brief, guaranteed. I say ditto to you‘ve heard enough technical reasons of why you can‘t do this. I agree with Kandi and John and Lee and if you made notes I think they‘re all right. I think it‘s interesting to watch the process here again and I appreciate a good deal of that because I have been in their chairs and listened to this endless testimony before and as you all know, it‘s really hard to just sit there and take it in. I do appreciate that about it. I want to call to City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 19 mind that Governor Schweitzer about a year and a half or two years ago announced to everybody that would listen that there are hard times coming and he took some steps to keep the state budget in line and as we sit today, if I‘m not mistaken, the last time I saw the news and Montana was one of three states that was not under water on their budget, thanks largely in part to what Governor Schweitzer and the actions he took. I watched the park take their maintenance budget from $250,000 to $50,000 when we‘re trying to find the extra money for the swimming pools. That‘s $600,000 going into capital construction when it wasn‘t intended for that but that‘s where it went and so for three years we went along with $50,000 in the maintenance budget in parks. I thought it was interesting tonight when Bruce was presenting the staff report. And parenthetically I would the staff reports are supposed to be about 50/50 pro and con. This one was 100% pro taxing district. The first line, however, said earmark. These taxing districts are earmarked for specific things. And later he went on to list trees and curbs and gutters and for earmarks whatsoever that I could discern. So if the basic purpose of it in the first line of the presentation is for earmarks, that‘s where they should be. The fix up of the bathroom in Bonner Park…how about Rattlesnake Drive or what about Hillview Way? They all need a lot of work. At the Episcopal Church a nonprofit question comes up several times, we got a letter that we were in based on square footage which we objected. We got a letter back from the Mayor that says well I am recommending to the city council that non profits get taken out of this thing. There are 800 of those in this town, churches, universities, the Elk Foundation and so forth. So frankly as I sit now I have no idea whether we are in or out. I think it‘s interesting in the transparency issue…I really do appreciate because there are not two public hearings tonight, there‘s three. The third one is the passage of and setting the mill levies for the approved budget. The third one isn‘t even on the list and tonight we‘re hearing discussion on the first two. If these two are going to be out, then you‘re going to have to re-jigger the budget. There‘s no way you can set a mill leverage tonight. Once again I do appreciate the time and I know you all realize that what ever the votes are tonight, you are putting in one or two planks in the platform in the 2011 election. Thank you for your time and your service.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Anyone else care to comment? Mr. Andrew?
Mark Anderlik, 720 S. 5th Street West, said, property owner and citizen. I‘m here to support the tax districts and wanted to say a couple of things. Let‘s face it, that if even those solve all the problems that have been brought up about the protest process, if two or three times as many people have protested, you know, we‘re still looking at 16 to 24% protest, falling far short of what the state law allows. And also Ms. Latrielle from the Chamber of Commerce I believe had said that her members pay about 50% of the taxes here. Well then I think her organization would have really been remiss in not organizing enough protests to call a halt to these tax districts. Also, I don‘t want to minimize economic troubles. Obvious we all know we have economic troubles right now and I know I‘m a union representative for low income workers here in Missoula and Western Montana, and I honestly don‘t understand such passion for the small tax increase. I can see where if people are feeling very cynical about their government and feeling very distressful of their government, but I can understand them why people are making such a fuss, and I‘m not saying this is all the case for everyone. But I would also say that we, you know, this issue has been come up…I think I‘ve been to three City Council meetings on this issue and I know there‘s been more, so this is not something that‘s been kind of lying in the weeds. And people are free to come…I have heard lots of people come and testify and have an opportunity to say their peace and have brought up some really good points I think, that the Council should consider. But all of you I think…I trust are trying to do the best you can do for the City of Missoula and I take personal offense, and I apologize, if there are any insults to your integrity. So one thing I do also want to mention about our economic situation is that, as I‘ve said before, this is the time for us to invest in Missoula, and this is a small, little thing. I‘m a little nervous about a tax increase in the middle of a recession, however, they didn‘t cause this recession and to, you know, kind of cast dispersions that way I think is very irresponsible. But I do think that showing that the people of Missoula, and this is why I‘m standing here, to invest in our City so that when…someone I think had said before, maybe it was Fern Hart who spoke very eloquently that we are stepping forward to invest and keep our investment in our City sound so that when economic good times happen, come again which we all hope they will, we‘re able to take advantage and to build Missoula into something even better than it is right now. If we take sort of a low road and cut, cut, cut and try to, you know, talk about getting rid of things and not try every reasonable effort to maintain what we have, I think is really shortsighted and I don‘t think it‘s a real mature way of going about the public‘s business. So City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 20 one last thing I wanted to make mention is that I think a lot of you understand too that one of the reasons why we‘re in this fix, I believe, is the cap put on the property taxes and the very large tax breaks given to businesses in the 1990s. We are suffering in…every municipality is suffering across the state and the county entity for I would say ill-advised tax policy on the state level to which you are…you will have to be accountable to; you have to follow the state law. I would welcome anybody who doesn‘t like this district tax to, you know, go with those who are trying and maybe attempt in this next legislature to ease the burden on people with fixed incomes in their property tax. But also to fix some of the inequities in our tax system that drive us right to this very point where we‘re at. So, thank you very much.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Anyone else care to comment this evening?
Karen Wagner, 4880 Lower Miller Creek Road, said, I‘m opposed to this resolution, both resolutions, right now mainly because of the economy. I‘m not opposed to road districts per se or park districts per se and sidewalks but it has to be specific. You can‘t have this for any other purposes. That‘s an open checkbook. I mean that‘s asking the public to just go home and forget that there‘s even City Council or that we have representatives. You folks are asking for an open checkbook. The economy is just plain rotten right now. I know people that have lost their businesses, have moved businesses out of town. The…I‘m losing my…when we talk about how you can, you know, come up with this money, I have a question because the realtors and the Chamber of Commerce are against this. Since 2007 the housing has gone in the basement but has the Office of Planning and Grants decreased in size? And can you tell me how many employees are in that office of Planning and Grants today?
Mayor Engen said, sure. Not off the top of my head but we can sure get you that.
Karen Wagner said, well, in 2007 it was higher than any other city in the state of Montana. And I challenge each and every one of you before you do this to go back and look at that and see how many people…how many employees in Office of Planning and Grants throughout the state of Montana, because there‘s other cities that are in better shape financially than Missoula…with housing than Missoula. Make some cuts there. When there‘s no houses being built, you don‘t need that large of staff. And I thank you for your time.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, ma‘am. Yes, sir?
John Quandt, 517 E. Beckwith property owner, said, I just wanted to go over a couple of things that as I was sitting here and I‘m trying to figure out, everybody‘s talking about the 400 grand that‘s laying around and it‘s got to either go in savings or can it patch the budget. I understand it needs to go to savings because our creditors will, you know, our credit is going to drop therefore things just won‘t go well. A problem with that is that it shows to me that there‘s a lack of budgeting going on. We‘re saying, well, there‘s a hole in the budget of 500 grand, we need it, and there‘s 400 grand laying around but we forgot that we have to put it in the bank for the creditors to show that we‘re in good standing. So, oops, we forgot about the money that we already owe. We also need more money to create more programs to do more things. And, you know, that just doesn‘t resonate well with me. It‘s not that it‘s $13, I have no problem paying $13. It‘s the principle of it. I think what most of these people are here, they are trying to say and people say it a lot more eloquently than I do, but it‘s the principle of the situation. That‘s what it boils down to. So, you know, when I took my son today to go buy a skateboard and he saved all his money in his piggy bank for five years of his life that he‘s been alive to buy this skateboard, $140 he wanted to pay for a skateboard. He wanted a little bit better wheels and I said, no, Jack, I‘m not giving you any money to pay for the skateboard. You knew what money you had, you knew what you had to pay for. Now you can‘t go and up the ante and say I want this. It‘s not the way it works. Could I afford to give my son the extra money to buy the wheels? Of course. But it‘s the principle of the situation. You can‘t go back to the dipper. That‘s what you have going on here. We‘re going back and saying, oops, we need more. We forgot that we‘ve got to pay this and now we‘ve got to pay that. There‘s got to be a way…there‘s been a million ways listed here, the people have come up with, to find $500,000. In the whole grand scheme of things, sure 500 grand doesn‘t seem like much because we can make it up with 13 bucks a piece so it can‘t be that much. Well, then that‘s true. So find it in the budget. It‘s got to be somewhere. Thank you. City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 21
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Yes, ma‘am?
Lisa Wages, 6900 Miller Creek Road, said, but I own property in Missoula. Because I‘m out of the City limits I can‘t vote for you people but I pay taxes and I have a couple of issues here. The cost two years ago of a movie ticket was $10. Now it‘s about $15. When I go some place and I pull out my checkbook or my credit card, I know what I‘m signing. I know what I‘m asking for and I know what I‘m getting. I‘m not getting that from you guys. You just want, as a person said, an open checkbook. That‘s what‘s graveling the people of Missoula.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, ma‘am. Anyone else care to comment this evening? Yes, ma‘am?
Linda Smith, 545 Woodford, said, I‘ve come tonight to support the adoption of a mechanism that funds parks and streets through a small annual payment from all of us who live here and use them, and since we can all drive on any street and go to any City park we choose to, it‘s a more fair way to maintain and improve these services that large majorities of Missoulians said they wanted after being surveyed by the City. And depending on where you live an SID can be very costly and special districts for parks and streets can offset some of those costs. I‘m also concerned that as the City grows, those living farther away from the City center where we have plenty of parks and our streets are in good shape, that they have parks nearby. And I‘m especially interested in seeing a significant portion of the money raised annually by the City-wide park district go to maintaining and enhancing the long-term wellbeing of our urban forest. I was really glad to read that in the paper today because I think it‘s been neglected for a long time and we don‘t have the mechanisms figured out yet how to maintain them. And I understand that historically we did. We used to know how to maintain them and now we don‘t, and I don‘t know what the mechanisms were but it seems to me if we used to do it, we could do it again. And I think Missoula generally does a good job on streets, but the urban forest is an improvement, and parks enhance the quality of life in ways that go far beyond what streets can do or provide for us. I support the creation of two separate districts so parks don‘t have to compete with streets for funding and are given the priority they deserve as a legacy for future Missoulians. I also think, you know, in hard times, hard economic times, being able to spend time in the park or in the urban…seeing the trees makes a huge difference and they need to be in good shape. And, finally, I do…I am a property owner and I do live on a fixed income. My assessment this year is $8.99 for both districts. To me that is small but when it‘s combined with all those from the community, all the other citizens in Missoula, it can make a big difference for parks and the urban forest and the streets and all the people who use them.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, ma‘am. Yes, ma‘am?
Willa Spence said, I want to be very, very clear that I‘m a transplant to Missoula but I‘ve been here so many years that it‘s home to me and I love Missoula. I want it to be the very best it can be but the only way that it can be the best is to put an issue as important as this out to vote on an official ballot for all of the taxpayers to respond to. I‘d like to add that as a…I only have a few rental properties but I‘ve done my very, very best to support the City‘s goal for affordable housing. I haven‘t raised the rent for years, years, because I know how important this is, but I can‘t continue to keep up like this. I would ask you please do not, do not pass this resolution without putting this out to a vote, to the general taxpayer public.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, ma‘am. Anyone else care to comment this evening? Mr. Fellows?
Mike Fellows said, I represent the Missoula Libertarian Party. We are against these special districts that are too open-ended and I think we need to look at the renters and I know quite a few landlords in town that say they‘re just going to pass this on to the renters for the property they own. Missoula‘s becoming a place where there are kind of the haves and the have-nots in certain cases because the cost is rising. And the budget, we should be able to deal with that in other ways. I know in a place like Ann Arbor, Michigan where they‘re laying off firefighters to sort of balance their budget, but they‘re also spending $850,000 for a piece of art that‘s going to sit in front of their new police courts and building right next to city hall, so I think there‘s got to be better ways to balance the budget. We need to look at the projects to see what we need to spend instead of having it an open-ended project that who knows where the money City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 22 is going to end up at. As we‘ve seen with other taxes and fees over the years some of these fees may start off at $400 or $100 whichever and then end up being over $1,000 in some cases over the years and so this is not going to stop at say $15 a year for most people. It‘s going to really rise up and we‘ve seen that before in other cities where their so-called maintenance fees are over $150 a year on up and so there‘s got to be some better ways to deal with this and it‘s nice to have some exact projects to work because when I see Higgins, and we spent…it‘s probably federal funds $1.2 million or something. I wonder…I thought the road was pretty good before that and I don‘t really see any improvement for the money that we‘ve got. But anyway I hope you vote this down. I think it‘s a wasteful deal with this process. Thank you very much.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Anyone else care to comment? Mr. Snodgrass?
Will Snodgrass said, I guess the first question I would ask you is how can you justify taxing your own constituents many of whom, like the lady who just testified could be pushed over the edge by a $10 or $20 per month increase? How can you justify taxing them when you are well paid? You have ample health care plans including dental. How can you do this? Have you thought about that? You sit pretty securely, don‘t you? Okay? I‘d like to talk a little bit about waste in foolhardy government. In 1997 this government body, maybe you weren‘t here, was informed that the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which involved anywhere from $88 million to $134 to $200 million, depending on how you cut, would not work. Your own engineers told you that. So on your agenda tonight you have a near $8 million purported fix, $8 million that you‘re going to throw at this hawking, outdated, behemoth? You‘re going to be wasting your money just like you wasted it when you built the thing. Okay? How can you justify doing this? And who do you think you are to do something like this to fill your playgrounds with concrete, heavy metal laden plastic toys, arsenic treated wood that‘s imbedded in children‘s playgrounds for $700,000 we paid to have the playground poisoned? Concrete and tar does not build a city. Okay? Libraries, yes. Maybe laptops but not road building and tearing up the downtown streets unnecessarily and doing make-work projects. And like the man in the suit said, if you‘ve got a $120 million budget and you can‘t find $500,000, somebody had better be checking your accountants‘ books. If I were Mr. Ramharter, I would be pretty nervous right now which leads me to the subject of Public Works fraud, which I brought before you clearly in the form of poster-board sized documents that irrefragably proved that the man who served as the Director of Public Works, Bruce Bender sitting right over there, committed federal level fraud and you, Mayor Engen, promoted him. And we‘re supposed to trust this man and you to make decisions with our money? I don‘t think so. The ear-markings of a racketeering level public works fraud are beginning to surface. That‘s Reco. That involves an organized system that operates to extract or extort money or other things. In this case it doesn‘t involve prostitution fortunately. Although in the 40s it involved gaming machines in the basement of the County Commissioners. If you can‘t do better than this, all of you, then please get out of office. I‘m all for community. This was once called the Garden Community, the Garden City. It is no longer that. You‘re building a place where people will get sick; that‘s all you‘re building. I‘m not concerned with what others think about my comments. I think I‘m telling you the truth and I think I‘m accurate here. I‘m seldom wrong. I try to check my facts pretty well. This is a wasteful government. It‘s fraught with waste and unnecessary expenditures. The old adage about Christ feeding 5,000 people with a couple of loaves of bread and some fish is I think something to think about, especially in these economic times. Thank you very much.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Anyone else care to comment this evening on either of these special districts? Yes, sir?
Frank Cole, 1710 Defoe, said, I bought the home after going on the Police Department in 1956. I paid $10,000 for the home and the wages were so low that I had to run it for 30 years instead of 20. It was a GI loan from the Korean war. Now we‘re talking here about all the things that are recession. You should be talking about the inflation; that‘s what put us where we‘re at. My house now is worth $200,000. Think about that. Now those people that are not getting enough rent for their home, my son just rented a place and he‘s paying $1,200 a month for that place. It‘s inflation that‘s wrong and if this recession corrects inflation, I‘m for whatever‘s done. I think that the City has done a good job. I think that the parks and seeing the kids out in the parks, in the sprinklers and doing things besides carousing the streets. There were some simple rules that were done back in them days. We had a loitering ordinance that didn‘t allow City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 23 people to lay on the streets. Somebody had the right idea I guess that went wrong because it allowed people to just loiter on the street, urinate and so forth. And when we had a problem with the Police Department and the Sheriff‘s office in the size, we helped each other. The Sheriff‘s office deputized every City policeman and when we had to go out of the City to help them, it was their responsibility from the City limits out to pay the bill. So, there are ways to work things. I think you‘ve done a real good job. The streets have been a good job and the sidewalks sometimes I‘m wondering when you make a sidewalk around a tree…my neighbor has to take a foot and a half off his property and it won‘t line up with my sidewalk next door because of new rules. There are some things that can be corrected and will be but I can‘t stand this here recession thing when inflation was the cause. We got used to spending money too fast. I fought for police retired wages for years and it came on real slow but the officers now, if they could work 40 years, they‘d get 100% retirement, but they can‘t because it‘s not feasibly sound. So anyway it‘s inflation, folks. Good luck and I hope you continue as you have been doing. Mayor Engen said, thank you, Mr. Cole. Good to see you. Anyone else care to comment this evening? Yes, ma‘am?
Mary Pettis, said, I live up on Longview Avenue and I‘m not opposed to the $13 and I love parks but I don‘t buy your rationale. But I am opposed to the resolutions for special districts. I think most people deduct their property taxes from their federal income tax. I‘m not sure you‘d be able to deduct this new tax from your federal income tax. That‘s one issue. But also I want you to prioritize because…and I think you do a good job. I‘m new but I‘ve kind of watched you a little bit and I know how hard it is, having been on a homeowner‘s association board once. But I would like you to prioritize within your current budget and go ahead and raise the property taxes to $13 but don‘t do the special districts, and that‘s mainly my point, is that I think that within the existing mechanism you can accomplish all these things, roads and parks and the services. Let‘s prioritize.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, ma‘am. Anyone else? Alright, with that, I will close the public hearing. Are there questions from Council? Mr. Jaffe? You all want to take a break? Alright, we‘ll recess so folks can take care of whatever they may need to take care of. We‘ll be back in order at a quarter to 10.
[Recess]
Mayor Engen said, we‘ll have some folks drifting back in I suspect but we‘ll be back in order and we‘ll take questions from Council at this time. Ms. Latrielle, could I get you to pull those doors shut for me please? Alright, with that, we‘ll take questions from Council. Mr. Jaffe?
Alderman Jaffe said, thank you. I had a question for Bruce. The protest number, you don‘t have to pull the slide up again, but just tell me, we had just about 8% and then about 2% of that was invalidated for various reasons. Is that right?
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Bender?
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, that correct, 8.6 total and then not valid was 1.8 and so valid would be 6.8.
Alderman Jaffe said, so the 6.8, how much of that was the top property owner, like what‘s the percentage of the one individual that represents the most property there?
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, I‘m not certain we have the break-outs of that. We were working on that and I think we got partly done. We were trying to sort them by commercial and residential but we didn‘t get that completed.
Alderman Jaffe said, well, I was just curious whether or not there was some disproportionate amount that was, you know, when we look at that, after you take out the, you know, the one or two large commercial interests?
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, right. There were a couple of property owners that were fairly large. Maybe Dan might recall. I think they may have amounted to like 2% maybe. City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 24
Alderman Jaffe said, so maybe 2% of that actually was with Lambros?
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, and the other large…there were a couple of large property owners….
Alderman Jaffe said, alright. So a couple of people represented basically half the protests it sounds like.
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, well, about a third or less. I mean you‘ve got a valid protest of almost 7%, you know, so…
Alderman Jaffe said, okay. Alright. I was just trying to figure out how that distribution worked.
Mayor Engen said, other questions? Ms. Hellegaard?
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, this is a question for Bruce as well. Last Wednesday you told us that the unassessed properties would account for about 6% of the entire district. If Lambros comprises 2%, how can all the unassessed properties only amount t 6%? That doesn‘t make sense to me.
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, well, first off, the tax exempts value was zero because they had no taxable value. When I had stated the 6% number, I was referring to the methodology that we were hoping to use which was a method that we were trying to work with the state to use. If we had assessed the tax exempt, that‘s roughly the percentage that they would have represented, would have been 6% of the total assessed area, but we weren‘t able to do that so they basically ended up being zero.
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, okay, follow-up. That 6% then, was that before the Mayor was out negotiating with the University of Montana that reduced theirs from? I believe he said 46,000 down to 10 reduced the County‘s down to 3?
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, there was no negotiations. What it was we were trying to, first off we were hopeful the State Revenue Department would provide us with values. That‘s historically what they had done. And so then when we found out that they weren‘t going to do that, we were working on various methodologies. One methodology with the University was book value and then we started working on this methodology of using average square footage of currently tax properties and then applying it back to the square footage of the tax exempt. And so when we equally applied that to all tax exempt properties, the University‘s assessment came in at that dollar amount. So there was no negotiations or whatever. It was methodologies that we were trying to use.
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, follow-up. At the Chamber Board meeting I believe the President of Missoula Federal Credit Union said his five buildings…his tax bill amounted to $5,000. I mean I just see a real disparity in what some people were being charged as opposed to what other people were going to be charged.
Mayor Engen said, further questions? I‘ll ask if you‘re taking cell phone calls would you step into the hall please. Further questions? Ms. Walzer?
Alderwoman Walzer said, did you ask some questions about the non-taxable…the tax exempt properties? So let‘s see if I‘m correct, they are still in the district except we had hoped that we‘d be able to have a value assessed on them but the state has not been able to assist us so they have no…they‘re in the district but they have no value, so, therefore, their tax is zero. Is that right?
Mayor Engen said, that‘s correct.
Alderwoman Walzer said, so there are questions from the audience about how do the other cities do this and so is it my understanding that the other cities instead of assessing taxes by the value of the property, they have most of them of a flat rate that it would be like $100 per parcel no matter what? No matter if you were a…your house is worth $200,000 or $2 million? City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 25
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, typically most of them are assessed on an area basis because that was the only methodology permitted when most of these were created. Most of these were created 30-40 years ago and square footage was the only available method. There are a few, it‘s a minority, that do lump some of the districts on a residential house as all equal and then a commercial is another assessment, but that‘s unusual. If I recall right, I think I saw that in the assessments for some of the newer things, maybe Helena when they do the newest district open space they may have done it on that basis, but most of them do it on a square footage basis.
Alderwoman Walzer said, okay, so follow-up with that. So I guess the question, maybe I‘m not sure I have the answer, that we did not go with the square footage for all properties because we‘ve had some difficulty with that, with assessing SIDs like up in Hillview Way or whatever that we want…is that the reason why we did not determine valuation that way so that we could definitely include every property, because some of the properties we‘d be assessing really had very low property value but would be assessed as high or higher than those with much higher property values. Is that right?
Bruce Bender, CAO, said, we‘ve always heard from the bond councils was that a peer area basis was not equitable because of the case that you could have a large track that had very little improvements on it. We see that in some of our residential lots or even commercial lots could be mainly empty or whatever, so it doesn‘t represent the value of the property or the benefit they receive. So in SID law recently or…creating SIDs we‘ve always recognized tax value as being a portion of an SID improvement as a way to assess because it does equate better to benefit rather than just purely area. The reason we chose taxable value is because obviously you have that information and it took several years for those other cities to create that database for square footage, and so it is quite cumbersome and then the equity issue.
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Wilkins?
Alderman Wilkins said, so that‘s kind of remarkable that I hear from you, Bruce, that you said there wasn‘t no negotiations and leading up to my questions, I‘m going to tell you that the day of that Chamber meeting, when people got back and I heard that there was negotiations going on, it was a rumor to me so I went straight to the person that could answer the question, which was the Mayor, and the Mayor confirmed that there was negotiations going on to me. He didn‘t say anything more that you repeated here. So my question is to Mr. Nugent. Are some changes that happened to this since we first initiated the resolution, are there any changes that are important enough that we need to start this process over or are we going to see some legal challenge to this?
City Attorney Jim Nugent said, I can‘t look into a crystal ball and tell you whether there‘s going to be any legal challenges. We‘ll just deal with those as they arrive. With respect to special districts, generally the rule of thumb is that you may not increase the amount of the assessment any more than what you advertised in your notice. You must give notice of the district and notice of what the potential assessment is going to be. If, in fact, there‘s an increase above what the notice said, that would be a concern that would have to go back to a re-advertising process in order to assess a larger assessment than what was represented in any notice that was provided.
Alderman Wilkins said, follow-up?
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Wilkins?
Alderman Wilkins said, so the other thing that, when I think of the changes we were counting on probably nonprofits to start paying and that did not happen though because I was told we didn‘t…my concern then was when nonprofits were not going to be charged that then the taxpayer, the property owner that was being charged would be an increase to them and then I was told, well, no, because we didn‘t count the nonprofits‘ money to start with, even from the very beginning. And it‘s disturbing to me to hear KPAX, and this is the second time I‘ve heard that from this TV station, is that the state was the one that didn‘t allow us to assess nonprofits. So, they said it tonight at the 5:30 news and I heard them say it once before that. And they blame that on the state, and that‘s not the case, is it, Mr. Bender? City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 26
Mayor Engen said, so I‘ll answer, Mr. Wilkins. We were trying to find an equitable way to assess nonprofits and part of that conversation was what I will call a negotiation, and Bruce may not, but we were talking to the University and we were talking to the school district and we were talking to the County about a way to assess them fairly. And if we were able to arrive at a place where they thought we were being fair, based on our method, and we thought we were being fair we would bring those numbers to you, for you to vote on. That‘s the way we do business. We give you proposals and you say, yes or no. The State Department of Revenue, during a conference call with us, said that they have no method of assessing properties that have no taxable value on their rolls. There is a contradiction between what DOR‘s position is and I think to a great degree where they want to put their efforts and what the special district law allows. And one of those sentences you‘ll read in that special district law is that the local jurisdiction can create a method. It has to be fair and equitable but it can create a method. So we‘re trying to work our way through that and in the end what I‘m recommending to you all is that for the work that would be involved in assessing nonprofits as compared to the amount of the total assessment, as a practical matter, it‘s just not worth chasing down.
Alderman Wilkins said, follow-up?
Mayor Engen said, yes, sir?
Alderman Wilkins said, so at some time in the future, if these special districts are created, are you going to keep working on trying to assess nonprofits so they‘ll pick up their equal share?
Mayor Engen said, you know, I again don‘t think it‘s worth it based on the amount of revenue we get from that but you all can have a say in that as well.
Alderman Wilkins said, and then one other question for Mr. Nugent. This is supposed to be a Council resolution. I don‘t know of any member of Council that actually put this resolution in. I think it came from the Administration and I want to know the comments about that. This is supposed to be up to the Council‘s decisions and it doesn‘t appear that any certain member of the Council actually put these resolutions through.
Mayor Engen said, well, the Council adopted the resolutions of intention.
Alderman Wilkins said, and that‘s a little misleading too, when you adopt a resolution of intention. I‘ll tell you why I actually voted yes and that was to get the thing on a public meeting so I guess that‘s the answer to Council with the intentions. But it was actually brought in front of us by the Administration. Is that correct?
Mayor Engen said, yes, sir…
Alderman Wilkins said, okay.
Mayor Engen said, as was the budget. Other questions? Seeing none, Ms. Rye will read the motion.
Alderwoman Rye said, I‘m going to start with Road District #1 and then move on to the next motion which, if that passes, the Park District #1 the fiscal year ‘11 budget appropriations and then the accompanying tax levies. So I move the City Council adopt a resolution creating the City of Missoula Road District #1 for the purpose of providing certain maintenance, purchasing and improvements and services for City-owned facilities land and equipment under the responsibility and care of the City of Missoula‘s Public Works Department, Street, Engineering and Vehicle Maintenance Divisions. Levying and assessing the lots and parcels within the City of Missoula Road District #1 for the cost of such services and improvements providing for a method of assessments and providing for other matters properly relating thereto.
Mayor Engen said, that motion is in order. Is there discussion on the motion? Mr. Haines?
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 27
Alderman Haines said, I kind of held my tongue several times here listening to some of the things tonight but one thing I wanted to throw at people, both here in the audience and out there in TV land, how many of you folks have health insurance? You‘re probably paying a good penny for it. Do you know what I pay for City health insurance? I pay $5 a pay period, every two weeks. For all intense and purposes, that‘s free health care from the City. And when they tell you they can‘t find any place to raise money, they don‘t have to give away the health insurance. I want everybody out there in TV land to hear that. I‘m sure you‘re paying a lot more for that. I have secondary insurance and it‘s about 15 times that amount, and it doesn‘t give me any more near the coverage. So I think the City‘s leading you down the pike here, by the nose, when they tell me they have no other way to raise money. And when they talk about how the money can be used, I want you to go back and think about the swimming pool when we put that in place. If I remember right, $300 and some thousand dollars out of that bond bought new Parks and Recreation offices. That was not on the bond. This will tell you that probably if this thing passes and money‘s generated, it‘s going to be used a lot of places besides what they‘re telling you they‘re going to use it for. Another thing I wanted to point out tonight, I wanted to read to you the part from Montana Code and look this up, you people out there on computers, 7.11.1008 Right to Protest, Procedure and Hearing. Part 5(d) of that says: In determining whether or not sufficient protests have been filed in the proposed special district to prevent further proceedings, property owned by the governmental entity must be…must be considered the same as any other property in the district. Now I looked at that and I thought about it a long time and I chewed on it quite a bit. As a former legislator I don‘t know what else could be said any different. I don‘t know what I could say to a bill drafter. I don‘t know what a bill drafter could ask of me if I were carrying this through the procedure in the house, through all the committee hearings and debate on the floor, and then taking it over to the Senate, getting somebody to run with it there. I don‘t know that that can be made any clearer that property owned by a governmental entity must be considered the same as any other property in the district. This City has not done that. You‘ve just heard them talking about not doing it. From my perspective what they‘ve got going now is a flawed process. And I‘m telling you people on Council when you vote for something that is probably illegal, there could be jeopardization to you come down the pike later on. I‘ve seen that enough times, both in federal and state service, that when you push something that‘s illegal, and you knowingly know it‘s illegal, you‘re jeopardizing yourself. So think about that a long time. Property owned by a governmental entity must be considered the same as any other property in the district. I don‘t know how to say it any plainer. Suddenly take all these other properties out of the mix, I think you‘re outside the law. You‘re outside the intent of this. The protest procedure is flawed, has been botched, it‘s been messed up, it‘s not correct and I think it‘s the Achilles Heel to anything you pass tonight. Sooner or later it‘s going to come back and somebody‘s going to say, we‘re going to court, boys and girls. Something else I wanted to throw at you too. This is a letter that all the Council got, including the Mayor, and it comes from Mr. Bill Squires who‘s the Vice-President and General Council of Blackfoot Telephone. And the letter he wrote to the Mayor, I‘ll just read part of it. It says: ―Mr. Mayor, a few short weeks ago you and I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with many young people in Missoula, including high school and University students. The focus of the workshop was to help guide our next generation leaders in making ethical decisions. In that workshop we asked these young men and women to ask themselves the following question when faced with a tough decision. One, is it the truth? Two, is it fair? Three, will it build good will and, four, will it be beneficial to all concerned? I would (and this is Mr. Squires speaking) I would submit to you that if you were to apply these questions to the special district resolution, you would be compelled to vote them down. Using special districts to balance the City-wide budget simply is not the truth. It is at best budget smoke and mirrors. Is it fair? There can be no question our current tax burden, particularly in comparison to Montana cities, is not fair.‖ And he points out that we‘re 127% of the average Montana major cities. We‘re way out of line of everybody else. Nor is it fair to pass park and road special districts simply as a means to balancing the budget. Certainly this will not build good will with any organization attempting to bring economic development to Missoula, nor will it build good will for the Best Place Project. And we‘ve all talked about how bad we need that Best Place Project and we need businesses and we need a lot of businesses. And I submit that this is not going to get them for us. So I sit here and I say, one, I think you‘re going to hurt the City of Missoula with this thing and, second, I think you could hurt yourselves by voting for something that is illegal. The right to protest is, like I say, is flawed, it‘s botched, it‘s messed up. I notice one thing in this same Montana Code, 7.11.1008, it does say the governing body may adjourn the hearing from time to time. I would suggest that maybe some thought go into adjourning this tonight City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 28 without any movement on this until we can work out how we‘re going to deal with this botched up protest procedure.
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Strohmaier?
Alderman Strohmaier said, so part of what I‘m going to be saying is going to be answered a little bit farther on in the discussion tonight when we take up the actual FY 2011 budget resolution. I will be interested in entertaining the possibility of amending the work plans for the park and road districts and indeed there are already work plans contrary to some of what we‘ve heard tonight. But let me start by just saying a few words about the special road district. In the 1967 movie, The Graduate, Mr. McGuire in speaking to Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman, says, I want to say one word to you, just one word, plastics. Well, that‘s not the word I choose tonight. The word I choose tonight is sidewalks. That‘s the word I want to say and the genesis and the reason why I want to say it is the genesis for me, personally and as a City Council representative, in taking seriously the idea of either maintenance districts or special districts goes back to the debates we had a few years ago on the Hickory Street Sidewalk Project. Coming out of that discussion I was left with the impression that we need to, at some point in the future, figure out a more equitable way to pay for infrastructure in our community that gets away from what I consider an antiquated system of assessing disproportionately the adjoining property owner for what is arguably a community benefit spread out across the entire City of Missoula. On this particular issue, unfortunately, I have to take exception with MOR, MBIA and the Chamber. We‘ve heard from a number of realtors in the past number of days how they are opposing these special districts and we also hear from realtors a lot about so-called curb appeal, and the only way you can have curb appeal for a home is to have curbs. The second instance that I bring up as an example of why I am interested in the road district in particular and both and road districts in general is the Hillview Way example from a few years ago. I voted in opposition of that special improvement district at the time and at the time of doing so was heartened to hear from some of the residents up there who said that they would stand with me and the other Council members if at such a point in time we come up with an alternate mechanism to more equitably spread out the costs. Unfortunately and sadly I think, some of those offers of support were somewhat disingenuous as some of those same folks have come out in opposition of this approach. I have no doubt and I sympathize with those who make the argument and the correct argument that we are experiencing difficult economic times in Missoula and elsewhere in the country, but we will continue to invest in sidewalk repair and installation even during difficult economic times. And I think there‘s no time like the present to incrementally move away from what I again consider an antiquated approach to paying for critical infrastructure. So, I will heartedly support the road district that‘s before us.
Mayor Engen said, on the motion I have Ms. Hellegaard?
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, first thing that I would like to clarify for everyone is not all the cities in Montana have these districts. They have maintenance districts and that‘s not what we‘re talking about tonight. We‘re talking about special districts. They‘re two different animals. So, for the City to come up and compare us to other cities that do not have these districts is a little bit disingenuous. And if you go to the Montana Code Annotated 7.11-1007 it states: ―Prior to the passage of the resolution of intent to create the special district; 2) the resolution must designate (b) the necessity for the purpose of these special districts.‖ The public has been told the necessity of the districts is to balance the City budget. The half percent cap is an erroneous argument in meeting these. We have not fully accessed that tax levy mechanism for at least three years. It‘s also been proven that we don‘t need the money. We just received an additional $410,000 from the state. That only requires us to cut $89,000 from our budget. We could be accounting for this through attrition. We could also access the $500,000 through the tax levy that is currently available to us. The community has suggested employee and program cuts that they would support. If you go to 7.11-1007(2)(d) it states: ―The general character of any proposed improvements and the proposed location of the proposed programs and improvements.‖ To date, Council has not been given a work plan that states the locations for the proposed projects or improvements because there aren‘t any. We are balancing the budget with this. The resolution of intent has been corrupted on several levels. The resolution states all properties in the district will be assessed. On August 18th it was announced not all properties are going to be assessed. Our resolution to date still says all properties are going to be assessed. In 7.11-1008 again, as Dick said, it states property owned by a City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 29 governmental entity must be considered the same as any other property in the district. The process has been removed for the unassessed properties to protest at any point. The City went in and assessed them at zero so they can‘t protest now. They couldn‘t protest by September 7th. They can‘t protest after the fact if the Council goes back and decides that we‘re going to include them in this scheme. And, Mr. Strohmaier, my constituents are not just disingenuous; they‘re just not comfortable giving you a blank check. And will these districts be used to balance future budgets? Count on it. Next year employee pay raises will add approximately $1 million to the budget. In all likelihood an insurance premium increase will add approximately $200,000 to the budget. The Capital Lease Program will add approximately $70,000 to the budget. The state budget cuts…the entitlement programs will give us a minimum of $100,000 add. And let‘s not forget the Mayor has already announced he‘s going to be looking for a safety bond next spring. Add in Hillview Way, Russell, 3rd Street a $17 million regional park, the sky‘s the limits on these districts. And remember the City still has the ability to assess the individual property owner with special improvement districts for the sidewalks in front of their house. The reason that we‘re now saying the necessity is to improve our bond rating is because in 2008 the Mayor needed on average between 2007 and 2009 he used $1.2 million-plus out of our savings account to continue the spending habits of this administration. The reason that they didn‘t like my recommendation for the attrition savings is they needed $981,000-plus in 2008. They needed $1.1 million-plus in 2009. In 2010 they needed another $654,000-plus to balance their budgets. This spending is completely out of control and I cannot support these districts because I believe the public has not been given the information called for in state statutes nor has the necessity provision been met. The resolution has been corrupted and the recession is not the time to raise taxes on our citizens.
Alderwoman Mitchell said, I think what started out to be a balanced budget has now morphed into a huge issue that could be solved by simply voting down these districts tonight, considering ways to balance the budget tonight, the worst that could happen is this thing could be put off for a year. People would have time to iron out their priorities. We could talk about specific projects. We don‘t have to rush into this. I don‘t know how the people who are…the properties that are unassessed would ever be able to protest. First of all their value was assigned zero and if a Council in the future should come back, should these districts pass, they would not be able to get a 50% protest of the district. It‘s really simple. It‘s…one of my biggest concerns is that this is not legal what we‘re doing. However, thinking that it‘s probably illegal, I spent a lot of time this last month talking to people. I know four of us were out beating the streets, talking to our constituents and I‘m sure eight of you probably had a more relaxing Labor Day than we did. But a lot of people I talked to didn‘t even have an idea what this was about. Some of them heard of it but didn‘t really know how it affected them. A couple of them favored it and I told them when I talked to them this is an easy way for you to protest if you haven‘t done so. If you‘re in favor of them, I‘m not going to take your time. And some of them were very opposed, had already written their own letters and some of them said, yeah, let me sign that. And the whole issue, when we first started, was to send out a postcard. Now I know a state law that says you can send these notices out and people have to opt out. That‘s like saying, we‘re going to sell you this TV cable and we‘re going to charge you for all the channels and if you don‘t want them you have to opt out, and I think they proved that something like that was illegal. But state law says it‘s legal so it works to the advantage of the people who want the districts or at least want the money from the districts. So, when the postcard went out, I mean we could have talked about it and set a way to make it a little more fair for people to register how they felt about this but when it was sent back to committee, our discussion was cut off so abruptly there was no chance to bring that up. But why not have sent out a folding postcard that would have your address on it, you check the box that says, I protest and check a box that says, I‘m in favor of it. Your address is already on there. You sign it. You send it back in. Then if you want to remain neutral, you don‘t send it in, but everybody has a voice. How difficult would that have been? At least people would have felt like their voice was counted. The one thing we do all agree on is that these special districts are a means of circumventing the cap imposed by the legislature. Ed, I think you even mentioned that on your radio show. We all know that. That‘s an agreement and they can without a cap on property taxes they would not even be in view. Well we knew we had a property cap and it seems to me like maybe we have not been spending within our means over the years and putting away for rainy days. But just to give people an out in case the cap was too low, we‘ve had the maintenance districts, which other cities have been employing for 30 years; we just heard about that. Well, Missoula just jumped on the board all of a sudden because they needed to balance their budget. We had an accountant who offered to a half hour of somebody‘s time. It took Lyn Hellegaard City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 30 that much time to find out some things. It‘s taken our City staff the whole year to tell us they‘re not willing to make any of those cuts. Ed, you mentioned that there are two ways to collect enough revenues to cover expenses. We can increase taxes or we can impose special districts but why have to go to that route when we can decrease spending? Everybody else in the City has done it. I‘ve done it. I know people have been forced to cut back way more than I have. Dick made a great point. He said we have some of the best health insurance in Missoula. I have to second that. Before I came on Council I had a job with health insurance benefits and I don‘t think they‘re ordinarily as generous as what we have here. We could save some money there. Then I hear Mr. Wiener who said on the radio show, well, there‘s tax assistance available out there for people who need it. We‘re talking about people on limited incomes that have to, especially retirees, and those were your words, Jason, I played the tape back. Well, most of the people I know and have known throughout my life and I learned this from my parents and all of us who pride ourselves on independence and good work ethics and abilities to shoulder financial burdens and get out there and do what‘s necessary to make ends meet and provide for our families, we find this remark offensive and it‘s an affront to our long held American values and upbringing. That‘s kind of akin to the discussion that took place a couple of months ago when some City Council members wanted to cut meetings and some of us thought, well, if we cut out the meetings, maybe we should cut back our salaries. Imagine when we had the big boo-hoo over that if some of us would have said, well, you can always apply for public assistance. That‘s offensive, offensive to tell seniors that they can go apply for public assistance when they‘ve been independent all their lives and they want to be independent and they want to continue to be independent and you want them to write you a blank check. I find that totally immoral. Well the cards were definitely stacked against the property owners in this case from the way the protests happened, well, including the way the postcards were printed before we even had the meeting to okay the districts. We have a Communications Officer and a Mayor with a Journalism Degree. On August 23rd this Council voted to have an extension of the protest period and it was on the agenda and both the Mayor and the Communications Officer have had in the past a very close relationships with the Missoulian as back, they were employed by the Missoulian for many years. So, imagine my surprise when I opened the paper on Tuesday the 24th and read about special districts deadline is the 25th at 5 o‘clock. And like Ms. Matthew-Jenkins said, it wasn‘t until a couple of days later that a story appeared. I personally called the Missoulian and said, you knew this was on the agenda. Why did it go to press that way? We‘ll take care of it. We had to call the TV stations to say, aren‘t we going to get some notice that protests are due, that people are going to be taxed if they don‘t speak up? Lyn was able to go down and put a little segment on that but in order to be fair and balanced they did contact people that are proponents of these districts and support them so that was fine. When I hear from people out in the audience who said tonight $13 or $8 or $11 is such a small amount from all who live here, I‘m saying you‘re not getting it. It isn‘t from all who live here; it‘s all who own property here. I think somebody probably had it right when they said, it feels like…they probably just…that coming down here may not have changed anything a bit because I don‘t know if we‘re going to change people‘s minds if they‘re already made up. And when we‘ve asked for the Mayor to ask us what a reduction in services would look like because every time we say, $500,000 isn‘t much, show us, you know, let‘s make these cuts. And they wanted us to tell us which services to cut. We‘ve got at least 20 years with our CAO there. He should have a pretty good idea what has to fly and what doesn‘t. And half of knowing what you want is knowing what you have to give up to get it. So if they‘re not going to tell us that, how are we going to make an informed decision? Needless to say if you haven‘t grasped by now, I‘m opposed to these.
Alderman Wilkins said, well, I‘m opposed to these too and I think the main reason is because it can be raised next year, it can be raised the year after that and the year after that. And I haven‘t seen a work plan, Mr. Strohmaier. If the work plan said something about Hillview Way in it, I‘d bet you you‘d have a lot of people wanting to get to vote for this but I didn‘t see it in there. All I see is it‘s to balance the budget and then it‘s to go into a savings account, which is admirable, we need to build that savings account up so we don‘t get dinged on our interest rates. I can understand that. You know, I was all for this two years ago when we did a survey. I thought, alright, this is the way we‘ll actually get some repaving done on some of our streets and maybe South Avenue will quit looking like a third world street from Higgins to Bancroft to, you know, or maybe we‘ll get some more weeds pulled or maybe we‘ll get some more tree limbs cut and that sort of thing. This will be alright. We‘ll get a work plan, we‘ll know what we‘re going to do this year and, yeah, I think I would have went for it and I think most of you would have went for it but, you know, I was just an old working stiff, an old union guy. I worked construction at labor. I don‘t have a City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 31 degree. I managed to put two kids through grade school, high school and one is actually studying for his doctorate out at Kent State, the other one is now doing her practice at Head Start. So I think I‘ve done alright. This town has done me good. You know, I started out at seven bucks an hour and I got hurt in April of 1990 and lost a leg and couldn‘t work anymore and went on a fixed income. You know, bam, it just happened. Thank God for Workman‘s Comp and Social Security or I probably wouldn‘t have a home or anything now. So it‘s appalling to me to see people testify, one‘s a union leader that told me yesterday at the Labor Day picnic his union people don‘t even have health insurance but he‘s for an increase in taxes. That don‘t make sense to me. Two other ones I‘ve known over the years and they‘re always here when special interest goes, that are really into affordable housing and that‘s admirable too. I, you know, gosh, I hope my kids can buy a house here. I doubt it but I hope they can. Maybe the doctor will. Of course he won‘t come back to Missoula because there‘s not a job here in Missoula for him. There‘s a lot of jobs for social workers to I suppose my daughter will stay here. But affordable housing, raise taxes. That don‘t compute either. How do we get affordable housing if we‘re going to raise the taxes? How do we get businesses to move to Missoula that, you know, will pay a little bit more than minimum wage, like our big box stores and stuff? They aren‘t industry anymore, you know. I don‘t know. I‘d really…if I had to raise taxes, I guess I‘d have that as a work plan on how to get the businesses here, so maybe other people would share in the taxes. I, you know, I‘ve been on Council for five years and we keep coming up against this and we want to spend money but we also make things affordable for people that live here. So somewhere the two don‘t mix. It‘s a foregone conclusion this is passing tonight. That was foregone conclusion three weeks ago so if anybody thinks that what I say or what anybody else said is going to make a difference with the eight, you‘re mistaken because it‘s not going to make a difference. But look here, we‘ve got a guy was a union guy. He worked out at Smurfit Stone. He represented union people. Gosh, I wonder how he‘s going to vote on this. We‘ve got a guy that lives on Jackson Street that I know seven of his people on that street signed protest letters. I wonder if he knocked on doors and asked people like I did. I didn‘t ask him to sign a protest; I had it with me in case they wanted to because it was the easiest way to explain that whole process. I asked them what they thought about the thing. I never got anybody in my three weeks of walking around my neighborhood, actually I don‘t walk, I drive a little electric red scooter so I‘m trying not to waste gas, that told me they wanted it. I had one person up on Whitaker that wanted it until she realized that next year they could raise it to whatever they want. It‘s up to the Council. So the other thing that bugs me here if this is a resolution by the Council, and believe me the Administration was making negotiations with the University, I know that as a fact and the Mayor confirmed it to me. Why wasn‘t the Council involved in that negotiation? And as a representative of Ward 4, how come I wasn‘t called to negotiate? I think we‘d all be willing to pay a buck instead of $13. So where was my negotiations? There‘s something flawed about this, you know, and I know we don‘t have no controls on it. I know there‘s no way to put any controls on it but one control starts next year. So, if that guy‘s a Democrat or he‘s a Republican, we‘re supposed to be nonpartisan in this town. Make sure when you vote that they‘re voting for the good of Missoula, not for this party or that party. That‘s important and until they change it from nonpartisan, that‘s what it‘s supposed to be, and I‘m a firm believer that city politics needs to stay nonpartisan for the good of Missoula. So, like I said, it‘s a foregone conclusion what‘s going to happen tonight. I‘m not going to say anymore, I‘m just going to say no. I think you already know my feelings on this subject.
Alderwoman Rye said, I want to address a couple of things I‘ve heard and a couple of them are related to each other and a couple of them aren‘t, and that is, first, this idea that somehow our process is illegitimate and/or these special districts are completely illegitimate because the process is wrong, and I have the same attorney that all 11 other Council members have. He‘s sitting here and Mr. Nugent has I think assured us that the process that we‘re undertaking to possibly create the special districts and pass the fiscal year 2011 budget is in fact legitimate. It‘s a pretty easy argument to make to try to undermine something that you don‘t believe in for different reasons, is to say that somehow the process or the people or whatever it might be is illegitimate rather than saying why you philosophically don‘t believe in something. And so, Mr. Wilkins, thank you for sharing why you don‘t support this and I appreciate your reasons. I disagree with them but I appreciate your honesty. We have, unfortunately, a lot of couple of different levels of government that are allowed to be dishonest with us and Americans like their services and we like our programs, but we don‘t seem to want to be honest about what it is they cost. And we have, at a couple of different levels of government, ways for folks to not be honest with us and to pass kind of the cost along to some other folks down the line. The City of Missoula does not have that luxury. City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 32
Services cost money. This is what we have to do to provide those services. If folks are opposed to the special districts for philosophically, fundamental reasons that disagree with me, that‘s fine, but be honest about it. Be honest why you oppose it. Don‘t say it‘s illegitimate or, you know, attack other Council people but say why you don‘t support this. And I suspect what it is, is this kind of conservative notion that we see quite often and that is to starve government. It‘s shortsighted and it‘s interesting to me that somehow because some people don‘t have X, that everyone else shouldn‘t have X either, and that‘s race to the lowest common denominator that will get us in a lot of trouble. And we have examples of that I think that don‘t play out well. Finally, this idea that somehow the City employees get health insurance, that somehow we can balance the budget on the backs of City employees by taking away something that they work for is pretty remarkable to me. The idea that we can kind of hitch up one trick pony like attrition doesn‘t work. If we were to continue doing that consistently and to its logical conclusion, the City would actually cease to exist in something like 20 years because everyone eventually leaves their job or retires or dies and then if we don‘t fill that position, we cease to actually have a government. I think most people in Missoula probably like what they see. I think we probably feel good about what it is that we see when we walk out the door in Missoula most of the time. We have a riverfront trail, for example, that 10,000 people a day use. That‘s a lot of people. If that doesn‘t exist, a lot of things go with it. So, my message is, and I‘ve lived a couple of places and I‘ve visited a couple of places, and you kind of look around once you‘ve been doing this job a little while, you look around and you look at different communities and do they have sidewalks and do they have streets that work and do they have parks that work? Is there a place for me to go running that I feel safe? Are there public bathrooms that don‘t have signs on them that say, Closed Due to Furlows? And so I think most of us are kind of government geeks here and we go to different places sometimes and we look around at those things. I don‘t want to live in or visit a place that doesn‘t think enough of itself to take care of what they have, that makes it a nice place. And with that, I think I‘ll cease for now. I think, hopefully, we‘re getting to the point where we can vote on this. This is not a foregone conclusion. I just really am tired of rubberstampinology. I have a brain and I‘m really capable of independent and critical thought and I paid the University of Montana a lot of money to say that I have a degree and I kind of resent this idea that I can‘t come to a conclusion where I see we get what we pay for and taxes are the price of a civilized society.
Alderwoman Walzer said, I wanted to straighten some things up that I‘ve heard and I agree with Stacy that I‘m pretty much in the opinion that what we‘re doing…the proposal is put forward in a legitimate legal way. It‘s something that we can do. And there was a comment about the same treatment for government properties. And, you know, from what I can gather, my understanding of what‘s been told to us, my reading of the same state code, is that all properties in the districts will be assessed the same, by the Department of Revenue. Department of Revenue assessed my house differently than Dick‘s house. I don‘t know what Dick‘s value is, I‘m not even sure what mine is. It‘s whatever the Department of Revenue puts on there. I will be assessed by that number. Likewise, the Department of Revenue says that a government building is worth zero. We are treating them the same. We tried to find a different method but to be fair to all of us in the City, by using the assessment value, Department of Revenue says nonprofits, government buildings are assessed at zero. We‘re all treated the same. I‘m assuming that I‘m paying a lot significantly less than some other properties in my ward in the City, and that‘s because Department of Revenue says my house is not worth as much as other properties. It‘s not worth zero but it‘s not worth a whole bunch. When it comes to health insurance, you know, I‘ve been a part of the City Council‘s representative to the Employee Benefit Committee, now I‘m a substitute for it, and listening to the folks who, City employees, who are on this committee, union and non-union, this health insurance is a very significant part of their pay. They all agreed to take zero pay increase even though their contracts said they were going to have a specific pay increase this year, they all agreed to take none with no compensation for that in the following years. To say that, you know, just take away the health insurance, you know, that‘s the same as saying, take 10% of their pay away. And for some people we‘ve heard they think that that ought to be done but we have contracts with folks. I hire a contractor and I say that I will pay you $5,000 to do a job and, you know, when you get done with the job and I don‘t feel like I want to…I can‘t afford to pay you $5,000 and I‘m only going to pay you $4,000 because I, you know, I can‘t pay you any more than that, to me that‘s what that‘s like. We have a contract with these folks. The health insurance is there and it‘s a part of our contract. Mr. Anderson talked about those scary folks who sometimes inhabit our streets that supposedly scare people away and I think of these districts and what we need to do to keep our City livable as almost in that same fashion. You want a business to come here City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 33 but it‘s okay, we don‘t need to have all these luxuries like bathrooms in parks and we don‘t have to worry about streets. We need to cut back. Well, you know, that‘s not going to bring businesses here. That‘s going to encourage businesses to leave. We have many consultants who have come to us and told us how the best way to improve businesses. The best way to get more investment, commercial investment, in our City is for us to lead with a small amount and for every dollar that we put into the City, we should get at least sevenfold back in private investment. We‘re only asking for a small amount for this year to try and keep it so our bathrooms can stay open, that our roads can be maintained, that we‘ll be putting paint on the streets, put signs up. What we could have been doing is instead of maintaining what we have, what I see this…maintaining what we have instead of closing bathrooms, not putting that paint on the streets so no one can figure out which lane they‘re supposed to be in because there‘s no lane marked anyway. These are all these things that need to be done and that‘s why we have to do it. When it comes to the need, the cap at half of the rate of inflation, Missoula has been trying and trying to figure out a way to live within that cap. Other cities in Montana accepted long ago they couldn‘t do it and they have maintenance districts. We, as a political community, have tried to work with the state to find some other methods to raise money for our City, to raise money for those sidewalks, for those streets. We‘ve tried to find alternatives that are not property taxes and they have not passed in state legislature. City Council tired to pass a resolution to get the County Commissioners to raise gas tax 2%. We didn‘t get that gas tax. We‘ve tried many different ways to raise money not saddling the property owners, which also goes to the renters. We all appreciate that. We also appreciate that we do have to have a minimum number of services. We‘re not losing people. We have the same number of people. We still have to have services. We‘re not Detroit. Things are not…people are not disappearing. And then we talk about the eight rubberstamp foregone conclusion. I waited…I‘ve talked with others, I want to know what that protest level was and considering how much effort was put out there by those who are against this there was only an 8 to 9% protest. Granted not even all of that was considered legal but I‘m counting those 8 to 9% not counting those 35 that lived in the County that I saw one of those addresses and just couldn‘t believe that people are using City services, not paying taxes and protesting that their taxes were going to be raised when they were not. So, with the 8% protests, I‘m feeling that the citizens of Missoula really think this is a good idea. When we think about okay, well, this is a blank check, going to be raising taxes, you know, all 12 of us here live in the City; 11 own homes although, you know, it‘s been quite said that renters pay this anyway so that‘s kind of irrelevant too. Look around us. I haven‘t figured out which one of us is the trust fund baby that people are talking about. We have people work at the University who‘ve had their wages frozen for several years. We have some landlords. We have small business owners. We have retirees, fixed incomes. We have people who are living so close to the poverty line themselves. Do you think we want to raise taxes on ourselves too? We have the same problem you all have in paying our taxes. There‘s no special, oh, City Council doesn‘t have to pay taxes. We have to pay it too and so in the future we‘re going to have to pay any increases that we assess to you folks. We have tired over the years, I‘ve watched the different Councils, try very hard to figure out ways to soften the burden of cost of government without overwhelming anyone group. There was implementation of impact fees. The impact and growth had been shouldered by the entire…by the existing property owners. Now new properties have to pay…help pay for the impact of their existence to the rest of the community but we didn‘t ask them to pay it all. We said, you know, it‘s a problem, we‘ll make you do half, and we continue to do things like that. We don‘t just say, oh, we‘ll just tax them. We‘ll just raise the fee, make them pay it all. We try to figure out what is the most fair and equitable way. To say, oh, with just a blank check, we are treating you more like ATMs, no, we really, even though we may be increasing your taxes, a small amount, it‘s not a decision that comes easy, and it‘s something that we contemplate and each one of us does in their own way. You may not like our decision but it‘s not at all taken lightly.
Alderman Strohmaier said, yeah, just a word on Council composition and voting habits which relates to the vote at hand. We‘ve heard the argument this evening that somehow if eight folks on this Council agree on a particular issue, that is a rubberstamp that is somehow a moral flaw, I‘d say nonsense. That‘s an ad hominem sort of faulty argument. I suspect that well, absolutely I want 7, 8 maybe 12 folks to agree with my position tonight. If not, it‘s no surprise to me certainly because the citizenry of Missoula has diverse viewpoints on what we‘re talking about tonight so it only stands to reason that the Council also represents diverse viewpoints. Somehow I suspect that if those on Council who are opposed to the special districts were able to garner 7 or 8 votes themselves, they would not be calling themselves City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 34 rubberstampers but simply individuals who are correct in their viewpoint. And reasonable people can disagree and with that I was thinking of calling for the question if…I will call for the question.
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Strohmaier has asked that we end debate on this motion. That motion is non- debatable. We have had a public hearing on the motion before the body.
MOTION
Alderman Strohmaier made a motion to end debate.
Upon a voice vote the motion passed.
Mayor Engen said, I believe the ayes have it. The debate is ended. There‘s a motion before the body. Again we‘ve had a public hearing. We‘ll have a roll call vote on the resolution creating the road district.
RESOLUTION 7563
MOTION
Alderwoman Rye made a motion to adopt a resolution creating the City of Missoula Road District #1 for the purpose of providing certain maintenance, purchasing and improvements and services for City-owned facilities land and equipment under the responsibility and care of the City of Missoula‘s Public Works Department, Street, Engineering and Vehicle Maintenance Divisions. Levying and assessing the lots and parcels within the City of Missoula Road District #1 for the cost of such services and improvements providing for a method of assessments and providing for other matters properly relating thereto. Upon a roll call vote, the vote on Resolution 7563 was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener
NAYS: Haines, Hellegaard, Mitchell, Wilkins
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Resolution 7563 carried: 8 Ayes, 4 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
Mayor Engen said, and the motion carries. Ms. Rye?
Public hearing on a resolution creating/assessing a special district as authorized by Title 7, Chapter 11, Part 10 MCA, more specifically a city-wide park district entitled ―City of Missoula Park District Number 1.‖ (Special District Proposal) (BCOW) (Strohmaier FY2011 Budget Proposal 2)
Alderwoman Rye said, I will read the motion for the park district. I move the City Council…Missoula City Council adopt a resolution creating the City of Missoula Park District Number 1 for the purpose of providing certain maintenance, purchasing, improvements, services for City-owned facilities land and equipment under the responsibility and care of the City of Missoula‘s Parks and Recreation Department, levying and assessing the lots and parcels within the City of Missoula Park District Number 1 for the costs of such services and improvements providing for a method of assessments and providing for other matters properly relating thereto.
Mayor Engen said, that motion is in order. Is there discussion on the motion? Ms. Mitchell?
Alderwoman Mitchell said, I don‘t think there‘s anybody in town who doesn‘t want to have some parks that our kids and our adults and anybody who wants to enjoy. What I‘ve seen in Missoula is when you drive City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 35 by the Rose Garden on Brooks or you go by Bonner Park and a few others, they‘re kept up very nicely. They‘re kind of showcase parks for Missoula. And then you come up to our area and we‘re kind of out in the sticks there. We‘re not really downtown, out in Ward 5, so the parks there don‘t get very much attention and now we‘re threatened to have our services cut more. People call me and say the park was taken care of better than before they…it was taken care of better before they turned it over to the City. One of the things that has been brought up is the urban forest, and we‘re talking about a lot of trees along the boulevards. And I was reminded that at a Neighborhood Council meeting or a meeting over in the University District, and I think at least one of our Councilors were there, somebody with some expertise in urban forestry said two reasons those trees are dying. One, because a lot of them are non-native varieties and, two, is because they‘re very, very old. I think we can go ahead and accept that fact and work with it. But just like we‘ve heard the testimony that there‘s no cap on everything, let‘s write a blank check, and then let‘s not even make sure that it gets used for parks or trees, I find that offensive to say write me a check and trust us, especially when we look at what happened with the…you‘re interrupting me…I lost my train of thought. Okay, especially when what we had with the pool fiasco. Now we have people in our Parks and Rec Department that work hard but I can tell you that I am privy to some waste that goes on there, and that‘s one of the reasons I‘m saying, let‘s not be dinging people for more tax money for these districts. We know that we live in a huge park. Montana itself is a huge park and so is Missoula and people know how to do a lot of things for themselves here, and they‘ve demonstrated so. We‘ve got an ice hockey rink. How many of your tax dollars went to that? We‘ve got a YMCA that was built. How many of your tax dollars went into that? We‘ve got a Carousel for Missoula, volunteer, community gardens, volunteer, Little League Parks built by the players and the kids. Once provided with a venue, people can do for themselves. We can provide these venues. We don‘t have to take away their enjoyment of doing community projects like building parks, which they‘ve done in the past. People don‘t have to just come in and have things already done for them. That doesn‘t give you a sense of ownership and community; it‘s doing it. So, anybody else wants to talk about parks have at it.
Alderman Jaffe said, thanks. I‘ve got a few things. I‘ll start with the last ones. With the trees we, you know, I‘m glad, you know…Renee sees the trees are getting old; they‘re dying. We should accept that fact and work with it. And I see that as meaning we need to plant more trees and prune trees and actively take care of our trees which has a cost associated with it. I‘m hoping she doesn‘t mean just get used to the idea that all the trees are going to die. And then, you know, the skating rink, as an example, for how we could do things here, the skating rink is a wonderful asset in our community but it costs a fortune to participate in that. It‘s not free to go skating. I mean we pay thousands of dollars a year to have our kids skate on the hockey teams. I‘m not in favor of having, you know, admission gates at our parks and charging admission for people to come into the parks, and that‘s what the taxes are for, so we can provide these things for everybody, even people who can‘t afford to pay anything for them. So tonight, actually I think I‘ve heard the first viable suggestion for where a tax cut could come from, a reduction in expenses for the first time this evening, in the 11th hour as predicted and that is to reduce the City‘s contribution to the employee health plan. It‘s a viable suggestion. I‘m not in favor of it though. I think that the health plan is part of the compensation package for the people that work for the City of Missoula and for those who serve on City Council it represents nearly half of the compensation. It‘s a…I mean it‘s a viable suggestion to change what that would be but that‘s…it‘s kind of late to talk about that one. This whole blank check idea, there seems to be some discomfort with the idea that government has the authority to tax. I mean that‘s kind of the way it‘s always been and it‘s not really changing. The City Council has the authority to tax the citizens and if folks don‘t like that, I guess I‘m not sure which country they‘d move to, because that‘s generally the way it works. And then this other piece about that there‘s no improvements associated with these special districts, it‘s been pretty clearly stated that there‘s a budget shortfall and that the budget that services would need to be cut to make up for the $500,000. So it‘s true, nothing new that we didn‘t have last year is going to be added with these districts but it‘s preventing things from being removed. So it‘s kind of all the same. You know, it‘s $500,000 worth of services in parks and streets that would not be there otherwise. Therefore, yes, you are getting something for this money. You‘re getting the $500,000 worth of stuff that you would not be getting if we don‘t pass it. Okay so the only…the piece I‘m still looking for a little bit more, explanation on, so the folks that are threatening a suit has sued us before, the last time they didn‘t really like a decision made, they put together a lawsuit against the City, so I don‘t really doubt their willingness to do it again. And I‘d like at least some comment from either the Mayor or Mr. Nugent about, you know, are preparation to defend against that lawsuit. The City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 36 point raised I think that the primary complaint is about…is the assessment method and the nonprofits, and the government properties, the point that Dick raised earlier in the evening about equal assessment methods. Could one of you guys just respond to that?
Mayor Engen said, so throughout this process we have relied on Roy Kogan who is a bond attorney, who‘s represented the City of Missoula on a number of occasions. This is Mr. Kogan‘s area of expertise for specific jurisdictional issues. Mr. Nugent has weighed in as well. The question of whether government entities are being treated the same way as other properties I think is pretty consistent here that is if you have o taxable value, you don‘t get assessed, and that‘s government…for purposes of the Department of Revenue, government has no taxable value and we‘re not charging taxable values, that‘s consistent. Whether that‘s our preference or not isn‘t…well, may not be our preference but it‘s the fact of the matter today.
Alderman Jaffe said, thank you.
Alderman Houseman said, I‘m in support of the parks district and oddly enough I spent the last week working around town, kept running errands, prepping after my first week of classes, and I was driving down Orange Street and saw our Parks Department mowing the median there and doing a mighty fine, quick job about it too. Later that week, I was at Bess Reed Park, biking through on my way to campus and the Parks Department had cleaned out, put in new chips and made that area of Bess Reed, where there used to be a lot of trash on that walkway, cleaned it up, trimmed it up and it looked great. And then even later that week I was driving over by Lowell School; I live two blocks from it. It‘s a great school and it‘s a great park and all summer long, all during this process, every time I had to head out towards Target or out towards anywhere in town, I would go passed that street or that park and it would be packed with people utilizing services that to them they enjoy greatly. And I think about the opportunity that this district does as it means we maintain these things that we love and we enjoy every day. You know, the $200,000 assessment…I guess another conversation going through the budget is, you know, $200,000 is similar to the full budget for your adult and child rec department. Okay? We could cut that but then thousands of people who participate in our softball, volleyball, kickball, kids programs, all of that, they don‘t have access to it anymore. And those are things that bring a community together. Those are things that we enjoy. I am the youngest Council member on this Council. I was also probably the most recently laid off out of everyone here, and yet I look at more mortgage payment and I look at the assessment that I pay and I think greatly every minute about when I campaign in the future and what we‘ll be able to do, and I know that we‘ll make it work, and that‘s what we do. And if I can do that on a personal level, I think that the City can make it work too. And if that means we have to raise a little revenue here and there, that means that‘s what we have to do. I think that it‘s…as to everything else it‘s just that we‘re doing the right thing. And has been pointed out, there‘s a blank check, some people feel that way. I look around at the people in the discussions that we have on a regular basis and I know that it won‘t ever be a blank check. And as you‘ve pointed out, Mr. Wilkins, if it starts even to be perceived that way, this body will change. And this assessment, these ordinances, they can be repealed, they can be brought down. I mean, that‘s the reality. That‘s how government works. I mean you legislate for awhile and you look at…right now they‘re having one of the largest arguments over tax increase of 3% of only rich Americans and that 2%, 3%...and that‘s the discussions going on right now on a federal level, and it may or may not pass. I mean, you know, you‘re elected, like representatives will make those decisions in just the same as we will. And, you know, it was not with any sort of light heart that I made these decisions. And I think it‘s unfair, and I‘m a representative of the people that you work with on a regular basis, and I, you know, I just think that that‘s an important part that we need to bring forward to our community is that we work as a group. We may not always agree but we always work the best we can to bring the best opportunity and the best government and the best community that we can.
Mayor Engen said, I have in order Ms. Hellegaard, Mr. Wilkins and Mr. Wiener.
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, just to comment on the urban forest, at least nine months ago, I think it was actually two budget sessions ago, some of us on Council asked Parks and Rec to bring us a break-out or something on contracting out our Arbor services to see if there was money either to be saved in contracting it out or bringing more of it in-house so that we could deal with the urban forest. To date, we City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 37 still don‘t have any information on that. And, Bob, the reason that we‘re talking about improvements is because state statute specifically discusses improvements in the state statutes so that we‘re dealing with these special districts. And the community needs to know the reason we‘re looking for $200,000 for park maintenance is because the City took $200,000 out for three years to fund the Aquatic Projects. That was five years ago. We‘ve never put that money back in. We continue to keep it in the general budget. And I‘m not sure why Mr. Jaffe is so confident that I‘m going to file suit against the City. I‘ve never said that I was going to file suit against the City. And you know what happens when you assume things, Bob. The other thing that I think some of you are missing, businesses are very reluctant to locate in cities that have unlimited taxing authority. This goes directly to the Best Place trying to get good paying jobs into this community. They are not going to be interested in coming to a city that can tax them in unlimited amounts when they can go to another city with same or larger populations that don‘t have that ability. So, again, we don‘t need the money. We‘ve got it in our budget. We just need to suck it up and make some tough decisions.
Alderman Wilkins said, so I just want to remind you that $200,000 is supposed to go into our savings account to increase our savings so…and I haven‘t heard that if we don‘t do this, what are we going to cut? I haven‘t heard that so anyway, just a reminder that it‘s not going to give you anything extra so I think the biggest thing I can give you right now that‘s extra is a little bit of peace of mind, so I‘ll call the question.
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Wilkins has asked that we end debate. We‘ve had a public hearing. The motion is not debatable.
MOTION
Alderman Wilkins made a motion to end debate.
Upon a voice vote the motion passed.
Mayor Engen said, the ayes have it. We‘ve had a public hearing. We‘ll have a roll call vote on the resolution.
RESOLUTION 7564
MOTION
Alderwoman Rye made a motion to adopt a resolution creating the City of Missoula Park District Number 1 for the purpose of providing certain maintenance, purchasing, improvements, services for City-owned facilities land and equipment under the responsibility and care of the City of Missoula‘s Parks and Recreation Department, levying and assessing the lots and parcels within the City of Missoula Park District Number 1 for the costs of such services and improvements providing for a method of assessments and providing for other matters properly relating thereto. Upon a roll call vote, the vote on Resolution 7564 was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener
NAYS: Haines, Hellegaard, Mitchell, Wilkins
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Resolution 7564 carried: 8 Ayes, 4 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 38
Public hearing a resolution fixing the annual appropriations for the City of Missoula, Montana as set forth in the fiscal year 2011 budget, Capital Improvement Program, Downtown Business Improvement District work plan and budget in the amount of (TBD) (memo) (Proposed Budget) (Final City Budget FY 2011)
Resolution—Adopt a resolution fixing the annual appropriations for the City of Missoula, Montana, as set forth in the fiscal year 2011 budget and capital improvement program in the amount of $ 120,366,526.
Resolution—Adopt a resolution levying taxes for municipal and administrative purposes for the fiscal year 2011. (Note: The Mayor and City Council welcome citizen comment on the budget as they deliberate throughout the summer. This public hearing will be listed on every council agenda until the budget is passed. To view the latest changes to the memo linked above, you may need to click “refresh” on your browser.)
Mayor Engen said, ladies and gentlemen, our public hearing on resolution fixing the annual appropriations for the City of Missoula, our Capital Improvement Program, the Downtown Business Improvement District and Work Plan is continuing this evening. If anyone would like to comment on the general City budget, this is your opportunity to do so. Journalism students have a deadline apparently. Sir, you‘ll need to come to the microphone please, if you‘d like to speak.
Ed Miskiv said, that‘s the stamp, but what‘s important is King Herod had a remedy for this, this too shall pass. The bad news is you eight aren‘t old enough to understand what‘s going on here. So we bring up from the past this comment, what goes around comes around, and when you get to my age and you‘ve given everything to your community and now you‘re on a fixed income and you can‘t recover from it, you too, what goes around comes around and I bless you with that. Thank you very much, Mayor.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, sir. Any additional comment on the budget? With that, I will close the public hearing. Are there questions from Council regarding the budget? Seeing none, Ms. Rye?
Alderwoman Rye said, I am going to move the resolution…we have two resolutions and I‘m going to move the resolution that incorporates Dave Strohmaier‘s amendment so I move the City Council adopt a resolution fixing the annual appropriation for the City of Missoula, Montana, set forth in the fiscal year 2011 budget and capital improvement program in the amount of $ 120,366,526, and that will include Section 4 which is Dave Strohmaier‘s amendment. Does that explanatory enough?
Mayor Engen said, and that amendment, Mr. Strohmaier, does what?
Alderman Strohmaier said, the amendment allocates $100,000 of the growth revenue to pay for two components within our Park and Road Districts. The balance of the $410,745 will go to the year-end fund balance. So essentially, and it‘s too bad that we‘ve lost all of the audience because most people that left probably are under the impression that there would be no new work accomplished in the work plans for the Road and Park Districts and that is erroneous. I thank Ms. Rye for incorporating my proposals into her motion. Basically in the Park District the work plan is amended to apply $40,000 to the City‘s Urban Forestry Program, $10,000 of which will go for the planting of new trees, $30,000 of which will go to pro- active pruning, emergency risk management work including pruning removals and potential grant matching. And within the Road District what I‘d proposed and is incorporated by reference in the motion is $60,000 to go for mitigating the cost associated with owner-occupied residential sidewalk, curb and gutter installation and I just go on and read the rest of it, and repair when such improvements are ordered in by the City. Also within three months of adoption of the FY 2011 budget, the Administration shall present to City Council for approval of a plan that includes alternatives for utilizing Road District assessments on sidewalk, curb and gutter installations. So $60,000 will be allocated out of the Road District funds for mitigating the cost of curbs and sidewalks and gutter, $40,000 in the Park District will go towards the Urban Forestry Program, and that is in the work plan, and that was in Section 4 of the resolution that Stacy just moved. City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 39
Mayor Engen said, and the motion is in order. Is there discussion on the motion? Mr. Childers?
Alderman Childers said, I‘d like, if Mr. Strohmaier and Ms. Rye would accept a small amendment, add or maintenance to the installation portion. So it‘d read, installation or maintenance.
Mayor Engen said, Ms. Rye?
Alderwoman Rye said, yes, installation and/or maintenance? Okay, I think I understand that.
Mayor Engen said, Ms. Rye accepts that as a friendly amendment. Any additional discussion? Ms. Marler?
Alderwoman Marler said, Dave, thanks for your work on this. I did indicate in committee last week that I wasn‘t going to be supporting this. When it comes down to it at 11:30 on the night of the budget and it‘s for sidewalks, which are very important to me and I‘ve campaigned always on this issue of pedestrian safety and finding better ways to finance them, I just can‘t vote against putting some money aside for a pedestrian infrastructure and helping with homeowners‘ cost of that. The urban forest is in a crisis and so I‘m going to vote for it but the thing that frustrates me about this, and this is not a shot at you because I know you put a lot of work into this, is that we‘re playing around with such small change kind of at the end of the whole process, it‘s a little bit frustrating and I think every year that I‘ve been on City Council, which is five now, I‘ve asked that maybe the Administration could have a more collaborative relationship with City Council in forming the budget because then we‘d be more educated about the cuts that have happened and the prioritizations and I know that you‘re not legally obligated. The legal obligation is for the Mayor and Administration to prepare a budget and then bring it to us, which is absolutely what you‘ve done but if there is some way that we could be a little bit more involved along the process, then I think that this body would have a higher comfort level and a little more ownership of the budget and it might not be such a trial every time, for lack of a better word, but I‘ll be supporting the budget and the amendment tonight and thanks everybody for getting us here.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Ms. Walzer?
Alderwoman Walzer said, yeah, I think this is a good compromise when it was…I really appreciate the importance of having money that we got from the Department of Revenue for growth. It‘s very important that it goes to the fund balance. Our credit rating is really critical. It saves us money in the short and long run and makes it easier for us to do things. So I was very supportive of initially putting all of it in and Dave‘s first attempt at an idea was just…it was not enough going to the fund balance, but this is…it‘s a workable solution, a compromise, but you know, there‘s never enough money. There‘s always so much need. And we unfortunately have to deal with this penance for the urban forest and it‘s funny that when things were good the urban forest did not get any extra money and when things are bad, it definitely…well it can wait another year, it can wait another year. Trees can handle it. Well, they can‘t and this will only help a few trees but I hope it will get us along the path that we need to go on and really start seeing that we really do value our urban forest.
Alderwoman Rye said, I have been a very, very strong advocate for a couple of different things on Council. One is playgrounds and one is the urban forest. I just really want to emphasize that for, particularly to the Administration in regards to the urban forest because it is in a crisis mode at this point and it‘s going to continue as such. And we heard public comment tonight that is far easier to take care of things as they come up rather than try to play catch-up and we are playing catch-up with the urban forest at this point, and we need to dial it in, in terms of the urban forest. And I‘ve said this before but you know people did 100 years ago give us a gift and it always feels better to give a gift than to receive one. When it comes to the urban forest I‘m not sure exactly how that works because we have not given a gift to the next generation. And somebody did this for us 100 years ago and we‘re…knowing they wouldn‘t be around to enjoy the urban forest and there are pictures up in the second floor of City Hall that show old neighborhoods in Missoula and show these houses that we know and love that are kind of landmarks in Missoula and what they look like without trees, and it looks like a moonscape because it looks better with trees. And so I just City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 40 really ask that we need to figure this out somehow, some way and I thank Dave for his work on this and I‘m happy to support it, but we need to figure out things that we seem to be treating as amenities that aren‘t. And, again, I‘m happy to live in a place that thinks enough of itself to want things to be better for the next generation and that wants to take care of what it has.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion on the motion? Mr. Wilkins?
Alderman Wilkins said, well, Dave, I admire what you tried to do here but I‘m not going to support it and the reason is because I think streets…I want streets, you know, so I guess we need to know where the priorities are at. There‘s other things that I‘d like to see too. But I agree with our trees, they need help and stuff but, you know, if we could have gotten the whole thing in there I probably would have been strongly supporting it but just to put a little penance in there to smooth things over is just not the way to do it so I‘m sorry, I can‘t support it.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Seeing none, we had a public hearing and a discussion. We‘ll have a roll call vote on the resolution.
RESOLUTION 7565
MOTION
Alderwoman Rye made a motion to adopt a resolution, as amended, fixing the annual appropriations for the City of Missoula, Montana, as set forth in the fiscal year 2011 budget and capital improvement program in the amount of $ 120,366,526.
Upon a roll call vote, the vote on Resolution 7565 was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener
NAYS: Haines, Hellegaard, Mitchell, Wilkins
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Resolution 7565 carried: 8 Ayes, 4 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
Mayor Engen said, and the motion carries. Ms. Rye?
Alderwoman Rye said, I would move the City of Missoula City Council adopt a resolution levying taxes for municipal and administrative purposes for the fiscal year 2011.
Mayor Engen said, that motion is in order. Is there discussion on the motion? Seeing none, we‘ve had a public hearing. We‘ll have a roll call vote on the resolution.
RESOLUTION 7566
MOTION
Alderwoman Rye made a motion to adopt a resolution levying taxes for municipal and administrative purposes for the fiscal year 2011.
Upon a roll call vote, the vote on Resolution 7566 was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 41
Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener
NAYS: Haines, Hellegaard, Mitchell, Wilkins
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Resolution 7566 carried: 8 Ayes, 4 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
Mayor Engen said, and the resolution is approved.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR
Mayor Engen said he really appreciates the work that Bruce Bender, Brentt Ramharter, Marty Rehbein and Ginny Merriam and others in bringing the special districts forward for your consideration and it‘s a bunch of work and it‘s complicated and not without a few bumps in the road, so thank you.
GENERAL COMMENTS OF CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
Alderwoman Marler said this criticism that City Council members get this big health package that is unwarranted and a huge waste of the taxpayers‘ money and if people feel like that and they have the means, they can opt not to have it and save $6,000 or so per year and actually she did that because she has insurance through the University of Montana but I recognize that not everybody is that position. If people are so upset by the fact that they have a nice health insurance package, the moral thing to do is just give it back and not have it.
Alderman Wilkins said that since Mountain Water has been digging up his area to put new water mains down, and for a long time he was told by different entities in the City that when they were getting ready to patch it, that they were just going to patch it down the middle where they were digging up. He got it confirmed today that a couple of weeks ago the City, our Streets Department and Steve King and Bruce Bender were negotiating with Mountain Water and negotiated a deal that we‘ll contribute the equipment and the labor and they are now going to overlay it from curb-to-curb. What he‘s told people before has now changed. He thanked them for the negotiations and getting it from curb-to-curb which is on Mary Street, Fairview, Beckwith, Livingston and Dearborn. Maybe the work will start on repaving sometime next week or the following week.
Alderman Jaffe said he was in Butte today at the Economic Summit and it was interesting. The general mood was very optimistic as far as the opportunities in Montana and for where we are in the stage of the recession and what‘s coming. Warren Buffet commented in the Missoulian that Montana is one of the more desirable places to do business and one of the best investments people can make is in themselves. Investing in our community is the right thing to do to move forward.
Alderwoman Walzer said she noticed this weekend a group of community volunteers who were out on Saturday and will be out again on Tuesday and spending time counting pedestrians and bicyclists as they travel around the City. Just as we have strips on the roads to count cars, we now have a method of volunteer labor to deal with that. If you‘re out walking or biking and come across a pair of these people around, please take the time to stop and complete the survey because it‘s an important piece of information. This is the second event and hopefully will continue throughout the year so they can get exactly how many people are using active transportation versus motorized.
Alderman Wiener said he‘s researched and written, on his own time, to the editorials to show his independently formed thoughts about adopting the districts and the budget that came with them. He‘s been thinking about exactly what government does and trying to come up with a good analogy for it and it keeps coming back to a tapestry, which has different strings in it; some of those are worker‘s compensation and Social Security and things that we do to ensure that people don‘t fall through the City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 42 cracks and some of them are relief programs like unemployment and tax relief. Part of that tapestry is also streets and parks because those are some of the things that people who don‘t have great means rely on safe streets that they can move about without a car or parks where they can go and enjoy themselves because the yard doesn‘t offer them the same opportunity. We can target any one of those at any time if they decide that it‘s not worth it, but when they target at it, they‘re targeting at the whole enchilada and could pull it all apart.
Alderman Strohmaier thanked the Public Works Department for all the good work they are accomplishing throughout the City. A couple of weeks ago they had a dedication ceremony for the Rattlesnake Gateway Project which is a good piece of work that‘s been a long time in coming. He‘s happy to see the work begin to wrap up on North Higgins. His kids love the cycle tracks and is a good addition to our community.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Administration and Finance Committee 08/25/2010 09/08/2010 Resolution—Adopt a resolution levying the taxes necessary to support the work plan and budget submitted by the Downtown Business Improvement District for fiscal year 2011.
Alderwoman Rye said, I would move the City Council adopt a resolution levying taxes necessary to support the work plan and budget submitted by the Downtown Business Improvement District for the fiscal year 2011.
Mayor Engen said, and that motion is in order. Is there discussion on the motion? Seeing none, anyone in the audience care to comment on the motion? Seeing none, we‘ll have a roll call vote on the resolution.
RESOLUTION 7567
MOTION
Alderwoman Rye made a motion to adopt a resolution levying taxes necessary to support the work plan and budget submitted by the Downtown Business Improvement District for fiscal year 2011.
Upon a roll call vote, the vote on Resolution 7567 was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener, Wilkins
NAYS: Haines, Hellegaard, Mitchell
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Resolution 7567 carried: 9 Ayes, 3 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
Budget Committee of the Whole 08/25/2010 09/08/2010
Committee of the Whole 08/20/2010
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 43
Public Safety and Health Committee 08/25/2010
Public Works Committee 09/08/2010 Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the contract for the Headworks and Odor Control Improvements (Project 2009-012) to Dick Anderson Construction Inc. for $7,895,475.00 and return all bid bonds.
Alderman Wiener said, I move we approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the contract for the Headworks and Odor Control Improvements (Project 2009-012) to Dick Anderson Construction for $7,895,475.00 and return all bid bonds.
Mayor Engen said, and that motion is in order. Is there discussion on the motion? Ms. Hellegaard?
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, can I ask a question please?
Mayor Engen said, sure.
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, I was told that we put in the new Headworks that we‘re now replacing seven years ago, so is the useful life on these seven years? Is that information correct?
Mayor Engen said, Mr. King?
Public Works Director Steve King said, the Headworks that‘s being replaced is on the magnitude of 25 years old. All the components are well past their useful service life.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Seeing none, anyone in the audience…oh, I‘m sorry, Ms. Mitchell?
Alderwoman Mitchell said, well, $8 million for an upgrade on the Wastewater Treatment, and I know part of this is for odor control improvements…I guess I would like to know why in 1997 we were told that the Wastewater Treatment Plant wouldn‘t work and I‘m going to ask Mr. Snodgrass about that because he seems to know more about that than any of us on the…sitting around this horseshoe.
Mayor Engen said, we‘ll have…if you have a question about the plant, I‘d prefer you ask staff. Mr. Snodgrass will have ample opportunity to tell us what‘s on his mind. Mr. King? Would you like to address Ms. Mitchell‘s question or Mr. Bender?
Public Works Director Steve King said, the Wastewater Treatment Plant has been in compliance with the Department of Environmental Quality‘s discharge permits. We have a five-year permit cycle so in 1997 that would have been at least two permit cycles ago, so every five years the permits are renewed. And we‘ve been in compliance with those permits in ‘97 and since then and so I don‘t know what reference you‘re speaking to as far as that. I can speak to what we do is planning with the facilities and in the late ‗90s and approved by this Council and the year 2000 was the Wastewater Facility‘s Master Plan, a apital plan, an operating plan for the Treatment Plant. That plan has been in place for these last 10 years and this Headworks project is a part of the Capital Improvement plans from that year 2000.
Alderwoman Mitchell said, have we always, Steve, been in compliance with the Clean Water Act as far as discharge from that facility?
Public Works Director Steve King said, yes.
Alderwoman Mitchell said, have we ever not been in compliance? I mean, isn‘t that stuff regulated and tested periodically?
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 44
Public Works Director Steve King said, I‘d refer to Mr. Bender to comment.
CAO Bruce Bender sad, for the last incident that we had where we had violated our permit was in the late ‗90s, early 2000, right in the process of upgrading the plant. We had violated our…one particular level which is called our Ammonia Level and that‘s the one particular test that the…it‘s part of our permit process and it basically meant that the ammonia levels was too toxic at that point, but obviously since we put on the new plant, one of the main components of that new plant is removing a key component of ammonia, which is nitrogen. And so we‘ve not had that problem since then, but that was in the middle…I think we were only like about a few months from going to operation when we had violated at that point. But that plant upgrade, the facilities plan and the plant upgrade were all approved by the State DEQ. There was also…federal EPA was involved in it and they approved it, so we did that with all in compliance with federal and state authorities. And also that upgrade in the 2000 we received federal EPA money for that near $20 million improvement.
Mayor Engen said, additional discussion or questions? Ms. Walzer?
Alderwoman Walzer said, once upon a time in a land far, far away I was responsible for waste…the permit compliance for wastewater treatment plants. And it is not uncommon for plants to have an occasional moment when they exceed parameters. The fact that ours exceed ammonia back in the ‗90s, we‘ve had no excesses since then is excellent. So, I‘m very pleased with its performance. It‘s not uncommon for wastewater treatment plants or companies that discharge permits to exceed, on occasion, their regulated limits. The fact that we haven‘t is very commendable.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Snodgrass?
Will Snodgrass said, well, first of all, given the fact that Steve King has been showed to be a bold face liar by way of documents that I produced here in these Chambers, along with Mr. Bender sitting over there, I wouldn‘t believe a word he says. In terms of violations of the permit and Walzer‘s description of minor upsets, you‘re not supposed to have them. In terms of minor upsets in violations, we have video tape of hazardous waste that was collected at the Missoula Hazardous Waste Days, illegally transported by truck over to the Waste Facility and then dumped into the Headworks of the plant and into the Clark Fork River. That‘s a fact. I invite you to allow me, in the weeks to come, to produce the video tape and put it up on the screen here so the rest of the City of Missoula, the residents who are paying for this behemoth can see it. Do we have some agreement on that that we can show that film, Mayor?
Mayor Engen said, you‘ve got MCAT. You‘d have a much wider audience that way.
Will Snodgrass said, I‘ll bring it right down here. I‘ll set up a set here for you so you can all watch it. I was trying to find out today the source of funding for this proposed mere $8 million upgrade. I got a call from Mae Nan Ellingson today. She said that there is no federal money involved in this project. Is that correct?
Mayor Engen said, if that‘s what Counsel said, that‘s what she said.
Will Snodgrass said, okay, then there must be plans and specifications drawn up for this project. I assume there are plans and specifications. Is that correct?
Mayor Engen said, Mr. King? Yup.
Will Snodgrass said, there are? And who approves the plans and specifications?
Will Snodgrass said, Mr. King?
Public Works Director Steve King said, the plans and specifications are approved not only by the City Wastewater Operations but the Department of Environmental Quality.
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 45
Mayor Engen said, thank you.
Will Snodgrass said, therefore, if they have been approved by the DEQ you must comply with the Montana Environmental Policy Act. There‘s no person on this Council tonight who was authorized to tell the Mayor to sign the contract because you violated the law here. You also are bound under the Clean Water Act out of the National Environmental Policy Act, because there is actually a federal permit involved, potential federal enforcement, approvement of plans and specifications probably by, not only the DEQ, but the EPA. So you‘ve proceeded along this trail in abject violation of state and I would say federal law, because the permit, whether it‘s been designated to the state of Montana or not, does not allow a disconnect between federal law and you by way of a hand-off to the permit. Federal law still prevails here. You have violated 40 CFR Part 25 which has to do with public participation and the mirror image of that law found under the Montana Environmental Policy Act which mandates public participation before any public hearing. Now this afternoon when I went to Marty Rehbein to find out where the money was coming from for this, she said that bid awards do not require a public hearing. I believe she‘s mistaken. While some bid awards, many of them perhaps, do not require a public hearing; this one does because you‘re dealing with a wastewater issue with plans and specifications for which have been overseen and approved by the DEQ, and that triggers compliance with MEPA. So you need to send this back to the committee. You need to hold proper public hearings, engage the public in accordance with the MEPA guidelines, that‘s Montana Environmental Policy Act, and if it is shown, and I think it will be, that the federal government has actual supervening power here and enforcement and fines, and they can fine you, then you also have to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. This…Mr. King here knows full and well and he was in the office when I found the document in his files and copied it, knows full and well that your own engineers told you that the plant wouldn‘t meet water quality standards. You have an odor problem right now because the plant doesn‘t work. So having been told in 1997 the plant is not going to meet standards you‘ve got a plant that stinks and now you‘re going to throw it $8 million at it when the EPA itself has said costly upgrades to wastewater facilities often fail to garner any significant benefit whatsoever. In terms of compliance with the Clean Water Act, the Clean Water Act mandates that you reduce the spread of pollution and that you conserve water. The Rattlesnake Addition, like all the other sewer pipes in the City, do not conserve water. They waste water. Water goes uphill to the Rattlesnake, it goes back down by gravity to lift stations and then they pump it up again, whereas if you comply with the Clean Water Act requirements for Mr. Jaffe, the alternative systems that are EPA, 201(G)(5) Clean Water Act Compliant, that you conserve water, and that‘s why the National Small Flows Clearinghouse was established by an order of Congress to foster these types of systems that enable people to keep the water on their own property, reduce the spread of pollution, they don‘t support the dioxin industry which is killing people in New Jersey and in Texas. This plant is an outdated behemoth. It should have gone by the wayside when points and condensers disappeared from automobiles. We have ignition systems that run 300,000 miles now without maintenance. And we have outboard motor looking things you can drop in a rock-lined well-built cesspool and beat the treatment standards, and treatment is to be used loosely, at the Wastewater Plant. I should also close by telling you that I have interviewed a number of employees of the Missoula Wastewater Facility Plant who told me, time and again, that they were ordered to falsify records at the plant. A specific example, chloroform. You can‘t dump too much chloroform into the river. You treat chloroform with chlorine. Now they treat it with UV lighting. But in those days they used chlorine. You can‘t dump too much chlorine into the river. You‘re suppose to test for chloroform and chlorine at the same time. While you‘re adding chlorine and killing the chloroform, you‘re suppose to test for both entities. Now if you‘re putting too much chlorine in because your plant is not treating the chloroform, which it was not and still is not, okay, then you can cheat on the test by doing what the staff ordered the employees at the Missoula Wastewater Treatment Plant to do and that is to dump a whole bunch of chlorine in, kill the chloroform, write down the chloroform numbers reflecting low chloroform and then wait until the chlorine goes through the system, wait for an hour. Look at it with the illegal color wheel and when you think the chlorine has dropped off below federal levels, then you test for chlorine. That‘s an illegal act. That‘s a violation of federal law and people were told again and again to do that. Okay? So you need to comply with the law here and this community has gotten itself in trouble under your leadership because you‘ve not followed basic environmental protocols. You failed to do environmental reviews properly, refused to. Why on earth would you propose an $8 million expense without seeing the benefit or the downside or the alternatives? Alternatives have been described as the heart of the National Environmental Policy Act and MEPA. MEPA, regardless of what Judge Harkin has City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 46 decided and Judge Malloy is ―look before you leap‖ measure. You can‘t approve this thing legally, not tonight. Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, thank you, Mr. Snodgrass. Further discussion on the motion? Mr. Wiener?
Alderman Wiener said, Jim, what‘s your opinion on the applicability in MEPA?
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Nugent?
City Attorney Jim Nugent said, the first I‘ve even heard of this was about 4:45 this afternoon and 4:50 when Marty came by. I think you have to ask Steve and Bruce about the applications and the reviews by the DEQ. Will was wrong the last time; that‘s why he doesn‘t like Judge Harkin. That‘s why he doesn‘t like Judge Malloy.
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Bender?
Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Bender said, the 2001 adopted Wastewater Facilities Plan had the Headworks upgrade as a listed improvement necessary to be happening within the next 10 to 15 years of that plan, and then we‘ve also…and that plan was at an environmental assessment that was approved by the state and EPA. Additionally, there‘s been updates to that plan that have also been reviewed by the state. The state cannot approve a design of a facility without it meeting or complying with the state regulations. And so they would have…they have a checklist, they would have gone through that before they‘d given us approval to go out and construct it.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Mr. King?
Public Works Director Steve King said, I think it‘s very important to reiterate what Mr. Bender just said is this plan, all the plans, specifications, the contract documents have been submitted to the state authority; the state authority has approved those and Mr. Bender‘s talked about the process. This project is fully compliant with the DEQ approvals. We‘ve received approvals from DEQ in writing; they‘re in the file for any citizen to look at and I believe we‘re fully in compliant with all of the laws and regulations related to this contract.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Ms. Mitchell?
Alderwoman Mitchell said, I don‘t think that very many of us on Council are thoroughly educated on the lines of wastewater treatment plants, however, this is about an $8 million project and if we‘re going to error, I think we should error on the side of caution and maybe this should be going back to committee, and maybe it does need to come out as a public hearing. Obviously we don‘t get all the information from staff for pros and cons. When I first came on Council, I thought it was going to be sort of like sitting on a jury and you would have pros and you would have cons and then you would have to sort through things and make the best decision possible, but I‘ve learned over the years that it didn‘t take very long to learn this, that you usually get a little bit of information, depending on who wants what to pass through, so I‘m going to ask this go back to committee.
Mayor Engen said, Ms. Mitchell has asked that this item be returned to committee for further consideration. Is there discussion on that motion? Ms. Walzer?
Alderwoman Walzer said, I‘m not going to support that and I hope we have enough votes to keep it and vote on it here. States are authorized to implement portions and pretty much as I can figure out enormous amount of environmental regulations. DEQ is authorized. We‘re well within parameters. We‘ve followed the processes. We‘ve done what we need to do and I think that‘s all…I don‘t want to send it back to committee.
Alderman Houseman said, Mr. King, could you tell is, if we send this back to committee, will this slow anything up or if we‘re going to have any problems? City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 47
Public Works Director Steve King said, this is a project that‘s been in the works for some time. Time is of the essence to get the contractor started for a couple of reasons. The first work is excavation and concrete work and to be able to do that before winter sets in is timely so it could be set back and the contractor‘s sequence of work that this is unduly delayed. I haven‘t heard any reason for additional discussion. I don‘t know that there is any specifics that have been requested of staff that are debatable to Council. I‘m not sure why we‘re going back to committee.
Alderman Wilkins said, well, I‘m not going to support sending this back to committee neither. I have to rely on Mr. King and Mr. Bender and I‘ve had problems with them off and on but we seem to work it out all the time and I‘ve yet to call them a bold face liar or forger or thief or whatever. I don‘t think that‘s appropriate at all. I think we‘re…you‘re listening to information, Renee, that comes from a person that is bitter over what has happened over the last few years, that…let me speak, I‘ve got the floor, thank you. That interrupts people when they‘re trying to talk and that also has filed lawsuits about all this stuff and to my knowledge has never won one of the lawsuits, and that‘s why he‘s upset at two judges. So, I don‘t think that this should go back to committee. If it was going to go back to committee, it would have gotten here, why, I‘m the only one that voted no on it to start with and that was because remarks some of the company people made to me. It had nothing to do with the rest of it and they apologized for their remarks and I accepted their apology and it wasn‘t over Bobcat/Griz neither, by the way, but anyway I accepted their apology so I think this needs to go on. I don‘t think it needs to be delayed and I‘m going to call the question on this.
Mayor Engen said, Mr. Wilkins has asked that we end debate on the question as to whether to return this item to committee. That is non-debatable but I will allow public comment on the motion to end debate. Mr. Snodgrass? On the motion to end debate, sir.
Will Snodgrass said, yeah, first of all I think you should not end…vote…make a motion to end debate based on false information from Mr. Bender. Okay? Let‘s examine the logic that he‘s using here. He‘s saying that because these Headworks improvements were proposed as part of some previous plan, there‘s no need to do an EA or to comply with MEPA. Alright, so if we look at the original plan under table I think it‘s 8(1) there were probably 10, 15 or 20 projects that were slated, the Rattlesnake Phase I and II being…included on that list along with Miller Creek, Lolo and others. Alright? So if we follow Mr. Bender‘s logic then, there would have been no need to do an EA for the Rattlesnake because the project had been listed as part of the plan. Mr. Bender‘s wrong; an EA was required. Why? Because the DEQ approved the plans for the project, the same thing applies to this. Okay? Secondly, I‘m not angry about the lawsuits per se, I‘m angry about a corrupt court system and, Jim, I would like to debate you any time regarding the merits of the decisions. I‘ll invite you to MCAT right now and you and I can discuss it. Okay? The decisions both stink and it‘s true we only won one of them and I think was a very important one, that on public participation. But germane to the question here I certainly would not want to be ending debate based on information coming from Mr. Bender or Mr. King. I have shown you documents that prove this man to be a liar. He lied to you, he lied to us. Mr. Bender has tampered with federal documents, altered a massive federal document and then tried to cover it up. Okay? So you want to make your decisions based on what these people are telling you because they‘re staff and you have some family loyalty here, that‘s up to you, but you certainly have to look at the logic that I‘ve just pointed out to you. The existence of the listing of a project or a subproject on an approved plan does not mean there is no requirement for an EA. The Rattlesnake EA is proof of that pudding. This one also, this Headworks thing, requires and Environmental Assessment. I urge you to look at the entire process. These plans are outdated. I don‘t have a bitter feeling about the losses per se, Jon, what I‘m saying is that if you want to deal with archaic technology and keep poisoning a river, then you‘re going to keep bumping heads with me because that‘s what I‘m here all about. Okay? Not about some petty-ante personality or judges that can‘t read. Okay? Thank you.
Mayor Engen said, and so we‘ll have a voice vote on the motion to end debate.
MOTION
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 48
Alderman Wilkins made a motion to end debate.
Upon a voice vote the motion passed.
Mayor Engen said, debate‘s over. The question before the body is whether this item is returned to committee.
MOTION
Alderwoman Mitchell made a motion to return item to committee.
Upon a voice vote the motion failed.
Mayor Engen said, the motion fails. We‘re back to the main motion before the body. Further discussion? We‘ve had public comment on the main motion. We‘ll have a roll call vote on the contract.
MOTION
Alderman Wiener made a motion to approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the contract for the Headworks and Odor Control Improvements (Project 2009-012) to Dick Anderson Construction Inc. for $7,895,475.00 and return all bid bonds.
Upon a roll call vote, the vote on the motion was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener, Wilkins
NAYS: Haines, Hellegaard, Mitchell
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: None
Motion carried: 9 Ayes, 3 Nays, 0 Abstain, 0 Absent
NEW BUSINESS (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, REPORTS)
Jason Wiener requests to suspend the rules to approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the Federal Highway Administration agreement for the Rattlesnake Creek/Broadway Crossing to receive $625,000.00. (memo) (Contract agreement)
Alderman Wiener said, I think we can thank our federal partners for their urgency of this particular item, but I‘m going to move that we suspend the rules in order to approve and authorize the Mayor to sign FHWA agreement for the Rattlesnake Creek/Broadway Crossing to receive an earmark of $625,000.00. And, Steve, do you want to give a staff report?
Mayor Engen said, that motion is in order. Mr. King? What are we doing?
Public Works Director Steve King said, this is actually a wonderful thing that Citizen Advocacy that‘s working with our congressional delegation has brought has brought a $625,000 earmark to the community to link the Lower Rattlesnake in Greenough Park neighborhood with the University via the Van Buren Street Pedestrian Bridge. The original vision was a bridge across Broadway that was not able to be funded. The earmark has been changed to do a bike/ped bridge across Rattlesnake Creek in the City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 49 vicinity of Pine Street, between…in that vicinity the exact location has not been resolved. And also to have trail connections and then improved intersection crossings on Broadway. The Citizen Advocacy , working with our Parks Department has brought this forward. Public Works is working on the administration of this. The feds need to do this now because they need to close out and have this project be in this federal fiscal year which ends at the end of this month, so time is the essence, to be able to approve this, get the Mayor to sign this, get this back to the feds by the end of this week is the deadline that the feds have set out. So I apologize for the urgency but I think it‘s for a very good thing for our community. Mayor Engen said, thank you, Mr. King. Discussion on the motion? Ms. Mitchell?
Alderwoman Mitchell said, my thought when Greenough Park was bequeath to the City of Missoula that it was to be kept as rustic and rural as possible and every time we start putting in more paths and improvements I think we‘re getting further away from what these people asked for. I know it‘d be practical and people would really like that because it would just be cool but I think we‘re going to take really wonderful, it‘s almost a wild park, and we‘re going to tame it and urbanize it beyond recognition and I‘m not so sure that I‘m in favor of that.
Mayor Engen said, this bridge isn‘t in Greenough Park, is my recollection. It‘s on Pine Street I believe. Ms. Hellegaard?
Alderwoman Hellegaard said, I just had a question for Steve. Where‘s the match coming from on this and what‘s the match rate?
Public Works Director Steve King said, zero match, zero match rate. It‘s a straight earmark.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion? Mr. Jaffe?
Alderman Jaffe said, just a quick question. I‘m having trouble tracking here. So this is…the way this would be useful is you‘re riding down Van Buren and then you cut east on Pine, kind of like behind the Police…or the Fire Department there in that little loop, and then there‘s going to be a bridge that gets you across the river right there to where?
Public Works Director Steve King said, behind McDonald‘s and then there‘s been discussions with property owners of acquiring easements from Rattlesnake Creek to Van Buren, basically between the railroad tracks and the motels, 5 Guy Burger, to get to Van Buren, and then a substantial improvement along Van Buren frontage from the railroad tracks, across Broadway by the sports bar,
Mayor Engen said, Press Box.
Public Works Director Steve King said, yes, by the Press Box and all of that to enhance bicycle/pedestrian safety and convenience to access the Van Buren bridge.
Alderman Jaffe said, it sounds like, of course, something I‘d support, but it‘s nice to see the picture and all of that. Maybe we could get a little presentation at committee on what the process is.
Public Works Director Steve King said, be happy to bring Dave Shaw who‘s been working with the Parks‘ advocates, the Citizen Advocates to develop the concept.
Alderman Jaffe said, thanks.
Alderman Wiener said, I should note there‘s a typo in the agreement that‘s attached, I‘m on 16(e) or something. It shouldn‘t read Miller Creek, we will not be delivering the plans for that and satisfaction…
Mayor Engen said, thank you for that clarification. Ms. Walzer?
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 50
Alderwoman Walzer said, yeah, I started to ask questions…this is the first time I‘ve seen this…about whether or not there‘d be environmental assessments and whatever and I see in the statement of work there is in preliminary design refers to activities and a series of reports to MEPA decision, so I‘m very pleased that‘s all involved. Just worrying about crossing over a creek in some unknown location, you know, it‘d be nice to make sure we‘re doing it right. So it looks like that‘s part of the scope of work, so I‘m happy.
Public Works Director Steve King said, that‘s correct. I can confirm this is federal money and we‘ll have a full MEPA process proportionate to the scope of work.
Alderman Strohmaier said, yeah, I think this is a pretty exciting project. I‘ve been in contact with the folks advocating for this for quite a few years now and will provide a safe and I think efficient way for folks to commute either on foot or by bicycle without having to navigate, sometimes an overwhelming experience on East Broadway, so I think this is great.
Alderman Wilkins said, so this money, Steve, would it…it comes from where? This is the first time I‘ve heard about this was tonight, so it comes from where?
Public Works Director Steve King said, it‘s a federal earmark. It‘s coming through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) administered by the Western Federal Lands program…Federal Highway money.
Alderman Wilkins said, could we use this money for something else or just strictly for something like this?
Public Works Director Steve King said, this is a line item earmark in the Congressional record for this explicit project.
Alderman Wilkins said, and the urgency for us not hearing more about this is because there‘s a deadline?
Public Works Director Steve King said, There‘s a deadline to have this agreement that you‘re considering tonight, signed by the Mayor, delivered back to the feds by Friday.
Alderman Wilkins said, okay. So just want to state real quick, because I‘ve lived in Missoula so long I actually lived on Jackson Street when I first moved to Missoula, over 30-some years ago. My wife was pregnant, I was working out of town and she had to come down and get across Van Buren, across that little bridge, to go to work…I mean go to school. She was a student at that time. If there was a better way then, I‘d have been all for it. If there‘s a better way now, I‘d be all for that too.
Alderman Haines said, I guess there‘s a lot here I don‘t understand and I appreciate there‘s a sense of urgency, that‘s coming across, but to do this it would have been nice if maybe we would have had a map and a little more explanation of this before we got this far. I don‘t have a problem with suspending the rules but it sure helps me to know what you‘re doing it for and I don‘t.
Mayor Engen said, further discussion on the motion? Seeing none, anyone in the audience care to comment on this item? Seeing none of that, we‘ll have roll call vote to suspend the rules and to approve.
Alderman Wilkins said, clarification? Are we voting to suspend the rules and this thing at the same time?
Mayor Engen said, it makes it easy.
City Clerk Marty Rehbein said, I think that was the motion that Mr. Wiener read.
Alderman Wilkins said, okay, I just wanted to make sure that‘s what I was hearing.
MOTION
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 51
Alderman Wiener made a motion to suspend the rules to approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the Federal Highway Administration agreement for the Rattlesnake Creek/Broadway Crossing to receive $625,000.00
Upon a roll call vote, the vote on the motion was as follows:
AYES: Childers, Hellegaard, Houseman, Jaffe, Marler, Rye, Strohmaier, Walzer, Wiener, Wilkins
NAYS: Haines
ABSTAIN: Mitchell
ABSENT: None
Motion carried: 10 Ayes, 1 Nay, 1 Abstain, 0 Absent
ITEMS TO BE REFERRED
To Administration and Finance Committee: Confirm the appointment of W. Jordan Hess to the Missoula Urban Transportation District Board for a term commencing immediately and ending December 31, 2011. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Mayor Engen) Resolution authorizing the negotiated sale of $11,500,000 (maximum par amount) of Taxable Sewer System Revenue Bonds, Series 2010 (Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Brentt Ramharter) Administrative services agreement between the City of Missoula and Allegiance Benefit Plan Management, Inc for third party administration of medical, life and dental claims arising from the City's self-funded health benefit program. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Gail Verlanic) CDBG/Home allocation process briefing. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Jason Wiener)
To Conservation Committee: Resolution to expend $175,000 of 2006 Open Space Bond proceeds towards the purchase of a conservation easement on the 1036 acre Quebec Deschamps Creek Ranch located approximately 2.5 miles NW of the Wye intersection of I-90 and Hwy 93 N. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Jackie Corday) Update from the Greenhouse Gas Conservation Energy Team. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Marilyn Marler)
To Plat, Annexation and Zoning Committee Petition 9490—Alan B. Powell and Cathryn Powell; 7125 Buckhorn Lane; Lot 16 of Country Crest Addition #3; Geocode 219911102190000; Petition for Annexation Petition 9491—City of Missoula; Plat F, Parcel XXX, N 1/2 SE 1/4, SE 1/4 SE 1/4 Plat F 4-13-19 120 AC; SUID 1174902; Geocode 220004101040000 Petition for Annexation Petition 9492—City of Missoula; 2625 Little Bit Street; Charlies Addition No. 1 Block 2, Lot 3-A; SUID 670405; Geocode 220007401080000; Petition for Annexation Petition 9493—JLK Construction, Inc.; 8056 Highway 10 West; A portion of that tract shown on COS 1539 located in the Northeast one-quarter of Section 28, Township 14 North, Range 20 West, P.M.M.; Geocode 232528102030000; Petition for Annexation Petition 9494—Michael Smith II and Jennifer Smith; Lot 26 of Running W Ranch, Phases I and II Geocode 232522207260000; Petition for Annexation
To Public Safety and Health Committee Confirmation of Police Officers Robert Larson, Jeffrey Lloyd, Michael Kamerer, Christian Cameron, Steven Crass, Josh Volinkaty. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Mark Muir)
City of Missoula City Council Minutes –September 13, 2010 - Page 52
To Public Works Committee Authorize the Mayor to accept the competitive request for proposal (CRP) submitted by Alter Enterprise of Missoula, Montana to convert an existing City owned Toyota Prius from hybrid to plug in hybrid for $13,999. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Jack Stucky) Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the contract for the Headworks and Odor Control Improvements (Project 2009-012) Bidding and Construction Phase Services to Morrison Maierle Inc. for $799,800.00 and $75,000.00 for additional service or for contingency upon authorization from the City. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Starr Sullivan) Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the MDT construction agreement for the LED upgrade project. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Kevin Slovarp) Confirm the appointments to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board. (memo)—Regular Agenda (Mayor Engen)
MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS, PETITIONS, REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS -None
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Engen thanked the council members and the staff for their service.
The meeting adjourned at 12:13 A.M.
ATTEST: APPROVED:
Martha L. Rehbein, CMC John Engen City Clerk Mayor
(SEAL)
Respectfully submitted by,
Nikki Rogers, Deputy City Clerk