20200824 CC Minutes.Pdf
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Journal of Proceedings Missoula City Council Meeting August 24, 2020, 6:00 pm To register to attend and/or comment: https://ci-missoula-mt.zoom.us/calendar/list For agenda and related documents: www.ci.missoula.mt.us/webcasts Webstream live or on demand at: www.ci.missoula.us/webcasts Watch live on Spectrum Cable Channel 190 Members Present: Stacie Anderson, Mirtha Becerra, John P. Contos, Heather Harp, Jordan Hess, Gwen Jones, Julie Merritt, Jesse Ramos, Amber Sherrill, Sandra Vasecka, Bryan von Lossberg, Heidi West Administration Present: Mayor John Engen, Dale Bickell, Chief Administrative Officer, Jim Nugent, City Attorney, Marty Rehbein Administration Absent: Ginny Merriam, Communications Director 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL The meeting of the Missoula City Council was called to order by Mayor John Engen at 6:00 PM in the City Council Chambers at 140 West Pine Street 2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES 2.1 Minutes from the August 17, 2020 meeting will be available at a later date 3. SCHEDULE OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS 3.1 Committee schedule for the week of August 24, 2020 Land Use & Planning Committee, August 26, 8:55 – 11:00 a.m. Public Works Committee, August 26, 11:20 – 11:30 a.m. Parks & Conservation Committee, August 26, 11:50 a.m. – Noon Public Safety & Health Committee, August 26, 12:25 – 1:10 p.m. Administration & Finance Committee, August 26, 1:30 – 1:50 p.m. Budget Committee of the Whole, August 26, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. 4. PUBLIC COMMENT Matts Larson thanked Mayor Engen for meeting with him this morning over Zoom to chat about what’s going on in Missoula and about the budget. In regards to the context slide of this meeting, we need a Static ID Number and a Static Telephone Number in order to expect the public to be able to utilize their ability to participate in these meetings. It would also help if we did a link for some of those huge links that people have to type in by hand. This is common sense, best practice, for this type of meeting if you wish to truly engage with the public. The Missoulian article on Saturday about Mr. Stevens’s interactions with MPD is indicative of a greater pattern of withholding public information and not filling out or not making reports allowed to the public or even to a defense attorney, in this case. He thanked Judge Leslie Halligan for throwing out the charges. We need to take heed of this and look at what’s going on at MPD. He’s made the Mayor aware of all four incidences in his own personal friend group involving negative interactions with MPD and he will be following up on those. This involves the same City Attorney’s office that has yet to produce one of his information requests, no matter how easy they are or how difficult. He’s been assured by the Mayor that they will be provided. He is skeptical that that will be done in a timely enough manner to allow him to meaningfully comment on the budget because a lot of these things are relevant to the budget. He compelled Mirtha Becerra to spend some time with her new grants and focus on MPD because there’s obviously some issues here. The person that overreacted during the Stevens’s case was a corporal, a person very high up in the ranks who should know much better than to kick someone in the groin when they react. The conduct is unacceptable that appears to be going on here. We need to address that in this community. We don’t need more SWAT vans or riot helmets. We need mental health, substance abuse treatment, affordable housing and social services. We do not need people with guns who, even at the higher levels, don’t have the wherewithal to deal with someone who throws a wallet at them at a lighter. That deserves being pushed to the ground, handcuffed and kicked in the groin? It’s despicable. He wants to shame anyone who thinks otherwise. It’s something he’s been drawing to awareness for weeks now and he’s gotten nothing but blow-back and being blocked off from every source of data in the City. He is agitated and deserves better results as do the public. Donald Iarussi said he’s 66 years old and retired. He doesn’t like sitting home so he does some Ubering and enjoys time doing that. He was at a stoplight on Russell and was going to the Food Bank and his GPS told him he needed to make a right turn but he had to make a left turn in order to get to the Good Food Store. He was stopped at a light with three cars in front of him and was glancing at a map on his phone. The police gave him a ticket because he said he was talking on his phone when he was getting info from On Star. He sees cops talking on their phone all the time and they gave him a ticket while he’s doing a public service. September 29th he’ll do his 7 hours of public service. He asked the officer if he could go to the Food Bank or a shelter and was told no, he had to come in to see them first which he thinks is silly. Josh Decker said he wanted to reiterate comments that he’s made in the past about reinvesting in our city when appropriating money for the budget, he’d like it to be reinvested in social services, mental health services and similar ideas along those lines. He would like the roughly $600,000 that’s slated to be appropriated to the police to be redirected towards those venerable efforts. Earlier this week we witnessed Austin, Texas, the 11th largest city in America, cut their police budget by about one-third, some $100 million cut from that budget or more. We are no Austin, Texas but certainly there are things that we want to be and a lot of them that we don’t. But these are examples that we can follow in the nationwide community at large. Right now, as a citizen of Missoula, he’s loathed to call the police for any reason because in doing so he thinks that there is a good chance that if he were to call the police for some minor complaint, that he would be sentencing one of his neighbors to death or sidewalk justice. This is something we see around the country and it’s only a matter of time before we see it here if we don’t do something about it. City Clerk Rehbein said we are experiencing terrible internet connectivity issues here in Council Chambers and the Zoom connection that MCAT takes the feed off of did not have video through the entire last presenter’s conversation. We heard his audio but now the connection has come back on, on the channel, on the computer that we stream the meeting through MCAT. We’re struggling and sent a message to IT and waiting to hear from them. Mayor Engen said, I’m sorry we’re continuing to wrestle with technology here a little bit, folks. 5. CONSENT AGENDA AYES: (12): Alderperson Anderson, Alderperson Becerra, Alderperson Contos, Alderperson Harp, Alderperson Hess, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson Merritt, Alderperson Ramos, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson Vasecka, Alderperson von Lossberg, and Alderperson West Vote result: Approved (12 to 0) 5.3 Title 12 Updates [First reading and preliminary adoption] Set a public hearing on October 5, 2020, and preliminarily adopt an ordinance amending Missoula Municipal Code Title 12, entitled “Streets, Sidewalks, and Public Places” to create new Chapters 12.02 entitled “Definitions”, 12.10 entitled “Right-of-Way Improvements”, and 12.17 entitled “Parking Facilities”, to amend Chapter 12.28 entitled “Obstructions” to update standards relating to sight visibility triangles, and to repeal Chapters 12.12 entitled “Curbs, Sidewalks and Improvements” and 12.22 entitled “Parking Facilities”. Vote result: Approved 5.5 3270 and 3770 Mullan Rd. – Mullan Crossing Annexation Set a public hearing for September 14, 2020 and adopt a resolution of intention to annex and incorporate within the boundaries of the City of Missoula two certain parcels of land described as Tract 1 of Halling Farms and a tract of land described in Book 128 of Micro Records at Page 461 and shown on Exhibit A, located in Section 18, Township 13 North, Range 19 West, P.M.M., and zone the property C1-3 Neighborhood Commercial, based on the findings of fact in the staff report, subject to the recommended conditions of annexation approval. Vote result: Approved 5.1 Claims - August 25, 2020 Approve claims in the amount of $1,317,040.78 for checks dated August 25, 2020. AYES: (9): Alderperson Anderson, Alderperson Becerra, Alderperson Harp, Alderperson Hess, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson Merritt, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson von Lossberg, and Alderperson West NAYS: (3): Alderperson Contos, Alderperson Ramos, and Alderperson Vasecka Vote result: Approved (9 to 3) 5.2 Amendment No. 1 with WGM Group Inc. for the Water Rights Consulting Services Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign Amendment No. 1 with WGM Group Inc. for providing additional services under the Water Rights Consulting Services Professional Services Agreement for a cost not to exceed $10,800.00. AYES: (11): Alderperson Anderson, Alderperson Becerra, Alderperson Contos, Alderperson Harp, Alderperson Hess, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson Ramos, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson Vasecka, Alderperson von Lossberg, and Alderperson West ABSTAIN: (1): Alderperson Merritt Vote result: Approved (11 to 0) 5.4 Annexation of Tracts 1 and 2 of COS No.