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.