Mayor Jordan Hess So, our next three items, we'll take up in the order listed. The first one is the contract for the Emergency Winter Shelter, the second is the contract for Operations Shelter Security Services, and the third is the amendment to the security contract with Rogers International. I, before we do that, I want to offer a few overarching remarks. I want to thank everyone for, for being here tonight. I want to thank everyone for, for showing up to comment. I want to thank everyone for engaging. I want to thank everyone for being what, part of what makes Missoula the place that we love, which is a place that is a community where we care about one another and where we, where we work to lift up members of our community. I also want to acknowledge that our work, the continuum of work that we do around houselessness is complex and it is challenging, and success is not linear. We have triumphs and we have setbacks and one thing that anyone who's heard me talk much about this will has heard me say over and over and over again is that we iterate, and we improve. Just a few years ago, we didn't have a winter shelter, we didn't have an Emergency Winter Shelter and a group of, of City officials and County officials were in a conference room trying to figure out how to, how to get some place open for the weekend. We had an overnight shelter, but we didn't have a daytime warming shelter and we were trying to figure out how to get some place open on a weekend that was 15 or 20 degrees below zero, and Mr. Decker was there, and members of the community were there and we, we pulled together and we got the Mountain Line transfer center opened for a weekend as a stop gap measure to save lives. And I can't say for certain, but I can, I, I believe that that absolutely saved lives because of our collective commitment to one another and because of the work that we did to serve those in our community. Our and, and we, we haven't, we've had an Emergency Winter Shelter for a few years now and to the best of our knowledge, we have not, as several people have pointed out, we have not had any Missoulians die from exposure and that is a testament to that to that work and to that that iteration and that Improvement of our work and that's a testament to the good people in this room who work on these issues and it's a testament to the good people and city staff who work on these issues, and it's a testament to our service providers and it's a testament to our caring community, and our current work is far from perfect. It is nowhere near perfect. There is room for improvement and there is room to iterate and there's room to make it better, and we, that, what I commit to right now is that we continue to iterate, and we continue to make our work better. I also want to acknowledge that closing the ACS is a heartbreaking outcome. It is a devastating outcome and it is an outcome that affects, that has real impacts on the lives of people in our community and I want to acknowledge that, that we are making a decision that is in, in, in transitioning the ACS to the Emergency Winter Shelter, we are making a decision that has real outcomes on the lives of the people in our community that we serve, and that is that is devastating. So, I just want to acknowledge that. If the crisis intervention levy passes this November, we'll have a stable, long-term funding source upon which we can do some long-range planning, but the city and the county set up the authorized camping site as an emergency author, as an emergency option during the pandemic around the time of prohibition of elite of the illegal camping under the Reserve Street Bridge. And we did that as a stop gap measure, and it was always contemplated to be temporary. And if I were to stand up here today and say anything other than that it was always contemplated to be temporary, I would be lying to you. It was always contemplated to be a temporary measure to get us through to another time, and that is not to say that there is, that, that we can't acknowledge the, the, that that hasn't that that outcome has a consequence. We, as a City, remain committed to supporting the ACS residents, the staff, the providers throughout this transition. We are meeting with providers, and we are working to make this as, as smooth as possible, and I recognize that that is not that that's not good enough for a lot of the people in the room here tonight, but we are working on doing that and that work will continue, and we will continue to work with providers. We will continue to work with anyone who has suggestions on how to make, on how to make this transition as smooth as possible. We are, we are balancing the needs of hundreds of houseless individuals in our community including, including those that are served at the ACS. So, I acknowledge, I acknowledge all of that and I wanted to put that out there as a as a prelude to our items tonight. We'll move on to the, the contract for the Emergency Winter Shelter, and I will turn it over to Ms. Pehan for any additional staff information on this item. Ms. Pehan.
Eran Pehan Good evening, Eran Pehan with Community Planning, Development and Innovation. We do not have any additional information or presentation to share with Council on the item before you regarding the contract for Emergency Winter Shelter, but are happy to answer any questions you may have.
Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, thank you. Next up, so, we’ll take questions from Council next. Ms. Jones.
Alderperson Jones Thanks Eran. I did have some questions for you, just to get some clarity on some items. Can you tell us how many people are currently at, staying at the authorized campsite please?
Eran Pehan Yeah, absolutely. It varies day by day, but over the, we were at about 60 individuals and that has decreased over the last month or so, and I believe we are now hovering just a little under 50.
Alderperson Jones Can I follow up? I've got several questions.
Mayor Jordan Hess Follow up, go ahead.
Alderperson Jones Okay thanks. And with the Emergency Winter Shelter that we will be opening at the end of October on Johnson Street, what is the capacity? How many people can stay there?
Eran Pehan So last season and I believe it will be the same in this coming season, the Johnson Street Shelter can accommodate about 130 to 140 individuals. Much of that cap is in regards to staffing and configuration of the site as well. I believe if we used all the spaces, we could probably use or, we could probably increase that by a little bit more but we, we simply have never needed to. The shelter has never operated at full capacity before, it's gotten high on a handful of really cold nights, but nowhere close to full capacity for this season.
Alderperson Jones Thanks. A couple more? And I know staff has talked about the challenge of hiring staff to work at the Emergency Winter Shelter and the ACS, and this summer, I think for about four weeks, the ACS was not staffed. We just did not have anyone out there other than Roger's security. Can you talk a little bit about? It's my understanding, is it's really the same group that we pull from to staff these places and that if they're both open at the same time they basically compete with one another.
Eran Pehan That is our primary fear. You know, we did explore we, we have turned every stone over in terms of thinking of ways to continue to operate ACS, absent a 24-hour a day security presence, we would need to hire somewhere between six and eight additional full-time employees to run what is a 24-hour a day shelter operation. In our conversations with our partners, they are facing extreme challenges in staffing their shelter facilities, as well. You know, the Poverello Center is currently recruiting and attempting to hire staff to open up the Johnson Street facility and it is a, it's a very challenging employment market and we are hiring from the same pool of individuals. We were unable to fill all of our authorized campsite coordinator positions. We were able to hire two individuals, we needed three to four and after several rounds of recruitment, we just could not fill those positions and those were at wages and City benefits that I believe, believe we're higher, are higher than what our partners are paying. And so, we do believe that that would create competition and filling those essential positions for Emergency Winter Shelter.
Alderperson Jones Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks. Next, I have Mr. Carlino for questions.
Alderperson Carlino Yeah for questions, I was, is it true to say that last winter the ACS was completely full with a wait list as the emergency shelter was open and also almost full
Eran Pehan I, I wouldn't say that that's an accurate statement. We opened up the authorized campsite, we kind of phased it open over the course of several months and we opened with a lower capacity than what we ended with and partially that was because we opened during a very cold winter season and we learned very quickly that the site was not equipped to safely house folks during that cold winter season, in terms of ensuring adequate access to heat, water and other, other aspects. So, we didn't really get up to full capacity at ACS, I think, until late spring, early summer. I don't believe that at our regular winter shelter at ACS that transitioning residents who, who prefer to go and agree to go to the Emergency Winter Shelter would create a situation where they are over capacity. We've, we've looked at those numbers, we've spoken with the Poverello Center, and others, and if this winter season looks like last, I don't think will be in that situation.
Mayor Jordan Hess Do you have a followup?
Alderperson Carlino Yes.
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Carlino And is it true that we have almost $900,000.00 of surplus ARPA funds/pandemic relief funds left over right now?
Eran Pehan I would defer to our CAO, Dale Bickell, on that.
Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Bickell.
Dale Bickell Good evening. Can you hear me okay?
Mayor Jordan Hess Yes.
Dale Bickell We do, yes, at the end of the budget year, we had approximately $900,000.00 of, of ARPA, unspent ARPA monies that have been, that were officially uncommitted at the end of the budget year. A couple of reasons for that, you know one is because the community has been very reliant on Emergency Winter Shelter and a lot of operation shelter programs, we wanted to have some, some funding left over for that coming into the next year and we are also you know at our, at our minimums at this budget year, at our, at our cash reserve policy and because we're still having a lot of inflationary pressures. It acts, it acts as, as a as a potential relief for, for things that might happen next.
Mayor Jordan Hess Followup? Go ahead.
Alderperson Carlino Yeah and when the federal government distributed ARPA pandemic relief funds to different municipalities, was it their intention to spend millions on revenue loss and millions on private security forces or was the intention to help people who had been negatively affected by the pandemic?
Dale Bickell Mayor Hess, I can answer that?
Mayor Jordan Hess Sure, go ahead.
Dale Bickell Yeah, so you know, the one thing about the ARPA dollars is that it gave, it gave broad authority to local governments to spend the money as they see fit for their community, whether all of the items you mentioned there were eligible under ARPA and it is and it was the City Council that approved those expenditures.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. Ms. Sherrill.
Alderperson Sherrill Yeah thanks and I have a couple questions, if that's okay? First, I appreciate Ms. Jones’ question about the staffing of the two sites because that's something that I know that we talked about in the committee. Do you Eran, could you speak to, and I realized that the temporary safe outdoor shelter is a collaboration between the County, Hope Rescue Mission, and the United Way, but there are going to be some additional structures there? And I do appreciate there was a woman that made a comment about what is, what's happening with some of those, those tents and I think that's, I, I appreciate you bringing that up. I, I know this is not a city project, this is a county project but if you have any information on those two things since we are talking about different options for housing through the winter, I'd like to hear them.
Eran Pehan Yeah, absolutely. The temporary safe outdoor space is relocating, as we know. adjacent to the Trinity Development on Mullan, and they do have some expanded sites with that relocation. The temporary safe outdoor space does maintain a hearty wait list and so it could very well be that members, residents of ACS today. are on that wait list and are in line for or eligible for one of the expanded units that will come as a byproduct of that relocation, but we, I don't think we'll see a dramatic increase in availability as a result of that move. We do know that we have other opportunities coming online in the near future as well with the opening of the first phase of units through Bellagio and of course the upcoming units, 30 of which are reserved for folks living on the streets or houseless community and that will be coming online in the springs, so those aren't immediate answers, but they are real answers to houseless experience, which is a home.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Sherrill.
Alderperson Sherrill Thanks. Could you also speak to, I know that the Johnson Street Shelter is 24 hours, could you speak to the, there was some comments brought up about the storage area for people's belongings, as well as kind of access to food because that was brought up as well?
Eran Pehan Yeah, storage is very challenging across the board and it's something I think I talked about daily during my tenure, decade long tenure as Director of the Poverello Center. What I can say is that Johnson Street does provide some limited storage and they do provide access to food and sack lunches. It's not the same level of access that an individual sitting at the Poverello Center receives in terms of a locked locker for their gear and several warm meals a day but those are services that Johnson Street provides. We are also working with providers including the mobile care team at Partnership Health Center, the Poverello Center and others on trying to create some unique solutions for storage for the current residents of ACS. And so, we're trying to bridge that gap for them and try to identify storage, working with folks who have pets, and we know barriers present to having them go to the Poverello Center or Emergency Winter Shelter at Johnson Street. One thing that I heard mentioned earlier tonight as well is what about those individuals who can't go to Johnson Street or the Poverello Center because they have what's called an out status? And one thing we did talk about as a group of providers when we started to talk about the barriers and challenges at ACS that may need to lead towards closure is providing folks a clean slate, and Jill Bonny, the Executive Director of the Poverello Center and their Shelter Director, Claire Bopp, I know that that's a conversation they're having about how to allow folks a clean slate to come to Johnson and start fresh and have an opportunity to access shelter there. And so, I think that's an important part of the conversation, to not walk into it assuming that that folks can't access services. The Pov and their homeless outreach team are working with residents at ACS to try to provide some education and break down some of those barriers and make sure that they also understand that they can come and start fresh with a clean slate as well.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Sherrill.
Alderperson Sherrill Can I have another followup?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Sherrill So, at the Johnson Street Shelter, is there, you know there were also some questions around medical care, and you know helping with getting having an address, getting an ID, the things that we know are barriers to finding employment and finding housing? Could you speak to that please?
Eran Pehan Yeah, the Johnson Street Shelter provides all the same benefits that ACS provided, in that, in that realm, an address where an individual can receive mail, someplace where the Community Care Team with Partnership Health Center can meet with folks, can ensure they get access to their medication, can help transport to doctor's appointments. And so, that, that is still a really essential component of care that people can receive at the Johnson Street Shelter. The difference there, of course, is that it's not year-round and so they can receive that from November until April of each year and then we are in the same situation that we are in with ACS, that it is designed as a temporary solution to weather related concerns, but those are important conversations that we're having in the provider community and conversations that will be informed by what our community decides to do around the Crisis Services Levy as well and, and hopefully will lead to a broader conversation about how we maintain a year round solution to this problem and not a variety of temporary, weather-based solutions.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Sherrill, a followup?
Alderperson Sherrill I’ll ask one more. I'm sure other people have questions as well. Also, is, is there any assistance for moving from ACS? Could you speak to that?
Eran Pehan Yeah, so again, we're working with our partners to provide assistance in the form of physical assistance, transportation and again working towards storage of gear. We also have financial assistance for individuals who, who may need that, as well as who may have an opportunity to look at housing or who are in need of down payment assistance and things like that. And so, we do have some funds set aside and we're working with our providers to try to determine the best way to get those funds to residents that they can assist.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. Ms. Becerra, next.
Alderperson Becerra Thank you Mr. Mayor. I have a couple of questions. The first one is, how much does it cost to run the ACS on a monthly basis?
Eran Pehan That's a great question and I don't have that figure in front of me but it's, it's very expensive. I would say that it cost on average between about $80,000.00 and $90,000.00 per month to run. The, the bulk of that goes of course towards security services and staffing for the site and then we also have costs related to portable bathrooms, water delivery, supplies and such.
Alderperson Becerra Thank you. My next question is, how much does it cost to run the winter shelter on a monthly basis?
Eran Pehan It’s actually a quite similar cost looking at about $80,000.00 a month to staff the facility, and the reason for that is that it actually doesn't cost much less to staff an intense facility for 40 people than it does for 140. And so, we're really still looking at oftentimes the same staffing ratio and again the more expensive provision of 24/7 security staffing that we've had to rely on at the authorized campsite because we could not hire staff to staff it in that 24 hour a day capacity. And so, we are serving double or triple the number of folks in the Emergency Winter Shelter for about the same monthly operational costs.
Alderperson Becerra Thanks. Just a couple of more. Is the funding to cover either one of the operations ARPA funds right now or is that a combination?
Eran Pehan Correct. The funds that we are allocating towards the Emergency Winter Shelter this year and that we have been allocating towards the authorized campsite come from a combination of CARES Act funds and ARPA funds.
Alderperson Becerra Okay. And lastly, will the staff that is currently employed at the ACS, work at the weather shelter? Is that what's being contemplated?
Eran Pehan Yeah, so we would like to utilize, we have two authorized campsite coordinators Donnie and Guy who have done a phenomenal job in the last few months since they've joined our team. Our goal is to have them continue on and support the broader system, providing support to Emergency Winter Shelter, continuing to support those residents throughout the transition and after the transition occurs and continuing to work with our providers on what we know are going to be ongoing continued conversations about again how we move towards a more sustainable year-round approach to providing life-saving services.
Alderperson Becerra Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks. Next, Ms. Savage.
Alderperson Savage Thank you Mr. Mayor. I have a few questions as well. I don't know if this question is better for you Eran or if it's better for you, Mr. Mayor, but I wonder if someone could talk a little bit about the process about how this decision was made? This was a staff and administrative decision and not one that this Council made, and I think we need to draw that distinction really clearly and I know it came up in committee, but I'd like it on the record tonight as well. I know that there have been months and months of meetings and so, I just would like a little clarity on how that came about.
Mayor Jordan Hess Sure, I can take a, an initial run at that and then Ms. Pehan can, can maybe fill in from the staff perspective? And frankly, it was the decision you know as I mentioned already the, the budget, the adopted budget had funding for the authorized campsite the budget the Council voted on had had funding for the authorized campsite through this fall. And staff, and, and myself and, and partners, were meeting to discuss what options exist for us and, and explore alternatives. Our staff explored a number of alternatives, a number of, of options that, that you know ranging from, from extending the authorized campsite to attempting to add you know add infrastructure to it and ultimately, the, the staff perspective and, and I agreed was that it is completely untenable to run that service the way that it is run in in the winter with, with, in inclement weather with, with lack of infrastructure, with lack of access to water, with lack of services. It was never designed for that, and it was never it was never built for that, and it would be, it was it was my determination that it would be untenable to, to attempt to extend that that for the for the winter. We had a conversation with partners which included the Poverello Center and Hope Rescue Mission and Partnership Health Center, where we solicited feedback and requested any additional ideas that they might, that we may have left on the table. And the general, I can't speak for the folks around that table, but the general, the general sentiment around that table and as I understand it, was that there were there were no options that were, that were tenable, there was no way to extend the service. The, the partners were unable to take it over, the partners and, and the City didn't have a magic silver bullet to, to solve the problems that we're experiencing. Ms. Pehan, do you want to add any more to that ?
Eran Pehan The only, that was a very thorough summary. The only thing I would add is, is the history around how he moved into this space. So, the City stepped in as, as the service provider really at the authorized campsite very tentatively. We knew that we lacked the experience as an organization and the administrative infrastructure to run a shelter well. Having, having spent a decade of my life operating a shelter, I, I know how deep that experience and infrastructure needs to be to do it well and we knew that we lacked that. At that point in time, we, we did have vigorous conversations with our service providers and nobody was in a position to step up and do that work for very understandable reasons, the same things we're struggling with today, a lack of a sustainable long-term budgetary source and the staffing and to do it well that we were just in a period in COVID and now still coming out of COVID, where hiring people was extremely challenging, and, and we've struggled with that for the entire eight, nine months that we've operated the authorized campsite. And we, we did pull those providers back together again in the last month, as Mayor Hess alluded to, to again have those conversations and, and learn that the same barriers had not changed for the providers and continued to present for the City. And so, it's not, not without lots of hard conversations that we came to the recommendation that we simply did not have the employees or the budget or the infrastructure to be able to continue to operate the site safely.
Mayor Jordan Hess Any followup?
Alderperson Savage Yes. So, it is fair to say that you all did consider in the timing of this like the, the fact that it's October and we're coming into a winter, it sounds like the discussions were around not enough stopping not enough funding to go through the winter. So, that has been up for discussion?
Mayor Jordan Hess Yes, absolutely, and, and also the, the opening of the Emergency Winter Shelter and creating, creating overlap and a buffer. That was very much part of that discussion.
Eran Pehan And, and I, I would just add that, that I think we pushed it as far as we could and probably further than, than we comfortably could have from a budgetary perspective and a staffing perspective as well, knowing that we needed to get as close as we could to the opening of Emergency Winter Shelter and provide adequate overlap between transitioning away from ACS and closing that site and opening Emergency Winter Shelter to allow people some time, I acknowledge not enough, never enough time, but some time to make that decision to transfer over to Emergency Winter Shelter or if that's not a viable option for them to work with staff at ACS and other providers on what might be an exception.
Alderperson Savage May I have a followup?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Savage So, just to put an extremely fine point on it then. If this body were to vote down 10.4.B, 10.4.C and 10.4.D, the ACS is still going to close on November 16, 2022?
Mayor Jordan Hess You know the fastest way to close, to close the ACS, would be to vote down 10.4.C and 10.4.D. That’s, that is not a service that we can run without, without security at this time. 10.4.B, I think, I don't think that necessarily has a bearing on, on the ACS, but, but the other two certainly do.
Alderperson Savage Okay. And then last followup….If, in terms of if these, these motions, if we vote on these motions tonight, if, if we wanted to keep it open longer what is the process by which we would need to, what would we need to do to make that happen?
Mayor Jordan Hess As Council?
Alderperson Savage As Council….
Mayor Jordan Hess You know…..
Alderperson Savage Procedurally, I’m asking like process-wise, like procedurally….
Mayor Jordan Hess Yeah, I mean, I think that would be I think that would be a policy statement of Council on a budget amendment.
Alderperson Savage Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Yeah. Mr. Nugent.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Thank you Mr. Mayor, I have several questions. First, one of my questions Councilwoman Sherrill already asked about the, what we're going to do with the, the current tents and platforms in the current TSOS. I might have missed it, but what is the current projected opening date for the new TSOS?
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Pehan, can you take that one.
Eran Pehan Yeah, I, I don't have the actual date in front of me. I can confirm that with the county tomorrow and follow up with you via email, but I believe it is late fall.
Mayor Jordan Hess Followup?
Alderperson Mike Nugent If, if, if there are member or if there are residents of the ACS that are in line to go to TSOS, is their way to accommodate them somewhere in the interim? Like if, if ACS closes on November 15, 2022, and TSOS doesn't open until December 1, 2022….
Eran Pehan You know, we are working …..
Alderperson Mike Nugent Are there alternative options?
Eran Pehan Sorry…We are working very closely with the Hope Rescue Mission who is the operational partner for the temporary safe outdoor space and so, we can bring that question back to them. I, I do know that they, they're very involved in in supporting ACS residents through the transition. And so, if there is an instance where there is just simply a gap of a few weeks to a month, we can, we can work with them to figure out how to minimize them and maybe provide that individual a space to be in the interim.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Thanks. A few more questions?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead Mr. Nugent.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Given my, my involvement with the United Way, I'm most familiar with TSOS and I, I really think that that's a great model. My question is we've heard a lot about concerns over safety and health issues and infrastructure and all the above at the ACS. Do we have any estimate of what it would cost to bring the ACS up to acceptable health and safety standards? In its current format.
Eran Pehan Yeah, that, that's a wonderful question. We have some limitations there. I will say that a good majority of the lot that the authorized camp site currently sits on is in the flood plain. We know, we believe that even more of that lot will move into the flood plain with the updated mapping that is occurring right now at DNRC and FEMA. That prevents us from creating some of the more physical, long-term infrastructure that the temporary safe outdoor space will have, things like running water lines and putting semi-permanent or temporary structures on the site right now. Tents are the only thing that we can allow for within a flood plain. We cannot put any semi-permanent or permanent infrastructure, so we have those limitations. Let's just assume that those limitations are put aside, maybe not as much moves into the flood plain as we believe will with the updated mapping project. We have run some real preliminary numbers around infrastructure things like pulling the water line to the site and bringing in some of those basic utilities, and that will cost over $100,000.00, which, which if we were able to operate the site long term might be a good investment, but again with the, with the floodplain issues. we have there we, we're not we know today that only about half of the site could be considered for that type of development and we actually think that that percentage is going to decrease within the next year with those updated maps.
Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Nugent, any follow-ups?
Alderperson Mike Nugent Only a few more.
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Mayor Jordan Hess I promise….I think that I know the answer to this question is no, but I feel it should be answered on the record or at least we should put it out there. Do you have any idea when the Poverello Center will be able to return to normal capacity or at least increase their capacity?
Eran Pehan That's something we've been following really closely as well, and for those not as familiar, the Poverello Center was routinely, prior to the pandemic sleeping upwards of 150, sometimes 175 individuals per night during the coldest winter months. That capacity was halved during the pandemic to I think a maximum capacity of about 80 individuals a night and they have maintained that capacity based on the recommendation of the CDC. We don't see that changing anytime in the foreseeable future. I know that their director Jill Bonny was communicating with the Health Department and looking at those recommendations just last week to try to see if they could increase even by a little bit or start to incrementally increase to make more space available, and so it's something we're constantly talking with providers and with the Poverello Center about, but there isn't a foreseeable date when we think that will happen.
Alderperson Mike Nugent We've talked about security many times and at different points and committee meetings. If we did not pay for security in our operation shelter locations, would they be able to function at the level they are at as far as service numbers?
Eran Pehan Well, as it applies to the authorized campsite and our last 30 days of operation there, if we do not extend the Rogers contract, we will essentially need to stop security services at that site immediately, and we only have the ability to have staffing at that site incrementally throughout the day with the two employees that we have working today, and so, we would have to make a decision to leave that site completely unstaffed and unmanned for the bulk of the day, 16 or more hours, overnights and weekends or we would have to choose to immediately close that site. As it applies to our other sites identified in the contract and under the operation shelter banner, security has proven a very effective and supportive presence. We heard earlier this year in, in a survey of the neighborhood and of residents of the sites that have a security presence that there is a mixed response. Security makes some folks feel uneasy and it makes other folks feel very safe. What we know is, it has allowed us to address some issues that are happening adjacent to those sites with neighbors and the neighborhood and area businesses, which have allowed us to keep those sites open and get more general support from the community and keeping those sites open. As we've heard from some residents of those sites, it has also dramatically increased safety and their feeling of safety when accessing services from that program. And so, I think at this point in time, it's something that residents of the program, staff of the program, and the larger community have come to expect, and I think it would be very difficult for us to remove that and have those programs operate, operate as successfully and achieve the outcomes that we're seeing them achieve today.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Great, thank you. A quick followup of that. We did, we have heard from several individuals over the last several months that disagree with the, the stance and security. Is it still the general consensus of the providers and the partners at these facilities that the security plan the city has in place is the best avenue forward?
Eran Pehan I believe that to be true. You know, we’ve worked really hard with providers over the last year to right size that security presence, to make sure it was just enough and not too much and I think we have gotten to a really good place with that where both staff and residents of programs, those accessing services at programs are feeling the support is there when they want it, but they're not feeling that there's too much of it or that it's an intimidating presence. And so, I think we've, we've gotten to that place of fine-tuning that to, to make sure that it is more beneficial than it is concerning to those who matter most, which are those accessing services at those locations.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Last question…
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Mike Nugent For now…. You mentioned earlier, down the road it would be ideal to have a year-round long-term solution. We obviously have the Villagio units coming on, the Trinity project coming on, the 30 transitional housing coming on, and several other investments in the community. So with all that in mind, what, what does a year-round, long-term solution look like?
Eran Pehan That’s, that's a really good question and, and I think we just can't answer that right now because I think that answer has to come from those with lived experience in the community and our providers who have deep knowledge about our current system. I think one thing that we're really eager for as well as the results of an evaluation of our 10-year plan to end homelessness, which are currently in motion, we're working with a firm to do an evaluation of the actions that we've taken today, prioritizing and elevating the voices of people with lived experience in that conversation and to identify the gaps that still remain in our system and are preventing us from achieving our goal of making sure homelessness is rare, brief, and one time only. And that evaluation will be wrapping up at the end of this year and we'll have recommendations out this spring and I, I feel like we really need again to have those deep conversations with folks with lived experience and our service providers who are the experts in this community, and we need to have that, that research that tells us where are there still gaps and where are we missing the mark. I think that will define whether a year, a secondary year-round solution and if so what that year-round solution looks like.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Next, Ms. Anderson.
Alderperson Anderson Thank you so much Mr. Mayor. My question is for Mr. Bickell in regards to the budget and the remaining ARPA funds. I think he's still here, there he is okay. Mr. Bickell, you alluded to from comments earlier or questions from Council members that we do have a remaining allotment of or a remaining amount of money in our ARPA funding. How have we operated all of the resources, ACS, Emergency Winter Shelter, and all the various components to our continuum of care over the last couple years? What were the funding mechanisms for that?
Dale Bickell Yeah, thanks for the question. We've used a variety of grant sources. You know, all of these, all of these operation shelter programs are a partnership between the City and Missoula County. So, not only have the ARPA dollars been used for that, but other special COVID related CDBG dollars, CARES Act dollars, and all of these fundings, when you add it all up between you know the three shelters and the Community Care team out of Partnership Health Center, security, the whole operation shelter budget is about three million dollars annually that it costs now, but that, and we've done that through all these one-time sources, that as the pandemic here winds down that we are, that is starting to dry up. We, we did, you know intentionally at the end of the budget process protect some of that you know for to try to make sure we had some ability to continue some of the barebones programs, if we don't have a permanent source but that's, that's where we're at.
Alderperson Anderson May I have a followup?
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Anderson.
Alderperson Anderson Okay. I think the important points that I heard you say were that the majority of the funding that we have used up to this point to operate all of the services up over the last couple years have been one time sources and we do not have a dedicated revenue source to continue this moving on in the, in, beyond the end of the ARPA dollars, correct?
Dale Bickell Yes, that's, that's correct.
Alderperson Anderson Right. So, it would be safe to say that if the crisis levy does not pass, we will not have a continued funding source and the only remaining source of funding we would have to operate anything next winter would be the remaining $900,000.00 that we're holding over or there are no holding over is not the right word, the remaining $900,000.00 we have from the allotted amount of ARPA funds that we were given in the beginning?
Dale Bickell That’s right. You know, because the you know the, you know, we have limited ability under current property tax law to raise general fund dollars. which is would be the source for this. And so, the other, the other alternative would be to redo services in other areas.
Alderperson Anderson Thank you. And may I have one more followup?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead Ms. Anderson.
Alderperson Anderson Thank you. And in regards to revenue loss being an allocated ARPA funding, that, if my understanding is correct from conversations over the last couple years, is that actually went to pay for the additional overtime that our first responders accrued during the pandemic because they were you know, they didn't get to work from home many of them got sick and they were recruiting quite a bit of overtime, so we were able to backfill our general fund budget with those ARPA dollars to cover the cost of our first responders for their time in you know still serving the community and operating clinics to give, they helped with COVID clinics and shots and, and testing sites, and things like. That, that was what the quote-unquote revenue loss is, was that backfilling of that accrued cost, correct?
Dale Bickell Yeah, back filling with those costs, reimbursements to the health department for pandemic response, a lot, you know a lot of those pandemic expenses and, and you know there, a lot of that is referred to as revenue loss in our budget documents because that is what the American Rescue Plan Act called, called it and it was to reimburse local governments for those lost revenues and, and in fact the, the rule was very broad. They essentially created what I called a standard deduction, so up to, you could designate as much as 10 million dollars as revenue loss of your ARPA and then use it for those for really any general government purposes. You know, and I would direct people to our budget documents and our and our and we have an ARPA website that has a detail of where our FY22 dollars specifically went on that.
Alderperson Anderson Great and may I have one final question?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Anderson And we have until, when we were given the ARPA dollars, we had, it was expected that it would be doled out over a course of years. We have until what budget cycle to allocate the remainder of those dollars and then actually spend them?
Dale Bickell FY24 is the deadline for allocation and, and if it wasn’t committed, we have until 2026, I they're once they're committed we have until 2026, I believe were those dates.
Alderperson Anderson Thank you so much.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks. Ms. Jordan.
Alderperson Kristen Jordan Thank you. I have a couple questions. The first one, I'm just wondering you know as it relates to representative democracy and having the right people at the table to make decisions, I'm wondering were any of the residents from the ACS at the decision-making table when it was decided to close it down?
Mayor Jordan Hess No.
Alderperson Kristen Jordan That’s unfortunate. My next question is, how much will it cost an indirect and direct costs to close the ACS before adequate housing is found for its current residents? So, I'm thinking about the increase in police patrols to move campers, we heard today in a different meeting that they're overstaffed enough, that they can't provide adequate protection in a neighborhood that's having some increased criminal activity. We're going to see more ER visits. It's going to take more time for our frontline service providers to find their clients and it's going to be, you know, there's going to be an inevitable demand on our criminal justice system, just to name a few of these direct and indirect costs and I'm wondering if anybody can speak to how much we’re going to pay in these direct and indirect costs in closing the ACS that we could potentially save if we kept the ACS open?
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Pehan or Mr. Bickell?
Eran Pehan I can, I can attempt to respond. I, I think we just, we don't have those figures. I don't think we've ever really had those clear figures. You know, we could speculate, and we could make a lot of assumptions about folks landing in the ER or ending up in, in our criminal justice system, but it, we would be doing just that, speculating. I think what we do know is that we're working very hard to make sure that doesn't happen and to work with the 40 or so folks who are at the authorized campsite to figure out if a transition to Emergency Winter Shelter supports them. And in that instance, I would say that we would see the exact same cost to the community that we're currently seeing at the authorized campsite, that wouldn't result in an increased cost to the community because it's a very similar level of service. For those folks who aren't well served by Emergency Winter Shelter, we're working to identify other opportunities and other, other options for them, acknowledging those are going to be limited and for that group of individuals, we could potentially see an increased cost to the community but putting any dollar amount to that would be really speculative.
Alderperson Kristen Jordan Yeah, thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, there's no one else in the question queue. Any additional questions before we move on? Okay, so this is on the motion regarding or the pending motion regarding the contract for the Emergency Winter Shelter. I'd entertain a motion, Ms. West.
Alderperson West Thank you. So, this motion is to authorize the Mayor to sign and execute an agreement with The Poverello Center for the provision of Emergency Winter Shelter services not to exceed $350,000.00 funded by the City of Missoula.
Mayor Jordan Hess And that motion is in order. Well take public comment next. So, if you'd like to make comment on this, you can come on up. This is just on the motion to authorize the winter shelter.
[unannounced speaker] Pronouns they/them. I, I just want to thank Councilperson Jordan for expressing what I was sitting back here feeling this whole time. I keep hearing we asked partners for feedback, we asked providers for feedback, all these people are at the table. The number one thing in all community work that I have learned that I have taught to students is that the people who are impacted are the people who need to be at the table. And the fact is in every single one of these conversations until the committee hearing last week, until tonight, the people who are most impacted were not present and it's because they were not invited. They were not invited by the people with power; that's you all, you all, and the providers who are professionals, who are paid to do this work. The people whose lives are actually being impacted were not invited. They were not brought to the table. I’d also like to say that Mr. Mayor, you kept saying that this was always intended to be a temporary stop gap measure, so were the security forces that you have extended now a plan to extend at least once have also extended another time because the last time I brought concerns to this Council about those security forces, I was told that they were going to be reevaluated and that it was temporary but yet here tonight on this agenda is a move to extend those services. So, it seems to me that it's also possible to extend other services that were always intended to be temporary, and actually lastly, I will say given that all of those things are intended to be temporary, given that you know that in a year, you're going to close this facility, what is happening besides these huge housing projects that honestly are not enough in terms of the, the ratio of actually affordable units, it's not enough and we all know that. Besides those that are so far out, what is happening to ensure that people have the resources that they need, that they have the access. And one more thing actually, I'm so tired of hearing about where the money is coming from and what the budget is because you consistently find more money for the police, you constantly find more money for the police in the general fund, yet you don't have enough money to fully fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, you don't have enough money to extend the ACS, you don't have enough money, you don't have enough money, you don't have enough money, yeah….
[unknown speaker] Point of order…..
Mayor Jordan Hess Yeah, we don't applaud folks, I, regardless of the, of and we do that we do that to create a safe space on other items. I understand there's a lot of consensus in the audience tonight but that's, that's our rules and we'll recess the meeting if it happens again. Additional comments?
Maggie Bornstein Sure again, Maggie Bornstein here. Again speaking of rules, sorry to wave my arms, but during the budget process, there were a number of times where public comment was almost overlooked, it is like I think you're working a long night so totally understandable, but I think it's really critical as Andie mentioned that right people have, have say in stake in all of this work. I have a lot to say, and I had nothing to say when I came in and a lot of it is based off of the comments that were given by Councils and some of the comments that were given by Eran Pehan, and I mean no insult to Eran. I'm sure that Eran works very hard and, and provides really important work to the city but I was really concerned with Eran’s inability to speak to what year-long plan would look like to address homelessness, given that that is the charge of, of that office and agency. And I think that in my experience hearing like oh we're working so closely with providers we're working so closely with providers, people who are agency level who are making agency level decisions are often in disagreement with the people who are actually doing the very work and we saw that with a number of people who are represented here who work in a number of different agencies and entities. I, myself have worked with families experiencing, experiencing homelessness here in Missoula and I could there's a certain degree of disagreement and policies and procedures and best practices, namely around what Andie has elevated as that the people who have lived experiences are being discluded from an opportunity to have what they know to work best for themselves, and their lives and their families reflected in organizational policies. I also was really disappointed that after all of such incredible comment that was given tonight, I felt like a lot of people left and it seemed like the approach was to ask questions to distance yourselves from this really critical issue that you have to make decisions about, and you can't question yourself out of accountability. And again, some of the answers to Eran's question, I can speak to Councilman Carlino's question about the capacity of the shelters. We don't, we didn't have numbers on that and that I think is very vague to say that the ACS is operating at a non-full current capacity, but we don't know what that looked like it could be below it could like very close to below what it is now, and we don't really have answers to address that. I will also say there is really ample research to drive your decisions out there and what is not quality research is a survey that was given to the folks who reside at the ACS. I studied sociology, that is my background and I had to take intensive courses on research methods. The first thing I said when I saw that research is oh I couldn't turn that into a class and still pass and I know that Councilwoman Jordan has also addressed the fact that that survey was given in a leading way and thus precludes a lot of really important feedback, but there is peer-reviewed data that speaks to how private security threatens the lives of people who are experiencing homelessness, there's global data, there's data from within the United States. Some of the data that I was looking at earlier was from a New York City shelter where they found that private security forces, this one was specifically about Allied Security, which is a national corporation actually was involved in an often instigated violence in that shelter facility and while I'd like to think that people in our community are the best of the best and I really do believe that it's not that I like say I like to think that I really do believe that, but there's data and research to show that we're setting ourselves up for really dangerous opportunities. I'd really also like to know, I wish Eran was here to answer how much it would cost to operate the ACS without private security. I know we'll talk more about private security later and I also have some questions about Mayor Hess and I'm candidly super disappointed. It seems like you were in long ongoing conversations about this, and it seems like we could have potentially given more notice to folks or made this decision earlier, which really would have helped out those partners and providers that were chatting about so much tonight. I mean I'm curious also about the relocation funding that Eran addressed. I'm not sure if it's coming from the City. I know Councilwoman Becerra mentioned that around the Front Street development. Again, I have worked with the coordinated entry system I'm aware of basically every private community fund in this community because I worked with families experiencing homelessness and I'm wondering where those dollars are coming from. Are they Cares Act dollars? Are they ARPA dollars or are they coming from the service providers that it seems like we've kind of failed by then perhaps asking them to, to facilitate this quick timeline and then again where are these dollars coming from? There's not a lot of certainty and I really appreciate the clarification for Mayor Hess that, that this decision is a decision that has been made not by the Council, but it seems like you within staff and I think that all of us here have spoken extensively about the gravity of this decision. I know it's not lost on you but I, I think that that's something that you'll really have to answer to within this community because as I said earlier within the research and data land, there is research and data to point to increased costs and burden on our medical system, increase costs in our criminal justice system. In Montana, we're looking at increasing the financial and jail time penalties for a number of different crimes, which target those who are experiencing homelessness and in addition to the data that exists already around the links between criminalization on poverty and homelessness. You know all of that is available for us to know and understand that there is perhaps never a more awful time to make this decision where we're increasing the opportunity of criminalizing poverty in our community and so I have a lot to say and I know that was kind of all over the place, so thanks for listening but I just think I'm I have so much to say because I didn't get really any answers and feel a lot of concern about the city leadership within that office which is addressing this. So, thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks. Anyone else tonight?
[unknown speaker] [inaudible]….. actually that's posing question format because I have no idea how to propose it as a statement. What are the costs to the City regarding ACS given both the private and public options to security saving the public more than the private?
Mayor Jordan Hess And we don't do a back and forth during public comment but someone from the Council can, can ask your question at the end of the public comment.
[unknown speaker] Like I said, ask it all you want and public….. no, never mind. I was going to say something that's going to insult you but ……
Mayor Jordan Hess I’m used to it.
[unknown speaker] [inaudible] ….. you're available, I think they'd say ask it.
Mayor Jordan Hess Any additional comments tonight?
Kevin Hunt Kevin Hunt, 308 Parkside Lane. I first want to say those were just really great comments by Ms. Bornstein and she had to cover a lot of ground, the same reason I'm going to be up here three times and cover a lot of ground because these are all inextricably wedded and intertwined and, and a classic way whether it's intentional or not, but the way things work generally in, in governments and, and you know bureaucracies is to get to get an agenda through you break it into as small the parts as you possibly can, you atomize them into different committees if you can. That's, that's, that's the best trick, but if you can't do that, you just atomize the whole thing and then you would limit you know really strictly limit comment to each little aspect, which in reality you can't do one of these things without affecting the other two. And so, what, what's going to have to happen if. if something's got to be done, a lot of the questions that have been asked by some of the Council people too have been designed to like force bad force Hobbesian choices. Well but if we don't do this, this boogeyman is over here well guess what you don't have to have the boogeyman anywhere and you know I, I would suggest that before coming to each Council meeting that each, each Councilor and the Mayor take a look at our articles two and three of, of the City Charter just, just to kind of you know get into your minds what your authority and powers are. Article 2, section 1 makes clear, the legislative authority of the City is, is the City Council and has the authority to act or such ordinances and resolutions necessary for the protection and benefit of the people's health, welfare, and security. The City Council shall be the policy-making body of the City of Missoula. We move on to the duties of the Mayor, article 3, section 4 duties of the Mayor. Well, the Mayor shall execute all the ordinances and resolutions passed by the Council and shall execute all agreements and documents, and in addition to shall supervise all the City departments. Then there's some stuff about making appointments and this and that. So, I, I appreciate the fact Mr. interim Mayor that you, you did come forward and, and kind of take responsibility for having made this decision which everyone said wasn't being made before but in listening to Councilor Savage what I hear is that's now becoming a cop-out for the rest of you….Oh, oh but we're not really making this decision, the Mayor made it and, and staff made it and, and it was based on, on this the budget running out and we we can't do anything but you know right here in your rules you know you follow Mason's rules and you have your own rules and I'd like to draw your attention to rule 11, which you followed tonight by having immediately after these committee reports. What's the next item on your agenda? New business….what can you do under new business? You can make a motion. What can you do under these items? Any, any one of these items if you don't want to wait till new business. Well someone, one of you or two of you maybe I, I doubt there'll be more than that many votes for it could if you want to handle it now could make a substitute motion. You know, there's nothing in your rules or in the City Charter that says it's the job of the City Council to wait for someone on staff or for the Mayor to hand right or to write out a motion for you and spoon feed it for you and that you can't do anything else but vote yes or no on that. There's nothing in there like look there's nothing like that in there…Nope, you have full plenary authority just like any other City Council. Imagine that you're holding a lot of power and all I hear all the time is we can't do…..
[unknown speaker] Point of order……
Kevin Hunt Well, so here have, here we have and I'm still going to try to point out….
Mayor Jordan Hess When a point of order is called, it is the duty of the chair to resolve the point of order before we continue. So, if you'd bear with me for a moment. The comments are supposed to be germane to the topic and I've given quite a bit of latitude on time and on topic tonight, and I'd ask that you wrap them up with regard to the….
Kevin Hunt I will wrap them up and it is very germane. As I tried to point out at the beginning, you cannot address one of these without it affecting the other two. My suggestion is that there be an either a third motion or a substitute motion and that that would be to do the following. To, as a substitute, if you do it as a substitute motion it would be as an alternative to, to the next three or if you do it as an additional motion, you could do another as a third motion and the, the object of this would be to you know do, do the fun thing for the for the winter shoulder and to direct you. Mr. Mayor, to if you go ahead and execute these two agreements that you have here on the next two items, but to also direct you to open negotiations with Black Knight to also to roll in ACS security into its contract beginning when the 30-day extension expires on, on the Rogers International and then to you know to come back with, with, with that. I understand that has to go back through committee and there has to be a public hearing on it but that is not a problem if you pass the other two which is your little stop gap for now but you but you still have the ability to keep the ACS open and to provide security for it and to address this issue with an up or down vote by this Council on use of those extra ARPA funds. That's a way out, it's clear, it's right here. There's no reason you can't do it and the fact that people don't necessarily know parliamentary procedure and don't understand how much power they have because it got so surrendered over the last 16 years, that's not a reason not to do it now. I want to thank you Mr. Mayor also for the all the great work that's been done up to the present time on this issue and I would like to submit. However, the problem isn't that it wasn't enough and wasn't good enough, the problem is it's absolutely irrelevant to the problem we're facing now. We're trying to deal, we're trying to solve a human problem here, not whether people feel good or bad sitting up in front of this audience. Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you sir. Additional comments tonight?
Christopher Yeniver Greetings, my name is Christopher Yeniver, that’s y-e-n-i-v-e-r. So, I need to keep this a little logical. So, there are those who are a bit organized in life and those who are a bit disorganized. This disorganized can't live up to standards and the organized do live up to standards and that cost them dearly. And so as a committee of voters and the elect, we spend a lot of time and these costs rise during this time, but these costs come from sales and properties and income, and I have increased those costs myself. I have a, well last week Rogers International might be paying an employee of theirs collateral for my action and I am currently not going to sign a plea deal or plead guilty, instead those costs are going to have to be paid out from somewhere, I assume the City of Missoula but I wouldn't believe the City of Missoula would pay the security company for this incident, yet the costs are still there and now I guess I'm expected to pay a little bit of that back. So, the broken window remains… that is the Poverello and that is the Turning Point by Malcolm Gladwell and I would just like to say for the officers here today that we shouldn't defund the police, that'd be ridiculous, instead I'm wondering if that what is it the pandemic relief fund could be just sent back to the feds and then you wouldn't have to abide by pandemic rules and maybe increase the size of the Poverello population perhaps if you're not following pandemic rules and just give them the money back, just surrender it. I suppose that's about all I have to say, I'll just head out the door. Thanks.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. Anyone else on the Emergency Winter Shelter contract? Come on up.
[unknown speaker ] I’m going to keep this really short because I've never been here before. I don’t feel it’s really my place to take up a lot of time.
Mayor Jordan Hess Could you get your name for the record as well please?
William Spector My name is William Spector. I live in Ward 3. I think that's how new I am. I'm like I don't really know the Ward that well, embarrassing right? So, I guess I'm reflecting that. I see a lot of embarrassment here tonight from people who maybe didn't expect this kind of response from an action that can't be defended morally, logically, and financially, as far as I can tell. It seems to be absolutely no reason that you people would carry through with this action after the level of emotion you've seen tonight, you've seen financial appeals. They tried to speak the language of the technocrats and the bureaucrats where everything is about money. It doesn't seem like that works either. So, at a certain point, what are the people gathered in this room here tonight to do if you continue to let people die on the streets? Because I'm pretty tired of it myself and I might be new to this scene, the actual organized political scene here in Missoula, but I stand on the shoulders of giants because I learned from people in this town how to organize and I haven't really put the muscle into it before but tonight the embarrassment and just the shame, it's just shameful what I see from ….I know you people are volunteers and I respect it but my God it's just the excuses is just unbelievable in the circular logic and just the lack of honesty and integrity has upset me deeply. I don't know, I didn’t write any of this down, this is from my heart, but I would like you all to do better and I'd like to stop hearing excuses as my friends die on the streets in this town.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, come on up.
Joshua McGreevy My name is Joshua McGreevy. I stay at the ASC campsite. If it does get shut down, what would be a possibility of possibly opening it just a field or a piece of land that we could possibly go and set up our tents and govern ourselves, which is something I was thinking about? Just in case they shut down… because I know camping right now, as it is, will be arrested and put in jail if we camp in town limits. So, these three only options, the only options we have available, so I was thinking maybe just to possibly a plot of land that we can go and go in ourselves and stay and not be prosecuted or offend attacked for trying to stay out on the streets.
Mayor Jordan Hess We’ll be in touch and have a discussion around options. Thanks. Anyone else?
Bree West Hey my name is Bree West again. I was just coming to say when considering opening the winter shelter, I think it would be important to also, I know we can't do back and forth, but just places when people get on and out or are sick for example COVID where they're able like where they're able to stay since they can't go to the Pov or J Street Shelter if they do have COVID or they are placed on an out. So, it'd be great to know that when passing this. Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none and for the record, nobody online. We have a motion, we've had public comment, we'll have comments from Council, and then the vote on this motion. And I have Mr. Carlino followed by Ms. Jordan.
Alderperson Carlino I appreciate everybody coming out to speak tonight and speaking last Wednesday on this. A lot of the ACS residents told us why they can't stay at the Emergency Winter Shelter and why it's not an alternative, but why we would need both and you know some of those were from substance use or having a pet or you know all the all sorts of different reasons on why we should have some place for everybody to be able to go and have a safe space to themselves. I hope that this is the part of the meeting where all of us tell our plans to keep the ACS open and talk about how we're gonna get that done together. And earlier today, I sent a referral to everybody on the Council and Mayor's office and City Clerks to try and have a hold a public hearing on putting some of the surplus ARPA funds towards keeping the ACS open. So, I hope that we can work together to see that referral come before us before the ACS closes. Housing needs to be a human right in Missoula and it's up to us around this, around here and the people in our community who are organizing to make that true. The only humane thing to do right now is to is to band together and keep the ACS open and to ensure that not only keeping it open that we provide running water, we've had plenty of time to make that happen, provide warmth, and provide a way for people to find permanent housing whatever they would like that to be. We have plenty of money to do that; there was no lack of money in this city. Not only do we have surplus ARPA funds, we've doubled our police, yearly police budget over the past 12 years, we've doubled that while our population has only gone up less than 15%. And whether or not the crisis levy gets passed, we need, these are things that we need to fund every year. There's no if, if we, if it doesn't get passed and we spend the surplus, some of the surplus ARPA funds this year, we still need to find a way to fund these things every year and to say that we can't spend the surplus ARPA funds now to hold it on for next year, would be, it's just, this doesn't make sense because we need to find some if the crisis levy doesn't pass, we need to find a way to fund these things every single year, not just next year since… So, I hope that everybody listens to the community, listens to the members of ACS who are asking us to, to not displace them, and to keep the ACS open. So, I hope we listen to them by you know helping me with my referral or somebody else write a referral to keep the ACS open or I hope that we see the Mayor's office make an order to put money towards this and keep the ACS open. We have the power to do that so we should do it.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Jordan.
Alderperson Kristen Jordan Thank you. You know, I know the votes tonight are not related to the closure of the ACS but they all dance around the fact that it is closing. The decision to close the ACS was done without consultation. Most of us on Council didn't know until last Wednesday that residents had about a month to find new accommodation. I'm on Council and I feel powerless in protecting citizens of the ACS who are my constituents. When you come to speak, using your expertise as someone with lived experience, I will listen to you with an open heart, and I'll hold space for you by maintaining eye contact because you matter. Simply because it was only ever meant to be a temporary does not mean that we have to be insensitive to finding a better closing date. We could find the funds to keep it open. As an example, on budget night, we were able to find $45,000.00 to buy a motorcycle for the police after hours of discussion related to not having additional funding for the Mobile Support Team. We're simply kicking the can further down the block. We know it's going to be cheaper and more effective from a service provider perspective to keep the ACS open for all the reasons we heard tonight and more, including less pressure on police to move campers living in non-designated places, ease of case management for all of our frontline service providers who are so incredibly dedicated. I am so grateful for the service of our frontline service providers who are going to have to track clients down and scramble to find them a place to live. We're going to use….. sorry I've just lost my place…. it's going to be a greater pressure on the jail and ER services. Does everybody know that it costs $140.00 a night of your tax dollars to keep somebody in the jail? It’s gonna get expensive and a basic ER charge, walking in the doors, at least $1,500.00. Perhaps, we could find and retain staff if we paid more. Perhaps we could find room in the budget if we asked our department directors to participate in zero balanced budgeting and exercise they're opposed to because it would take too much of their time. We'll be paying whether we keep the ACS open or not, but one option works better for most, for our most vulnerable populations. We're failing them by closing the ACS. If it were important to all of us, we would keep it open and find the funds.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Sherrill.
Alderperson Sherrill I actually have a question, is that appropriate this time?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Sherrill Is Eran still on here?
Mayor Jordan Hess Yes, it looks like it.
Alderperson Sherrill I’m, I'm actually curious about the question that, I don't remember your name, I'm sorry but the nurse here asked around the plans for COVID and the Emergency Winter Shelter. Do we, what are the plans for that? Do you, do you know? Could you?
Eran Pehan I, I don't know what the Poverello Center's plans are for if an individual residing at Emergency Winter Shelter test COVID positive. I know last year that individuals who tested COVID positive needed to quarantine or isolate outside of the facility. It's been several years since we had a non-congregate quarantine in isolation facility or services provided by the Sleepy Inn, and we have tried to bridge that gap with short hotel room stays, as needed, during that period and I'm not sure how impactful that was last winter, but we can check in with the Poverello Center to see if special planning needs to be created for this upcoming season around that.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks.
Alderperson Sherrill May I make, just a followup comment?
Mayor Jordan Hess Go ahead.
Alderperson Sherrill I, I think that that's, that's an important question that I think we don't need to answer right at this moment because we're, we're voting on opening the shelter and the contract for the emergency shelter at this moment, but definitely something I would like to, to know more about because unfortunately for all of us that's still an issue.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Vasecka.
Alderperson Vasecka Thank you. So, I'm going to comment on, on the vote that we have at hand here. I did want to thank everybody for coming and and giving their lived experiences and their comments tonight. I apologize I'm not there in person I needed to watch my kiddo tonight, but I, I am going to be voting against the Johnson Street Shelter this evening because I have had multiple residents, neighbors of that area reach out to me about inappropriate behavior, frankly unlawful behavior, defecation in yards, vandalism, theft, drug use, alcohol use, all sorts of unsafe behavior in that neighborhood. And it, it does suck that the, the actions of the few ruin it for the many, but I do need to speak up for my neighbors for this one and so I will, I will not be supporting this portion of the vote tonight.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Ms. Vasecka. Ms. Jones.
Alderperson Jones Thanks. Thank you to everyone who came down tonight and all of your comments. I've heard a lot of different comments tonight about how much Council has and has not thought about this and how many meetings there were and there weren't and the executive branch their involvement and all this, I can tell you that I think people in local government in Missoula think a lot about this and work a lot on this. And if we had more money and more options and more tools, we would do a lot more, but we try and do as much as we can with what we have. We have an Emergency Winter Shelter that has been tipped up for the last two years that has provided more capacity; we never had anything like that before. In Helena, my understanding is, they provide between 20 to 30 beds, that's it for the entire community. We've got the Poverello; we've got the Emergency Winter Shelter. I know we have more need; we continue to work on it, but we're voting on the Emergency Winter Shelter tonight. It has had impacts on the neighborhood; I've sat through a lot of those meetings too. The ACS has had a lot of impacts on neighboring businesses; I've sat through a lot of those meetings too. These are hard things, they're hard things to do well enough so that it works for everybody, and I think that's our goal. So, I will be voting for the Emergency Winter Shelter tonight. I think it does need security; I would not tip these up without security and we'll be having that conversation next. There are people at the ACS, if it shuts down, they were, they're going to have to move, they're going to have to relocate. The Emergency Winter Shelter has twice the capacity of what the ACS is currently holding. It has the alcohol and drug barriers that were referenced tonight. I think we should be really clear on that; it is behavior based and everyone has a clean slate every year to go back there, and if they behave sufficiently to get along with everyone, even if they're using some drugs or alcohol, they get to stay. So, there are options there. It's not perfect and I know people have issues that make it very difficult to be in these situations, but it's what we've got right now and I also feel very strongly that until we know what tools we have into the future, it is important to be setting some of this money aside so that we have some flexibility, not for this winter, but for next winter to be able to do something instead of nothing. And I hear a lot tonight about how much money we have all over the place, I sat through a meeting today where people want more police presence in the neighborhood surrounding the Pov, not security, but police, police presence. So, there's a lot of competing needs here and I think people on this Council do the best we can with what we have. So, I'm supporting it tonight.
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Anderson.
Alderperson Anderson Thanks so much Mr. Mayor. I'm just quickly going to say that I am excited to vote and support the winter shelter. I was on Council that winter that the Mayor referenced where literally I think it was a Wednesday night and we were looking at the forecast and realizing that temperatures were going to dip to a dangerous level and people were scrambling. The fact that we have the winter shelter, regardless of all the other things is, it saves lives it's 130 beds for people to be inside away from the elements and, and we have come a long ways, and a lot of that has come because we have been given opportunities to fund things with Cares Act dollars and ARPA dollars and things that we didn't have before. The conversations for funding the original, you know, the weekend at the Transit Center where Councilwoman Jones and I were literally making sandwiches, to now having a shelter and a provider and meals and it has you know it is a full wrap around service. Is it enough? No. Can we always be doing more? Yes. Is it always a balance? Yeah and but I think that we're sort of with all the other conversations kind of missing the point that this is a really good thing that we're providing for our community and, and I'm concerned about how if the levy does not pass how we continue to fund this moving forward. So, I'm excited for all the energy around addressing issues of our houseless neighbors and I hope that that energy will translate into you know getting out and you know getting the word out and….Because I don't know if the levy doesn't pass, how we continue to fund this vital service of a winter shelter that has proven to save lives in Missoula over the last few years. So, I think, right now, we're talking about that and I'm happy to support it. I think it's a good use of ARPA dollars. We've addressed a lot of the issues the neighborhood has brought up, it's not perfect, but it is saving lives and it is putting a roof over people's head in our community, in a place where has inclement weather is unpredictable. So, happy to support it.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Ms. Anderson. I don't have anyone else on the speaker list. Anyone else? Ms. West.
Alderperson West I just really want to extend my thanks to the Poverello for being an amazing community partner in this effort and being available to staff this resource 24/7, and to operate a site that is lower barrier than their main site. I feel like this is getting lost in this conversation and I am actually unclear whether we have support for this from folks who have commented. So, I just want to say thanks to the Pov.
Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Nugent.
Alderperson Mike Nugent Thank you Mr. Mayor. I, I appreciate everyone's comments around the table, and I appreciate everybody who's coming to discuss this. I've wrote a lot of notes down for people's comments and they seem to be more aimed towards the next two, but I did want to speak quickly. You know, I’ve been on Council for 10 months and it's very interesting the ebbs and flows of public comments on how business is done, and I will tell you it's the first time I've heard people criticize the Council for asking questions during the public period of asking questions. We get to ask questions either at Council meetings or committee meetings; those are those are the public opportunities. So, if we want these conversations to be public, that's the time to do it and I actually enjoyed a lot of the questions, as they went around the table from, from all the different angles because I learned things and I've wrote two pages of notes based on your comments and those questions, and I, you know, I don't know, I don't know what we're supposed to do on that front. The other thing that I think in these big conversations where people like to throw around that there's all this money. If, if the money is not public, we, we don't have anything to do with it so that's one, but two if there's public money and we talk about things like we're going to save money here by doing this or something like that, unless we could specifically say we're going to cut, cut from this budget and here's how, it's just a talking point. Like we need specifics, like if we're going to move money from one place to another, we need specifics. So, when we say, the police budget has gone up, what we're really say, what we're really saying there is if we don't fund the police at the current level, we're firing police officers and I think that we just need to acknowledge that. Like, when we talk about that, that's what we're saying and I know people fall on all the different sides of this, but I don't think it does any good to just say, we could cut this from here because that would impact our service. Like, we would need to actually know what that means, and I just feel like that's important for this conversation.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Mr. Nugent. Anyone else? Ms. Savage.
Alderperson Savage Thank you. I just kind of want to follow up on what Mr. Nugent said, and to be clear, I was asking the question about the closure of the ACS to literally get an answer. I wanted to know, is that something that was in our decision making space or was it something in a staff and administrative decision-making space? I also wanted it on the record because we did have very long conversations in committee on Wednesday, but not always do people sort of go back or sit and listen to you know our long committee meetings. I also wanted it on the record to know what the process was and the reason for that is because there have been many, many months of meetings discussing the ACS and not all Council people are in all of those meetings all the time, and so I wanted to be clear about what was talked about. Did we talk about timing? Did we talk about winter? Did we talk about all of the other options? So, that's why I asked the question just, just to get that out there, and I am going to support this particular resolution because I do support the winter shelter and I do support the Pov, and so, that's kind of where that lands. And I think that sometimes it gets frustrating when we, it, we sort of get accused of subterfuge or something and it's like truly, no we are taking this piece by piece because we have to take it piece by piece. Thank you.
Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Carlino.
Alderperson Carlino Yeah, I guess I just wanted to say that public commenters are allowed to comment whatever they want, and we should not be trying to cut people's comments off and not criticize people for saying their opinion during the public commenting session. And my real issue is that we have people coming here asking us to help them not be displaced, asking us to help them have a place to live, and you want to comment on something that is irrelevant to this. What we should be commenting on is, is how we're going to help ensure that these people have somewhere to live, and yes I support the Emergency Winter Shelter, but you know what's really on the line as well, is the ACS and making sure that those people are not displaced. So, why don't we talk about that?
Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Vasecka.
Alderperson Vasecka Thanks. I wanted to agree with Mr. Nugent and Miss Savage and a lot of what Mr. Carlino was saying just now. I did want to point out that when the ACS was first integrated into the community, I was wondering why Council didn't get a vote on that to, to see if we could vote Yes or No to see if the ACS was going to be in be in our community. So, since we didn't get a vote on that, I, I think I mean what's really fair and what's not fair, but I don't think that we should get a vote on whether to shut it down. I don't really know where I'm going with this, but it was just really interesting because a lot of the neighbors were, were experiencing a lot of frustration with the ACS in the beginning and since we didn't get a vote to put it in or put it out or not have, it, it's….I don't know, I don't know where I was going with this but I just wanted to point it out that we didn't get a vote to put it in, so I guess we don't get a vote to take it out.
Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks. Ms. West.
Alderperson West Thanks. Since we keep mentioning the funding of the ACS, I hope I can explain briefly state law and why we cannot bring a budget amendment at this moment. So, it is accurate to say that it is not represented in our City Council rules or in our City Charter, but where you can find the rules that govern budget amendments is Montana Code annotated Title VII, Chapter 6, Part 4021. This very distinctly spells out the process that we need to go through for budget amendments; it requires proper public notice and transparency. We cannot bring a budget amendment to the floor tonight; that is not an option in front of us. and I think it is disingenuous to keep stating that that is an option. So, I would really appreciate it if we stayed in our decision space that is in front of us at this time.
Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Carlino.
Alderperson Carlino Yeah, I think that's pretty crystal clear. I guess I'm just wanting us to address the people that are asking us to have somewhere to live, but the referral I wrote, it was to keep the ACS open and by using some of the surplus ARPA funds. So, we just need to hold a public hearing but yes that can't be decided on tonight, but I think tonight we could at least acknowledge the people that came here asking us to have somewhere to live.
Mayor Jordan Hess Any further comments from the Council? Seeing none, we can have a roll call vote on the motion to authorize the contract for the Emergency Winter Shelter. Ms. Rehbein.