Journal of Proceedings

Missoula City Council

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Council Chambers (in person) or TEAMS (virtually)
Attend in person: City Council Chambers, 140 W Pine, Missoula MT
Members Present:
  • Stacie Anderson, 
  • Mirtha Becerra, 
  • Daniel Carlino, 
  • John P. Contos, 
  • Gwen Jones, 
  • Kristen Jordan, 
  • Mike Nugent, 
  • Jennifer Savage, 
  • Amber Sherrill, 
  • Sandra Vasecka, 
  • and Heidi West
Administration Present:
  • Jordan Hess, Mayor, 
  • Marty Rehbein, 
  • and Jim Nugent, City Attorney

1.

  

The Missoula City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Jordan Hess at 6:00 PM.

3.

  

Mayor Jordan Hess We can move on next to public comment on items not listed on our agenda.  If you have any comment on something not on our agenda, you're welcome to come on up.  Seeing none, I'm sorry come on up and, and you're just right in front of that microphone is great, and if you just state your name for the record and keep it for about 3 minutes.

Melody Cunningham Sure, thank you.  I’m Dr. Melody Cunningham.  I'm a pediatrician and a pediatric palliative care physician and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all about an issue, which I believe needs increased awareness and would bring harm to the citizens of Missoula.  I've been a pediatrician for nearly 30 years and 15 of those I've had the privilege and honor of being a pediatric hospice and palliative medicine physician, so I've had the sacred privilege of journeying with families who have had to say goodbye to their children and their infants who will not survive and it's from that vantage point that I speak tonight.  The moments when those families have to say goodbye to their children and their infants are irreplaceable and really help them in their grief journey.  I know this because I still hear from families 5, 10, 15 years later after the loss of their child because it's so profound and the people who are able to honor them and be with them are part of their child's memory and history, that these holy and sacred moments are at risk of being taken from families really hurts my heart immensely and that's why I'm speaking tonight with a little quiver in my voice.  That my most informed friends who are not in medicine aren't aware that this is potentially to be taken away from families really frightens me because it's an important issue and although the LR-131 ballot initiative is a state initiative, I bring it up here because it hopefully not many but there are going to be citizens of Missoula who will be affected and not be able to hold their infant and say goodbye to their infinite end of life if this passes.  I respectfully thank you for the moments to speak from my heart and my professional experience on this really important issue that I truly do think has strong city, city and citizen implications.  So, thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you for your comments.  Anyone else tonight?

Peter Walker-Keleher My name is Peter Walker-Keleher.  Hello City Councilors.  Hello Commission.  I often will watch the proceedings of or at least review the minutes on Tuesday morning after the City Council is met and the main thing that I'll, in addition to skimming through those, I'll look at the public comment and I think for months I've been struck by maybe a lack of affirmation for our public servants.  And so, for several months, I thought I want to come down to City Council.  I'm going to come down to City Council and simply say thank you.  I work as an engineer and planner in the community and end up interacting with a number of you and City staff and frankly I'm really proud to be a part of Missoula.  I feel like we have a responsive government that deliberates.  I see people acting with integrity, problem solving, etc.  So, and I know it's a big sacrifice, it's a lot of work for City Councilors that step up, Commissioners that step up, and serve our community, so thank you.  What finally brought me tonight was my longtime friend, Jack Rowan, is in front of you all as a potential City Council member to take Jordan's seat and I would like to endorse Jack and to the extent that you know me, that may or may not provide credibility for Jack.  I've known Jack for about 10 years, and I find him extremely intelligent, dedicated, and sincere and I know based on many conversations I've had with Jack that he is a genuine public servant, and I think genuinely interested in stepping forward, filling the seat vacated by Mayor Hess, and being another servant for our community.  Thank you all.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank your Mr. Keleher.  Any general public comment tonight?  We'll hold, we'll hold comments on the vacancy until a little later in the meeting but any other general comment?  Okay, I've got an online comment.  Andy you should be able to unmute yourself.  And Andy you're still muted on our end, you should be able to unmute on your computer….Okay, we'll, we'll come back to you Andy and I'll have Ms. Rehbein read our phone numbers for participating by phone, if that helps?

Marty Rehbein Okay, our phone number again is 406-384-6960.  Conference ID number: 387736445 and the # sign.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Any other general public comment?  Okay, I will watch for an incoming phone call and we'll, we'll come back come back to this.  Let’s move on to announcing the committee meetings and, and changes to the committee agendas.  Ms. Rehbein.

Mayor Jordan Hess I see we have a phone call in the audience so I’m going to go back to public comment for a minute and then we’ll come back to you for the committee schedule.  Okay, you should be able to unmute yourself.

Andy/Andie Oh okay I'm no longer muted…

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, we can, we can hear you…..

Andy/Andie Thank you hello Mayor Hess and congratulations to you in your appointment as the new Mayor, and hello to Council.  This is Andy/Andie [indiscernible], pronouns they/them.  I live in Ward 2.  I apologize for the hassle that happened last time; I'm not sure why Microsoft teams is weird.  I'm calling and I apologize if this is on the in on the agenda, I didn't have time to review the agenda.  I'm calling about the city notice that I saw this morning that the Northside Pedestrian Bridge is currently closed.  I was hoping that we might receive comment from Council this evening about the reason for that and the proposed timeline.  I understand there are planned renovations for next summer, but that's so far from now and it is a significantly, it just gets a lot of use for pedestrians and cyclists.  In fact, for myself today, I rode my bike under the Orange Street Bridge, which is not ideal in terms of safety and I'm a cyclist who's pretty comfortable in traffic and I know many are not other.  The other options are to go out of the way to the frontage road or, or the Scott Street Bridge and so, I'm curious about an update on that.  I will also comment on the Ward 2 candidates to fill the Mayor's spot in our Ward, which I look forward to, I look forward to working with that person and having that person represent me and the rest of Ward 2.  And that’s it for now….Oh, one other thing I just wanted to say how excited I am that the playground at Westside Park for the Lowell Elementary School students is finally, finally opened.  It was a joyous occasion for me to be across the street at my house hearing kids actually getting to play in the park instead of just the bus group and the grass.  So, I'm really excited about that, and I thank you for your service.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you for your comments Andy/Andie, I appreciate that.  I will briefly address the, the Northside Pedestrian Bridge.  The, the bridge, during a routine inspection by City Parks and Recreation, staff identified a potential issue with the bridge and out of an abundance of caution opted to close the bridge until, until an engineering team can come out and take a look at that bridge.  So, that timeline is forthcoming and should be, we, we should know more about that in the matter of a couple of days here.  It was, again, just something that was out of abundance of caution for safety of the bridge users, and we will know more about that shortly.  Seeing no other general public comment, we can go back to our schedule of committee meetings.  Ms. Rehbein.

Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee, October 12, 9:25 – 11:10 a.m.

Public Safety, Health and Operations Committee, October 12, 10:45 – 11:15 a.m.

Public Works and Mobility Committee, October 12, 11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Housing, Redevelopment and Community Programs Committee, October 12, 1:00 – 4:35 p.m.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Ms. Rehbein.  Any changes to that committee schedule?  Seeing none, we can move on to our consent agenda.

5.

  

Mayor Jordan Hess Items on the consent agenda were approved generally unanimously in City Council committees and we saved time on them here on, on Monday nights by voting on those items as a package Ms. Rehbein will lead the read the list aloud so citizens watching on MCAT will know what is on the consent agenda and we'll invite community comment before we vote.  Ms. Rehbein.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Ms. Rehbein.  Is there any, are there any questions on the consent agenda?  Seeing none, any public comment?  Mr. Hunt.

Kevin Hunt Thank you.  Kevin Hunt, 308 Parkside Lane.  Just with regard to item number 5.2, because, because of the manner in which it's this agenda item is, is written, I, I just wonder if someone might want to comment on, on what the bonds are really for?  It’s written just like you know administrative legal jargon and so what, what exactly are these being issued for?  That would, that would be something I think people would like to know, who perhaps like me, didn't have time to go beyond the agenda to see what it was about.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Yeah, thanks, thanks for the comments that's for the purchase of the Bridge Apartments on West Broadway.  Any additional…..that's for the purchase of the Bridge Apartments on West Broadway.  Any additional public comments?  Okay seeing none, any comments from Council members?  Ms. Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka I would like to separate 5.2 and vote on that separately please.  Sorry, for the late notice on that one.

Mayor Jordan Hess That’s okay.  So, on the consent agenda, we can have a roll call vote on items 5.1 and 5.3 through 5.5.

  • AYES: (11)Alderperson Anderson, Alderperson Becerra, Alderperson Carlino, Alderperson Contos, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson Jordan, Alderperson Nugent, Alderperson Savage, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson Vasecka, and Alderperson West
    Vote result: Approved (11 to 0)
  • Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the addendum to the services agreement for security services provided by Black Knight Security for City Hall facilities.

    Vote result: Approved
  • Approve the purchase of one Pierce Ascendant ladder truck for the Missoula Fire Department from Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the amount of $1,400,000.00 including surcharges, change orders, and uplifting of apparatus as approved in the core replacement schedule for this budget year.

    Vote result: Approved
  • Adopt a Resolution of the Missoula City Council in support of the Missoula Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program grant application, titled Reconnecting East Missoula.

    Vote result: Approved
  • Adopt a resolution relating to $1,583,470.53 Tax Increment Urban Renewal Revenue Refunding Bond (Urban Renewal District II), Series 2022A and $2,231,535.90 Tax Increment Urban Renewal Revenue Bond (Urban Renewal District II), Taxable Series 2022B; Authorizing the sale and issuance thereof; and amending and restating resolution nos. 7120 and 7756.

    AYES: (10)Alderperson Becerra, Alderperson Carlino, Alderperson Contos, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson Jordan, Alderperson Nugent, Alderperson Savage, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson West, and Alderperson Anderson
    NAYS: (1)Alderperson Vasecka
    Vote result: Approved (10 to 1)

Mayor Jordan Hess We do have two special proclamations tonight.  First of all,…

WHEREAS, Code Enforcement Officers provide for safety and welfare of the citizens throughout the city of Missoula through the enforcement of local codes or ordinances facing various issues of building, zoning, housing, health, and life safety; and WHEREAS, Code Enforcement Officers often have a challenging and demanding role and often do not receive recognition for the job that they do in improving living and working conditions for residents and businesses of local communities; and WHEREAS, code enforcement officers are dedicated and high qualified professionals who share the goals of preventing neighborhood deterioration, enhancing, and ensuring safety and preserving property values through knowledge and application of housing, zoning, and nuisance codes and ordinances; and WHEREAS, the American Association of Code Enforcement proclaimed the month of October 2022 as National Code Compliance Month and call upon municipalities and communities to join in recognizing and expressing their appreciation for the dedication and service by the individuals who serve as our Code Enforcement Officers.  Now, therefore, I , Jordan Hess, Mayor of the City of Missoula in the State of Montana hereby recognize the month of October 2022 as National Code Compliance Month.

 

Mayor Jordan Hess And we have Walter Banziger from our Community Planning, Development and Innovation team on the line to speak briefly.  Before we go to Walter, I wanted to personally recognize our, our code compliance team.  This, this team is really in my nine years on the City Council the, the lifeline for, for constituent services and I want to I want to applaud this team for working, working diligently to ensure that our community remains a safe, healthy, healthy, vibrant place.  Charmel and her team are always, always available to take a phone call or respond to an issue and those issues could range from a couch on fire in an alley, to a to dead roadkill, to a fence that had fallen down and had become unsafe, to an abandoned vehicle, to any number of issues.  You, you never know what will come at the code enforcement officers and they always handle it with a professional attitude and with a can-do attitude.  So, Walter, I'll turn it over to you.

Walter Banziger Thank you Mayor Hess.  I also, too, wanted to thank Charmel and Michelle for their service, their dedication to the City of Missoula, and then further stewardship for the safety of our community.  The staff of Code Enforcement are dedicated to preserving the quality of life and enhancing the safety of our community each day.  This team works with the community and City agencies to ensure that people and property are safe, public access ways and rights of way remain accessible and open, and they also assist in addressing housing issues within our community.  They work with all the departments including Planning, Building, Public Works, Police and most importantly, they work with the individuals of this community, and they represent the City in all aspects of Code Enforcement.  Their approach is always collaborative and supportive in addressing the community needs and they work very closely with everyone in trying to find equitable solutions to issues that are affecting the individuals in their neighborhoods.  I'm honored to work with these folks every day and I wanted to thank you Mayor, Jordan Hess, and the City Council for recognizing them and their service today.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you again and again, our appreciation to the, to the Code Compliance team.

WHEREAS, Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis or CRMO is an autoinflammatory disease affecting the bones of the body causing pain lesions and inflammation which can eventually lead to fracturing or breaking of the bones and other physical problems; and WHEREAS, the path to a diagnosis is often a long one with many other possibilities that need to be ruled out, delaying access to appropriate medical care for those who are affected and the Limited treatments that are available are painful and expensive; and WHEREAS, the severity of the symptoms of CRMO and the limited public awareness of the disease can cause patients to be isolated and lead to depression.  CRMO is often called an invisible illness, as many of the children affected appear fine upon first glance, but deeper down are dealing with high levels of pain, frustration, and sadness; and WHEREAS, the goal of CRMO Awareness Month is to raise public awareness and understanding of the disorder, which has numerous manifestations affecting children of all ages, races, genders, and backgrounds.  Now, therefore, I, Jordan Hess, Mayor of the City of Missoula in the State of Montana hereby recognize October 2022 as Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis Awareness Month.

 

Mayor Jordan Hess I understand that we have Sean in the virtual audience tonight along with his parents, Sierra and Tim, and I believe his, his medical team at Seattle Children's Rheumatology.  I know that Sean and his family handles medical appointments and missed school and activities with, with grace and good humor and I want to just let you know Sean that that the City of Missoula we're thinking of you and, and you're in our, we're sending you our best wishes.

8.

  

9.

  

10.

  

Missoula County Commissioners Vero, Slotnick and Strohmaier were present at the meeting.

Commissioner Dave Strohmaier moved the adoption of the resolution.  Commissioner Josh Slotnick seconded the motion. 

The motion was approved unanimously by the County Commissioners.

Mayor Jordan Hess We do have one committee report, and this is a joint committee report of the City Council and an action of the Board of County Commissioners.  I'll turn it over to Commissioner Juanita Vero to call the county meeting to order, if necessary.  Commissioner Vero are you in attendance?  Oh, oh, thank you.  Commissioner, you  should be able to join us now.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Hi Mayor.  Can you hear me?  My mic was disabled.  Is it, is it working?

Mayor Jordan Hess Yes, we can hear you know.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Okay, fantastic.  Thank you.  And yes, we’re, we’re present and we're, we're here to, to listen to this proclamation…

Mayor Jordan Hess Great.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Or resolution rather….

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay so, yeah….

Commissioner Juanita Vero I believe, actually yes and I, I believe commissioner Dave Strohmaier is in person….

Mayor Jordan Hess He, he’s sitting to my left and

Commissioner Juanita Vero Okay…..

Mayor Jordan Hess And Commission Slotnick is, is on the line virtually as well.  So, without objection, we’ll it over to Ginny Miriam for our staff report.  Ms. Miriam.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Thank you.

Ginny Miriam It’s a lot more complicated than it used to be, right?  Good evening City Council and special thanks to the County Commissioners for joining us tonight.  We are here to bring you a joint City-County Resolution providing for a Bear Smart Policy in the greater Missoula area.  It directs staff to implement best practices and policies to protect residents and bears in the interest of both public safety and the preservation of bears in the Missoula Valley as wildlife living and natural conditions.  We have tonight, members of the Missoula Bear Smart Working Group.  The working group has its roots in the local government resident partnership that has worked on wildlife issues including the city's wildlife feeding ordinance and the establishment of the bear buffer zone for the past approximately 15 years.  The group reconvened this past winter following a season of exceptional bear human conflicts in our valley.  This summer and fall those conflicts have continued to escalate and we've all seen news media coverage of bears in our community.  The working group presented our intent to work toward a Bear Smart Community Program for Missoula to the Missoula County Board of Commissioners, the Missoula Mayor, and several City Council Representatives on February 8th of this year.  Since then, we have developed and published a Missoula Area Hazard Assessment and a Management Plan, which will serve as guide documents as we work toward becoming a fully Bear Smart community.  The Bear Smart Community Program was developed in British Columbia.  It is a voluntary preventive conservation measure that encourages communities, businesses, and individuals to work together.  Its goal is to address the root causes of human bear conflicts, reducing the risk to human safety and private property, as well as the number of bears that must be killed or relocated each year and it has been adopted around many communities in the west including Durango, Colorado, is I think the one that we hear most about but some other cities in Montana as well such as Whitefish most recently. Tonight, you will hear from two seasoned bear scientists who are members of the working group, Jamie Jonkle who is the man on the ground for bears as the bear manager for Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Region 2 and Chris Servheen who is the grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service for many years and works on wildlife conservation worldwide and is President and Board Chair of the Montana Wildlife Federation here to talk to you a bit about the reasoning behind becoming a Bear Smart Community, what we found in the hazard assessment.  Thank you.

Chris Servheen Good morning or good afternoon, I guess.  I’m waiting for my IT person here.  Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about this this bear issue and the Bear Smart Missoula program.  You know, we've been working on this since February as the bear Missoula Bear Smart work group and we've come a long way and there's a good reason for this because we, we have between 150 and 200 bears in the Missoula Valley right now.  They're all black bears right now but there may be grizzly bears here that we don't know about.  So, this picture is from the University campus and that garbage can right there next to that that bear, behind that bear, is the reason the bear is on the university campus.  Missoula has bears and we're having more bears all the time.  This, this situation is aggravated by the fact that we're having more and more people moving into Missoula and many of these people don't know much about living with bears at all or living with wildlife in general.  As Ginny said, we have completed the Bear Hazard Assessment.  The hazard assessment identifies what the problems are in the Missoula area related to bears and where those problems exist, and that document is available on missoulabbears.org and I think all of you have access to a copy of that.  The study area that we used was similar to the zoning area and the recent zoning change, so it includes the center of Missoula, as well as areas in Missoula County surrounding Missoula because we can't really segregate the areas where bears are, and people are.  They all overlap, so this was the, the study area we picked in all the areas you can see identified there are areas of fair human conflicts.  This identifies the reason that bears get into conflicts with people, 49% of the conflicts are due to garbage and access of bears into human garbage.  That usually occurs because the garbage is improperly stored and is available to bears.  Fruit trees are another big deal.  Right now a big time for fruit trees, as all the fruit ripens, and bears move into those places.  Bird feeders are a serious problem, particularly in the summertime when people choose to feed birds seed.  Seed is not necessary to be fed to bird and birds in the summertime; there's plenty of natural foods but by feeding birds seeds in the summertime, people are killing bears.  This is a direct source of bear mortality.  Hummingbirds are something else that is fed.  As a bird feeder, you can feed hummingbirds in the summer, and we recommend in the in the management plan that the feeders be hung 10 feet high and at least four feet from buildings or trees.  That way, the bears can't get at them, the hummingbirds can, and you won't have a problem.  Other issues, human food in freezers, they're left maybe in garages that don't work after a while, livestock and pet feed, particularly pet food that is left on the porch or in the carport or the, the driveway.  That is a serious problem, people should not feed their pets at night and leave the food out and those you could see the various types of conflicts but the majority of those are things that we can solve.  This is the, the probability of interaction map that shows the risks of getting into conflict with bears and as you see, as you move into the center of Missoula, the conflicts are really low where we are right now but on the periphery, particularly in in places like Rattlesnake Creek, East Missoula, Grant Creek, Pattee Canyon, Blue Mountain, O'Brien Creek, Big Flat, all of these are places where bears and humans overlap and conflicts have been ongoing.  We have a lot of situations right now where garbage cans that are really available to bears are in bear habitat.  This is in Pattee Canyon.  I took this picture earlier this year and anybody that goes up Pattee Canyon passes those blue garbage carts.  They're easily available to bears, you just knock them over, and the bears get into them.  On the right is a picture of some garbage going up the hill where the bears get out a bag of trash and haul it up the hill and eat it.  The next document, we finished just recently, is the Conflict Management Plan and that documents details how to fix each one of these problems as a series of, of ideas and methods and efforts that can be put in place by the city and county government to, to reduce these conflicts that that are identified that you saw in that pie chart.  So, it's possible to solve this problem.  That Conflict Management Plan is to guide you, City and County officials toward effective strategies to minimize bear human conflicts.  It has all the resources in it that you would need to make good decisions and it's based on the best management practices that we can come up with for people to live in bear habitat.  I want to emphasize that this is a serious problem in the Missoula area.  There are lots of bears overlapping with lots of people.  This is causing property damage, garbage strewn across neighborhoods.  I'm sure everybody here has seen that and increased risk of human injury.  This is a safety problem having these bears coming and looking for garbage around people is a human safety problem.  The high cost to Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Manager, Jamie Jonkle is the lead bear manager here for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.  Fish, Wildlife, and Parks spends about $50,000.00 a year just in the Missoula area with all these bear conflicts.  The Missoula Valley is a death trap for bears because a lot of these bears get into conflicts, and they have to be killed.  And this is a poorer image for Missoula as a community that's uncaring about wildlife and proper sanitation and wildlife habitat.  And there are increasing demands for, for public from the public for Action to do something about this and, and we think that the Bear Conflict Management Plan has all the solutions that are out there that can really reduce these problems quite effectively.  Garbage, as I said, is a number one issue in terms of conflicts, 49% of the conflicts are due to garbage.  You know, bear resistant carts are now available from both Republic Services and Grizzly Disposal.  From Republic Services, these carts you can see a picture of one there that's a 96 gallon cart.  I think it costs about a dollar a week more for a household.  I have one of those as opposed to one of those blue carts.  So, it's not a lot of money but it it's a cart that the bears cannot get into.  And these are some other examples of bear resistant containers, those two brown ones you see on your right were put in by the Forest Service at the trailheads at Pattee Canyon to keep the bears out of garbage there, very effective mechanism and there are good ways to prevent bears from getting into garbage.  So, I recommend a bear buffer zone, which is the gray area on this map and in that buffer zone the, the advanced management practices of, of secure garbage cans, no bird feeding, hanging hummingbird feeders, picking fruit trees, all that kind of thing should be in that gray area.  In the core of Missoula, which is the lighter colored area, it’s probably not necessary to do that right now.  And most importantly, we have grizzly bears in and around Missoula right now.  We've had grizzly bears in the Rattlesnake this spring.  Two grizzly bears were just caught down by Lolo.  They went across through west, east Missoula, across the interstate, probably up Deer Creek and over and they ended up by Florence, and then up by Lolo, and they've been captured and relocated.  They were eating apples in the Bitterroot Valley.  These were two-year-old bears that were just out on their own, trying to make a living.  They're acting like teenagers, they don't know how to get by and if we provide stuff for them, they will get into it and get into trouble.  So thank you for recognizing the importance of making Missoula a Bear Smart Community.  We think this is an important thing to do and it's the right thing to do.  We live in bear habitat.  They don't live in our habitat; we live in theirs, so let's try to get along together by making some effort.  So Jamie is here to answer questions in detail, and I thank you for your time.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Let’s go right to questions.  Anyone have, anyone have questions?  Ms. Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Yeah thank you.  With the creation of this resolution, I'm a little bit concerned about the ordinances that will be involved and there's no ordinances yet and they will come through Council and the Commissioners, as they are made.  Is that correct or are we voting on certain ordinances now?

Ginny Miriam That’s correct.

Alderperson Vasecka Okay thank you.  And then I was also wondering if someone could speak to, if they do encounter a bear getting into their trash, what?  Just for community knowledge, what they should do or not do?

Jamie Jonkle Mayor, Commissioners, Council members, thank you for having me.  Jamie Jonkle with Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.  This year, our bears are in a kind of an extreme situation because of lack of natural foods and they're going through what's called hyperphagia.  It's where all they do is think about food and this year, we're seeing extreme hyperphagia.  I had a call the other day, a fellow was just doing some woodwork and had a couple sawhorses and it was under apple tree and there were apples all around him and the way he keyed into the bear was he felt something between his legs and he looked down and the bear was trying to eat an apple between his legs, and you know he like immediately freaked out and tried to move the bear off.  You know, banging hammers and boards together.  All the bear could think about was the apples.  So, a lot of the bears that we're seeing this year are just totally in that element of eating and getting the food that's in front of you.  You know, if they're on a patch of clover and you're banging pots and pans and screaming at it, most of them are just ignoring you so they can eat the clover or dandelions on your heavily watered lawn.  So, it's extreme behavior that we're seeing this year, it's, it's not the norm, but in the fall, bears always go into that same mode, but it can be dangerous especially people stumble onto a bear in a backyard, or a child goes out to empty the garbage and there's a female with cubs.  And as you'll see in the assessment, there's just a lot of attractants here in Missoula that are no-brainers, that we could fix.  Sadly, our Wildlife here in the west are going through kind of a just generally across the west, they're, they're coming down into our urban settings more and more.  You see the same issues going on in Florida, the west coast, the east coast, Montana, even up in Canada where we just have a lot more urban wildlife.  So, it's probably going to get more and more interesting, as time goes by, and we'll probably be seeing a lot more black bears and a lot more grizzlies here in the valley.

Alderperson Vasecka So, if you do encounter a bear getting into your garbage, just stay away?

Jamie Jonkle Well, you know be wary.  You know, just like if you're walking in Greenough Park, you should be carrying bear spray.  You know, if you live in the Rattlesnake residential area and walking your kids to school, you should be carrying bear spray.  That’s how many bears there are just in the Rattlesnake.  I’m estimating right now, 40-50 bears, just in the Rattlesnake drainage.  So, govern yourselves accordingly and always be thinking about bears, especially this time of year.

Alderperson Vasecka Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks.  Ms. Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Okay, I'm going to digest that for a second.  Thank you for that.  I, my question I guess, is for Jamie or whoever from a standpoint of the other communities that have adopted these sort of ordinances and brought awareness to the community, have they been able to basically have success in sort of the interface between humans and bears which hopefully would lead to less bears needing to be euthanized or moved?

Chris Servheen The answer to that is yes.  Securing attractants does reduce the number of conflicts.  It reduces the number of bears because there's not a lot of stuff to eat then they don't come into town as much or if they come through they just travel on through.  You know, we have some natural foods here where bears are eating shrub fruits say along the creek bottoms, they would be doing that whether we were here or not, but they stay a much longer time period and they become what we call food conditioned when they get things like garbage and apples and birdseed and things like that and then they start just living with us and that's not what we want.  We want to be separated and under natural conditions, they might come and go and be here sometimes, but by securing the attractants, we will be able to reduce the number of times that bears are seen and the numbers of bears that are around.  We'll never be a bear free community because we live in bear habitat, but we can reduce the number of conflicts and the potential for, as Jamie said, the guy is standing there and all of a sudden there's a bear eating apples around there.  So, there are ways to do things better and, and we can do that with this program.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks.  Ms. Jones.

Alderperson Jones Sure, I think, oh I'm sorry looks like…..

Jamie Jonkle If it’s okay, I'll just add one thing.  You know sadly whenever you know new things come around there are people that don't want to change, but they're also bears that will not want to change.  We do have quite a few professional, urban, garbage seeking bears, and sadly you know some of those bears are not going to want to change their behavior and we may see elevated attempts to get at garbage.  You know, like this year, we've had a lot more break-ins into garages and homes in the Rattlesnake because in the Rattlesnake people are really trying and so are some of the bears, and so sadly, over time, we will have to target some of these individual bears and most likely remove them but once that memory is out of the population by doing all these good things that we recommend that behavior will never develop in the first place.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks for that.  Ms. Jones.

Alderperson Jones Sure, I’m just kind of quickly for either Chris or Jamie and I think you basically said this, but I think it maybe deserves to be bluntly emphasized.  And that is that it sounds like we've got more people moving in, our population is growing, many people from out of this area who've never lived with wildlife before and we've also got a changing climate and this year has been very, very bad, but it seems like it's been building over the last several decades and if we don't make the changes, it will get worse and worse and worse.  It's so important to start steering the ship in a new direction now, I mean is that, would you agree with?

Jamie Jonkle Yes, good stewardship practices will that are ingrained in in Montanans will greatly assist with the issues involving bears.  There's lots of really, really good programs out there too, so we have a lot of tools in the basket already that we can bring to town.  A best example are folks that want to come out west, you know live a simpler life, raise chickens, have a garden, have some goats, they learn pretty quickly that bears like goats and like chickens like apples, but we've got some really good programs through all sorts of NGO groups to get free electric fence and then we actually have a great support group to help the public you know solve issues that they're having with wildlife.  So….

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks.  Ms. Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill Yeah thanks and thanks for the presentation and we saw this last week as well, so I appreciate you coming twice.  I, I just wanted to make a note that you don't have to wait for us to pass the resolutions to get like the trash cans and start doing this.  So, Chad Bauer was here on Wednesday and my understanding from Republic Services and my understanding is that you have plenty of these trash cans available, so if you're in any of these high, high bear conflict areas do it before we ….. [many individuals talking]

Mayor Jordan Hess Chad’s got bins out front ready for you to take home….

Chad Bauer I was hiding in the back Amber.  Good afternoon, Chad Bauer with Republic Services and yes, to answer your question, we do have plenty of bear resistant containers.   Jamie has kept us very busy this fall.  We are building lids for bear proof commercial dumpsters as fast as we can get them done, but we have plenty of the 96 gallon carts to put out for the public, if they need them.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Mr. Bauer.  Ms. Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Can I make a comment?

Mayor Jordan Hess Let’s hold off on comments for just a moment.  More questions?  Mr. Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Yes, yeah I appreciate the Bear Smart Working Group bringing forward this resolution and I was curious if you are hoping that the city and county government will follow the management plan or are you planning on coming back with more specific recommendations for city ordinances or for budget requests or for staff positions?

Chris Servheen Well we can, we are still here and we're still available to help you.  There, I think there's sufficient details in the management plan to get started, all the details of what needs to be done for all those major issues in best management practices to treat each one of them are in the management plan.  If you need us to help you out in terms of suggesting new ideas or new plans or maybe budget needs or things that maybe could be done, we're here and available to help you, we're not disbanding.  So, we're a bunch of, of citizens of Missoula and we're here to help and we'd like to see this through so anything you need from us we're happy to help out so…..

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Additional questions?  Okay seeing none and Commissioners feel free to raise your hand and weigh in at any time as well.  What we'll do on the Council side is I'll take a motion from Ms. Anderson as this was in the committee she chairs and then we will go to public comment and then come back for Council discussion.  Ms. Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Okay thanks.  I'm, we had moved it around so I'm…. found it.  Okay, here we go.  I moved to adopt a resolution providing for a bear smart policy and directing staff to implement best practices and policies to protect residents and bears in the interest of public safety and preservation of bears in the Missoula Valley as wildlife living in natural conditions. 

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  That motion is in order.  Commissioners do you need anything at this time, or do you want to do you want to hold off?  Commissioner Vero…

Commissioner Juanita Vero I defer to yeah….. Nope we've been briefed on this.  I think we feel pretty good about supporting this but continue on.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay great.  So, we can go to public comment now.  Okay.

Dave Strohmaier Yeah, Juanita, this is Dave, I would move that the Board of County Commissioners adopt the resolution.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Thank you Commissioner Strohmaier.  I’m forgetting about process.  Okay, so it’s been moved and seconded.  [talking in the background]  All in favor…okay.  Aye.

[unknown/unannounced speaker] I think we're going to wait and take public comment Juanita.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Oh, we're just gonna push this through?  Okay thank you…. Apologies.

[unknown/unannounced speaker] We are efficient across the street.

Mayor Jordan Hess I will go ahead and go to public comments.  I've got an online public comment first from Brett Haverstick and you should be a little unmute now.  Mr. Haverstick, you should be able to unmute…. Anyone in the room while we while we wait?  Come on up.

Nancy Heil Hello Commissioners, Council members.  My name is Nancy Heil I'm here on behalf of the Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Group speaking in support of your adoption of this resolution.  As been noted, we have a lot more bears moving through the valley in this bad berry and natural food year and more people moving into the area who really aren't  bear aware.  We deeply support bears staying wild and humans staying safe as part of our living in this place in this watershed, and addressing this is going to take all of us working together as community.  We believe that local government engagement and support are essential to an integrated community approach, and we really appreciate the city and the county working together on this.  The Bear Smart Resolution sets the stage for additional work, and we urge your adoption of it.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. 

Brandi Atanasoff Hi, I’m Brandi Atanasoff, Ward 5.  I want to ask you the history and the Flathead is that taking into account when developing your education for disposing trash?  And when you are doing the education about proper disposal with these trash bins, are you including what happened back what was in the 60’s with The Night of the Grizzly what happens when you do not properly dispose of that?  And how it could create a big mess and that these things keep the reasons behind them in, in your in what you developed.

Mayor Jordan Hess So we….

Brandi Atanasoff Okay, so just to, just to recap….. We have history within the state where it wasn't properly, trash was not properly disposed of, and we haven't had as heavy of a bear group in quite some time and so I just wanted to read…. I wanted to make sure with them that they are including Flathead’s history somewhere in this at some point, so that we have what happens if we don't properly dispose of those things.  So, I'm sure that you have all heard of The Night of the Grizzly and can do this on their own.  I just wanted to just double check that.  Thank you for your time.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you. 

Radley Watkins Thank you.  Hi, I'm Radley Watkins.  I'm here tonight as a citizen of Missoula, the City of Missoula.  I live in the Dean Stone area.  One of the great things about living there is the city has done such a good job protecting open space and all my neighbors like to hike on the great trails and parks and there's been signs by neighbors saying careful bear scat seen in the area and be careful about hiking at night.  That being said, you know trash pickup on my street on Parkview Way was today, last night the whole street had their trash cans out ahead of time.  And I really just think you know this resolution will set the way for people to get the message that things need to be done differently and we really need an education campaign from the city and the county on not, not so where you can necessarily protect the bears in our community but so that we can keep these bears from being conditioned to our food sources.  So, thank you for hearing this and I encourage you to support it.  Thanks.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.

Beth Judy I’m Beth Judy and I'm speaking at us as a citizen of Missoula.  I live in the lower Rattlesnake.  I started working on the problem of human humans attracting bears probably around 2007 and at first, I was doing it for the bear's sake, but as I went door to door and listened to stories I quickly changed to doing it for the safety of both people and bears.  Everyone I met if they'd lived in the Rattlesnake for at least two years had a story of some kind of encounter with bears.  At my house, I've had about six in 25 years, including a bear put down in my yard and I live right next to the highway.  Trying to get people to change their behavior and beliefs has always been super hard.  There's always been a little success along the way but mostly failure.  In the Rattlesnake, it's an overwhelming problem and now there are way more bears, way more people, and climate change is and will be affecting natural bear foods.  The Missoula Bear Smart approach gives me more hope than I've ever had, that we can get somewhere with the problem, especially over time.  The reason for my hope is that the Bear Smart approach is comprehensive.  Key stakeholders have come together and are focusing on this problem together.  Becoming bear smart will still be daunting and hard but now I believe it's possible, especially if we do some smart marketing and outreach along with the rest of the work.  I earnestly urge you to adopt the Bear Smart Resolution so we can begin the journey to becoming a bear smart community.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.

Elissa Chott My name is Elissa Chott and I'm the Programs Manager for the Great Bear Foundations Missoula office.  Coexistence with wildlife is never easy.  As human development spreads out in our valleys and upper drainages, pressure is put on species that have already had a hard time scrapping out a living in the beautiful mountains we are fortunate enough to call home.  We have seen an increase in bear conflicts in recent years and a sharp increase this year, as wild bear foods had poor crops.  Bears are in town seeking much needed calories, becoming food conditioned, as they have ready access to human-based food sources.  The occasional bear passing through residential areas wouldn't be a huge deal, but they do not simply pass through.  Bears stay because they find food.  The human attractant is easily accessible to bears are then ingrained in the cub’s behaviors, as mother bears pass down where to find food to their offspring.  These bears will return to town as adults and the cycle will continue as long as human-based food sources are easily accessible.  It is up to us to make sure we properly store our garbage, our bird seed, our domestic fruit and other attractants.  This becomes a human safety issue as bears are in backyards and alleys and garages left wide open seeking these foods we leave out for them.  We are asking the City and Council to help instill best management practices when living with bears beginning with bears access to garbage, which is the number one conflict source.  If we can do this, we can keep both bears and people safe using the examples and methods set forth in other bear smart communities.  It is going to take time, effort, outreach, and collaboration, but in moving to be bear smart, we are creating a stronger future for our community and the wildlife with which we share these mountains.  Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Anyone else tonight?  Com on up.

Melody Cunningham I thought I was only commenting on one thing tonight.  I do want to just give a shout out to Jamie Jonkle and his team.  I'm sure he doesn't know me but I'm the lady up on Saddleback Lane who's called a few times and folks have, they've come out, I've gotten advice about electric fences, advice about a lot of things, and they're incredibly kind and responsive and don't you make you feel dumb that you don't know how to put an electric fence together at first pass.  So, I just wanted to give a shout out and thank you and I totally support Bear Smart. 

Mayor Jordan Hess And can you give us your name again, for the record?

Melody Cunningham Melody Cunningham.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Any additional public comment tonight?

Blake Nicolazzo Hi, I’m Blake Nicolazzo.  I started a group called Missoula for Bears and we brought the film Bears of Durango to town to play at Zach and some of you came to that and there's a lot of us who have been working on this issue for a long time.  I want to thank those of you on Council who have really participated with us and made this happen in the working group really deserves a lot of our accolades.  I want to make the point that this is an incredible step forward, it's time, and I'm really grateful that this issue has gotten the attention it deserves, but with this comes a responsibility for education and enforcement.  Without that, I feel like we're gonna just be right back where we started.  So, I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but I want to be very realistic that this is the beginning; it's an important beginning.  I'm really glad we're taking it, but education and enforcement are required to get this done.  So, thank you so much.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Okay, I'm going to go back to our online attendees.  Brett Haverstick are you able to unmute?  We do have a new phone number in attendance as well.  Ms. Rehbein could you read the phone, the phone number again for anyone who wants to dial in by phone?

Marty Rehbein I would be happy to, just a moment.  Our phone number is 406-384-6960, that's 406-384-6960 and the conference ID number: 387736445 and the # sign.  That again is 387763445 and the # sign.

Mayor Jordan Hess Great, thank you.  I’ll just wait, for just a moment…..Anyone else in the audience?  Okay.  Oh yeah, you can, you can come on up.

James Ruth Hi, my names is James Ruth.  I live in the Orchard Homes area.  I didn't come to Missoula in the mid-90’s for the nightlife, I came for the wilderness, and I came because Montana was the only place in the lower 48 that really had real Wilderness left.  And I want to commend the work of Jamie Jonkle and Chris Servheen, and people with the Great Bear Foundation because I've, I knew Chuck Jonkle.  He was one of the first people I met in Missoula, and I think we have a special challenge and a great opportunity to be a model for how people in this country deal with wildlife and we are in bear habitat, and I just wanted to say I support this fully.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you, appreciate the comments.  Anyone else tonight?  Okay, we will go back to Council comment.  I have Ms. Jordan first.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Thank you.  I just wanted to say I think this is such an amazing effort and I'm really grateful for the scientific approach that the, the team has, has taken in this and gathering data and working, collaborating with homeowners and residents of Missoula, and using science to come up with some really simple solutions to make sure that bears and people are safe.  This is something that I wanted to address before I even got on to Council and then I found out the ball was already rolling, so I'm super grateful to the work that you all have done on this and I'm fully in support of this resolution and fully in support of seeing the, the bear buffer zone expanded, as you guys have recommended in your in your hazard plan.  So, thank you very much.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill Yeah, thanks.  I really just want to echo Ms. Jordan's comments.  I really appreciate the collaboration of this group and I think that by bringing partners together, it's going to be a more comprehensive effort.  I'm also, so I'm, I'm fully in support of this.  I will look forward to some, the resolutions that Ms. Vasecka spoke of coming forward and then of course we always have to talk about enforcement, we'll get there.

Mayor Jordan Hess I just learned of a potential trick for our online attendee, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to this one more one more time.  Brett Haverstick, you may be able to unmute now. 

[unknown speaker] He’s on mute. 

Mayor Jordan Hess Yeah and I think, I think that's not an issue on our end.  So, we'll, we'll move back to Council, back to Council comment.  Mr. Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Yeah, I just want to say in Missoula we're so lucky to be the home of the grizzlies and I think to have that title in the future, we need to make sure that we completely follow this Conflict Management Plan and do everything that we can to protect the bears and protect the residents of Missoula.  And most of all, we're going to need to stop the climate crisis and ensure that bear foods will still be plentiful in the future and to ensure that all the bear species will stay alive and healthy for generations to come.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Thanks so much.  I’m happy to support this and I really appreciate just the little bit of education that just myself has been able to glean from this whole process.  I grew up in the Flathead and I've had bears at my grandparent’s cabin for my entire life and I have stories of them breaking into our house and getting into our freezer and they really like Oreos apparently even if you keep them in the freezer.  And the whole, you know, just knowing that we don't need to feed birds in the summertime, I didn't know that and I have you know considered myself a pretty bear aware person and the fact that I mean it just it's as simple as getting educated to the small things that we can be doing before we have to go down the road of any you know ordinances or mandates or compliance.  You know, it's just the responsible thing to do.  We all love to live here, the beauty, the nature, but with that comes responsibility and the simple responsibility that people can do is get educated.  Don't apparently feed birds in the summertime and you have a bird bath they will still come to your yard I learned that too and the precautions that you can take get a bear can, a bear resistant can and just do the right thing for not only the safety of your neighbors but for the safety of the wildlife that do contribute to you know the parts that make Missoula an amazing place to live.  So, I'm excited for this, a continued conversation, education to come forward, and just appreciate just a small bit of education that I myself have received.  So, thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Ms. Savage.

Alderperson Savage I just wanted to echo my colleagues here.  I really appreciate all the work that went into this, and I love like the idea of a working group that has come together to do all of this.  I think it's wonderful and it's been well communicated to us, and I really appreciate all of that.  I'm one of the Ward 1 representatives, so it is not lost on me that giant red stripe that we also call the Rattlesnake on your map, and I don't know about you Heidi, but I get like bear poop pictures emailed to me quite a bit in the driveway, at the bus stop, in the middle of the road.  So, I'm really happy to support this tonight and I'll be carrying my bear spray through Greenough Park.  I did not know that, so thank you for that one.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Thank you.  I just want to express my gratitude to all the experts and all the businesses and organizations that have collaborated.  Thank you Ginny for keeping everyone together, moving forward on this.  I do live in an area that's pretty regularly frequented by bears, so, I, I very much appreciate this, and I, I will be getting one of those trash cans.  I just want to say that resolutions are not the solution but it's what sets us up to hold ourselves accountable.  It’s, it's how we as a community can hold ourselves accountable to do more, to take the next step, and to think about ways in which we can provide incentives and also enforcement in in our community for, for this very important issue.  So, just fully supportive of it and very grateful for all the expertise that we have had throughout this process.

Mayor Jordan Hess Commissioner Strohmaier.

Dave Strohmaier Thanks Mayor Hess.  So, 17 years ago, I sat at this table as a new County Commissioner representing Ward 1, actually Jennifer, I was in the line of succession of your seat, going in the opposite direction and at that point in time, we were grappling with issues related to bears as we are today and that early work back in the mid-2000’s eventuated into the bear buffer zone that you currently see up here on the map.  Well, 2 weeks ago, walking down Pine Street, I ran into a humongous pile of bear poop full of apples right by the is either Knights of Columbus building or in the between there in the Federal Building, maybe the bear was doing due diligence in the Federal Building I don't know but anyway a week later, a week ago, and I just lived down the street here on East Pine Street all of the trash cans in the alley between Pine and Spruce were hit by a bear or bears.  And so, what we continue to deal with is some level, particularly in the urban core here of ignorance about the fact that we have bears, we live in bear country, and we have bears in our midst right downtown.  So, I see this resolution and the good work that Chris and Jamie and, and Ginny, and many others have done in pulling this resolution together to pull the working group together as a real evolution in our thinking as a community about living with bears.  So, I'm delighted to see this before us tonight and to take the next concrete steps to actually make change, not only here in Missoula and I'll remind folks Missoula is in Missoula, County but outside of the city limits in Missoula County also.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks Commissioner.  Anyone else tonight?  Okay, seeing none, we've had a staff presentation and Council comments and questions and public comment, and we can have a real call vote on the motion.  Ms. Rehbein.

Mayor Jordan Hess And the motion passes.  And I’ll turn it over to the Commissioners.  Commissioner Vero.

Commissioner Juanita Vero Is there a motion?

[unknown/unannounced speaker] I think we already did that Juanita.

Dave Strohmaier Okay, we’re, we’re moving forward.  All in favor, aye.

[numerous unknown/unannounced speakers] Aye, aye….

Commissioner Juanita Vero Thank you all so much.

[unknown/unannounced speaker] Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you and thanks, thanks for joining us tonight Commissioners, we appreciate it.  You're welcome to you're welcome to stay around as long as you'd like.  Okay [laughs].  Okay, thank you all for the, the work on that that good piece of work and I look forward to partnering to implement this.  It’s, it's a good piece of business.

 

 

  • Moved by:Alderperson Anderson

    Adopt a resolution providing for a bear smart policy and directing staff to implement best practices and policies to protect residents and bears in the interest of public safety and preservation of bears in the Missoula Valley as wildlife living in natural conditions.

    AYES: (11)Alderperson Carlino, Alderperson Contos, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson Jordan, Alderperson Nugent, Alderperson Savage, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson Vasecka, Alderperson West, Alderperson Anderson, and Alderperson Becerra
    Vote result: Approved (11 to 0)

11.

  

Mayor Jordan Hess We have, we have one item left and this is to appoint the Ward 2, to appoint a new member to, to, Ward 2 to fill the vacancy, Ms. Rehbein, would you mind giving us an overview of, of the process to date and what we will be doing tonight for the good of the order?

Marty Rehbein I would be delighted. 

Mayor Jordan Hess I’m sorry, let's….. it looks like we might need a brief recess.  Let's, let's recess until 7:30 p.m.  We'll be back in order at 7:30 p.m.  Okay, we can go ahead and come back into order, give everyone a minute to get settled.  And Ms. Rehbein, we'll go to you for an update on process to date and process moving forward tonight.

Marty Rehbein Okay, good evening everybody.  This is Marty Rehbein, I'm your Legislative Services Director and City Clerk.  As most of you know, we, City Council appointed Jordan Hess as the new Mayor and that created a vacancy upon his taking of the official oath of office as the Mayor of Missoula for the Ward seat in Ward 2 that he formally held.  On September 14, 2022, our office opened applications; they were due on the 22nd of September at noon.  Last week, City Council selected all of the applicants who had applied to be interviewed.  The City received six applications and one of the candidates withdrew their application prior to the interview phase, so Council interviewed five applicants.  They interviewed Sierra Farmer, Teigan Avery, Derek Hitt, John Rowan (a/ka Jack Rowan), and Rebecca Dawson.  Those interviews were conducted by the City Council's Committee of the Whole last week, Wednesday, on September 28, 2022, during tonight's meeting, the City Council will make nominations from that pool of applicants, and vote to select a new Ward 2 representative.  The City Council has a City Council rule that if there are two successive roll call votes where in the votes cast are exactly the same two times in a row that further nominations can be taken and those nominations can include people who may not have applied for the position, but are qualified to serve.  And I think that's as much as I can add to the conversation at this point.  I'm here if you have questions.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Ms. Rehbein.  So, our process tonight will be that I will take nominations and then I'll take public comment and then we will have Council comment and then we will begin our, our voting.  Any objections to that process?  Ms. Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka No objections, but Marty will you be doing the, the grid that you had during the Mayor election night?

Marty Rehbein I, I have the wonky spreadsheet adapted for Ward 2 and yes, I'll be showing them on the screen when we get to nominations.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, with that, we can go to nominations, and I'll just pick hands as I see them.  Ms. Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Thank you.  I’d like to nominate Teigan Avery.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Anyone else?  Ms. Jones.

Alderperson Jones I’d like to nominate Derek Hitt.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra I’d like to nominate Sierra Farmer.

Mayor Jordan Hess And Ms. West.

Alderperson West I would like to nominate Jack Rowan.

Mayor Jordan Hess And Miss Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka I would like to nominate Rebecca Dawson.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay.  I will not take any more nominations, as all of the candidates have been nominated.  So, we’ll close nominations, and we'll go to public comment.  And so for public comment, I ask that you come up and state your name for the record.  I think we're having some issues with, with online comments and so if we are not able to receive a comment, we'll provide the phone instructions again and we'll look into that for a future meeting.  And so I think what I'll do is I'll take online comments first and that will give people time to call in if, if needed and I just ask that you keep your comments respectful, that you keep them to the extent possible that you keep them being affirmative for a candidate and that you keep them to around 3 minutes.  So with that, we have Joe N with an online comment.  And Joe, you should be you should be able to unmute yourself.  If you're unable to, Ms. Rehbein, will you read the phone number again for anyone who's joining remotely?

Marty Rehbein I will, and I'll share them briefly on the screen as, well.  Okay folks number again it's 406-384-6960.  Our phone conference ID 387736445 and the # sign.  When you join by phone, you can press *5 in order to raise your hand to be recognized for public comment and *6 on your telephone will mute and unmute you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, thank you.  So, it looks like our commenter, we might have a systemic issue.  Our commenter does not appear to be able to unmute.  So, I just advise anyone who wishes to comment to try that phone option.

Marty Rehbein Yeah point of order Mayor, Mayor Hess.  One thing when folks, when folks join teams, they can check… there's a three dots and there it, it's a, it says more on my computer, and I can check device settings.  You'll want to make sure that the proper microphone is selected in that particular menu and the first time I downloaded teams on both my Mac and my PC, I had to give teams permission and access to both my mic and my camera in order to be able to participate.  I had to do the same thing with ZOOM.  I've had to do it with WebEx, so those might be some things that folks can do to troubleshoot on their own end.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay thanks and we will, we'll take comments from folks in the virtual meeting and by phone in case in case they need it as a backup.  We'll go to the room, anyone in the room want to comment tonight?  Mr. Hunt.

Kevin Hunt Kevin Hunt, 308 Parkside Lane.  I just wanted to bring up something to think about in the future that dawned on me and that is that we have great outreach to the unhoused population in Missoula, but it's hard for me to figure out how they would apply for a City Council seat, especially if they have to verify that they have a physical address within the, the pertinent Ward.  As far as being able to vote, the courts are stricken down the requirement to before homeless people have to show a physical address; they could say oh I live at this heating grate or whatever.  In Missoula, of course, there's just a very few places that are lawful for people to sleep like and you know camp, spend the night, and there's that's why the two ordinances Missoula has that would otherwise criminalize that behavior…. are well that's why they're valid is because the city provides these other spaces.  So, if you force people into these space, places were there they can't be they can't say they physically reside in in a Ward that has an opening, how are they supposed to apply for it?  It is a conundrum, but I think it's something you need to look at.  I'm not saying you're going to have a flood of unhoused people trying to get on the Council, but you know Missoula is pretty progressive and I think that that's something that that needs to be addressed.  And, and there's plenty of qualified people I guarantee you that are out there who you know don't have housing right now, so we've basically disenfranchised…. they probably don't know about this or don't know they have the right to do it either but the fact that they just aren't is the systems being followed which seem to have absolutely preclude them from applying for a Council seat and I think that's something that needs to be looked at.  So, other than that, I hope that there'll be support for Jack Rowan tonight when you vote.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks for your comments.  I'm going to go to a phone commenter, phone number ending in 649, you should be able to unmute, hit *6 to unmute.  

Joe Nickell Am I live now?

Mayor Jordan Hess Yes you are.

Joe Nickell Okay great.  Thank you, my name is Joe Nickell.  I live in Ward 2.  I actually live at 1618 Howell Street, which if you look that up is right next door to Jack Rowan.  We are next door neighbors, and I have known him I've, I've lived in a three block area on Howell Street for about the past 27 years.  I've known Jack for at least half of that time.  Jack's background in building houses of course means that he's always there to lend me a tool and a hand with anything that I have going on in my house.  I've had a lot of projects going on, but more importantly I think his background in building community means that he's constantly helping other people in this community.  His chosen line of work as a Hospice Chaplain, I think it speaks for itself.  He spends his days providing compassion and support for people during really literally the most difficult time in their lives.  His long-time involvement and creative thinking around issues of housing and transportation, in particular, I think are pretty well documented in his application for this position.  Those are pretty key issues in our whole community right now and then you know Jack and I have had plenty of conversations about local policy and issues in our front yards across the fence, and Jack is usually miles ahead of me on thinking about these things.  He's, he's well informed, he knows what he's talking about, but at the same time it never sensed that he approaches those conversations with blinders or rigid thinking, which I think is a really great value for somebody on the Council.  And I guess, lastly I want to mention a point about civility in this time of deep divisions at least culturally nationwide, even locally.  One day last year, early in the school year, my teenage High School son came in the front door and just like the first thing he said that we said to me was dad, Jack is like the nicest guy in the world, what's up with that?  And I'm not sure what's up with that, but I think we need that as much as we need anything as we work to build a really connected, kind and compassionate community that is working on important issues to support everybody in the community.  So, for those reasons, I would strongly encourage you to support his nomination and I'm looking forward to having those conversations with my City Councilor across my fence pretty soon.  Thank you. 

Mayor Jordan Hess thank you Mr. Nickell.  Anyone else tonight in the room or online?  Come on up.

Henry DeLuca Hi everyone, my name is Henry DeLuca and I'm a Missoula City resident.  I would like to speak and support tonight of Ms. Teigan Avery.  Teigan is an incredibly outstanding person and she is a ridiculously hard worker and for those of you who have had the chance to talk to Teigan in the last few weeks, I think that you know that she is not just a great person to be around but he's kind of the light in the room and she can not only speak for her Ward in a way that most people cannot, but she's also so considerate and kind and such workhorse.  When you have her in the room and you have her working with you, you can tell that she goes above and beyond the call of duty and goes the extra mile all the time and his very selfless about her actions and is very caring and, and. and thinks so much of other people and she's so selfless.  And I cannot think of anyone else who could do a better job representing her Ward than Teigan.  So, when you guys go into consideration tonight for votes, please look over there because that smiling face is definitely worth voting for.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Anyone else?  I have another phone commenter, phone number ending in 0026. 

James Dawson Yes, can you hear me?

Mayor Jordan Hess Yes we can.

James Dawson Hi, Mr. Hess and Committee, I just want to say thank you for your time and I just wanted to speak about Rebecca Dawson for Ward 2, City Council.  She is an amazing woman I can attest to this because she is also my wife and I just wanted to call and say that you know after 24 years of marriage and seeing her passion and commitment for the community for Missoula, her running for City Council, running for different positions and you know going to these meetings and seeing everything she does for this community, being involved with the non-profits she's involved with.  Obviously, I'm a little biased as a husband but I can also speak to how many people come to her and speak to her and you know are always interested in her influence and her opinions and she takes the time to listen to what everybody has to say, looks for the feedback from everybody, and really weighs the, the pros and cons of what everybody's saying, and she looks at it from both sides.  And you know, I owe it to her after putting up with me for 24 years, so I just would love everybody to consider her and what she would be bringing to the table and everything.  Like I say, it's a biased opinion but love her dearly and I know that she would do an amazing job for this City, and you know would build great relationships with everybody on the City Council.  So, I just want to say thank you for your time and I hope you guys all take a moment to consider her and what she would really truly be bringing to the table.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you sir.  Can we get, can we get your name as well.

James Dawson James Dawson.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Anyone else tonight? Okay seeing no additional public comment, we can go to Council comment.  Not everyone all at once.  Ms. Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Okay, well, I'm just….Thank you everyone who took the time to apply and for your interest in serving in public office and it is rewarding and really hard and I just want to take a moment to thank the supportive partners who… it's, it's very sweet and it does really take a lot, you take time away from your family and so the fact that you have supportive partners in your lives is nice because it does take all of us playing our part to make our community work and we each have a part to play.  So, thank you so much everyone for joining the interest and taking the time and I hope that even if you're not selected tonight, whoever that is, you find other ways to give of your time, talent, and treasures.  Thanks.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Ms. Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Thank you, I also want to echo Ms. Anderson's comments.  I really appreciate the fact that people are willing to, to enter this process and it's, it's gonna, it's tough, it's been a tough to wade through the applications and try and figure out what's best in this particular circumstance.  I just finished a Master's in Public Administration and one of the key, take-home points in that program was representative democracy and when I look at the makeup of our current City Council, I see that one of the largest age demographics in Missoula is poorly represented on this Council and that's one of the reasons of many that I'm going to go through why I'm supporting Ms. Avery.  We need to have representative democracy in our City Council.  We need to have younger folk taking positions of power and policy in this town to make sure that we are addressing the needs of the next generations.  I also think that it the requirements of this position including the low pay mean that a lot of people don't have the capacity to apply for this position and be considered and I think that that makes it hard to have a representative democracy on our City Council because of the schedule and the pay.  We just need, in my opinion we need younger folks in policy making decisions.  A couple things again that I really liked about Ms. Avery is that she's got two bachelor's degrees, one in political science and one in economics.  We don't have a strong economic background or representation on our City Council, and I think that she would bring some really good ideas related economics.  I should also say she has a Master's in Economics at the age of 24 as well.  So, she's well educated.  She, as her person who spoke to her I'm not sure what your, your relationship is but you came up and spoke to her ability to work hard.  I can see that in the fact that she's got two degrees, three degrees at the age of 24 is really impressive.  Another thing I really like about Ms. Avery is that she's a professional researcher.  She's able to take data and make data-driven decisions and that's what we need on City Council.  We need people who can make data-driven decisions and who won't be impressed by bias or other types of things that aren't based in fact.  Another issue that I think is a strength for Ms. Avery is the fact that she's a renter.  There are a lot of folks who own homes on, on City Council and I think that we need to have more representation from folks who are renters because renting is going to squeeze out or the, the high price of renting is going to squeeze out a really important group of folks that we need in Missoula to make it as diverse as it is.  Ms. Avery has also done research about Missoula’s affordable housing crisis, so she has ideas on how we can approach this issue on City Council and she's currently serving on the Missoula Housing Authority Board, which means that she is ready to roll her sleeves up and get busy and, and, and start some work.  On a persona note, I feel like my generation has been telling younger generations their whole life that we can't wait until they're old enough to vote and run for office because they're well informed and they're well educated, and they know how to write the wrongs that my generation has made.  I think it's time for some of us to let go of control and step aside and start encouraging young policy makers to be a part, be at the decision-making table because they represent a demographic that is critical to ensuring that we address climate collapse and we have affordable housing and we live in a safe neighborhood, and I think it's time to start mentoring and encouraging young policy makers and so that's why I'm in full support of Ms. Avery's taking the position tonight.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Ms. Jordan.  Ms. Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill I was just listening, and I forgot that I had my hand up.  I, I, I just, I thought this was a really talented group of candidates and I mainly just want to say that many times we have more talent than, than we have space for on the Council.  I'm really thankful.  I think they're, they're, you know the things that we look for and I agree that renting is, is important, having renters on Council, there's more than one of those that applied.  I, I just really want to let everyone know that I appreciate their interest in this.  It is a hard job.  It's a hard job threading the needle and going through policies and trying to figure out the domino effects of things that you do.  So, and it is, it is a low paying job for the number of hours that you spend and so it does, I agree representative democracy is very hard for this job.  So, that's all I wanted to say.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay thank you.  I have Ms. Vasecka next.

Alderperson Vasecka Thank you and I wanted to ask why everyone else just said.  It, it is a hard job, and you are definitely not going to make everybody happy.  In fact, you're going to frustrate a lot of people with some of your decisions and so seeing so many people step up to apply for this, no matter who gets a position tonight, I really admire everyone, everyone who did it.  So, thank you very much for, for spending the time and the effort filling out all the applications and coming and stating your case.  I nominated Rebecca Dawson because I believe that she will be a good steward of our tax dollars.  She understands that we are struggling with increasing prices for everything, and it especially hurts at the grocery store checkout and the gas pump.  She will absolutely do her homework and will ensure that your hard-working dollars that go from your property taxes that we are the stewards of, she will ensure that they're used purposefully and responsibly, and I know that she will work with everyone on Council.  I was really impressed with her interview and the letters of recommendation that received for her, especially one that came from her boss and her husband and just admiring how hard she's working and that they are willing to let her do, do even more for her community is really impressive.  She also delivered a handwritten note and I thought that was really I was impressed by that as well.  She's ran for this position before, a couple of years ago, and that shows her dedication and her admiration for being a representative of Ward.  During her interview, she stated that we all gain momentum as we actively engage with constituents.  I think that's a fabulous attitude and I don't know how she came up with that quote but that was a really good one and even if she's not chosen tonight, I think that that's a great attitude for all of us to have.  Her concerns with high taxes and our higher, our high crime rates are very absolutely valid, and I hope that she gets a spot tonight so that we can tackle those issues alongside her.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Ms. Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Thank you.  As the only Ward 2 representative right now on Council, I have to say that after the passing of Mayor John Engen, I was a little worried about how quickly we needed, well after appointing Mayor Hess to the Mayoral seat, I was concerned about how quickly we were gonna be able to fill that seat and who was out there that would want to take on that responsibility.  And I have to say that I am incredibly grateful to all of you who are here, for putting in your application, and coming before this body.  It is not easy to do.  I've been in your places, as I was appointed to Ward 2 a few years back and I want to say that representation on Council comes in all shapes and forms and colors.  I wasn't even born in this country and I'm here because I am committed to Missoula the place that I call home.  I believe that what matters the most when serving on Council is how committed you are, how dedicated you are, and that you take your, your seat on Council with a lot of responsibility and a lot of humility, and that you show up.  With that, I want to say that I nominated Sierra Farmer because I believe she brings to the table a lot of the tools that we are going to be needing in the years ahead of us, primarily those related to growth and development.  I think she also is from an area of Ward 2 that I think would benefit from having someone from that area and I believe that she will collaborate and bring a fresh perspective and a perspective of having experience in different levels of government with a lot of policy experience.  And like I said, I think land use perspective is one of the main reasons, I, I nominated her, but with that said I want to say that all of you have impressed me and all of you bring so much to this community and I do hope that if you don't get nominated that you continue to be active in Missoula through your neighborhood Councils or one of the many boards and commissions that we have because you all bring something very special to the table, and I appreciate you all being here and going through this process.  It's probably, like I said before, it's probably one of those interviews that you will never forget because you have 11 people judging you to some degree.  So, I appreciate you coming forward.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Ms. Jones.

Alderperson Jones Thanks.  Frankly people are saying a lot of the thoughts that I've had and I, I think these are five strong candidates and that's why everybody was interviewed, and everybody was nominated tonight.  And I spent a lot of time thinking about what would be valuable in this City Councilor because we do have some big, big projects ahead of us, but I just wanted to, to….everybody bring something great to the table, so this is hard.  Jack Rowan has just a great reputation in town and knows how to communicate with and connect with people that is super valuable.  Teigan Avery has a great background in economics, which I agree that is really, really important.  Rebecca Dawson has clearly good connections in the business community and a strong business background, and I know Jim Ramsey, so I really appreciated reading his letter and you don't get a letter like that from your boss unless you're a very special, special person who, who works very hard.  And Sierra Farmer's background in land use is also invaluable.  So, first of all, I want to put everybody into one person and have that person on Council would be the most helpful thing, but we can't, but I wanted to make sure that I nominated Derek Hitt and got him on the floor tonight for votes.  I've known Derek for a handful of years, and he has been in the labor community for quite a few years and does great work there.  And as I look at our community and our world that has such income inequity to me labor is one of the key tools that hopefully we'll, we'll right write the ship at some point.  That's the way our system works and that's, that's very important so I think that's a valuable perspective.  So, I, I think we have a lot of good choices tonight.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. West.

Alderperson West I missed committee meetings on Wednesday, so I got to spend my Thursday evening re-watching all of the meetings I missed, and I was thoroughly impressed by all of our candidates for Ward 2, and I definitely echo what everybody else has said.  It just, it's a very interesting process to put yourself through and I'm grateful that so many quality candidates are willing to put themselves through that.  So, I nominated Jack Rowan.  I actually don't remember where we met; I know it was back in the baby haze days of raising two small children and it could have been a mud it could have been at the outdoor cinema or the Missoula Community Food Co-op.  I'm not even sure because he's a staple of the Northside-Westside Community and has been committed and dedicated reside so.  We also ran together in 2015.  He ran for Ward 2 when I ran for Ward 1, I know just how incredibly hard he worked knocking so many doors.  He frankly put my door knocking to shame and maybe he deserves to be here more than I do.  And we also ended up working together as colleagues when he was on the board for the organization that I worked for, for 6 years, which is the North Missoula Community Development Corporation and because I've known him in so many different avenues, I know that he's kind, he's thoughtful, he's willing to listen and to have hard conversations, and he's solution oriented, which I think is something that we need on Council.  Yeah, I think I'll leave it at that.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino This is definitely one of the hardest votes I've had to make on Council so far.  It’s much easier to look at the data and see what policy would be good or bad, but looking at people that don't have a voting record and trying to decide who you think is going to be best for the position is a really tough job.  And I think this has been a really excellent pool of candidates and I'm, I would be happy to yeah smush qualities of you together and have, have somebody run or also just I hope to see some of you run for the Council seat, whether or not you're appointed today.  There'll be two seats open and for this Ward or, or two seats up for election, which I think just doesn't happen often.  Yes, yeah, yeah just up for election and I just think it's a you know could be an opportunity for, to have multiple good people get elected, but you know through all my work on working to stop climate the climate crisis and working on different issues the thing that appeals to I guess my heartstrings and the most is the progressive movement and the movement to also get young people empowered and for I could go through all the good qualities of all the candidates.  And for that reason, I'm planning on voting for a Teigan Avery today and I'd also like to make a pitch for suspending the rules if we don't get the six votes at first to ensure that we can have ample time to have conversation and debate between each vote, as well.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Mr. Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent Thank you Mayor Hess.  You know, I have to say that whenever Councilwoman Jordan talks about the youth movement, I want to know if I get categorized in the youth group or not youth group, still in my 30’s, so putting that out there.  I, I really appreciate everybody who applied.  I think that we have a great with a great group of candidates and it's really hard and I've been talking to Council members, and trying to get a feel for this and you know I think we're going to go a few rounds because I think that there are a lot of good people, and they bring different qualities.  And so, I want you all to know that you know whether myself or other people vote for you or not vote for you tonight, it does not mean that we don't think that you can do this job because we definitely do and I think that you don't have to look too far back in the history of, of this Council to find examples of one person getting appointed to fill a Council seat and the person who didn't get it running against them in short order and winning the seat.  So, what I would tell everybody is don't be afraid to participate in the process because ultimately these decisions are made in an election.  This is filling a seat temporarily but ultimately these decisions are made in an election.  I intend to be kind of a swing vote tonight.  I, I like several of you.  I do not want to go 20 rounds.  I want to spare you all of that, oh 22, I've been corrected sorry and, and I think that under the you know under the spirit of, of this process, I look forward to just kind of seeing how the how the votes roll out and I want you all to know that keep doing good things for your community because if you, if you get it, you're going to get up tomorrow and you're gonna find that you're gonna get sworn in and probably have to come to committee meetings next week, but if you don't you still get to go out and do good things.  And you know, we need people to serve in a lot of the places that you all are already serving.  You know, if representation from the Housing Authority, from the Planning Board from you know the, the true spirit of Missoula, which I think is, is volunteering for almost everything apparently Mr. Rowan does from what I've learned over the last few, few days as people have reached out.  And I just also want to give a shout out to everybody who has reached out to us with endorsements of, of their fellow Missoulians.  It's been great to hear from people and they've all been so positive, and we appreciate that.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you Mr. Nugent.  Anyone else?  Okay, I'm going to weight in.  I’m not, I'm not going to weigh in on a candidate because I don't get a vote and, and that is something I'm adjusting to, and this is a time when I'm particularly adjusting to it.  I held this seat for almost 9 years, and I really look forward to working with whoever, whoever takes it over and I trust that whoever takes it over will, will do so with distinction and with humility and will serve Ward 2 well.  Ward 2 is a strange ward; it looks a little bit like a piece of Swiss cheese tossed out on the map with a bunch of holes in it and ragged edges and that's because it's encompasses a lot of the historic Westside neighborhood but it also spans out to areas of our community that are newly annexed and don't have clean, tidy borders.  It includes the airport and some regional highway heavy commercial on Reserve Street, but it also includes dense walkable neighborhoods, new urbanist neighborhoods, more suburban larger lot development, and more compact walkable neighborhoods.  It includes some of the oldest neighborhoods in our in our city in the Westside neighborhood with, with homes dating back to the to the early 1900’s and late, late 1800’s in some cases and it includes some of our newest neighborhoods.  It is where we will house the next 20,000 residents according to the Sxwtpqyen are Master Plan and the Mullan area BUILD grant.  It’s dynamic and it's changing, and it is, it is diverse.  It is low and moderate income neighborhoods, and it is wealthy neighborhoods, and with all of that diversity, it is a challenge to bring a perspective and represent Ward 2, and not be challenged with a, another perspective that's valid from someone with a different lived experience.  So, I just encourage whoever's appointed to embrace the fact that that it's a Ward that defies description and it's a Ward that is varied and it is a Ward that that will challenge you to challenge, you to challenge your own perspectives and to think outside the box, and I wish everyone the best of luck.  And I think we can move on to a vote now.  M. Rehbein, do you want to explain the voting process and take it over from here?

Marty Rehbein I'd be delighted.  So, we are going to start voting with Mr. Contos because that's where we left off in the role called vote.  And I will call the, I will call out your name and instead of voting yes or no, you will vote for the last name of a candidate, and I will enter it on my wonky spreadsheet, which I will share during the vote, and it will show us the tally of which candidates got votes.  We have 11 Council members and a majority of the Council members elected is required for this appointment.  So  that means that six or greater, somebody needs to receive six or more votes in order to be appointed and I think I've already explained the two successive roll call votes rules, so I won't go over that again.  All right, let me share the wonky spreadsheet here.  All right, can everybody see it?

Mayor Jordan Hess Yes.

Marty Rehbein Okay.  So, I have nominations for Avery, Hitt, Farmer, Rowan, and Dawson.  And we will start with Contos.

Alderperson Contos Dawson.

Marty Rehbein And Jones.

Alderperson Jones Hitt.

Marty Rehbein Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Avery.

Marty Rehbein Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent Avery.

Marty Rehbein Savage.

Alderperson Savage Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Vasecka…Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Dawson.

Marty Rehbein West.

Alderperson West ….

Marty Rehbein I’m sorry Heidi, I didn’t hear you either.

Alderperson West I didn’t hear you.  Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Farmer.

Marty Rehbein And Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Avery.

Marty Rehbein Okay, we have 3 votes for Avery, 2 votes for Dawson, 2 votes for Farmer, 1 for Hitt, and 3 for Rowan.  Mr. Mayor would you like to go through the role one more time? 

Alderperson Carlino Yeah, I’d like to motion to suspend the rules to allow for debate.

Mayor Jordan Hess The motion to suspend the rules is in order.  It is, it requires a 2/3 majority.  Ms. Rehbein, can you refresh me, is that a debatable motion?

Marty Rehbein It is not.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, that’s a non-debatable motion, so we'll take public comment on that, and then we'll take a vote.  Anyone care to comment?  Seeing none, we will have a roll call vote on the motion to suspend the rules.

Marty Rehbein Hang on, I’m catching up here.  All right, on the  motion to suspend the rules.

Alderperson Jones No.

Marty Rehbein Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Yes.

Marty Rehbein Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent No.

Marty Rehbein Savage.

Alderperson Savage Yes.

Marty Rehbein Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill No.

Marty Rehbein Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Yes.

Marty Rehbein West.

Alderperson West No.

Marty Rehbein Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson No.

Marty Rehbein Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra No.

Marty Rehbein Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Yes.

Marty Rehbein And Contos.

Alderperson Contos No.

Marty Rehbein All right on the motion to suspend the rules, it looks like it failed.

Mayor Jordan Hess So, we’re back to the, the main motion, which is to appoint the replacement and we can move on to round two of voting.  Ms. Rehbein.

Marty Rehbein Okay, I’ll share the spreadsheet one more time.  All right, the same nominees, a new round of voting.  Jones.

Alderperson Jones Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Avery.

Marty Rehbein Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent Avery.

Marty Rehbein Savage.

Alderperson Savage Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Dawson.

Marty Rehbein West.

Alderperson West Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Avery.

Marty Rehbein And Contos.

Alderperson Contos Dawson.

Marty Rehbein All right, we have 3 votes for Avery, 2 votes for Dawson, 3 votes for Farmer, 0 votes for Hitt, and 3 votes for Rowan.

Mayor Jordan Hess We can proceed with another round…

Marty Rehbein Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Avery.

Marty Rehbein Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Savage.

Alderperson Savage Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Sherrill….Sherrill

Alderperson Sherrill Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Hitt.

Marty Rehbein West.

Alderperson West Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Avery.

Marty Rehbein And Contos.

Alderperson Contos Dawson.

Marty Rehbein And Jones.

Alderperson Jones Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Okay, this round we have Avery has 2, Dawson has 1, Farmer has 5, Hitt has 1, and Rowan has 2.

Mayor Jordan Hess Okay, round 4.

Marty Rehbein Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Savage.

Alderperson Savage Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Rowan.

Marty Rehbein West.

Alderperson West Rowan.

Marty Rehbein Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Avery.

Marty Rehbein Contos.  I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. 

Alderperson Contos Farmer.

Marty Rehbein Jones.

Alderperson Jones Farmer.

Marty Rehbein And Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Avery.

Marty Rehbein All right, it looks like we have 2 votes for Avery, 6 votes for Farmer, and 3 for Rowan.  So, Ms. Farmer has got the necessary votes to be appointed to be a representative of Ward 2.

Mayor Jordan Hess Well congratulations to Sarah farmer.  And again, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you forever, for everyone who applied and put themselves out there and I want to echo that there's a place that the City of Missoula in our governance for you, in a board and commission or in another capacity and it I'm grateful for everyone's participation.

The City Council appointed Sierra Farmer to fill the Ward 2 vacancy.  

  • ​​​

    Moved by:Alderperson Carlino

    Alderperson Carlino moved to suspend the rules.

    AYES: (4)Alderperson Vasecka, Alderperson Savage, Alderperson Carlino, and Alderperson Jordan
    NAYS: (7)Alderperson Anderson, Alderperson Becerra, Alderperson Jones, Alderperson West, Alderperson Sherrill, Alderperson Contos, and Alderperson Nugent
    Vote result: Failed (4 to 7)

12.

  

Mayor Jordan Hess With that, we can move on to comments from the Mayor.  And I think I just made them, but I really do want to thank everyone who participated in this process.  It's challenging to put yourself out there like that.  I applied for a vacant Council seat in 2011, which I did not receive, was not appointed to it and, and there's turns out there's other ways to get here. 

Mayor Jordan Hess So, so with that, we'll begin general comments from Council with Ms. Vasecka.

Alderperson Vasecka Thanks and yeah, a very big congratulations to Sierra.  I look forward to working with you and I encourage everyone else to continue to make a fuss about things that they care about and contact a public comment.  We, we've had a lot of public comment here tonight and I love seeing a crowded room because over there, over COVID, we didn't have it, we were not in person, and then when we started getting back in person, it was very, there's only like one, one or two people here.  So, it was very nice to see a big room, so I encourage everyone to, to be passionate about what they believe in and even if you're on the, the not popular side, still coming and say your, your peace anyways.  I guess that's all I have to say.  Thanks.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Sherrill.

Alderperson Sherrill Yeah, thanks.  I want, I want to echo those comments. I really appreciate….. I don't know any of you personally that applied I, I feel like I wish I did after, after all of this.  Congratulations Ms. Farmer and I, I really do hope that everyone continues, continues their pursuit of this.  It is, it is a hard job, but it is a rewarding job even when people are mad at you.  If you, at the end of the day, can feel like you've done the right thing.  I, I want to make a comment from our previous commenter I think Dr. Cunningham has left, but she had made a comment about LR-131.  I did not know the, I didn't know which one this was, so I looked it up as we were sitting here and it as it was described by doctors and parents, it is a cruel overreach and I believe that.  I suggest that all of these very engaged people here tonight take a look at what that is and reach out to your legislators.  It is a brutal thing to consider being a mother of two children and I was very lucky that I had easy pregnancies, and everything worked out okay and that I was in a position in my life that I could, I could have a child and I was ready to have a child.  So, I really appreciate, I, Mrs., Dr. Cunningham coming in and I didn't even know what she was commenting about until I looked it up, but I suggest everyone does.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Savage.

Alderperson Savage I just want to echo the thank you for all the people that applied.  I know it was a lot of work and I know it was hard to sort of come and be before, like this it's a pretty intimidating interview.  And congratulations to Mr. Farmer and I look forward to working with you as the Northside Rattlesnake representative and downtown, I think part of our Ward is downtown.  I think that there are a lot of probably cross issues that we'll get to work on together.  Thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Jordan.

Alderperson Kristen Jordan Echo, echo, echo.  It was a tough choice.  I think everybody was super qualified and brought different things to the table and it was it was an interesting night and, and definitely looking forward to sitting next to you Ms. Farmer and, and starting to work with you.  And I also echo Ms. Sherrill’s comments about LR-131.  It's a, it's a critical bill that you educate yourselves on and make sure that you understand what you're voting for because it's a little quirky and may not be exactly what you think it is.  So, thank you all for coming tonight.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Jones.

Alderperson Jones Pass.

Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Carlino.

Alderperson Carlino Yeah just wanted to echo that and thanks everybody for applying.  And that was definitely one of, probably the toughest vote I've had to do on Council, and I think we had a lot of good applicants.  So, I hope you all stay involved and consider running again at some point too.  And congratulations to Ms. Farmer for getting the Council seat and yeah…

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. Becerra.

Alderperson Becerra Yeah, I'll say it again.  Thanks to everyone who applied.  I don't think I knew many of you, but I feel like I know you a little bit more now and I'm definitely interested in knowing you more.  I hope that you will continue to be engaged in anything the City has to offer in terms of available venues for working with your community more closely.  This is not the perfect way to get someone on Council, but it is the process that we have and us you know we have said before, it's, it's the Democratic process.  Once you run for Ward 2, you will have the vote of, of your constituents and that is a true, truer Democratic process that I fully support, but for now thank you.

Mayor Jordan Hess Mr. Nugent.

Alderperson Mike Nugent Thank you Mr. Mayor.  A couple of things, I just echo everything everybody said.  I would also point out that Community, Community Medical Center commented on LR-131 and came out very strongly against it and outlined why it's a, it's a bad thing and they have a Community Center Medical Center they have nothing to do with most of the things that develop, or that legislative resolution is trying to suggest it does.  It's just bad for, for families and it hits people in very personal ways that I don't think we need to share publicly to tell you why it's, it's bad for Montana.  I also just want to repeat that I thank everybody for, for participating and I really do mean it when I say you know keep doing good work in in all the areas that you are, are working in.  I mean it was it was great to have representatives from, from different areas and labor and all these things and, and you know please keep coming to Council and please keep reaching out to us because you know that's how we get better and that's how Missoula gets better is people being involved and it democracy takes people actually you know showing up and, and trying to be part of it.  And you know, I, I will just repeat that sometimes things don't go your way, but it's not the end of the world.  I also want to hit on something that a few commenters have made over the last few months; I think Mr. Hunt has made this point.  Ms. Sherrill may have touched on this tonight, but you know as a Council, my observation in the time commitment and what it means is…It takes a lot more time than it's suggested that it does, and I think that's great.  I think that all of us up here do it because we enjoy it and we enjoy helping people and, but I will tell you just as an outside observation and as somebody who's, who's maybe, maybe privileged to, to not have some of these concerns.  I do worry sometimes that that being on Council is not something that is really a realistic thing for most Missoulians, and so, when we talk about representation and we're, we're putting, we're having you know full days of committees on Wednesday and we're having long nights on Monday and then you're meeting with constituents and all that that's more than 15 hours a week and, and pay is a real thing.  And I'm not saying that because I personally want to get paid more, but I think that this is something that this Council might need to consider at some point because I don't think that it's fair to expect people to, if they want to be on Council to either be personally financially flexible, to have a spouse who can support them, or to be willing to be poor.  And if you look at the, the profile of the people who've been on Council over the last two decades, I mean they've they fit one of those three things and I just think that it's an interesting conversation that, that maybe we need to have.  And you know, I don't know what that looks like and I know that budgets are tight and I know how it looks when politicians talk about doing things that make them get paid more, but I mean you look at some of the Wards in this city and you look at the average income in those Wards and if we want them to be representative, we probably need to pay a little bit closer attention to that.  So, I, I thank Mr. Hunt for bringing that up, I thank Ms. Sherrill for bringing that up, and I think that when we talk about representation that's one of the things that actually doesn't really matter.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thank you.  Mr. Contos.

Alderperson Contos Yeah, I just wanted to thank everybody for who applied.  I always admire people who are willing to get out of their comfort zone because sitting on one of these seats you are getting out of your comfort zone.  So, thank you very much and congratulations.

Mayor Jordan Hess Ms. West.

Alderperson West I just wanted to talk about being on Council from a little bit different perspective.  When I ran for Council the first time, we were on food stamps, my kids went to Head Start and I was a stay-at-home mom and I think we made $24,000.00 a year, and to me, the stipend that we get, while it's not huge, it seemed like a lot.  And then when I found, out after I got elected, that we also got health insurance that honestly is priceless.  So, I, I realize that it probably isn't enough for everyone to be able to run but I think, I think that there are a lot of different perspectives and amounts of money when you have none.  You know, $14,000.00 is a lot.

Mayor Jordan Hess And Ms. Anderson.

Alderperson Anderson Okay, well, I'm gonna go what everyone said.  Thank you all for coming.  I think I want to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Hess for serving Ward 2 and I think we've learned through the tragic passing of Mayor Engen that no one can really follow or fill anyone's shoes, the best you can do is hope to follow in their footsteps.  So, I think this is an excellent example of that and, but the good news is for Ms. Farmer that she has a really incredible Wardmate in Ms. Becerra who when we talk about representative democracy represents a, a lived experience that majority of all of us around this table have no idea and cannot relate to.  And I think that that is a huge asset to Missoula, and she works really hard and represents her Ward well.  And so, I look forward to her taking you under her wing and Ward 2 will be better off for it if you follow in Ms. Becerra and Mr. Hess’ footsteps, as well.  So, and yeah I agree with the comments, and I appreciate the conversation around people having the opportunity to serve on Council and this is not an or this is an and statement the other thing having paid quite a bit of attention to the makeup of other Councils and other a big communities in Montana, we're the only one that is organized the way we are, which I actually think is a huge asset to Missoula.  Every other of the major seven communities has a City Manager that is not accountable to the voters by having to sit for election like the Mayor does of Missoula.  We're the only one that really truly has an executive and a legislative branch and so the downside to that is that we have to spend a lot of time on Wednesdays approving contracts and purchasing fire trucks and you know work plans and it makes for more time for us, but I think it is better for our community because there is much more transparency in how your dollars are being spent, how the inner workings of government is.  And so, I think that we, I think it's a disservice to the other communities who have you know maybe five members of Council and an and a city manager and a Mayor who's really more of a figurehead than an actual executive.  I think that we have the, the better form of government and yes it is challenging to then make sure that the people who then sit in the truly legislative body are representative of the community, but I do think that I am mindful of that when I look at places like Billings and, and Kalispell and Bozeman and whatnot.  So, just food for thought on that one.  So, thanks everyone for coming and I look forward to our paths crossing soon.

Mayor Jordan Hess Thanks you Ms. Anderson.

15.

  

Mayor Jordan Hess And with no further agenda items tonight, I thank you for your service and we'll be adjourned.  

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

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