[MissoulaGov] roundabout Re: Committee Update 7-9-08

[Beverly]

My vote is for fall of 08.  The sooner we have a roundabout that alleviates traffic issues at a major intersection, the better.  let's take that step forward!

Beverly Dupree

--- On Wed, 7/9/08, Jason Wiener <JWiener at ci.missoula.mt.us> wrote:
From: Jason Wiener <JWiener at ci.missoula.mt.us>
Subject: [MissoulaGov] Committee Update 7-9-08
To: missoulagov at cmslists.com
Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 11:45 PM




 
 






Bob is on vacation this week so I wrote up the committee
meetings today. 

J. 

   

***** 

   

When I was a kid, Nickelodeon ran this show called
“You Can’t Do That On Television.” In addition to dropping
green slime on people when they said “I don’t know” and
sporting a regular skit with a line-order cook named Booger, the show featured
a recurring bit called opposite sketches where the normal order of things would
be turned on its head—the stingy would become generous, the refined
uncouth. This morning turned out to be opposite-sketch time at 140 W. Pine. 

   

Dave Strohmaier was out for work and Ed Childers and Bob
Jaffe were both on vacation which meant Pam Walzer, John Hendrickson, Jon
Wilkins, Lyn Hellegaard, Dick Haines, Renee Mitchell and I made up the Public
Safety & Health Committee. With the self-style conservative minority firmly
in control of the votes, I’d venture to guess we got a taste of their
governing style. 

Police Chief Mark Muir and Chief Administrative Officer
Bruce Bender presented the first item: an $18,000 contract for cost estimating
with MacArthur Means and Wells (MMW) as the lead architect and police station
specialists Wilson Estes providing specialty support. MMW was given the
contract by the administration, following on preliminary work they did on the
downtown site that everyone seems to prefer.  

   

John Hendrickson raised an issue with the selection of MMW,
asking if the project was bid. Dick Haines asserted that the entire project
would face an uphill battle because MMW has "zero credibility"
because of their work on the aquatics project. They didn’t seem bothered
by the fact that the job wasn’t advertised with an RFP since its size
didn’t merit that. They just flatly objected to MMW. The principal
architect is different and the subcontractors, too, but merely the letters MMW
were enough to precipitate some ensuring shenanigans. There was a motion to
approve the contract and a call for a show of hands on it. Pam and I voted in
favor.  Jon W., Lyn and Renee voted against it while John H. and Dick
abstained. Pam tried to call the count 2-3-2 but John H. told Jon W. to change
his vote to yes and Jon W. obeyed, making the vote 3-2-2. Then John H. changed
his vote from abstain to no so the vote would be 3-3-1. The objective was to
tie the vote because, under a poorly constructed Council rule, a tie in
committee is the only way to keep an item from moving to the Council floor. Of
course, we can just take it up next week unless the administration decides to
pick another architect for this $18,000 piece of a likely $40 million project.
I got frustrated with all the puppeteering and offered to change my vote as
well, which prompted John H. to offer to change his back. It finally stopped
when City Clerk Marty Rehbein pointed out that minute-taker Lesley Wills had no
idea how anyone was voting. We eventually moved on to the other item, a towing
contract extension sent back to committee because it the extension was offered
without an RFP. The Police agreed to advertise the RFP and asked for an extension
with the existing company in the interim, which the committee agreed to. We
came back to the vote on the police station but stand-in chair Pam ended up
continuing the item to another meeting because of the obstruction and
irresolution. 

   

PAZ followed, albeit starting late because of
PS&H’s pile-up. We talked about the Office of Planning & Grants
Urban Initiatives task list for the next fiscal year, which lays out the
non-project priorities of the department. The biggest tasks (with hours allocated)
were as follows: zoning revision (2400 hrs), application of UFDA work including
a plan for Orchard Homes (2000 hrs with the county collaborating), Mayor's
Housing Initiative (1000 hrs). The whole list is here: ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/Packets/Council/2008/2008-07-07/UITaskList.pdf 

   

Everything in the plan was funded except for a revision to
the Rattlesnake Comprehensive Plan. Partly in response to some development
pressure on unzoned land, a group from the Rattlesnake, including people from
both Neighborhood Councils has been working to update its 1995 plan to create
tools that would inform resource decisions on specific land-use matters and
highlight missing infrastructure. The item was assigned 2000 hours by a scope
of work drawn up this year. Pretty much everyone agrees that’s too much
time but right now none of it is funded anyway. The people in that area are
looking for money outside government. I’d like to see a fraction of the
money and staff time made available by the city so the community can leverage
it. Otherwise, the community people working on this will have wasted many hours
and, after having their hopes raised by OPG drawing up a scope of work, their
cynicism will simply be stoked by the lack of any movement on it. Other areas
of the city are under greater development pressure, of course, and I recognize
the need to prioritize based on need. I think desire, expressed with genuine
grassroots effort, should also merit support. 

   

About an hour was left for a discussion of stacking lots.
Roger Millar from OPG made a presentation about the practice, which allows the
redrawing of lot lines in established subdivisions without undergoing
subdivision review as long as the number of lots after the redrawing is no
greater than before and the parcels, buildings, setbacks, etc. conform to
zoning. If the stacking results in lots arranged under a PNC, the requirement
that the redrawn parcel conforms to zoning doesn’t mean that they have to
meet minimum lot size, setback and the like for the existing zoning because the
PNC is a zoning regulation. At least that’s what I took away. If you are
interested in the intricacies, you can download the presentation (over 3 MB) at
www.jasonwienerforcouncil.org/stacking.ppt 

   

Most of the Council questions, and all the public comment,
centered on the Lincoln School, a historic school that’s being converted
to what looks a lot like a 13-lot subdivision using the planned neighborhood
cluster tool. Very quickly, familiar sounding complaints about PNCs, zoning
overlays, and neighborhood protest filled the committee room. None of it had
much to do with Roger’s suggestion on how Council could rewrite local
subdivision regulations so future attempts at stacking would have to go through
subdivision review. Even if we did adopt his suggestion, there are a number of
other loopholes in state law that would probably still allow such projects to
be exempt from subdivision review, like condominium ownership. Some of the
rhetoric got overheated; at one point the Lincoln School project was compared
to murder, at another a puss-oozing blight. So I was surprised when we ended early.
During public testimony, which stand-in chair Marilyn Marler limited to three
minutes so everyone could speak, Lee Clemensen took more than twice her
allotted time, ignoring four-minute and six-minute warning and ultimately
refusing to yield the microphone. Without a sergeant-at-arms to enforce the
chair’s ruling, Marilyn adjourned the meeting at that point. It was the
right move, in my opinion, but, regrettably, two people who wanted to testify
were not allowed. Odds are good that they wouldn't have gotten to anyway
because of the filibustering. 

   

I was glad lunch time had arrived. We accomplished precious
little during the morning but expended plenty of energy. 

   

After lunch, A&F met briefly to set a public hearing on
park maintenance districts. There are two on the south side of town and the
assessments fund the improvements instead of the general fund. It is an unusual
arrangement but no one had an issue with it. I guess someone could voice one at
the public hearing though. 

   

In Public Works, we approved a pair of purchases for sewer
and streets. We also approved an encroachment permit for an alley skywalk
between the current Garlington Lohn and Robinson building at 199 W. Pine St.
and their new building, planned for 138 W. Broadway, where Scooterville
currently is. (Someone in a position to know tells me Scooterville is eyeing
the proposed green mall as a new location. They were offered ground-floor
retail in Garlington’s new building but need to locate somewhere during
the year that will take to build anyway.) The skyway plans call for more than
just a connection between buildings, with the skyway to contain a conference
room and break room. We talked about the criteria for approving the request
since there is only one skywalk in Missoula, between the Palace Apartments and
Central Park. Basically, there is no entitlement to encroach so the decision is
discretionary. We aren’t setting a binding precedent by saying yes. The
vote in favor of the permit was unanimous but the architect will be available
Monday if there are questions. Some plans are visible at ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/packets/council/2008/2008-07-07/Referrals/ROWEncroachSkywlkPlan.pdf 

   

The final item was a discussion of the interminable
Higgins-Hill-Beckwith construction project. Delays in acquiring right-of-way in
front of the Grizzly Grocery have pushed the project to a schedule where
construction could not begin until late fall. That’s frustrating, of
course, because this project has been going on for a long time. It also means
the project should probably wait until spring. If construction doesn’t
begin until the fall, the 45-day schedule could be interrupted by winter
weather, which is highly undesirable since the finished product is a bit of a
prototype in Missoula. Steve King and Kevin Slovarp from Public Works said MDT
wants the project to be built first thing in the spring, April 15. This will
mean closing the intersection for over six weeks while school is in session and
detouring the traffic associated with the street and Paxson School through the
neighborhood. The alternative is waiting until school lets out to start
construction, which adds uncertainty to the cost of the project because the
bigger the gap between bidding and construction, the greater contingency a
contractor is likely to insist on for changes in material costs. Stacy
expressed a preference for waiting until school is out but there was no vote on
the matter as it is an administrative decision. I’m inclined to defer to
the ward reps but would like to hear from people in the area about their
preferences for construction: fall 08, spring 09 or summer 09. 

   

We looked at the BID budget in Budget Committee of the
Whole. They are enjoying a lot of success, winning over even people who thought
the district—funded assessments on downtown property owners—was a
bad idea when it was created. The clean team and downtown ambassadors have done
a lot to help with that. Success with Downtown Master Plan is likely the
linchpin of renewing the BID when it comes up for renewal, which will be in the
next 12-18 months if I am not mistaken. 

   

We also finished up Parks. Marilyn asked that we come back
later to an item funding various management plans, beginning with Conservation
Lands, continuing on through Turf Management, which is probably as far through
the list as Parks can expect to get in one year. The Conservation Plan came in
as the top priority because turf has good science associated with it and public
buy-in for the techniques indicated. Conservation lands management needs more
original work and includes a public process to determine how to balance
tolerance for pesticide and antipathy toward noxious weeds or the desires of
recreational users with the health of the land. A half-dozen new requests were
turned down – the list of funded and unfunded new requests in the budget
is at ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us//Documents/Council_Review_Budget_FY09/New%20Requests%20From%20All%20Departments%20FY%2009-ForCouncil.xls
– including one to keep good behaviors at the skate park by hiring some
young people to be good role models by wearing helmets, doing awesome tricks,
and living clean. Apparently, this was a strategy that historically succeeded
in roller rinks. Marilyn remembered the people in the roller rink of her youth who
fit this profile and was shocked to learn they were likely planted. It seems
like a good idea and not too expensive. It would be nice to fund but
there’s unlikely to be enough money this year since the item is currently
unfunded. That wrapped up Parks although we will be returning for
Marilyn’s conservation lands discussion and Stacy’s request that we
revisit the Park Maintenance budget, which was reduced by over half, meaning
that improvements at several existing parks will not be funded id the status quo
prevails. 

   

Finally, we considered non-departmental budget items,
including the legislative agenda ($27,500 for a lobbyist, intern and expenses).
There was money for a legislative reception in there; Mayor Engen estimated
about half the delegation comes down to hear from Council and administration. I
hope we rate better than 50% attendance next time. How the state behaves or
doesn’t is critical to how well the city serves its constituents. We also
discussed the city’s pay structure for non-union employees, including how
cost-of-living adjustments (3%) and step increases (2%) for employees making
below the midpoint for their pay grade, which reflects pay in similar cities,
combine to keep city employees interested in working with us. There was also
some discussion about a plan to add skill/competency-based pay. It was
ensconced in a bunch of bureaucratese that translates the sensible substantive
goal of paying people for adding skills into a neutral procedure for figuring
out when that has happened. We also talked about taking a look at the
distribution of salaries again down the line, since the last salary survey was
completed in 2004. Probably, there will be a referral on that when budget
season winds down. 

   

There will be a special budget hearing Thursday night from
7-9 p.m. in City Council Chambers. We will be discussing the remainder of the
non-departmental items, everything from the Missoula Cultural Council to the
Missoula Area Economic Development Corporation to the Missoula Ravalli
Transportation Management Association. 

   

Thanks for your interest. 

   

******* 

Jason
Wiener, Alderman, Ward One 

1238
Jackson St. 

Missoula,
MT 59802 

(406)
542-3232 

jwiener at ci.missoula.mt.us 

   



 

_______________________________________________
Note: This list is NOT an official service of the City Of Missoula. But posts
to this list may be entered into the public record. 
Subscribe or view archives at Missoulagov.org 
List Serve hosting provided by www.CedarMountainSoftware.com.


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.cmslists.com/pipermail/missoulagov/attachments/20080710/a6607e5b/attachment.htm>