[MissoulaGov] Fwd: Committee Update 7-9-08

[John Torma]

Let's do this roundabout now.  I too fear the prospect of inflationary construction cost increases putting this project out of reach, if we wait.  Then the safety issues that we fear MIGHT happen if we build this Fall, could be way offset by the safety issues that we ALREADY have and have had for years and will continue to have at that intersection until it gets built.  
John Torma



----- Original Message ----
From: Alex Taft <alextaft9 at msn.com>
To: Lynn Ascher <lascher01 at bresnan.net>; missoulagov at cmslists.com
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 7:17:29 AM
Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] Fwd: Committee Update 7-9-08


I'm for doing the roundabout this fall.  The stated reasons for delay may be countered with equally compelling reasons to begin now: ending "t-bone" crashes at the intersection sooner, avoiding having to deal with uninformed drivers visiting Missoula during the summer of 2009, improving bike and ped safety sooner rather than later, etc.


Alex

Alex Taft
143 S. 5th St. E.
Missoula, MT 59801
406-218-8438


________________________________

> To: missoulagov at cmslists.com

> From: lascher01 at bresnan.net

> Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:45:41 -0600

> Subject: [MissoulaGov] Fwd: Committee Update 7-9-08

> 

> 

> 

> Begin forwarded message:

> 

> From: Lynn Ascher 

> Date: July 10, 2008 2:41:05 PM MDT

> To: "Jason Wiener" 

> Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] Committee Update 7-9-08

> 

> This roundabout has been in process for literally years.  There's never going to be a "perfect" time for its construction so let's get it done as soon as we can, i.e., fall '08.  Any more delays and I can see the project  becoming increasingly problematic and finally vanishing altogether as more and more people suddenly discover they have issues with it.  I'm sure that drivers will find alternate routes to use during the 6-8 weeks of construction, and that crossing guards will be on hand to help kids and pedestrians navigate crossing Higgins on one side or the other of the construction.

> -- lynn

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> 

> On Jul 10, 2008, at 12:45 AM, Jason Wiener wrote:

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> 

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

> 

> J.

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> *****

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> 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.

> 

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> 

> 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

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> 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.

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> 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

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> 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.

> 

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

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> 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.

> 

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> 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

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> 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.

> 

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> Thanks for your interest.

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> 

> *******

> 

> Jason Wiener, Alderman, Ward One

> 

> 1238 Jackson St.

> 

> Missoula, MT 59802

> 

> (406) 542-3232

> 

> jwiener at ci.missoula.mt.us

> 

> 

> 

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