[MissoulaGov] committee update 7-30-08

[Bob Jaffe]

Greetings,

This morning I missed Conservation but the only business was to appoint new
members to the Greenhouse gas committee.

We had a week off of PAZ to make room for the City/County interlocal meeting
for OPG.  The highlight was the new UFDA presentation from Roger Millar.  I
thought this one was more interesting than the first one.  Maps have now
been made that show areas with and without various impediments to
development. These are things like access to transportation, fire, water,
Prime Ag soils, etc. They are then combined together to show the areas most
suited for development. That information is then combined with the info from
the first UFDA round that got into zoning build out numbers and we have
recommendations for the number of units that should go in each area. Here is
a link to find more info:

http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/opgweb/UrbanInitiative/index.htm#UFDA

 

In A&F we discussed the Request For Proposals (RFP) that is being put
together by the Redevelopment Agency for the Riverfront Triangle.  I am
trying hard to not use too many acronyms. At one point today John
Hendrickson said something where he had about five acronyms in one sentence.
We all knew what he was talking about but I couldn't help but laugh.  MRA
was trying to get a sense from council if there were any specific parameters
or desires for the RFP.  Some folks want maximum cash. I'm personally more
interested in getting something that is the best fit for our long term
planning efforts. I'm not so concerned about the dollars we get back. Stacy
pointed out that we already have $2,000,000 invested in the site in clean up
so no reason to get any less than top dollar.  There was a lot of discussion
about how tightly we should restrain what type of proposals we will
consider.  There wasn't much mention of the performing arts center. It
sounds like if they can find a way to be part of a purchase proposal no one
would object but we are not making any special provisions.

 

In Public Works we approved some contracts for some sewer related stuff and
in public safety we heard about the licensing requirements for group homes.
The bottom line on that discussion was that we don't really have any
problems with licensed group homes. The problems usually come from
operations that function like group homes but technically are not. So they
are not regulated by the state and fall into various gray areas of our
regulations. 

 

Budget committee was actually interesting this afternoon. But it may have
just been the double espresso kicking in.  We spent most of the time talking
about the parks budget. The parks maintenance budget has been raided for a
number of years now. When the Aquatics funding was coming up short, $750,000
was "found" by eliminating the parks maintenance budget for three years.

[Disclosure: various numbers in this report are based on my memory and are
only approximations]

It was supposed to be returned to its full funding this year. But to make up
for other budget shortfalls the maintenance fund was cut back yet again.   

Bruce Bender explained that when the parks maintenance budget was
established, $250,000 was just a number picked out of the air that we
thought we could maintain. There was nothing sacred about it. We can't
support it this year so no big deal if we take it away. There are others, in
particular Stacy Rye, who believe parks are a higher priority and are trying
to find ways to restore that budget. It is my understanding that we can
expect to see a more systematic examination of the real costs associated
with maintaining our parks so we can try to secure funding next year for a
defensible budget.

 

As part of the new Aquatics projects we budgeted $188,000 per year as an
ongoing general fund subsidy for the pools. In FY08 they only needed
$55,000. So that leaves an extra $133,000. Parks wants to spend $70,000
replacing the tile in the bathrooms at Currents and installing a UV
filtration system at Currents. They want the balance to go into a reserve
fund for future expenses.  The bathroom tile is slippery and is a liability.
The UV system would make the pool safer and cut down on the chlorine stink
that I find intolerable. A fund balance is a good idea. The pools have been
more profitable than expected but we have had very good pool weather since
they have opened. Global warming aside we can't count on good weather every
summer. We also have to start building up some reserves for when stuff
starts to wear out.

But our playgrounds are in desperate need of repair right now. So we debated
the merits of diverting that extra money to parks maintenance. Ed found it
all too messy and since he was the chair he requested that we not make any
decision on it today and asked parks to come back next week with all the
options presented nice and clean so we could vote on something everyone
could understand.

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

 <mailto:bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us> bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us

406-728-1052

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