[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 10-8-08

[Bob Jaffe]

Hi Everyone,

This morning we started with Public Safety. Police Chief Muir had two
items. The first was the confirmation of Officer Nick Schmele. There was
a discussion about staffing levels. The department has about ten percent
of its positions unfilled or in some kind of reduced part time capacity.
The base line is more like 3%-5%. The peak was somewhere around 16%. So
we are on the shorthanded side of things but it should get better soon
as some of our people working their way back from injuries get back to
full time.   

The other item was to set a public hearing regarding the Edward Byrne
Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. In the past this was more like
$40,000 or so. This year we are only getting about $8,000.  They plan to
spend it on Tasers. I asked Mark to speak at the public hearing as to
our department's procedures in regards to best practices with the
devices considering some of the troubling press lately.

 

In conservation we heard more about the Green Tags program. Still
nothing conclusive. We will take it up again in a few weeks.  We also
had a presentation regarding the burn on Mt. Sentinel this summer. There
is an effort to reseed the mountain this fall. The low intensity burn
cleared out the weeds and created an ideal opportunity to plant native
seed.  We learned that there is a particular type of prairie that only
exists in the northwest US. It is mostly further west of here but there
is a little sliver around Missoula.  So it is important to try to
preserve the native grasses on Mt. Sentinel. It burns every couple of
decades so now is the time to get some seed down. Native seed is also a
little less expensive this year at $10-$12 per pound. There is a
shortage of funds to buy the seed so they are taking donations. If you
are interested in donating please contact the parks department. There
will be a seed planting party on November 4th. Contact Parks if you
would like to help.

 

In PAZ we started with a plat adjustment to the Flynn Ranch subdivision.
They had a number of lots that they wanted to put townhomes on. But when
it came through the first time they had them set up like duplexes. One
lot for two units.  I vaguely remember the developer referring to them
as town homes and thinking it was strange that they had them sharing a
lot. But there were so many other things to be concerned about with that
project that I forgot about it. A townhome has each unit sitting on its
own lot so it can be sold with the land. Its not the same as a duplex.
So we agreed to split all those lots into two today.

We also had a pre-public hearing on the revisions to the park land
dedication regulations.  The revision attempts to resolve three
different issues. One is that we don't require park land dedication to
minor subdivisions (five or fewer lots). There are some base costs
involved such as getting an expensive appraisal. So the whole thing
doesn't really start to work unless there are four or five units. But we
only really do a couple of these a year so it may not be worth the
trouble.

The next part has to do with subdivisions with large lots but many
units. The state law calls for bigger lots to have a lower park land
dedication requirement. This is because the assumption is that it's one
unit on a big lot that doesn't really need additional parks. But we are
seeing people doing large lots with a whole bunch of multifamily or
condos on it.  So even though these projects create a large demand on
the park infrastructure they are slipping through a loophole in the
regulation and not providing any parkland.  So the new language creates
a dedication based on units instead of the size of the lot. There is
still much to argue about in terms of how the requirement should be
calculated. There was also a proposal from the builders that this only
apply in areas that are park deficient.

The last change was similar but applied to zoning so it would pick up
multifamily developments that did not have any subdivision involved.
This would be for cases like the large apartment and condo projects east
of north reserve where they are built on preexisting large commercial
lots.   

This will go to public hearing in early November.

 

In A&F we awarded a contract for a company to update the sewer rate
structure so we could start charging residential customers based on
their winter water usage instead of charging everyone a flat rate. This
would serve to give a discount to people who produce less effluent. It
would also encourage people to conserve more. This in turn will
translate into more years until we need to upgrade our sewer plant
again. 

We also discussed bicycle licensing. There are two places in the
municipal code that discuss bike licensing. They both contradict each
other. The newer one replaces the old so we just need to clean it up.
But there is an opportunity to discuss things like what should it cost,
should they be lifetime licenses or expire after some number of years,
should there be enforcement and punishments, what should the money go
to, etc.  As in any good public discussion of cycling in Missoula there
were the prerequisite quota of statements demonizing cyclists as
irresponsible scofflaws.  No conclusion was reached in the discussion
which will be back in committee in a few weeks.

 

In COW we got a tour of the 911 center and the Sheriff's department as a
dog and pony show for the upcoming public safety bond. I'm still on the
fence on this one. After going on the tour I would say there is a more
compelling argument for more space for the Sheriff's department than the
911 center. I hate to be cheap but I'm not entirely convinced that
buying a new building is the only solution at this point. I'm very
curious to see how the county votes on this one.

 

In Public Works we discussed the long range transportation plan. The
short version is that there is enough money in our allocation for the
next 30 years to pay for Russell street and some buses and that's about
it. There are some nuances depending on how Russell plays out that could
free up some more money. TPCC is meeting next week to make some
decisions. This plan is long range but it gets updated every five years
or so. Of course funding situations could change in the future as well.
We may stop spending $10,000,000,000 per month in Iraq someday soon and
prioritize domestic infrastructure again. Or maybe the feds will go
completely broke and we won't even get the money we are currently
allocated. Hard to say anymore.

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

Bob Jaffe

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