[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 12-16-09

[Bob Jaffe]

Greetings,
In public safety we bought a fire truck and reappointed Ross Miller to the Health Board.

In conservation we got a run down on the status of a bunch of parks projects. The one thing that sticks in memory was a discussion about the new Pineview Park. Marilyn mentioned that this was a good example of the kind of park design that she has been asking for where we take advantage of native trees and some mulching instead of just using turf. We also discussed the revisions to the garbage ordinance addressing bear issues.  The referral with more info is here: http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=2228
They did a cool presentation showing all the places where the radio collar bears have been. They stay up in the woods in the summer and then come down to town in the fall. They are all over the Rattlesnake and Grant creek. They also pointed out how the grizzly bears are not all that far away either. They are really only a ridge or two further out of town. The new ordinance will establish Bear zones where folks will need to take better care of their trash. No leaving it out the night before without a certified bearproof container and no storing it where bears can get access. We set a public hearing for late in January.

We skipped PAZ today and moved into A&F where we approved Mike O'Herron for a position on the Missoula Urban Transportation Board. Dick voted against him.
We also voted to allow the Mayor to apply for grant funds through the Big Sky Trust Fund as a pass through to MAEDC. They are putting a deal together to help Intermedia Outdoors locate in Missoula. Intermedia purchased the local firm Barrett Productions and they are considering making Missoula the corporate headquarters. Locating here would create 49 new jobs. MAEDC is trying to sweeten the deal with the $350,000 grant.

Then in Public Works we learned more details about the sewer line replacement bid from last week. The rfp specs called for a prebid conference to discuss the bypass aspect of the job. The low bidder, Becco contracting, did not attend the conference. Their subcontractor, who would be performing the bypass work was present. When it was time to open the bids and read them, all the bidders were present. The staff engineer, I missed who it was, made a decision on the spot that Becco's bid should not be opened as they were not present at the pre-bid conference. They opened the other bids and Advanced Earth Works was the lowest bidder. Folks left and a few minutes later, the staff got nervous and called Nugent. Jim said that having a sub at the conference was a minor technicality and they should open the Becco bid. They did, and it was $40,000 lower.
When the Advanced Earth Works guy heard about it he cried foul. His attorney sent the city a letter. Nugent maintains that the bidding process is primarily for the benefit of the tax payers and not the bidders. Our RFP language indicates that the we may chose to waive minor details and there was no question that the bid was authentic. So we approved it.
Jon Wilkins voiced some frustration about awarding the bid to an out of town company since we need the jobs locally.  Becco is based in Phoenix with an office in Butte. Nugent pointed out that Advanced Earthworks also wasn't local and to get to a local company we would have to pay about $75,000 more. But Advanced Earthworks is from Hamilton so I'm not sure if Jon would have considered them local.
The idea of providing for some kind of local preference has come up before. I'm not sure if it something we can do but I would be interested in discussing it again.

Our next item was the Odor Study we commissioned to find out what could possibly be smelling so bad out in the vicinity of the sewer plant.  It turns out to be sewage.  Some of the sewage stinks real bad when it comes into the facility. They identified two areas where about 30% of the stink originates. We already have plans under way to upgrade those parts of the facility.  After we are all done with the sewage we put the liquids back in the river and send the solids over the fence to Eko Compost.  Another 30% of the stink comes from the poop when it is on their side of the fence. A bunch from where they leave it sitting around when they first get it; Another bunch from when they are actively mixing it up into the piles. Eko also has plans under way to mitigate for the odors. The odors are in violation of health department air standards so the environmental health division is keeping some pressure on the entities to move along as quick as is practical in implementing solutions.

After that we had committee of the whole were we got an update on the Emergency Operation Plan from Bob Reid.  He started his presentation with a quote from the movie "Tremors" which is apparently about giant wormlike creatures that attack people. There is a scene where these folks are in their shelter and the guy says "five years of food, water, and ammo stored up in the basement and we get attacked by subterranean monsters." I think this is disaster preparedness humor.
There are all sorts of rules about what our disaster plan document is supposed to be so they are working on getting it all put together. Pam is our rep on that committee so she will be bringing us updates.

We finished up early so we would have the opportunity to go to the commissioners meeting to give comment on the plan to shut a bunch of polling places.  It was a full house but their meeting space is small. There may have been 30-40 people there.  I had to get back to work so I only stayed for a little while. I commented something along the lines that we could save money by consolidating precincts but removing polling places is a bad idea. Especially, at least for the urban precincts, where they are getting rid of the precincts that serve the largest populations of people who don't own cars. I'm pretty sure we can find other solutions to some of the problems that were raised.
For instance, primaries at the UC center can get so few voters that it raises privacy issues. That is because they happen in June when no one who lives on campus is actually there.  Instead of getting rid of the whole polling place why not just hold primaries over at Paxson. The law does allow for having the primary and general in different places under extenuating circumstances. We could try to get that law clarified at the legislature.  Or possibly we could just report that precinct combined with another to avoid the privacy issue?
A reason given for closing the court house precinct is that people get confused because it is crowded. Since a few people wait in the wrong line and get too tired to vote we are going to close the whole thing and make it harder for hundreds of people to vote.  Which is the lesser evil here? Even though the commissioners endorsed this plan in the paper the other day prior to the public hearing,  I'm hoping they take the comments made today to heart and reconsider.


Thank you,


Bob Jaffe
Missoula City Council, Ward 3
1225 South 2nd West
Missoula, MT 59801
(406) 728-1052


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