[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 3-25-2009

[Jed Taylor]

What is it about the installation of fire hydrants that make them cost $10k
per?
 
 

  _____  

From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com
[mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Bob Jaffe
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 22:08
To: missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: [MissoulaGov] Committee Update 3-25-2009



Greetings,

This morning we opened with a bid to install three fire hydrants in the
Franklin to the Fort neighborhood. We have $30,000 allocated for the
project. It is unclear if we can get all three for that amount.  There are
about nine that are needed but they will have to be done over a few years as
funds become available.

 

Then we did a mid-year review of the police department budget. We are really
about ¾ way through the year but Mark brought in the 12/31 numbers anyway.
As of mid year they were sitting at about 48.5% expended. So they were doing
OK. The police budget is about $11,000,000. A few of the significant numbers
are that gasoline has come in about $40,000 under budget at midyear. We are
looking at almost $350,000 in vacancy savings for the year but $80,000 in
overtime.  The department is understaffed. After the shooting at the end of
last year they had 25 officer positions unfilled or on some kind of leave.
The number today is 16. 

They made some scheduling changes that will help with the overtime. A large
percentage of the overtime comes from having to show up in court. If they
have to come to court on their day off they automatically get five hours of
overtime (even if it only takes an hour). They used to have three teams
working four day shifts that overlapped. So a particular arrest could have
three officers from three teams. Odds were at least one of them would be
getting overtime for whatever day the trial was scheduled.

They switched it to two shifts with only one overlapping day. They are also
coordinating more with the courts to get the court dates on days that will
not incur overtime.

 

In Conservation we set a public hearing to consider the purchase of a small
piece of open space land. It is a 59 acre parcel for $30,000 on the back of
Mt. Jumbo. It is right above the Mountain Water tank and provides access to
the rest of the open space lands to folks from East Missoula. We also heard
from the city Green Team. This is a group of employees headed up by Jacky
Corday to come up with conservation practices for the City. They have worked
out a list of free things folks can do to conserve. It’s a good list that
could apply to just about any large organization. Here is the link:

ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/Packets/Council/2009/2009-03-23/Referrals/GreenP
olicyFeb252009-2.pdf

 

In PAZ we just did some interviews for the Design Review Board seat.

 

Then we had our annual lunch meeting with the Downtown Association.  We
discussed the Downtown Master Plan, the Business Improvement District, and a
few other items.  We will be taking up the downtown plan at PAZ on April 8th
and 15th. We will be jumping in ahead of the planning board since our
schedule is open and theirs is backed up. We won’t be so much considering
the document for approval as trying to work through a couple of the points
of contention. After the planning board finishes the zoning rewrite they
need to give the county some time and take up the Seeley Lake plan. Then
they can come back to the city and take up the downtown plan.

 

After lunch we regrouped in council chambers to hear from the housing
authority about their plan to sell twenty units of housing.  They own a
bunch of properties scattered about the south hills. They all need a lot of
maintenance and are getting really expensive to manage. They are also not
having a lot of demand for 3+ bedroom units. Something like 85% of their
need is for one and two bedroom units. So they want to sell them off and
build a bunch of units in their Garden District project on Russell.

The business decision here is all pretty straight forward but a number of us
lamented the loss of the affordable housing stock currently in public
ownership. It’s too bad a deal could not be put together to turn the homes
over to private owners but with some kind of deed restricted land trust
keeping them affordable.

 

Public works had two sidewalk projects. We approved one project that puts in
sidewalks down Johnson street. The bids on this one came in at about 65% of
the estimate. It’s a good time to do concrete work.  We also discussed a
sidewalk project on Lolo street between the bridge and Rattlesnake drive.
This one was more contentious. A number of folks showed up on both sides of
the issue. Proponents generally spoke of safety. Opponents expressed concern
about cost and the change in the rural character of the neighborhood.
Sidewalks made it more urban and they didn’t move to the Rattlesnake for
urban. That one doesn’t get much traction for me but the cost is still
really hard to accept. Some of the larger assessments are going to come in
around $15,000.

 

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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