[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 3-25-2009

[Alex Taft]

Bob,
It seems out of place for the council to decide on the Downtown Master Plan without the benefit of the Planning Board's comments.

Alex



Alex Taft

951 Ronald Ave., Apt. 109
Missoula, MT 59801

406-218-8438





Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:07:32 -0600
From: BJaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us
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/GreenPolicyFeb252009-2.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

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us

406-728-1052



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