[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 3-25-2009

[Jason Wiener]

Alex,

We regularly have pre-public hearing informational items where motions are not in order but questions and discussion are. For something as complex as the downtown plan, I think a couple of sessions would be helpful to orient us to the material and start Council thinking about what's there.

Thanks for your input,

J.

 

*******

Jason Wiener, Alderman, Ward One

1238 Jackson St.

Missoula, MT 59802

(406) 542-3232

jwiener at ci.missoula.mt.us

 

From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com [mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Alex Taft
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 11:03 AM
To: Bob Jaffe; missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] Committee Update 3-25-2009

 

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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