[MissoulaGov] committee update 2-24-10

Thu Feb 25 10:38:20 MST 2010

I want to echo Bob's comments on the Business Improvement District. Adventure Cycling has re-upped for the next 10 years and we appreciate the services provided by Rod Austin and his crew at the BID.

--- On Thu, 2/25/10, Bob Jaffe <BJaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us> wrote:

From: Bob Jaffe <BJaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us>
Subject: [MissoulaGov] committee update 2-24-10
To: "missoulagov at cmslists.com" <missoulagov at cmslists.com>
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010, 8:10 AM

Greetings, 

Last night we went on a date in honor of the fund raiser for
Conservation Voters. A share of proceeds from a bunch of restaurants yesterday
was donated to MCV. We went to Café Dolce and I had their lamb burger with
bacon, sautéed onions and feta. Yumm. We got home and watched the
 USA hockey
team beat the Swiss and I forgot all about writing my council update until I
was in bed around 1:00am. 

In any case we started with PAZ to discuss Lyn’s
referral about the sign ordinance. It was unclear from her referral or the
numerous attempts to gain more information, what she hoped to cover with the
discussion. So the only thing the staff was prepared for was to clear up the
language regarding mobile billboards.  The language says public transportation
vehicles are exempt from the rule prohibiting mobile billboards. There was a
desire to make it clear that this applies to taxis as well as buses. 

The other issues she wanted to discuss turned out to be
window signs and the brightness rules for electronic signs.  The window sign
rule says you can put the window sign on the inside of the window. A concern
was raised that with tinted glass this would not be visible. No one objected to
changing the language to allow for the signs to be on the outside. The
brightness rule gets complicated. The bottom line is that there is some
question whether the current language has any way to be enforced. This wasn’t
the sort of thing that could be addressed in committee without any preparation so
staff will need to work on that with some of the sign industry folks to see what
they can come up with. 

These changes and other clean up items will come before the
committee in a couple of months to be taken care of as a batch. The overhead
for amending the ordinance is such that we don’t really want to do it for
every little thing individually. 

In A&F we had a presentation on how to find all the
various finance documents on the city web site. There is a wealth of
information there. You go to the city web site; hit departments over on the
left; then go to finance. 

We also set a public hearing to consider extending the downtown
business improvement district for another ten years. As a downtown business and
property owner, I consider the $210 per year that I pay for the BID to be money
very well spent. 

Our other item was to amend our anti-discrimination
ordinances to add sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to
the current list of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, creed, 

sex, age, marital or familial
status, physical or mental disability.  Our action was to set a public hearing
that will be a ways out so we will have the opportunity to discuss it again in
committee. I believe the motion to set the public hearing was unanimous. The
interesting twist was that Dick brought up that we should also include
protections for veterans in the list. So we will be providing protections for
gays and veterans with the same action.  This ordinance is an initiative of the
Montana Human Rights Network. We had a speaker from that organization and the
ACLU speaking in favor. We had a representative from a Christian women’s
group speaking against it.  She indicated that they had a lot of data showing
the ills of these types of ordinances and apparently their group has been
active in lobbying against this at the state level. I haven’t seen the
Missoulian story on this yet but maybe they caught the name of the group.   

She mostly spoke about how
Christians should not be required to provide services to gay people. She had
relayed some anecdotes from other states such as a Christian woman who is a
wedding photographer who refused to photograph a lesbian commitment ceremony.
They sued her and she had to pay $3000.  She also spoke of a case in
 California where a Hostel
owner kicked out some people because they were gay. Why should a business owner
be required to provide service to someone whose existence they find offensive? 
I find it helps to provide context if you exchange gay and lesbian for black in
the two stories. 

If you would like to read the
details here is the link to the referral: 

http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=3170 

I was five minutes late getting back
from lunch and completely missed Public Works. They just approved a sign
encroachment permit out on South Reserve. 

In COW we discussed how to improve recruitment for our
boards and commissions.  The two that we have the most trouble with are Design
Review Board and the Historic Preservation Commission.  We were told the HPC
used to be a very popular board and it is only in the last four years or so
that recruitment has become difficult.  The DRB primarily reviews sign
variances among other site specific reviews. Some suggestions were to make
better use of our contact lists from the neighborhood councils as these folks
have already indicated some interest in government affairs.  We also discussed
how to do more to give recognition to our volunteers. 

Thanks for your interest, 

Bob Jaffe 

Missoula City
Council, Ward Three 

1225 South 2nd West 

Missoula,
 MT 59801 

(406) 880-2052 

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