Month: August 2018

by William Skink

UPDATE: Julie Merritt referred to a different contractor as a POS, not Dee Saale. Thank you to the reporter who pointed out my mistake.

An interesting spat has emerged from a closed conversation not intended for public scrutiny. Just the fact this conversation was happening on a closed Facebook group is a bit ironic, considering the group is Missoula Rises. I guess there are limits to being inclusive.

If you’re not familiar with Missoula Rises, check out their vision statement:

Missoula Rises is a community-led, local group committed to the protection of the rights of our community members. Our group serves Missoula, the Bitterroot Valley and surrounding areas. We seek to effectuate local change with the intent that our local work will eventually have an impact on a larger scale. We are non-partisan and inclusive. Diversity is key. We seek input from all people and understand the success of our message depends on the diversity of voices. Missoula Rises will further the protection of human rights through: education, dialogue, vigilance, accountability and activism.

Is free speech a right Missoula Rises supports? Are they actually inclusive of people with different opinions, or who do things they don’t approve of, like criticize the government of Missoula? The recent spat would indicate that on both accounts the answer is no.

So what’s the big controversy? Apparently a woman who has a construction business and does business with the city of Missoula has been critical of taxes and government spending.  Nothing specific is mentioned that would get a woman like Roseanne fired or a woman like New York Times editor Sarah Jeong hired, so I don’t know what has this Facebook group “founded in love” all riled up, but I do know things got much more interesting when Julie Merritt entered the fray, calling the business woman in question a piece of shit (she used the more civil acronym POS) before offering to look into how to financially retaliate from her official city council position.

Here is how NBC reported it:

It’s a busy season for concrete company owner Deanne Saale. She’ll tell you she has a lot invested in Missoula and is outspoken about city taxes and spending on social media.

“I voice my opinion a lot about taxes and the freedoms we’ve lost in this city,” Saale said.

Saale didn’t think it could jeopardize her company until she says an acquaintance sent her a screenshot from a Missoula Facebook group. It’s called Missoula Rises. It’s described as a closed group with roughly 3,500 members. We joined it to confirm the comments for ourselves.

Here’s what we found in the comments.

One member calls Saale cruel and asks if the city can “be encouraged” to not hire her or another contractor. She writes Saale spews “hatred”.

Missoula City Council Member Julie Merritt responds. She calls the other contractor a “POS” and then writes she’ll look into an approach to limit their contracts.

So, this is how a pro-diversity group that spews idealistic rhetoric about inclusion responds to someone they don’t agree with? They act like mean girls behind her back, calling her names, then attempt to find a way to financially penalize her? Wow.

I wonder what other methods Missoula Rises can think up to combat “hate”, how about an ideological purity test for anyone contracting with the city of Missoula in order to exclude any business that doesn’t adhere to the values of diversity and inclusion?

As absurdly contradictory as that sentence sounds, isn’t that what Missoula Rises is advocating for?

After being called out for her willingness to punish an ideological foe by withholding city business contracts, Julie Merritt had the audacity to first criticize the sharing of her comments from a closed group, then referenced her right to free speech:

We asked Merritt to tell us her side of the story. She won’t go on camera but wrote us in an email that sharing the screen grabs violated the spirit of the Missoula Rises group. Then she writes she’s found out it doesn’t matter what an owner of employee says about the city, its staff or elected officials, the contract goes to the “responsive low bidder.”

She ends her email by writing it’s free speech and people, including her, can say what they want.

What a load of crap. Julie Merritt was willing to explore how to use her elected position to financially punish someone for criticizing city government. That is absolutely not respecting someone else’s right to free speech. To then use free speech to defend herself is offensively hypocritical.

I wonder if any of the 3,500 members of this closed Facebook group appreciates what Merritt was trying to do. I would love to hear someone explain to me how Merritt’s intent is any different than the baker who refuses to do business with people who are gay because they don’t agree gay people should be able to get married.

Missoula Rises is Associated with the Montana Human Rights Network, so I sent MHRN an email requesting this group receive a tutorial on free speech and representative government. I truly hope they get the help they need.

by William Skink

Next spring the largest affordable housing project in Montana history will break ground. While that’s a good thing, no one should be patting themselves on the back too vigorously. This project is not for the most chronic (and most expensive) homeless individuals who are still bouncing from hospital to jail to the street. No, it’s for people making between $28,000-$42,000 dollars:

Roughly 175 units will be reserved for those who earn 60 percent of the area median income, or $42,000 for a family of four. Another 24 units will go to those who earn 40 percent of Missoula’s median income, or $28,160 for a family of four.

While this socio-economic group needs help in Missoula—a town now ranking 33rd in income inequality (surpassing Boulder, Colorado)—the group most at risk of literally dying from lack of housing will face another cold Montana winter with the same gaps we, as a community, have been talking about fixing for a decade.

The Union Gospel Mission has been trying to help address the gaps in services for Missoula’s chronically homeless, often serially inebriated residents, but those efforts have hit barrier after barrier.

After the Poverello Center raised the alarm last February about how overcrowded it’s shelter had become-and that’s with a policy of requiring sobriety to enter the shelter—UGM and the Salvation Army stepped up:

“The Pov had already approached the Salvation Army about using overflow in their location,” said Evans. “There had been some prep work with the Salvation Army and so it was easy for us to come in and work with them. They were great in getting things repurposed for us.”

With the arrangements in place, the Union Gospel Mission moved its operations from its Toole Avenue warming house to the Salvation Army so it could house more people. The warming house can sleep a handful of residents per night in tight confines, while the Mission slept 30 at the Salvation Army.

The Pov capped its capacity at 190, and with this winter serving as a test, the Union Gospel Mission is already looking to next winter, ready to help if the numbers swell again.

“I could see us doing that again, but I haven’t asked for permission,” Evans said. “We’d think, logically, it could be done again. We want to help address the homeless issue all the way down to the epidemic of camping and sleeping in your own vehicle. We want to help the city save money with police being used to serve and protect and not have to spend time knocking on car windows.”

From what I have heard, this effort was shut down by Missoula’s Fire Chief. I haven’t seen this reported by local media yet, but at some point I suspect that will change. Will it be before the next homeless person dies on the street in Missoula?

The city of Missoula didn’t just shut down UGM’s efforts at the Salvation Army. Last May, the city also shut down the parking lot by the UGM day center:

Don Evans, executive director of the Union Gospel Mission shelter next to the parking lot, said many of the people weren’t necessarily sleeping in their cars, and that many used the mission.

The shelter would routinely warn people about the ordinances about sleeping on the street, and Evans said many would move their vehicles frequently to stay in compliance.

Now he’s wondering where the group that was moved out will end up next. Without options, most are likely to end up living in the vehicles some other place in town.

It’s an issue, especially for a city that frequently cites homelessness among its top priorities and is six years into a 10-year plan to whose stated goal is to “end homelessness.”

“Where are people going to go? It’s something I’ve told people in meetings throughout my time here,” Evans said.

Yes, where are people going to go? One of the many homeless camps that dot our gentrified landscape? There’s the Reserve Street camps, but also camps down the Kim Williams trail, along the river by the Buckhouse bridge, along Grant Creek behind the hotels, in the woods out at Bonner, along the Clark Fork by the California Street bridge and many other nooks and crannies.

It might be blazing hot now, but cold weather is not that far away and there doesn’t seem to be any significant planning for what to do with the segment of the homeless population that can’t access the Poverello Center. Instead of raising awareness and leading efforts to address this, the city appears more busy shutting things down.

How many more people need to die before our city leaders prioritize WITH ACTION the costly and cruel plight of chronically homeless individuals in Missoula? And by action I don’t mean creating a new city initiative or funding another study. I mean ensuring the full spectrum of housing is available to address the full spectrum of need.

If this isn’t possible then city leaders should be up front about it. They should explain to those suffering on the streets that we, as a community, have other priorities, like helping refugees and regulating gun sales and building play waves and creating art parks and giving financial hand-outs to those poor developers having such a hard time right now.

For a town that considers itself such a progressive, forward-thinking community, the fact people are still dying on our streets is beyond shameful.

by William Skink

Russia is to blame. People need to understand that. They are to blame for all of it. And they’re doing it again. I call on artists to make a stand. Create art to stop the evil bear from strangling the noble eagle.

The fire consuming the forest? Ignore it. Russia is the fire and that fire is what will destroy us and our god-fearing nation. We must stop Russia. That is why, with my art, I am invoking Saint Reagan.

Quick, artists, before it’s too late!!!