Month: January 2020

by William Skink

NBC Montana continues pestering local officials about the sprawling homeless encampment under and around the Reserve Street bridge.

NBC recently emailed video footage of the camp taken via drone to every City Council member and only one Council member responded, Julie Merritt. Merritt probably felt obligated to say something, since she’s a part of the Reserve Street Camp working group, but what she had to say makes one wonder what kind of “work” this working group has actually been doing.

Here’s Julie “no solution” Merritt providing an inspirational take on where they’re at in addressing the sprawling encampment:

“It’s such a big, big problem. One thing that I’ve been thinking about is that there’s no solution,” Merritt said.

In case you missed Merritt’s estimation that there is no solution to this big, big problem, she says it again after babbling some nonsense about more social workers:

“There’s been discussion around more social workers — trained people to be able to respond to certain situations, having a mobile crisis intervention team that could respond when it’s appropriate,” Merritt said.

Just eight years ago, Missoula’s mayor initiated a 10-year plan to end homelessness.

Merritt calls it an ambitious goal.

“We are a long way from reaching the goals that were set up. It’s again, it’s never — there’s no solution,” Merritt said.

Saying there is no solution twice in an article as short as this one is pretty pathetic. I wonder what the other members of the working group think about Julie Merritt’s perception that there is no solution? Do they agree? Why even bother meeting if there is no solution?

Instead of accepting Merritt’s defeatist attitude I decided to look for answers.

Since Missoula is aspiring to go “zero by fifty” (meaning no waste going into the landfill by 2050) I decided to go to their snazzy website to get ideas.

On the webpage that asks “What do I do with…? there are ideas on what to do with automotive materials, farm debris, office waste, batteries, food, paint, building materials, fats, oils and grease, paper and cardboard, cans, furniture and appliances, plastic, ceramics, glass, textiles, construction debris, hazardous waste, tools, light bulbs, toys, electronics, medical residuals, yard and garden waste and metals, but nothing about homeless encampments. Darn.

Welp, I guess there really is nothing anyone can do. Julie Merritt should be commended for her honesty and that working group should be disbanded since there are no solutions.

by William Skink

With still no charges filed against 29 year old Johnny Lee Perry for his role in the altercation that resulted in the death (manslaughter?) of 45 year old Sean Stevenson, more information surrounding this tragic death is trickling out.

Before today’s edition of the Missoulian came out, all we knew about the man who died was his name, age and the oddly reported disclosure from the Sheriff’s Department that he was from “out-of-state”. Now we know Sean was a father and had family in Denver who didn’t realize he was using shelter services in Montana as he tried to make a fresh start.

We also know a little more about the disposition of Perry the night of the altercation:

Court filings say police interviewed witnesses at the Poverello Center, who said Stevenson and another resident had been in a “scuffle” for about 10 minutes. During that time, according to records, witnesses said Stevenson was “choked to the point of unconsciousness.”

Police identified the other resident as 29-year-old Johnny Lee Perry, who had a Montana ID. Court documents said Perry appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time. Perry refused to provide a breath sample, and officers later had his blood drawn at St. Patrick Hospital for testing.

So Perry is presumably a resident of Montana and is suspected of being drunk and/or high on drugs when he killed–let me say that again–when he KILLED Sean Stevenson. So why no charges filed yet? Because the County Attorney’s office is waiting to see if Sean Stevenson was drunk and/or high so they can avoid prosecuting Perry for a capital crime:

After arresting Perry for suspicion of aggravated assault, police released him pending an investigation into the fight. Matt Jennings, deputy county attorney, told the Missoulian Monday that authorities considered the possibility that the assault may have stemmed from self-defense.

“Whenever that’s raised, under Montana law, law enforcement has an obligation to investigate all of the facts and circumstances around that defense,” he said.
Deputy County Attorney Selene Koepke said that an autopsy was performed Jan. 6, and no decision on charges will be made by prosecutors until a medical report is completed. Interim Police Chief Mike Colyer said this week the report could take weeks to return.

Let me get this straight. The County Attorney’s Office thinks Sean Stevenson may have been drunk or high when he allegedly started a fight with Johnny Lee Perry. Despite being much smaller than Stevenson, Perry somehow gets the upper hand and chokes out Stevenson until he stops breathing. And nothing in this chain of events warrants the filing of charges yet?

While the legal side of this sad story plays out, the homeless shelter policy side is also developing, with the shelter’s Executive Director depicting critics as “misguided”:

“The Poverello focuses on safety as its number one priority for our guests and our staff, and for our volunteers,” said Thompson. “There are more opportunities for conflict with this many people in the building. All of that is really important, and it’s front of mind for us at the Povello to make sure folks are safe here.”

The incident was difficult on staff, who work long hours to serve the city’s homeless population and the challenges it brings, be it a man with holes in his only pair of boots to a woman with complex medical issues.

It’s often an underappreciated task that draws misguided criticism from some members of the community, including those who post ignorant comments on social media but have little understanding of the complexities behind the issue.

While the Poverello enjoys broad community support, the criticism can be tiring.

Yes, ignorant people post ignorant comments on social media about everything. But pointing to those idiots who are always out there talking shit seems like a ploy to deflect from legitimate criticism like mine, which is not misguided and comes from 7 years of doing the difficult work of working with people in crisis in a state like Montana that has very little to offer in terms of treatment.

The Poverello Center can play the victim card if it wants, but it won’t erase the deliberate policy decisions its leadership has made at the behest of the city to serve more people than the building was built for, and to serve more volatile people who are actively consuming alcohol and drugs by shifting to a “behavior-based model” during the winter months.

The result of these policy decisions is a tragedy I was afraid was going to happen eventually. Now that it has, maybe it’s time to start listening to legitimate critics like myself who have been raising the alarm that our current community approach is inadequate to address the need that exists.

by William Skink

The Missoula Current helped remind me that there are bigger things afoot than just rampant gentrification and TIF handouts for the private sector.

No, there is a VISION behind the master planning, and the NEW MAN to direct development for the city–Josh Martin–is just the man to take the helm because he believes in the vision of NEW URBANISM.

I’m yelling because I’m just SO EXCITED about what BRIGHT future NEW URBANISM has in store for us. But before we get to that, let’s meet Josh Martin:

A city planner with experience in new urbanism and regulatory reform will take the helm of Development Services in Missoula next month amid a realignment of planning efforts between several key departments.

Josh Martin, who currently serves as director of planning, zoning and building in Palm Beach, Florida, will begin as director of Development Services in February.

“He worked for a legendary mayor named Joe Riley in Charleston, South Carolina, where he helped guide their planning and development efforts,” Mayor John Engen said. “Riley is largely credited with spreading the gospel of new urbanism among mayors, and Martin is a huge urban renewal guy.”

To understand New Urbanism I don’t think it’s helpful to read how they describe their cult because it sounds like this:

NEW URBANISM promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other.

I think these people see color-pencil drawings of super cool future places that don’t exist and think they can wish it into existence if you just give their public/private projects public money because it takes money don’t you know to do all that assembled integration stuff.

And don’t get me started with what they think they can do with their erasers.

Anyway, let’s get back to the happy color pencil VISION and see how it matches up with that pesky thing called reality.

Since Josh Martin’s work with a legendary Mayor I never heard in Charleston, South Carolina sounds like a big part of his resume, let’s take a looksie at how some folks were feeling last March:

“Tax increases. Everything is a little more expensive,” said Sherry Snipes Williams, who helped organize the public forum.

West End resident Jason Taylor’s explains, “We’re experiencing hotelification, commodification of residential lands where our communities are being sold to the highest bidder.”

“I see it a lot with the property values going up and pushing people out, says Downtown resident Bobby Teachey.

Call it the high cost of development.

Affordable living has become harder to come by for the middle and lower class.

“African-Americans are moving on out because the cost of living is just too high,” Tameika Euland says.

Well how about that? Sound familiar? I guess Martin will feel right at home in Missoula. If you want to hear a podcast about gentrification in Charleston, this one looks good.

Moving on to Palm Beach, here’s part of Martin’s philosophy that should make developers in Missoula cautiously optimistic:

Martin said he’d like to see zoning reviews become more streamlined. The Town Council shouldn’t have to fiddle with applications for awnings, for example, when staff can handle that.

He’d also like the procedure to be more collaborative and predictable for applicants.

“There are ways to reform the design review so it’s more of a conversation than a judgment day,” he said. “Leading with ‘yes,’ as opposed to ‘no,’ is a big part of that.”

That townhouse project that dragged on and on? Get it through quicker! The condo project on 4th street? It’s so walkable, so NEW URBAN! Public concern about how TIF greases all this? A steel-lined, Gwen Jones Ice Stare.

These urban planners blow newspeak like pixie dust to obfuscate the fact affordable housing is never really addressed by these new urban planners, like in Palm Beach:

“I think we are in an affordable housing crisis in Palm Beach County. The median sales price is $350,000. So, people who make within $60,000 and $90,000, they are still not able to buy a house if they didn’t get assistance,” said Charles.

The financial assistance includes home buying education as they partner with the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency .

“We provide education, but we also help them to access financing and a little lower interest rate. If you sell within the seven years, you pay us back. After seven years, it’s all forgiven, you don’t owe us anything,” Charles said.

The Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency sounds like it might actually help people. That must be nice. In contrast, Missoula’s redevelopment agency prefers helping out entities, like banks. A specific example was reported on last December when KECI described how Missoula issued a 1.5 million dollar bond to Stockman’s bank, then allowed the bank to purchase the bond, so not only is the city of Missoula giving the bank public money, it’s also paying a 4% interest rate to the bank itself.

According to a professor from the totally not corrupt city of Chicago, this arrangement is very unusual:

In March, the city of Missoula issued a $1.5 million bond to reimburse Stockman Bank for part of their almost $30 million construction project on Orange Street and East Broadway.

According to city documents, the bond was issued to pay for improvements such as “environmental remediation and demolition of vacant buildings on the property, burial of overhead power lines within the public right-of-way and construction of new curb, gutter, sidewalks, lighting and landscaping within the public right-of-way.”

Stockman Bank then purchased that bond, meaning along with reimbursement the city is also paying Stockman a 4% interest rate on that $1.5 million.

“There are a couple of things that are very unusual about that,” University of Illinois at Chicago professor Dr. David Merriman said. “The bank being the beneficiary of TIF funds and then also buying the bond is, in my experience, very unusual.”

Merriman is an expert in TIF. He has studied its use in cities across the country for decades. He said he’s never seen an arrangement like the one between Stockman Bank and Missoula.

You know you’re scraping the bottom of the ethics barrel when an academic who studies TIF in Chicago raises an eyebrow over the financial deference Missoula exhibits toward its private sector.

Well, Missoula is the community Josh Martin will call home for a year or two before he moves along to spread the gospel of New Urbanism to the next gentrifying municipality.

How do I know Martin won’t be here long? Because not staying in a place for too long is a part of his intentional strategy. This is Martin in his own words from one of the above links: “I was very deliberate in never staying in a place too long,” said Martin, a native of northern Kentucky. “You want to maintain a dynamic nature and energy, to keep yourself fresh.”

So, for the next few years, Missoula will have to endure this prophet of New Urbanism who I’m sure is skilled at making gentrification sound like an amazing re-branding of how societies will function, but in reality pushes unwanted density on every scrap of land to maximize profit for developers. The communities Martin has recently influenced continue to struggle with unaffordable housing and gentrification. Missoula should expect the same

Stay tuned…

by William Skink

Yesterday I took time away from work to attend a Missoula City Council committee meeting. I had heard there was going to be an effort to replace Heather Harp as chair of the finance committee with Gwen Jones. The reason? Harp was apparently being too accommodating with the critics of how public money is being thrown around to developers through Tax Increment Financing.

With Lord Checota set to rake in 16.5 million in public money for his Big D(rift), we can’t have the pesky public asking questions like, what is the actual public benefit of giving all this money to a wealthy out-of-state developer?

Before getting to the commentary I provided to City Council, here’s how Jesse Ramos perceived the move yesterday to oust Heather Harp in favor of Gwen Jones:

Ramos said he was discouraged that Harp was ultimately voted out of the role, saying that he felt the decision was blatantly against the will of the people.

“It seems like the fact that she met with the TIF guys or that she’s willing to work with me is being held against her, and it’s just like, ‘Really?’” he said. “To hold this thing against Heather is sad and, honestly, Machiavellian because they want the narrative to be exactly the way they want it to be.”

Harp said that while she believed Gwen Jones would do a good job and she respected her wholeheartedly, she said it felt a little like people were falling in line with Bryan von Lossberg, council president, who nominated Jones.

I think Ramos is spot-on with this interpretation, which is why I decided to step up and speak about my experience with Gwen Jones. Here is the statement I read to the full council before they voted 7-5 to place Jones as chair:

My name is Travis Mateer and I’ve lived in Missoula for 20 years. I am here today as a private citizen to speak in support of Heather Harp and her effort to bring more transparency and public input regarding the use of public money through Tax Increment Financing.

I would hope all Council members see the benefit of bringing more transparency to the process of using public money to incentivize development in Missoula. Unfortunately my experience tells me otherwise.

In November of 2018 I wrote and submitted a poem to the Missoulian. The content referenced the sidewalk controversy that emerged after some Missoula property owners got letters from the City about how much they were going to owe for their share of replacing sidewalks. If you read it, the poem was quite critical of Missoula’s political leadership involved in that poorly thought out, economically distressing decision those homeowners faced.

The response I received from Gwen Jones to that poem was quite startling. She used her position as a board member at the non-profit where I currently work to take me away from my paid work duties so she could tell me “her side of the story”.

I won’t get into the details of what transpired out of respect for my current employer except to say I received a written apology from Gwen Jones and the board was informed how my 1st amendment right to free speech was very nearly violated.

Everyone has bad days now and then, but what I am starting to see with this particular public official is a pattern of disregard for the public, a public I might add who has every right to know about the processes and people directing public money, and a right to examine who ultimately benefits when millions and millions of public dollars are set to be directed to just one developer’s big drift.

Thank you for your time in considering my comment and my concern.

Making this comment was very difficult for me, especially during a week with violence at the Pov triggering my own past trauma. I was shaking as I read my comment, and after finishing I got up and walked out. The stress made me physically ill to the point I couldn’t finish my work day.

Despite the personal impact, I am glad I got up and told my story. It won’t be the last time, you can count on that. I will continue writing and speaking out because Gwen Jones is not an ethical councilperson who wants to allow the public more input on how public money is spent. Her behavior toward me and the trouble it caused the non-profit where I work is indicative of her disregard for any criticism the public may have over her actions as a councilperson.

Stay tuned…

by William Skink

While there is still no indication whether or not Johnny Lee Perry will be charged by the County Attorney’s office for a crime surrounding the fight at the Poverello Center that left one man dead, there is increased scrutiny over how the Poverello Center is handling the winter overflow.

Here is an excerpt from an NBC Montana piece:

The Poverello wouldn’t talk specifically about that incident. They were able to explain how they train their staff to deal with those situations.

“We focus on de-escalation training that really supports folks, and really works to help them calm down,” said Allison-Thompson

The Poverello’s policy of who can and can’t come in, changed back in November.

“We specifically focus on a behavior-based policy, so as long as people’s behavior in the building is appropriate, they are welcome to stay,” Allison-Thompson told NBC Montana.

They say it was a recommendation by the city. “We felt good moving into that, because it is a best practice nationwide to be a behavior-based shelter,” said Allison-Thompson. “So we’re actually following the lead of shelters around the nation in that.”

My emphasis draws attention to the apparent fact that the city of Missoula is setting policy for Missoula’s homeless shelter. This could be an important distinction if the family of the deceased man decide to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

The Poverello Center was not built to serve 175 people, it was built to serve 100-120 people. And it wasn’t built with serving people who are actively using drugs and alcohol in mind. If the city “recommended” that the Pov serve more people than the building was built for, and more unstable people due to their use of drugs and alcohol, then if litigation occurs, it should be the city of Missoula on the hook defending its recommendations.