Month: February 2020

by William Skink

Below is what looks like an interesting conversation about TIF. I’m only a few minutes in, but that’s all it took for me to want to share it here. Enjoy.

by William Skink

Who gets justice in our community? Who gets protection? Those two questions ran through my mind as I read that Brandon Bryant was booked earlier this week on a felony count of “threats in official and political matters”.

Why is Bryant being held on a bond of $100,000? According to Deputy County Attorney, Selene Koepke, “prosecutors sought the high bail because they believed Bryant to be a threat to public safety.”

So, because Brandon Bryant used threatening language that elected officials have interpreted as being directed toward them, he is deemed “a threat to public safety” and thrown in jail.

Johnny Lee Perry, on the other hand, USED HIS HANDS TO KILL ANOTHER HUMAN BEING and he spent exactly ONE DAY IN JAIL before being released back to the streets without ANY CHARGES, felony or otherwise.

The juxtaposition of these two cases is absolutely insane. How is a man who literally killed another person with his bare hands not considered a threat to public safety while a veteran whistleblower who used threatening language is allegedly so threatening he deserves to sit in jail on $100,000 bond?

Here’s more from the Deputy County Attorney about the very scary and threatening Brandon Bryant:

“Those videos had a terrifying effect, and while the state acknowledges that some of this language is cryptic and vague, it is clearly threatening and essentially threatens mass murder,” Koepke said.

Gee, County Attorney’s office, I wonder if the violent assault at the Poverello Center that resulted in the death of Sean Stevenson had “a terrifying effect” on residents at the shelter.

I don’t need an answer from the County Attorney’s office because it was reported last month that one consequence of the assault that left Stevenson dead is that two women felt so unsafe at the shelter they left that night and were later both sexually assaulted:

Two women left the Poverello Center after a fight broke out in the men’s dorm there Friday night. The man who police said invited them to stay at his motel room is now in custody for sexual assault.
…
Although the police report did not detail the incident at the shelter, an assault at the Poverello Center the same night left one man dead, according to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office.

Who gets justice in our community? Who gets protection? Are people experiencing homelessness deserving of justice and protection? Does the family of Sean Stevenson deserve to see justice for their loved one?

The Missoula County Attorney’s office doesn’t appear too concerned about the “terrifying effect” that allowing an alleged killer to walk free has on those in need of shelter services, or those who may have witnessed what transpired at the shelter on the night Stevenson and Perry had their altercation.

BUT if scary words somehow pierce the privileged bubbles of our elected officials, then the full weight of our criminal justice system can be mobilized to neutralize the threat.

Here’s City Council woman Gwen Jones:

Thursday, Missoula City Council Vice President Gwen Jones said she hopes Bryant “gets the resources and help that he needs” and that the council can “return to normal city government dynamic.”

“It would be irresponsible to not take something like this seriously,” Jones said.

Having worked in the the non-profit sector for the last decade, with 7 years at the Poverello Center and 3 years at Missoula Aging Services, I know a thing or two about the difficulty of connecting people to support services. Gwen Jones can hope all she wants, but her hope doesn’t fix a broken system that still hasn’t rebounded from the cruel cuts forced on the most vulnerable by State leaders during the budget shortfall a few years ago.

I also know about Bryant’s difficulty with getting help because I spoke with him at length about it just a few weeks ago.

If it was up to me, and I had the power to do it, I would create a new statute in Montana law that made reckless class privilege a crime, and I would charge elected officials like Jones with violating this statute. Then I would sentence her to a month of living at the Poverello Center. If she survived that experience, it would be my hope she could be a more enlightened, compassionate city council member.

It’s too bad I can’t sentence our elected leaders to viscerally experiencing life in an over-crowded shelter where people are actively using drugs and alcohol and sometimes you get beat to death in the dorm room.

When just a small dose of that reality presented itself in the form of a traumatized veteran experiencing a mental health crisis, our elected leaders responded by increasing the police presence for themselves and ultimately participated in using the criminal justice system to incarcerate one critic, while casting the guilt-by-association net across the others.

It’s clear to me what Gwen Jones means when she articulates her hope that Council can “return to normal city government dynamic”, but for those who may not speak politico bullshit as fluently as I do, let me translate:

It was so much easier to lord over our little fiefdom before you pesky members of the public started getting all uppity, and we really hope one man’s inability to be civil in his opposition to the class war being waged will invalidate all your criticism, no matter how well-founded, and dissuade anyone else from getting uppity thoughts about stepping out of line.

This story is far from over. Stay tuned…

by William Skink

Someone commenting under the name “Antman Lamp” has come to the defense of Nick Checota. Here is Antman’s first comment:

Nick – you are an honorable person and a great human. I have witnessed you and your teams build mission and values based companies that provide meaningful careers/jobs for hundreds, if not thousands of people. I’ve witnessed you do all of these things with you taking 100% of the risk and with no financial backing of any kind from your family. I was present for 20+ years and witnessed your commitment and work ethic. I also was there and know all of the facts – and knowing these facts means that I know for certain that not every source of journalistic information states the facts or the complete story. There is zero reason for anyone to take cheap shots at you or diminish your accomplishments. Please keep doing what you are doing and continue to build, create and give-back. Your proven track record speaks for itself.

I responded that there were 16.5 million reasons to diminish Nick’s hoped-for accomplishment with his Big D(rift). Antman didn’t understand this reference because he’s not from Missoula and probably has no idea about the housing crisis we are currently experiencing.

Why? Because Antman is a business buddy of Nick Checota from Milwaukee and his name, according to his email address, is Anthony Lampasona, of Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate.

Anthony Lampasona made another comment, imploring me to reach out and hug Nick Checota:

Not sure I follow your comment. If I was your friend and you were a good person – I would support you. Nick has earned the support he has done countless great things that have helped and served many of folks. Rather than mock him (continuing to call him names) and take cheap shots at him, why don’t you hug him up? What do you have to lose? You started this thread by stating by asking if his family history is a cautionary tale. It’s a valid question. Nick’s track record so far should significantly diminish the concern. Why hate things are great? Why not salute the efforts, the risk-taking and the personal and financial investment? Have you ever spent a day with Nick? Why don’t you approach him and ask to see what a day-in-the-life is like for him. You would be surprised by what you learn. Dude lives in a modest house, drives older cars, etc. He avoids most material excess and certainly he could afford it. These are honorable qualities – why the vitriol?

Before addressing the question “why the vitriol” I have a question for Mr. Lampasona: why is your developer pal in need of 16.5 million in public money to see this project through?

Maybe 16 million dollars isn’t a lot of money for Milwaukee developers, but in a little mountain town with an affordable housing crisis, 16 million is a big chunk of change that could do a lot more for this community instead of helping line the pockets of a Wisconsin developer.

While I appreciate that Nick Checota has at least one friend willing to come to his defense to better the optics for his business dealings in Missoula, the fact this guy is a business buddy from Wisconsin is interesting.

Despite the rapid gentrification and growth in Missoula, we are still a small mountain town, and stories about how people operate in this community circulate accordingly. Since covering Checota’s expanding Logjam monopoly, I have heard plenty of stories from people in Missoula, and none of them put Nick Checota in a very good light.

The use of the Tax Increment Financing to help build Checota’s event center/hotel/condo tower and the alleged public benefit of using public money is the real issue here, not whether or not a wealthy developer drives flashy cars or not.

As this project gets set to break ground this summer, stay tuned to this blog for glimpses of the counter-narrative that runs underneath the PR propaganda pushed by corporate media and our doe-eyed elected leaders who are too dazzled by development and expanding the tax base to remember their responsibility to ALL their constituents, even the ones who can’t afford to donate to their political campaigns.

by William Skink

During the past decade no other flagship university has had the decimating drop in enrollment that the University of Montana has had.

With a new decade beginning, is this the year the University of Montana will make a turn toward finally increasing enrollment? The numbers say no, though the spin say things are improving

The University of Montana’s enrollment dipped again, though with improvement in retention, as well as continued growth reported in the graduate and law schools, spring enrollment reports show.

The Montana University System’s flagship school has seen declining enrollment since a record high point in Fall 2011, with the current figures showing a nearly 35% decline in total student headcount since then.
…
“Last year, we had 3.0% fewer students in spring than fall; this year it’s 2.3%,” Cole wrote in the press release. “That may seem like a small change, but when you consider we were down 8.2% in 2018, 6.9% in 2017 and 9.1% in 2016, we are clearly moving in a very positive direction. This data affirms progress in our strategy of making incremental improvements in rebuilding enrollment.”

While enrollment keeps going down, the amount of money paid out to Seth Bodnar keeps going up every year. Here is news on his last raise, which the Board of Regents ok’d last November:

The Montana Board of Regents approved a $500,000 deferred compensation plan for University of Montana President Seth Bodnar, plus a 2% pay raise for both Montana State University President Waded Cruzado and Commissioner of Higher Education Clay Christian at its meeting in Bozeman on Friday.

All three administrators – including Bodnar — will receive a boost in salary from their current $320,122 to $326,524, effective Jan. 1.

It’s fascinating how our glorious capitalist system generously rewards those at the top of corporations and institutions of higher learning for failing. Outside of these ivory towers people don’t get rewarded for failing in their jobs, they get demoted or fired.

Gee, I wonder why more and more people aren’t terrified at the thought of a self-identified socialist winning the White House.

by William Skink

I am so inspired by candidate Pete’s skillful use of language I had no choice but to write this poem. Enjoy!

THE SHAPE OF MY DEMOCRACY

the shape of my democracy
is a circle with an X

the shape of my democracy
is an obelisk I use for sex

the shape of my democracy
is a rectangle flag of hope

the shape of my democracy
is a snow-white line of coke

the shape of my democracy
is a shifting fractal design

of words devoid of meaning
I can plausibly deny

because my name is Pete
and I want to be your prez

and the shape of my democracy
is tucked between my legs