Day: April 15, 2020

by William Skink

When I wrote this post about the city purchasing the Sleepy Inn motel I forgot to highlight another maddening aspect of development in Missoula, the inevitable study.

You see, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency loves directing tens of thousands of TIF bucks to study what to do with the acreage the city has been accumulating. Much of this money has been going to the Florida-based consulting firm, Dover Kohl. Engen claims that will happen again with this parcel:

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency in February funded a study to complete a preferred development scenario for the parcel. The study will receive public input this year, with proposals including housing, office space, retail and parking. The end result should enable the city to partner with a private developer to move the recommendations to construction and occupancy.

Engen said Monday he envisions a similar process playing out at the Sleepy Inn if the City Council approves the purchase using tax increment financing from the district. Public input would help craft the end result.

“The best analogy would be what we’re doing with the Payne (library) Block,” Engen said. “We’d do a public scoping process to understand city and neighborhood desire, and follow that up with a request for proposals.”

While we prepare for our NEW NORMAL, it sure looks like there’s a lot of the idiotic old normal still happening.

If you’re relatively new to this blog, I’ve written a few posts on public-funded studies, Dover Kohl, and their ties to almost Development Director, Josh Martin.

Since it looks like this consulting firm in Florida is going to continue getting paid lots of public money to reshape our community in Missoula, Montana, people in Missoula really should pay a little more attention to how this firm has rolled through past communities.

I did a little more online searching today and found a very interesting article. Apparently the community of Naples View, Florida, had such a bad experience with Dover Kohl’s urban planning in 2003 that a decade later, in 2013, when talk of another study was broached, people were immediately skeptical. Here’s a lengthy excerpt from the article:

Naples Park, consider yourself notified.

A study is under way that could lead to improved sidewalks and better ‘walkability’ in the neighborhood.

The innocuous-sounding study is raising fears, however, of a repeat of the disastrous 2003 Naples Park Community Plan, an episode that led to no improvements and bitter feelings that linger to this day.

Also known as the Dover-Kohl Plan after the consulting firm that worked on it, the 2003 plan discussed ways to enhance Naples Park. Ideas included more sidewalks, better landscaping, on-street parking and even a new street to be built between Eighth Street and U.S. 41.

The Dover-Kohl Plan was accompanied by a media blitz to get the word out, a weeklong open meeting allowing residents to express their ideas and a door-to-door campaign to pass out fliers explaining the process.

But the ambitious plan that came out of the meetings also drew criticism. Many who hadn’t participated in the early stages later claimed to have been left in the dark. They balked at the fundamental change the plan would have meant for the neighborhood and the price that Naples Park residents would have had to pay through their property taxes.

It eventually disintegrated amid squabbling, accusations and counter accusations.

Now, 10 years later, comes the Naples Park Walkable Community Study. The Collier County MPO, made up of county commissioners and City Council members from Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City, heard an update on the plan last week.

Here’s more about how the first plan devolved:

Naples Park resident Chris Carpenter is spearheading the effort to make sure there’s no repeat of 2003.

‘It was a very divisive issue. It was horrible,’ Carpenter said, recalling an instance when a proponent of the 2003 plan made an obscene gesture to opponents at a public meeting.

‘What upset people the most was the lack of communication. People felt like it was done behind their backs. I’m seeing some signs of a lack of communication this time around,’ she said.

Carpenter asked the MPO to send out a survey to all Naples Park property owners asking their opinions on sidewalks. A 2003 survey on the issue showed about 68 percent opposed them, she said. If there isn’t enough money to do a survey this time, the entire walkability study should be dropped, she said.

I was really hoping a global pandemic would maybe scale back the ambitions of our new urban planners and their old addiction to public money, but, alas, it appears they see themselves as exempt from our NEW NORMAL.

by William Skink

One of the saddest parts of our broken mental health care system is the helplessness family members often feel as they watch their loved one spin out of control.

It is not unusual for family to hear from social services that involving law enforcement is necessary because once they are in the system more can be done, sometimes on an involuntary basis.

If a person is already in the system for, let’s say, threatening to beat a prosecutor to death with a baseball bat, and they are on probation for that crime, there is supposed to be a higher level of supervision that can step in when needed.

That didn’t happen with Jared Kuntz.

Kuntz is the 38 year old man accused of going on a rampage on Mt. Sentinel, beginning with fracturing a woman’s skull, terrorizing her 13 year old son, getting naked, then attacking two hikers, both UM students. Kudos to the student who had his Buck knife, because that’s what ultimately ended the attack.

Jared’s brother, Jacob, took to Facebook to provide an extensive, detailed account of the many steps he and his mother took to alert authorities to Jared’s “deteriorating” mental health. The letter in full will be pasted below the fold.

From my experience working at the shelter, the family members I talked to who were having the most difficult time were the ones who’s mentally ill loved one was just sane enough to NOT do anything too illegal to trigger legal intervention.

That is not the case with Jared Kuntz, he was on probation, and these were some of the steps Jacob took to sound the alarm:

In the Facebook post, Jacob Kuntz listed at least three instances across roughly a month before the Mount Sentinel attacks that he tried reaching out to the Missoula Probation and Parole office to raise an alarm about his brother’s troubling behavior.

Jacob Kuntz said he contacted the Missoula Police Department and an emergency mental health provider, but was ultimately told that patients cannot be involuntarily committed, but either court-ordered or volunteer themselves for commitment.

“I communicated with my brother and offered him that I will drive to Missoula and we would go together to the ER to get him help,” Jacob Kuntz wrote. “He refused.”

According to Jacob Kuntz, Jared threatened the lives of Jacob and his parents on April 10, the same day as the alleged assaults on Mount Sentinel. At approximately 5:30 that afternoon, Jacob Kuntz began to see reports of the Mount Sentinel incident that had begun hours earlier.

“The victims on the ‘M’ trail experienced tremendous trauma and suffering from horrible acts of violence that could have been avoided had these agencies responded appropriately,” Jacob Kuntz said, citing Missoula law enforcement and emergency psychiatric care providers along with the local probation office.

Jacob claims he was told his brother could not be involuntary committed unless it was court ordered, or his brother went voluntarily.

That is absolutely not true. If it’s an emergency situation where there is imminent risk, this is what Montana Code Annotated has to say:

53-21-129. Emergency situation — petition — detention. (1) When an emergency situation exists, a peace officer may take any person who appears to have a mental disorder and to present an imminent danger of death or bodily harm to the person or to others into custody only for sufficient time to contact a professional person for emergency evaluation. If possible, a professional person should be called prior to taking the person into custody.

(2) If the professional person agrees that the person detained is a danger to the person or to others because of a mental disorder and that an emergency situation exists, then the person may be detained and treated until the next regular business day. At that time, the professional person shall release the detained person or file findings with the county attorney who, if the county attorney determines probable cause to exist, shall file the petition provided for in 53-21-121 through 53-21-126 in the county of the respondent’s residence. In either case, the professional person shall file a report with the court explaining the professional person’s actions.

If you read Jacob’s letter, which I really hope you do, you may want to do some additional risk assessment as we navigate this NEW NORMAL world where Covid can be the simple excuse for everything wrong.

I can anticipate the excuses to sound something like, oh, well, gosh, sorry, our probation officers are working remotely, because Covid. And because they work remotely our voicemail system was being upgraded and no one got the message, because Covid. And everything about the already fucked up criminal justice system is going to be even more fucked up and non-responsive now because, you guessed it, COVID!

If you think I’m exaggerating, check out how Covid-related court adjustments supposedly led to the mistaken release of the dude arrested at Target for allegedly recording a boy peeing in the restroom:

A 38-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted sexual abuse of a child was released from the county jail Monday due to an apparent misunderstanding between the prosecutors and a judge in Missoula.

The mishap took place as the court system navigates communication changes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our criminal justice system and mental health care system were bad enough before the pandemic, but if we’re already at a point where the basic function of probation and parole can’t be met, then it’s time to upgrade the leatherman I’m currently carrying on my hip to something with more stopping power.

Read Jacob’s full letter beneath the fold.
Continue reading “The Family Of Jared Kuntz Tried To Stop The Rampage On Mount Sentinel Before It Happened, But Authorities Ignored Their Warnings”