Month: August 2022

by Travis Mateer

The title of this post is NOT who is QUALIFIED to be the Mayor of Zoom Town because who am I kidding? This isn’t the kind of political climate where the cream of the crop is going to rise to the top. Instead we’ll be dealing with substances that look more like this:

Am I walking into a metaphor that connotes some sort of unconscious racial bias? Probably, and thanks to someone who REALLY doesn’t know any better, race gets to be a fun focus for the slate of candidates that unsurprisingly will include Jacob Elder.

Here’s the inevitable announcement I hoped I wouldn’t see on Facebook:

What is driving this young man to ignore the drubbing he received against Mayor Engen? A political loss that occurred BEFORE the no contact court-order imposed on Elder after serious allegations have once again been directed at him, this time from his baby mama? Is it the church community helping this troubled young man keep the faith, thus wasting our time, with his obsession?

Moving on (like Elder needs to do) we have Jordan Hess, a City Council person and Director of Transportation for ASUM. Or is he? I’ve heard Hess has moved on from that position. Is he getting ready to be Mayor?

The next possible candidate might not even be a possible candidate, but the way Stacie Anderson glared at me and my council viewing partner during the long Council meeting made me realize I had no idea what Anderson does when she isn’t killing Carlino amendments, and after some quick online searching, I STILL don’t know, but it has something to do with making more progressive candidates like her and Pete Buttigieg.

When you go to the New Deal profile page for Stacie Anderson, you’ll see the organization she is supposedly the director of. From the link (emphasis mine):

Councilmember Anderson was born and raised in Montana and is a proud graduate of the University of Montana, with a degree in Organizational Communications. Stacie is a passionate believer that the best way to ensure good policy is by electing effective policy makers; she has worked with and led several statewide organizations whose missions range from electing conservation champions to electing more progressive pro-choice women. Councilmember Anderson currently serves as the Executive Director of A Better Big Sky, which is a state-based donor alliance that works to fund greater civic engagement and progressive leadership.

I tried finding more about A Better Big Sky, but there isn’t much online about this organization, which I find a little weird, so instead I poked around the New Deal website to see who else are promoted leaders, and I found another Stacey who is very well known for her political activism:

If you’re interested in how created political persons like Stacie and Stacey operate, the Propaganda Report has been tracking Stacey Abrams for quite some time. Here’s a podcast episode examining some of the questions Abrams raises with her political advocacy.

On Friday, Missoula citizens will get to see the names of those who turned in applications to be Mayor. I’ll be writing more as this process plays out, so stay tuned.

And, as always, thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Longtime readers of my local reporting will see the title of this post and know EXACTLY who I’m talking about, and that’s “reporter” Martin “Gomer” Kidston.

While I’m sure it’s somewhat entertaining to have my take on Gomer’s propagandist/watercolor-with-words style, I think it’s more significant to highlight what a City Council person has to say about Martin’s “reporting”, so here’s Kristen Jordan calling out Gomer on Facebook:

The “article” Kristen Jordan is frustrated with can be read here and features this misleading headline:

This title is supposed to describe what happened on Monday night at City Council, but I’m struggling to understand how the amendments proposed by Daniel Carlino would have added expenses. I called the Missoula Current’s publisher, Lisa Vachio, to ask if she could clarify what this headline is referring to, but I never heard back.

One of the more confusing parts of the article is the two paragraphs below. What is being accomplished by awkwardly inserting the tax increase after referring the Trust Fund?

I think by squishing these two topics together in this manner, Gomer is hoping the stink of the tax increase will somehow waft onto the Carlino/Jordan effort to divert money to the affordable housing trust fund. Will it work? If anyone actually read the Missoula Current, it might, but I don’t think people with functioning brains rush to Martin’s publication for accurate reporting.

I also took a look at how the Missoulian reported on Monday night’s budget wrangling. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis mine):

Carlino, with the backing of Ward 6 council member Kristen Jordan, sought repeatedly to boost the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Mobile Support Team first responders and to cut funding for Rogers International security services, but he met concerns about appropriating funds already designated to help Missoula’s houseless population through other programs.

“When we talk about a housing crisis as a council, as a government, our budget should match up with what we’re saying,” Carlino insisted. “If it’s a crisis then we should put funding to help the crisis and that’s what I’m trying to do with this amendment.”

That particular amendment referred to an attempt to use $600,000 in surplus ARPA funds for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

But Ward 1 council member Heidi West said, “I think it’s disingenuous to frame the contribution to the Housing Trust Fund as a totality of what we do as a council, or as a city, or as a community overall in the realm of affordable housing. I think that the current funding decision is prudent based on the unknowns.”

What is Heidi West referring to when she references “unknowns”? I think West, along with other Councilors, are concerned that the $5 million dollar crisis service levy will be killed by voters who don’t like the idea of fiscal self-immolation.

The wrangling that lasted into the wee hours Monday night only touched on a minuscule portion of the $267 million dollar budget, less than a million dollars. The money being discussed would have helped out those less fortunate than, say, the tourists our elected leaders our banking our economic vitality on.

To exemplify this, the Missoulian has an article today about OVER A MILLION in ARPA funds going to Caras Park to make this image into a reality:

From the link:

You won’t have to pick your way down a steep, boulder-strewn, ad-hoc dirt path to get to the river at Caras Park in downtown Missoula much longer, thanks to a massive federal grant award for significant accessibility improvements.

On Tuesday, the administration of President Joe Biden announced that $1.2 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act has been awarded to the city of Missoula to support a river access construction project.

Caras Park will get a new viewing platform, retaining walls, an Americans with Disabilities Act-approved path to the river and new steps. The project is meant to create greater access to the park and river and to support local tourism. The federal grant will be matched by $305,076 in local funds and is expected to create 21 jobs, according to a city estimate.

If the last few days haven’t made clear what our Council prioritizes, and what they just give lip-service to, that’s because local reporting, like Kidston’s Missoula Current, is misleading by design.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I’d like to thank Missoula’s best-dressed private security firm, Rogers International, for what happened at City Council last night, because without them dressing like Mexican revolutionaries, Daniel Carlino wouldn’t have had the same rhetorical opportunity to turn the budget process into a marathon conversation about our community’s priorities.

One of the big takeaways for me was the admission, from an audibly rattled Eran Pehan, that Rogers International (RI) was given their city contract to secure homeless sites across the city in a rushed, no-bid process. Because pandemic. Also, Pehan said RI was given notice of their contract violation after deviating from their contractual dress code, and will now face a competitive process once the city contract is up on October 31st.

I don’t blame Pehan for being rattled because she got absolutely grilled last night on the RI contract, including an insightful comment from Council person, Kristen Jordan, about the survey Pehan referenced depicting RI in a not-so-awful light. The survey, Jordan explained, featured questions that ensured a certain result. Jordan then backed up her assertion with her education credentials. Impressive.

Another set of public comments that I hope made Eran Pehan squirm, considering her history overseeing homeless service providers at the Poverello Center for many years, came from paid staff from the Johnson Street shelter, which is only open during Missoula’s cold months. Those staff said they weren’t properly trained to handle difficult cases, like April Schmidt, who allegedly died when she jumped in front of a car. I spoke briefly with April before she died about her treatment inside the Missoula County Detention Facility, so I made sure those ill-prepared shelter staff members got my business card before I left Council chambers in disgust.

I only partially tracked the ensuing budget amendment battle because I did something our Council members denied themselves: sleep.

I didn’t sleep long, however, after coming to and realizing my phone was missing. If it wasn’t for my budget battle viewing partner convincing me (and driving me) to Council chambers (after shocking me with evidence that the meeting was still happening) then we wouldn’t have been able to commend Daniel Carlino and Kristen Jordan in person for doing a fantastic job spurring this marathon conversation, and I wouldn’t have gotten my phone back from one of TWO city police officers who were present to maintain order.

If you don’t think the threat of disorder is real, then you didn’t hear the very threatening CLAPPING that happened at one point, something Gwen Jones shut down immediately. I think Jones may have been slightly triggered by the recollection of a previous citizenry uprising that I helped document here.

Last night’s amendment battle was a microcosm of that previous skirmish, which lasted months and took a pandemic to stop. At one point during the argument about whether or not to utilize surplus ARPA funds, Gwen Jones appealed to Dale Bickell, asking him if the funds were earmarked for Operation Shelter. Dale’s response was to say the word earmarked was “a bit strong”. Thanks Dale!

Before doing accounting for the City, Bickell was with the County. Here’s a little more about The Bick:

Bickell served as Chief Financial Officer for Missoula County from 2000 to 2008. He worked for a local accounting firm for five years while he was also a partner in the then-startup Big Dipper IceCream. He serves on several boards, including United Way of Missoula County. He is a Missoula native who grew up in Helena. His wife, Lisa Bickell, is education director at the Montana Natural History Center. They and their two young children live in the heart of Missoula in Dale’s grandmother’s house, which has been in the family since the 1950s. “The public service aspect of working in local government and doing good things for my community are really important to me,” he said. “This is an opportunity to continue that.” Bickell’s recruitment is part of a larger transition plan as Mayor Engen and City Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Bender prepare for Bender’s eventual retirement over the course of the next few years. Mayor Engen expects Bickell’s presence on the City management team to benefit both local governments. “We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with the County,” he said, “and we expect that Dale’s work here will only serve to strengthen that relationship.”

Yep, that transition from the County to the City is a big red flag for me, as is the board position on United Way.

In summary, it was GREAT to be back in the sausage-making center of municipal power, getting a nice glare from Ellen Buchanan, listening to the painful cadence of Jordan Hess, and appreciating the cold gaze of the Ice Queen herself, Gwen Jones.

It’s also nice to know the public will get another chance to provide commentary on the wisdom of continuing paying ANY private security firm money to provide their brand of order in the concentration camps Authorized Camping Site.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

My question about whether or not the new mandate of BIPOC cultural platforming could be considered a form of narrative control was allowed at first by moderator Joseph Grady, but despite acknowledging my white privilege several times, I was ultimately told to shut up and listen.

Maybe it was my description of what our caring, liberal community DOES NOT KNOW about what happened to Sean Stevenson and Johnny Lee Perry. Or maybe it was my interpretation of equality meaning Native writers like Sherman Alexie get to do the same things with their fame and celebrity as the privileged whites.

Whatever it was, my perspective was definitely not appreciated by anyone in that room. Especially the moderator, who dropped an f-bomb on me. Nice.

For the tokens who get curated and put on display for PR purposes, it might be instructive to examine some of the people on TEAM ARTS MISSOULA, like Heidi Starrett, the white lady who does sales for the Missoula Broadcasting Company.

Here’s an Arts Missoula post from Heidi Starrett from April of this year getting psyched to support the government-picked-winners that got to survive the pandemic, which was recently declared over by the CDC. From the link:

As Missoula, along with countless communities across the globe, is  “getting back to normal” following 2 years of a worldwide pandemic, its become even more clear how prominent arts & culture are in our daily lives. With the return of concerts, live theater, film festivals and countless other arts & cultural related events currently in the planning stages for a big return this summer, there seems to be a bit of a buzz around our little mountain city.  Seeing and hearing individuals thrilled to plan for summer events and organizations excited to bring new & improved annual events back to life, the excitement is palpable, which has been a reminder to me of how fortunate we are in Missoula to have access to the arts. 

Access to the arts offers a rich experience that can truly shape our lives & our community, allows us to see the world beyond our own front door, our neighborhood or our own city and can inform ones view of the world. The arts allow us to understand the experience and point of view of others with whom we may not otherwise connect.  But can you imagine a community without direct access to arts & culture?

The next person on the board I’d like to highlight, who is also white, is Scott Woodall of ABC Fox Montana. Here’s a man with some media access and the distinct look of white privilege to get something done!

And here is the search result from his news station when I searched for the name SEAN STEVENSON:

Yes, the name of the man assaulted at the Poverello Center on January 3rd, 2020, then later euthanized at St. Pats hospital WITHOUT his family being notified first, only came up THIRD in the search results. I’m sure Scott Woodall is losing sleep over this marginalization of a BIPOC person who died in our caring, liberal community.

The last white person I’d like to highlight is someone I spoke with a few weeks ago about homeless issues, since his name hit the media as a BIG supporter of the 5 million dollar mill levy to replace the heroin-like funding our funding addicts in social services need to keep enabling the reason they exist. Remember, I say that having worked at the Poverello Center for 7 years.

Here’s what this “white” car salesman thinks about putting an additional tax burden on struggling property owners who probably are white themselves, since they live in Missoula, and therefore should just shut the fuck up about it.

“Soon, ARPA funding provided to Missoula by our federal government will run out. There’s currently no plan in place to run programs supported by that funding,” said Shannon Flanagan, who is helping spearhead the levy request. “Without replacing this funding, the programs the city and county has created to support those in the community who are experiencing struggles with homelessness, addiction and mental health will disappear.”

Since all these white people on the board of ARTS MISSOULA love art so much, I have a PERFECT poem for them. Also, if a white guy token is needed for a panel, I humbly offer my services. Now, let’s do a poem, shall we!

the token fits the slot
be it house or field
sorry, that was yesterday
today's a different deal
for I have seen Black Mirrors
outline future scenes
aggressive helicopters?
no, there is no need
talents of the tongue
can always be absorbed 
slot engineering is
a function of the war
yes, there's still nostalgia
for dropping from the sky
containers of explosion 
to stupefy the mind
but non-kinetic means
feature deeper hooks
now the war depends 
on shaping where you look
the token is ok
the token will survive 
you and me, we shall see
if we are alive

by Travis Mateer

Yesterday morning I got as close to Mayor Engen’s baseball stadium funeral as I felt comfortable in order to provide an on-the-ground report about the Mayoral send-off. The video clip I recorded references the significant amount of city employees who appeared to be “on the clock” to make this event possible.

The number I got of employees involved in this send off–over 700 of them–came from Mayor Engen’s best friend, Michael Belusci. Considering how desperate the financial situation is for so many Missoulians, I don’t think ignoring the cost of Engen’s send off is a good idea. So I won’t.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/741606428?h=22173176d6&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

As a poet educated at the University of Montana, my eulogy is a little different than Senator Tester’s, or the former Mayor of Missoula, Mike Kadas, who made a tasteless fat/drunk comment about our dead Mayor. I guess that makes sense coming from the coward who hid at an undisclosed location during the tumultuous Hells Angels visit in 2000, which resulted in over 100 arrests of local citizens unhappy with a militarized police presence in our liberal utopia.

So here’s the poem. Adios, Mayor.

reporting for the paper
didn't fill the hole
John, he was a joker
to hide a hurting soul
he moved us like a waistline
lacking self control
townships are for bumpkins
a city was his goal

I'm stepping over needles
and bodies under tarps
a stadium awaits
beyond the grocery carts
Broadway got a diet
his belly got a knife
on the city plan
to extend his life

for what, I'm left to wonder
to disappear our town?
to actualize a fiction 
standing upside down?
no more empty words
making hopeful sounds
you finally made your exit
to rot beneath the ground

no more soaring platitudes 
the Ice Queen scans the crowd
Senators and Governors 
offer up their clout
colleagues of the game
pretend he did his best
posturing like peacocks 
with narcissistic zest 

meanwhile little citizens
go about their day
keeping shut their mouths
if nothing nice to say
we're like that in the west
even towns on zoom
wondering if our tolerance
is running out of room