Month: October 2022

by Travis Mateer

No other state in America saw the kind of people with means move within its borders as Montana did the last two years, and now there’s data to back up what those of us who have been around for awhile can plainly see. From the link:

Bryce Ward, a Montana economist and consultant, used American Community Survey data and found that between 2019 and 2021, the number of Montana households earning $200,000 or more per year increased by nearly 12,000, or 63%.

There were 18,918 such households before the pandemic in the state. Now there are roughly 30,784.

“Data confirm what many Montanans have already noticed,” Ward wrote on Twitter. “Lots more ‘rich’ people live in Montana.”

The next closest states to see such drastic increases were Rhode Island and Vermont at 50% and Utah at 44%. Several states, like North Dakota, Illinois and California, saw a decrease of wealthy households. In the U.S. overall it was about 20%.

These numbers are numbing. And the changes are being felt in visceral ways, ways the newcomers can’t understand because they don’t have the context.

I was a newcomer in 2000 when I moved here after visiting family in Spokane for a wedding. Since I had to finish college, this seemed like a good place to do it.

My own narrative arc is now in a crash and burn phase that is cruelly mirrored in external issues getting local media attention, like the effort that has exploded to save Holland Lake lodge from being massively developed by a Utah-based company who doesn’t give a fuck about the low-key development that has been there, quietly and beautifully, for years.

I got married at Holland Lake lodge in 2003, and now that marriage has fallen apart, so seeing people coming out of the woodworks to slow the development for PR purposes, like Senator Tester, just pisses me off.

Another great set of memories I have of the college days is time spent on KBGA’s airwaves, playing music while comfortably ensconced in a world that made much more sense because the wars were kinetic and started by politicians with the last name “Bush”.

Well, yesterday morning I read about how even that long-appreciated part of Missoula’s community isn’t even being included in emails discussing the intent to relocate the radio station, or possibly shutter it altogether. Read the story for yourself, I find it too maddening to even comment on it right now.

Since the spot where I had my moments broadcasting music from 89.9 on the FM dial might disappear, I went to campus to document this piece of campus history. Here are some pics.

Things change, that is inevitable. And things die. My dog, for example, has bone cancer and the question of whether or not to amputate was mirrored by Missoula’s first Pet Commissioner being a dog that was saved from being euthanized instead of given a chance with amputation.

Instead of forever mourning what is inevitable, I’m going to keep fighting to ensure what comes next isn’t a technocratic dystopia run by psychopaths. That includes continued coverage from the streets as things happen, like this brief commentary on the crisis mill levy:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/760403900?h=5d907ce435&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

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So thank you, and stay tuned. I’ve got some interesting stuff brewing.

by Travis Mateer

It’s too bad the weather yesterday wasn’t cold and dismal because cold and dismal will be the future for crisis services in Missoula if voters deny the $5 million dollar mill levy. Or so the story goes.

The promotional event was held at the fire station and featured the new Mayor, two County Commissioners, and some of the people carrying out the programs that this money COULD benefit. The event did NOT have our outgoing Sheriff or lead County Attorney present, something I felt compelled to ask about before the speakers shuffled off inside to administer the pro-levy propaganda directly.

I’m not sure who needed the convincing, since the audience seemed comprised of those paid to be there or just generally supportive. Maybe even THOSE people need some convincing?

To keep any program hostages from straying off the reservation, the Missoulian is helping tie the closure of the Authorized Camping Site to the worry about losing funding if the mill levy doesn’t pass. Not the ACTUAL LOSS of funding, but just the fear of the loss of funding. From the link:

The difficult decision to close the Authorized Camping Site for homeless community members in Missoula illustrates the dire need to pass a crisis services levy in order to build, fund and staff alternative sites, say city and county leaders.

This paragraph doesn’t read quite right. Let’s try it this way:

The difficult decision to close the Authorized Camping Site for homeless community members in Missoula illustrates the dire lack of planning that a crisis services levy won’t fix, but we did it anyway because it will help justify the money we’re asking for.

There, I think that reads better, don’t you?

Further down in the article, the funding mechanism described by the Missoulian fails to properly use the word PERPETUITY. This is an important word to think about because it highlights the fact this money has no sunset clause, or other ways to assess what we’re paying for, so we can’t stop paying for the programs if they’re not working. From the link:

The levy would raise about $5 million per year, and would cost property owners approximately $27 a year per $100,000 of assessed home value.

Yes, for just $27 dollars a year from each property owner, we can do amazing things, things that Mayor Hess described in this totally not confusing speculative quote about the pie-in-the-sky possibilities of making the winter emergency shelter an all year emergency shelter, giving us TWO WHOLE emergency shelters in Missoula (the Poverello Center being the other one):

“If the levy passes, we will have stability and predictability of funding that will allow us to make long-term decisions and do long-term planning,” Hess said. “And I would’t be surprised at all if we could come up with a year-round emergency shelter option that took the place of the Emergency Winter Shelter and also provided a place of respite in the heat and smoke and other times of year and was really a replacement for both of those services.”

After Mayor Hess’ confusing quote, Commissioner Slotnick chimed in with how money will make them more thoughtful and less likely to use duct tape and baling twine:

“We pulled these efforts together with access to time, money and a whole lot of baling twine and duct tape and extra effort on the part of staff,” Slotnick said. “And as for the future of these things, our commitment will not waver but our access to funding and a lot of the future depends, not entirely, but depends on the outcome of this levy, which would allow us to put together more thoughtful, robust efforts designed for the long-term.”

It’s very difficult to hear that more money is needed to be thoughtful when an ENTIRE DECADE has gone by since the initiation of Missoula’s 10 year plan to end homelessness, which launched in 2012. If that sounds like a long time ago, that’s because it was.

I’d like to say this promotional event was the least convincing thing I witnessed on Thursday, but, sadly, a few hours spent in the Mineral County Courthouse listening to the impressive gaslighting from Wally’s World actually takes the cake.

But that is a story for another day.

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Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Do a majority of Missoula’s elected leaders like the idea of gun control? Yes, I think it’s safe to say they do. They like gun control so much that many years ago an effort was made to restrict person-to-person gun sales within city limits, a move that triggered (pun intended) a state legislative response. For some context, here’s the I told you so post I wrote in April, 2021.

You might be wondering why I am talking about gun control when the topic at hand is private security and the crisis levy to fund homeless services. Well, maybe because the NEW private security firm replacing the OLD private security firm has had issues with a staff member being properly licensed to carry a gun.

Here’s Emily Armstrong doing damage control over Black Knight’s checkered past:

Armstrong also noted that Ward 3 Council Member Daniel Carlino was concerned about the fact that Black Knight Security and Investigations had been placed on probation by the state of Montana for employing an armed security guard who did not have the proper firearm license to carry a gun.

This legal ding Black Knight had to deal with in the past didn’t impact their successful bid for the homeless private security contract. I guess a lack of gun control is only a problem when regular citizens want to own one in our growing dystopia.

I’ve had a couple of conversations with Black Knight about this new role for private security and my impression was this contract wasn’t lucrative enough for work security staff would be doing, but it sounds like that work is being allowed to change “models”.

What does that mean? It means that instead of standing around waiting to call REAL cops if anything serious starts happening, these new security people are going to be hanging out in cars waiting to call REAL cops if anything serious starts happening.

Here is how the article describes the change in security models:

Armstrong said that Black Knight had proposed a different model than the current security services provider, Rogers International.

Black Knight will provide more of a “roving” security service, meaning staff members will not be stationed 24/7 at sites like the neighborhood around the Poverello Center or the residential streets around the Emergency Winter Shelter on Johnson Street.

“This type presence is an intentional decrease than the more intensive model of stationed staff person that we‘ve had over the last year,” Armstrong explained. “We’re decreasing the intensity of constantly felt security service.”

Rogers International operates with a 24/7, stationed-guard model. Black Knight, in contrast, has indicated they will have security personnel readily available to respond to calls for service, but will not have staff members at sites all the time. They will also be patrolling city-owned parks.

At the end of this quote the work Black Knight is already doing for city-owned parks is mentioned. I am VERY familiar with this work, since I called Parks and Rec recently to determine why the gates to the bridge to nowhere are strangely shut when they should be open, like the middle of a nice Saturday.

Now Black Knight will bring this work ethic to securing homeless sites around Missoula. Fantastic!

One site that won’t have to be privately secured with public money is the Authorized Camp Site. Why? Because our illuminated braintrust realized they done fucked up, so I guess it’s best to shut it down and shift enabling services over to the winter shelter.

Here is a quote from the same article about the closure of the ACS (emphasis mine):

Several residents of the Authorized Camping Site spoke and said that they hoped that the site could remain open through the winter. An outreach worker who often visits the site, where about 60 people live, also expressed the same opinion.

Carlino asked if ARPA funds could be used to keep the Authorized Camp Site open.

However, Armstrong and city chief administrative officer Dale Bickell said the challenges of keeping the site open in the winter are insurmountable, especially because it lacks running water. Armstrong noted that outreach workers have been in contact with people living there to give them a heads up that the site would be closing, and the goal is for them to be able to move to the Emergency Winter Shelter, which opens on Oct. 31.

“We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Ward 3 Council Member Gwen Jones, noting that the city is trying to make sure that funds are available to operate homeless shelters next year when federal funds dry up in case a crisis services levy fails to pass this November.

See what Gwen Jones is doing here? It’s almost like our City Council president is taking out her frustration that critics like me have been effective in exposing the homeless industrial complex schemes, but she can’t shut me down, so instead she will frame the failure as prudent preparation for what the voters might do next month.

Regardless of what happens with the $5 million dollar crisis levy, sites around Missoula WILL have private security paid for by public tax dollars. But don’t worry, Missoula, I’m sure we will never see outfits like this again:

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by Travis Mateer

It appears Michael Burks’ figurative airplane has crashed and burned so severely that he has fled the state amidst claims of death threats and drug dealing, but before getting into all that, let’s examine the connections Burks has to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office.

Despite our Sheriff’s Office being led by an elected Democrat, law and order agencies generally lean conservative when it comes to politics, so it’s not surprising that the guy who made a short documentary about Michael Burks spent 25 years working at the Sheriff’s Office in Missoula. From the link (emphasis mine):

An award-winning, short documentary film called “Angels Do Fly West” was released nationwide on Friday, and it was made by a Missoulian.

The film brings awareness to a volunteer-driven organization that arranges flights for people with serious medical conditions who might otherwise not be able to get the treatment they need.

The film’s director, producer and creator Joe McNeal worked at the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department for 25 years before he retired.

The film features a pilot, who McNeal discovered on social media.

The pilot is, of course, Michael Burks, and the documentary is pretty short and DEFINITELY worth watching. Here, let me make it easy for you:

Michael Burks is a very active person, and some of his passions, which have spilled over into contentious community conversations, have included junior hockey, Christian books and, most recently, fitness.

I didn’t know much of this community history about Burks until recently, especially how much fun some liberal luminaries have had over the years talking shit on this guy. Here’s one of ’em, an accomplished author by the name of Richard Fifield:

This insightful perspective from Richard Fifield tells me two things: one, he probably votes for Democrats (like Missoula Sheriff, T.J. McDermott) and, two, he probably has NO CLUE that Michael Burks has ANOTHER connection to the Sheriff’s Office, and that’s with Chaplain and LifeGuard Group head honcho, Lowell Hochhalter.

If you peruse the comments on social media about the story of Michael Burks stepping down as president of Fuel Fitness after the press release (read it in full at the first link above) you will find quite the pile-on, including a discussion about Burks’ personal life.

Instead of focusing on the salacious crap that social media banter is interested in, I’m curious why a guy who has connections to a Missoula law enforcement agency isn’t tapping that connection for some kind of support in this dire situation.

And when I say dire, here is the text from Michael Burks himself describing the extreme actions he is taking to protect himself.

I was quite interested to know more about this situation, so I tried to set up a phone interview. I was not successful, but here is part of my interaction:

There is a lot more after this exchange, but it’s not really pertinent to Burks’ plans, which was apparently to flee the state to an undisclosed location because drug dealers took over two of his fitness stores. And those drug dealers weren’t good at balancing the books, or something like that.

After thinking about this exchange for a bit, I figured it might be something the Butte-Silver Bow County Sheriff’s Office might want to know about, so I tried to make a phone report, but no one has gotten back to me yet.

Maybe it’s pointless to try and make this report. I mean, what is there really to be suspicious about? Michael Burks likes to fly planes, he likes to open businesses, and he made his money brokering freight deals, which the Missoulian described in a 2007 article like this (emphasis mine):

It’s hard to believe that, just six months ago, Burks was working out of his basement.

His rise has been both literal and figurative; his new office-with-a-view is symbolic of a soaring business that recently won him a place on Entrepreneur magazine’s Hot 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing small businesses.

The business is Big Sky Specialized Carriers Inc., a freight logistics company that connects people who need things hauled to the truckers who can haul them. Burks launched the company in October 1999 with an initial investment of $50,000 in personal savings. He turned a profit – and in fact, made his first $1 million – by the end of the same year.

If I was just going for clicks there is a lot more I could be putting out in this post, but I’m not going to do that because other Fuel Fitness locations are still open for business and a new handler is trying to keep things from going totally off the rails.

What interests me, as I’ve said before, is more about the things NOT happening. Maybe I’ll need to add a call back from the Butte-Silver Bow Sheriff’s Office to the list.

Thanks for reading, and please consider supporting my independent journalism anyway you can.

by Travis Mateer

This Thursday, from 3-6pm at Missoula Fire Station #4 at 3011 Latimer St., supporters of the Crisis Mill Levy will be on hand to answer questions in an open house style format. I spoke with one of the people who will be present, but just on background, so I’ll withhold his name.

I wanted to tell this person doing the actual work some of the reasoning I had for going on KGVO a few weeks ago to describe my experience at the Reserve Street camps and how that experience (among others) has formed my opinion that the Crisis Levy should be turned down by the voters.

One of the constant refrains in my direct conversations with people is the problematic leadership at the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney’s Office. Though I might support an individual program that I know to be worth supporting and professionally run, like the Mobile Crisis Unit, the lack of specificity with WHERE the $5 million dollars that the levy will generate a big problem.

At the first link there is a long list of things that COULD be funded by this levy. In the following screenshot, notice how the word COULD is used twice:

After two years of the pandemic-related sacrifices EVERYONE has made, it’s offensive that our elected leaders can’t be more specific with how the levy money will be used.

Even worse, programs like Calibrate and “supervision” are intended to keep people out of county detention, where some people clearly need to be.

I also like how the Trinity Navigation Center–which isn’t even open yet and has ALREADY BENEFITED from the land it’s being built on being given to it by the County (by “it” I mean Blue Line Development of course)–is lining up as a potential recipient.

How many subsidies and other tax-generated handouts can one developer get?

For context, let’s go back to the year 2019, when Missoula County gifted this land for Trinity. Pay special attention to the “full” support voiced at the time by our outgoing Sheriff, T.J. McDermott (emphasis mine):

The Missoula County Commissioners officially agreed to donate land next to the jail for an affordable housing project and a 24/7 housing help center.

The project, part of the Trinity Affordable Housing Development, is set to include 130 apartment units, 30 of which will be reserved as supportive housing for the chronically homeless.

The roughly four acres of donated land were bought as part of the voter-approved 1996 jail bond. The land was originally intended for possible expansions of the detention center the bond funded or similar developments, but at a meeting Tuesday with county commissioners, Sheriff T.J. McDermott said he fully supported the donation, which fits squarely with the Jail Diversion Master Plan.

It’s funny to go back and read stuff from three years ago because, man, how things can change. And that’s not good when we’re talking about the leadership needed to instill confidence in a voting public that the money they’re being asked to spend will be responsibly directed to where it can do the most good.

Speaking of doing good, I have a crazy idea for outgoing Sheriff, T.J. McDermott: call off the $4.4 million dollar General Obligation Bond for your pay parity ploy (PPP).

Oh wait, you can’t because you got a law firm and SUED Missoula County for the extra pay.

Until we have responsible leaders capable of managing the double-digit tax increases already demanded to sustain essential services, I say nope to the crisis levy.

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