Date: March 30th, 2023
Time: 10:00am-11:00am
Location: North Russell bridge area
plus Red Lion Inn
Business contacts: 1
Government/community contacts: 2
Houseless contacts: 0
I had no intention of stumbling upon a camper fire during my TIF work, but there it is, and it put up quite a plume of blackened, then whitish, smoke. Does that mean a new homeless Pope has been selected? No, that’s a silly question, and this is the serious QUALITATIVE part of the Assess and Address report I am doing as a part of Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Let’s begin.
I parked my vehicle in front of the mixed use apartment complex called the Equinox and did my outreach thing about possible volunteer cleanups along the river trail. First, I outreached Tamarack Property Management. That’s the business contact. I also popped in to the Homeword office, but since they’re a non-profit, I marked them as a community contact.
The other community contact is a resident of one of the apartment complexes and the conversation got started after he asked me if I was looking for something. I explained that I was looking for cleanup opportunities before April 10th, when the Johnson Street shelter will be closing.
I ended up getting lots of interesting perspective about how this person doesn’t always feel safe with the behavior of people seemingly under the influence of drugs in the area. He pointed out the shrubbery along the river that, when leafed out in the summer/fall seasons, provides nice cover for people who have needle-needs for their drug of choice.
This citizen also checks “Missoula mugs”, which is a website featuring mugshots, and he also checks the jail roster. He told me that he’s recognized someone accused of pretty serious crimes just hanging out in the area, which adds to his discomfort about how much he wants to be out in the area to enjoy the scenery. If trash doesn’t get cleaned up, he said, then this part of town gets a reputation for being a bad part of town.
Another supporter of the Broken Windows theory of cleaning shit up?
I stopped near the Sleepy Inn to record a brief update on my activities when a police response heading toward the Poverello Center caught my interest. Turns out, a camper was on fire.
I decided to stop where I initially thought the fire was occurring, which was the Red Lion Inn, but that’s because the camper that was burning was parked directly behind it. I saw someone walking through the parking lot who I won’t describe because this person gave me a name of who the camper belonged to, and the name led to some information I passed along to a Missoula police detective.
I will say this, there was a Johnson Street shelter connection that makes me more curious than ever about what’s going on AT and AROUND the Red Lion Inn.
The cost for this outing, which includes the writing of this post, is $43 dollars. And here’s the video.
When I saw Ellie Boldman warning her fellow legislators about NOT putting tourism dollars on the chopping block, I figured a quick scan of the program she was defending was in order, since back in 2021 Ellie and her husband double-dipped from a limited Covid relief fund. Here is Boldman (formerly Smith, and formerly Hill) defending tourism dollars (emphasis mine):
Sen. Ellie Boldman, D-Missoula, listed several programs that would get the ax. Using the Main Street Montana grants as an example, she warned her colleagues that hadn’t heard of the program: “If you pass this bill, you’re going to hear about it real quick.”
She rattled off a list of cities and towns that had received the grants — “and let me assure you, there’s no Missoula or Bozeman or Billings on the list.” The program helped steer visitors to small businesses and hotels while funding historic plazas and way-finding signs in Havre, Whitehall, Shelby, Roundup, Glendive, Baker, Ekalaka, Red Lodge, Glasgow and Lincoln, Boldman said.
My emphasis highlights an aspect of the TIF conversation I didn’t get to fully listen to after providing my testimony in Helena earlier this week, and much of that focused on Missoula specifically, but also the two other cities referenced by Boldman. Since Missoula (Ellie’s adopted hometown) is one of the main reasons TIF handcuffs are being legislatively designed, it’s a little ironic the Main Street Montana program she’s defending was used in one rural Montana town to actually CREATE an Urban Renewal District.
Here’s a screenshot from the program’s projects page listing the creation of a URD as an appropriate use of tourist tax dollars (emphasis mine):
Yes, TIF is so integrated into the fabric of our conversations about growth, it’s even popping up in the back and forth between opponents of the downtown “safety and mobility” project and the Mayor’s office. From the link (emphasis mine):
The signatories wrote that they are confused why the Missoula Redevelopment Agency is managing these projects, because much of the impacted areas are not in Urban Renewal Districts.
“The business owners feel that the City, and our elected representatives, not the MRA, need to be more engaged in this process,” they wrote. “While there are good people at the MRA, it is an unelected board, with unelected officers that are not accountable to the business constituency.”
They again requested a big town hall meeting that’s open to the public to address their concerns. They also want a pause on planning efforts and asked that the Montana Department of Transportation pause the application process for the federal grant.
“We again request that the City and MRA stop conducting small-group meetings in which attendees are handpicked, presented carefully crafted messages and the ‘findings’ are ‘synthesized’ by a City and MRA that appear committed only to the existing approach,” the letter concluded.
How much does it suck to be the director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency right now? The smaller communities around Montana that might be able to have success with this economic tool are probably very frustrated that good babies might get tossed out with dirty bathwater if this legislation moves forward successfully.
Stay tuned for how this phase of the TIF saga will play out, and, later today, get ready for the second report coming from my TIF (Travis’ Impact Fund). If that work doesn’t appeal to you, there’s always the donation button at my about page.
In trying to keep up with local news, I almost missed a story about a dangerous sounding situation with a person well-known to law enforcement. Who? That little piece of info is NOT included in this Missoulian story. Why not? From the link:
On March 22, police responded to a report that a man threatened someone with a knife near East Addison Street and Stephens Avenue. When officers arrived, the suspect was carrying several bags. He followed officer commands to put the bags down, Missoula County charging documents allege, but then pulled a machete.
A policeman drew his pistol, ordering the suspect to drop the blade. The situation escalated, with the man walking away from the officer and toward a patrol car. The officer then shot two cartridges from his Taser, and “neither had any effect,” charging documents state.
According to the affidavit, the officer and suspect walked around the car while the officer’s gun was aimed at the man. More deputies and officers arrived.
…
Officers knew the suspect from prior interactions where he allegedly carried weapons, according to the affidavit. The suspect eventually threw the machete into a pile of leaves and sat down. He was subsequently arrested.
First let me say GOOD JOB to local law enforcement for not killing this dangerous person, since it’s usually only the BAD stuff cops get the credit for. Now, let’s take a look at the Missoula County Detention Portal and see if we can figure out who got arrested for felony assault with a weapon and resisting arrest on March 22nd, 2023, in Missoula County. Is it this guy?
I think it probably is, and not just because the date and charges line up. Helio Leal De La Hoz has an entire other Missoulian article about WHY he’s so well-known to law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Pay close attention to the name of the judge. From the link (emphasis mine):
The Montana Supreme Court ruled last week against the Missoula County District Court, arguing the court was unlawfully keeping a man in jail while his pending cases were incorrectly transferred to the district court from the city’s municipal court.
Helio Leal De La Hoz faces two sets of misdemeanor charges, from July 2021 and May 2022 alleged offenses. The Supreme Court’s ruling sides with Leal De La Hoz, arguing the misdemeanor offenses didn’t belong in the district court’s jurisdiction, which handles felony cases. It also ordered him released from jail.
Leal De La Hoz was charged with two misdemeanor offenses in July of 2021, and four more misdemeanor offenses in a separate incident in May of this year. For the July 2021 charges, he was ordered unfit to proceed. In the May cases, Leal De La Hoz made an initial appearance and was held on a $600 bond.
He was not arraigned for the May charges. Instead, Municipal Court Judge Eli Parker opted to transfer the two cases to Missoula County District Court.
Parker explains in his affidavit that he requested the Missoula County District Court to assume jurisdiction over the case because community-based treatment options didn’t give sufficient support for Leal De La Hoz. Parker contended that this was the only available option to give Leal De La Hoz treatment.
Let’s deepen the irony of this situation by contextualizing Eli Parker as one of the three Westridge Defenders elected to his judge job last election cycle. Yes, the same one who had to call the cops on the homeless woman who took temporary shelter in his unlocked car on election night. From the link (emphasis mine):
“Last night at our election party, I came out to my car and I found a homeless woman in my car,” said the public defender Parker. “No, my car wasn’t locked. That’s my fault. It actually doesn’t lock from the outside. I asked her, ‘Would you please get out of my car I’m going to have to call 911’. And the officer came and that’s what it took to get her out, and we had an interesting conversation about well, do you want to ticket her or not, and I chose to.”
Parker said his choice was to just let her go and repeat what she did to someone else, or have her arrested so that she might get access to services that might be able to help her.
Is it possible to have an irony aneurysm? Because I think I’m having one right now, writing about this bullshit…ok, it passed. Whew! Let’s continue. But not before taking a look at the judge risking our community by politicizing his complicity in the failure of the criminal justice system. Here he is:
And here’s more from the “high court” Missoulian article (emphasis mine):
Parker notes a person in jail on misdemeanor offenses who’s deemed unfit to proceed could be incarcerated longer than the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor offense.
“Nevertheless, I remain acutely aware that community-based treatment has limits,” Parker wrote. “I requested Judge Larson assume jurisdiction because, in Helio’s case, community-based treatment had failed, resulting in what seemed an unmitigated safety risk to himself and the public.”
Parker also noted the municipal court’s financial constraints, saying in the past, Missoula’s municipal court dismisses criminal proceedings when a defendant is found unfit to proceed because of limited court resources and the money involved with the commitment process for treatment.
Later in the article, the matter of judicial jurisdiction is further examined, but NOT further clarified. One takeaway I’m seeing, though, is how charging someone with a misdemeanor instead of a felony has more implications than I was aware of. From the link:
Larson also notes that historically, the Missoula County District Court has worked with limited-jurisdiction courts (such as Missoula Municipal) where drug use and mental health treatment issues are present.
While they understand the municipal and district court’s actions were aimed at mitigating harm to the community and getting Leal De La Hoz on a treatment plan, the Supreme Court justices wrote that courts have to stay within their jurisdictions.
Looking at the May 2022 incident where Leal De La Hoz was charged with four misdemeanors, the Supreme Court wrote, “The District Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction in that case and it was unnecessary and imprudent to purport to transfer the case out of the Municipal Court.” All the charges were misdemeanors, therefore they only belong in the municipal court’s jurisdiction.
Leal De La Hoz’s district court cases were dismissed without prejudice by the Supreme Court, and transferred back to Missoula’s municipal court for future proceedings. He was released from custody.
Well, it looks like Judge Parker’s attempt to save time and money ended up doing neither, with the ultimate result being a dangerous person being released back to the streets of Missoula.
None of this answers the question posed by the title of the post, so if I get more insight before the weekend I’ll make sure to include it in this week’s podcast review of local headlines.
On Tuesday night I was trying to simply drive back to where I lay my head when a black jeep nearly hit me turning left from Higgins onto a residential street near the University. The speed of the vehicle was excessive, so I made a decision to turn around my vehicle and that’s when Francis decided he was going to fuck around. I guess he wanted to find out. So I obliged.
It took nearly 5 minutes for the first police cruiser to respond to my 911 call. In that time this drunk piece of shit tried running me down in his car as he recklessly sped around the neighborhood (I was out of my vehicle at this point). Francis made at least 3 passes at me before cops finally showed up and arrested him.
One of the oddest parts of this ordeal was Francis’ commentary on my financial status. Huh? Maybe it was my piece of crap vehicle that indicated I wasn’t flush with funds. In any case it seemed very important to Francis to verbally mock me as he drove recklessly around the neighborhood. I even had some spare change thrown at me by this fucker.
Francis Fidler doesn’t realize this yet but he’s just begun a journey of finding out what happens when someone fucks around with safety in my town. Just ask the killer, Kevin Lino, who I helped put behind bars, what can happen when you stroll into Missoula with an attitude of entitlement. I even wrote a letter to Merrick Garland in 2021 to let him know what kind of parent his AG’s office was trying to politically demonize.
Earlier this month, on March 7th, I called 911 on another dangerously impaired driver. This time it was an old man who was going SLOW down Reserve street. I’m talking 25mph on a 45mph road while also swerving in a decrepit vehicle that looked like a wheel was about to fall off. Despite a 911 call from me, police weren’t able to respond in time, so I followed him home and had a little chat.
Here is Wally after his trip for medications, which he’s holding in his hand. A caretaker person showed up after I did, and verbally berated Wally for leaving the house against her orders. I had a little chat with her as well to make sure she clearly understood the threat this man posed to MULTIPLE people on the road that evening. I think she got my message.
Like the man pictured at the top of this post, I’m hoping to educate people about the cause and effect dynamics involved with fucking around and finding out. Let me share one final story, a story we’ll call “hypothetical” for the purposes of this educational post.
Let’s say your role in a community is one of spiritual stewardship, specifically the flock that gathers on the appropriate day to praise the Sky Daddy, or whatever higher power you claim to be a divine mediator for. When two lambs are taken advantage of by a wolf in sheep’s clothing, what should you do?
If your answer is to use scripture to DISCOURAGE reporting sexual crimes to the proper authorities, well, that MAY be your start down a path of fucking around and risking finding out what knowingly leading lambs into the jaws of a wolf is going to cost you, in the end.
For Francis, it began when he chose to get behind the wheel of his jeep, pictured below. Some of the things I’d like to know is WHERE Francis got all fucked up? Was he over served at a local bar? I also have a call in to the University of Montana police jurisdiction to ensure they know, if Francis is a student, that his driving could have killed someone.
I’ll wrap up this post with a video I spent some extra time editing. If you watch it you’ll see why. It’s mostly me outside the building where our County Commissioners have their offices with a few clips interspersed for effect. If you appreciate this kind of content you can support my work by making a donation at my about page, or a contribution to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Thanks for reading!
Date: March 28th, 2023
Time: 9:30am-11:00am
Mileage: 10 miles
Location: Reserve Street area
Missoula, Montana
Business contacts: 4
Government/Community contacts: 2
Houseless contacts: 0
Above are the basic numbers from the first Assess and Address outing funded by Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). This would be an example of quantitative data.
While donors like this kind of data, since it feels more concrete and it’s easier to plug into an app or spreadsheet, I like trying to illuminate the qualitative data, which can be related in a more narrative manner, since it represents NON-numerical information.
Three of the four businesses I outreached today were hotels along Reserve Street and I did this outreach after doing a walk-through of an area where no active sites currently exist. Had there been any “houseless” contacts to report, additional quantitative data could include any referrals I’m able to give for the appropriate services.
The first two hospitality staff I spoke with were fairly non-responsive to my inquiries about problems from illegal camping along the creek. The third hospitality worker, on the other hand, told me a story about a co-worker pulling someone from the creek who was having a mental health crisis. “It’s a real problem,” he said. All three got my business card and some other questions I found convenient to ask people in this industry.
The other business contact is someone I have spoken with for many years, going back to my time working at the homeless shelter where a young woman recently claimed to have purchased meth.
After checking in with this pawn shop owner, I traipsed behind his property to check out the once sprawling inhabitation/disaster zone of a client I referred to as “A”. It wasn’t until AFTER doing a quick follow up that I realized the inanimate blue tarp was more than likely hiding someone behind it, since the man had just received a text from his wife that she saw someone walk back beneath the bridge minutes before I did.
An interesting part of my conversation with the pawn shop owner entailed his referencing of the Broken Windows theory. Ironically, this theory, which I used to complain about, is now an aspect of why I’m doing what I’m doing. Preventative clean-ups remove visual cues that no one in the area gives a shit about trash and other activities.
Also, if we’re trying to assess the qualitative impact of my presence under the bridge for the few minutes I was there, my mere presence as a non-houseless person will act as a deterrent if there actually was someone under that blue tarp.
After doing the business outreach I made two follow up calls; one to the Montana Department of Transportation, and one to a local police officer about an issue the pawn shop owner is keeping an eye on.
Oh, I also stopped by the former Authorized Camping Site (ACS) to see if that failed experiment was cleaned up yet, and it mostly was. Remember, there was also meth being dealt out of this site as well.
To wrap up this first report, which took about an hour to write up, here is the cost break down. At an hourly rate of $20 dollars I’m paying myself $50 dollars for the 150 minutes, plus $6.50 dollars for the mileage, bringing the grand total of the day’s work to $56.50.
