Today I’m transitioning from ASSESSING different houseless sites across the valley to ADDRESSING them, and what better day than during the Clark Fork Coalition’s Earth Day clean up!
The spot I’m going to address today is NOT family-friendly, so I’ve recruited a fellow TIF critic to help me remove this monstrosity from the rocky edge of the riverbank. It’s going to be brutal, but someone has to do it!
Since WGM Group has their office just a little downstream from this site, I was hoping to get their volunteer assistance today, but already they did a small cleanup on Thursday. Darn!
Maybe instead of manpower they can help me cover the cost of the dumpster I had to rent to make this happen today because I’m not in the financial position to absorb $900 bucks.
Before wrapping this post up, I’d like to mention how absolutely frustrating it is to have the ENDANGERMENT of the Clark Fork River in recent headlines, but to have all the attention say NOTHING about “houseless” encampments and the environmental threat they pose. Here’s the reason why American Rivers selected the Clark Fork for their top 10 list (emphasis mine):
American Rivers chose the Clark Fork River because of industrial pollution that lingers since the Smurfit Stone pulp mill was closed in 2010. The toxins from the pulp process and electricity production – dioxins, furans and PCB’s – may be seeping into the river, affecting fish and wildlife.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has placed a fish consumption advisory for sections of the river around and downstream of the pulp mill site, which affects local anglers and subsistence fishermen of the Salish and Kalispel people, many of whom live on the Flathead Reservation.
“The Clark Fork River is in the heart of our ancestral homelands, but it’s like being punched in the gut when you have something like Smurfit in that location. We want to restore the floodplain, reclaim lost pieces of our culture, and honor our treaty and our ancestors,” said Tom McDonald, Council Chairman for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in a release.
If you would like to help me get shit done on Earth Day, this location is just behind Missoula College on 1205 East Broadway. Another great way to help is by giving me MONEY, so check out Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can use the donation button at my about page.
Thank you for the support, and stay tuned, because this crazy train just keeps rolling!
In yesterday’s post I buried the lede, but not today. Today I’m going to say, right here at the top, that Ryan Funke’s Sheriff’s Office released the female suspect they detained before the St. Regis shootout WITHOUT notifying the County Attorney’s Office. I confirmed this with Deputy County Attorney, Wally Congdon, after I knocked on his door in Missoula and asked him about his cows.
This act by Funke’s Sheriff’s Office is hard to believe for those who understand how a local government is supposed to function, and it’s the detail that got the attention of the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office last month when I spoke with a Captain about what I had discovered. The Captain assured me he would pass along my information to the Shoshone County Sheriff.
The hero narrative I challenged last month surrounding the law enforcement + civilian response to the armed robbery suspect–who took, then shot, a hostage before being gunned down in the street by dozens of badges–is being used again by the lawyer escalating the Mineral County war with his Hammer of Mandamus, Lance Jasper.
Below is the recording of the April 14th County Commissioner meeting where Lance Jasper took to the podium to express his embarrassment that the Commissioners haven’t done more to celebrate the badges and civilians who were present at the Travel Center on the day of the shootout. Jasper’s comments begin at the 1:07:20 mark of the video:
If you listen to Jasper’s comments you will hear him give his suggestions on what he thinks should happen, including MORE recognition of the actions by law enforcement and civilians because apparently that community debrief, where the badges were definitely recognized for doing their jobs, wasn’t enough.
Lance Jasper also thinks letters should be sent to neighboring counties thanking them for their response. Does that include the neighboring IDAHO County Funke threw under the bus because of some alleged “disconnect”, which he mentioned at the community debrief meeting? I don’t know, but apparently Missoula is the model in Jasper’s mind for how to properly recognize its citizens for heroic actions.
Another suggestion from this man suing his home County, where his family is known to have a significant amount of influence in local politics, is Jasper’s call for an INDEPENDENT investigation into a culture of fear that supposedly emanates from Mineral County Commissioners and the County Attorney’s Office.
Who would do the investigation? Jasper didn’t specific, so I called him on Wednesday and left a message, but I haven’t heard anything back. Maybe that’s because I’m on to Jasper’s law firm and their desire to go after County money, like they did in Missoula over parity pay, leading to this:
Roughly two months after settling a wage claim with Missoula County sheriff’s deputies, county commissions on Tuesday approved a $4.4 million general obligation bond to cover the judgment.
“We settled at $3.4 million but encountered an additional $500,000 in employment related taxes and benefits surrounding the wage claim,” said Andrew Czorny, the county’s chief financial officer. “It includes some of the costs of issuance.”
Commissioners in June reluctantly approved the $3.4 million settlement stemming from the wage claim brought by current and prior deputies with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department.
It’s not just Missoula County in the recent litigation crosshairs of Reep, Bell & Jasper, the controversy in LAKE County over public law 280 is ALSO a Reep, Bell & Jasper affair. I’ll provide a quote below (with my emphasis) after screenshots of this court documentation (PDF):
The State of Montana, represented by Crowley Fleck PLLP, responded Dec. 12 to Lake County’s lawsuit seeking reimbursement for costs incurred from Public Law 280 by seeking dismissal of the complaint.
In its 19-page motion, filed Monday in the 20th Judicial District Court, the State maintains that because Lake County consented to participation in the agreement in 1963, and as a result, agreed to its related costs, and because it now has the ability to withdraw from the agreement, articulated in House Bill 656 passed by the Legislature in 2021, the court should dismiss the complaint.
The same legislation says, “the state shall reimburse Lake County for assuming criminal jurisdiction annual to the extent funds are appropriated by the Legislature,” and appropriated $1 from the general fund.
While this may all sound very complicated, legally speaking, let me boil it down to one word: MONEY! Because that, I believe, is primarily what all this Reep, Bell & Jasper litigation is about.
Now, with all these legal/money games firmly established, let me pull back and pivot in a way you might not expect to say that these parasitic lawyers are simply exploiting a REAL problem, and that’s the impact on law enforcement from budgets weakened by things like Tax Increment Financing, combined with having to fight a drug war, plus being demonized by national media over people snapping from culture war conditioning, all while politicized County Attorneys (and complicit Sheriffs) rationalize the revolving door and non-prosecutions turning our streets into dangerous dystopias.
This is why I try to walk a line between calling for accountability for those in leadership positions, especially elected ones, while maintaining a level of sympathy for the boots-on-the-ground people dealing with the slow motion collapse of societal norms. Because that shit sucks.
I’ve reached out to some of the entities about the shenanigans playing out across Montana jurisdictions because they have terrible consequences for people seeking justice. Just ask Angela Mastrovito, the mother of Rebekah Barsotti, who continues to experience unbelievable levels of harassment and legal disenfranchisement for daring to ask why her daughter’s estranged husband, David Barsotti, was NEVER considered a suspect by Mineral County Sheriff, Mike Toth, after her disappearance and “accidental” river death, which just happened to be quite lucrative for the beneficiary of her insurance policy.
Already, some of my calls are bearing fruit, but not everything makes it to the digital pages of Zoom Chron, and for good reason. I don’t write to entertain, or for money. I write to understand what the fuck is going on in my own backyard.
If you would like to help my efforts, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way, and the donation button at my about page is another.
Some interesting things happened in Helena on Tuesday surrounding my interest in the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office and the desire of our former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, to be Mayor. Has that burning desire finally been doused by reality? According to the Campaign Electronic Reporting System, it would appear the answer is YES (emphasis mine):
Upon review of this publicly available information I was curious about the email address listed for the campaign. Is this the person McDermott hired to help run his campaign?
If it’s true that McDermott’s candidacy has been aborted before today’s official filing date, then his tenure leading the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office won’t have to be scrutinized. I guess it’s up to the NEW Sheriff to figure out how to do difficult things, like manage the real estate commonly known as JAIL.
A recent headline (and a chat with a source) got me thinking about how money considerations might impact jail living conditions. While this includes stuff like healthcare, which is what the article I linked to is about, I’m also thinking about the different jurisdictions that use the jail to hold inmates, and at what varying rates the Sheriff’s Office is paid for providing jail services.
Regardless of who is paying, and how much is being paid, for a night in jail, the cost of healthcare is definitely going up. From the link (emphasis mine):
Citing few immediate options, Missoula County on Tuesday agreed to renew its contract with a provider to oversee medical and mental health services at the detention facility.
The one-year contract extension with Wellpath amounts to $2.2 million – an increase of roughly $540,000 over the original contract.
“With that, they’ve asked for an increase in (employees), which they believe is necessary to effectively execute the contract,” said Sheryl Ziegler, assistant commander of the jail. “They don’t believe they can effectively execute the contract without this addition due to the risk they assume.”
Yes, that’s right, if there are “few immediate options” to compete with Wellpath, then it sounds like a monopoly in “jail care” exists for them. Better pay up.
Yesterday I sent an email inquiring about jail data, so I’ll see what kind of response I get. In the meantime, here’s some idea on the conflict between the legislative cap on how much the STATE of Montana can pay COUNTIES for a night in jail. From the link (emphasis mine):
In a letter to the Law and Justice Subcommittee, where the caps typically originate, the county argues that such unilateral caps conflict with the Department of Correction’s statutory obligation to pay counties the actual cost of holding a state inmate.
“It violates the Constitution and it violates the contractual obligation to Missoula County,” said Anna Conley, the senior civil deputy attorney with the Missoula County Attorneys office. “There’s existing litigation.”
Last April, Missoula County filed a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections claiming it had breached its contract by not covering the full cost of housing state inmates at the local detention center.
The county’s complaint also included an unjust enrichment claim against DOC, along with breach of good faith and fair dealing.
“Missoula County attempted to resolve the situation in which the Department of Corrections is underpaying us for the inmates we house, both on the pre-trial side as well as the correctional facility we have with DOC,” Conley said. “We’re the only county I’m aware of that has filed suit on these particular actions. But there are other counties that are negatively impacted.”
That last point of emphasis got me thinking about the Mineral County jail, since it reopened around the same time this article came out, which was early 2021.
From the link (emphasis mine):
The Mineral County Jail is open once again after being closed for nearly two years.
Mineral County’s new Sheriff, Mike Toth, made reopening the jail his number one priority since swearing in last August.
The jail was built in 1995 but had to close its doors in 2019 dues to staffing issues. Overtime, not having a jail in the county was starting to take a toll.
“We were spending so much money shipping people outside the county to house them,” Sheriff Toth said, “We’d pay daily rates to house them, plus transport. Anytime we had court or anything we would have to go get them and bring them back. And with a small staff it was killing us.”
Well, now that Mineral County has a jail again, they can go back to killing inmates with inattention instead of killing staffing budgets. From the link:
Shane T. Pelletier was found dead on Nov. 26 by Mineral County jail staff. According to the certificate, Pelletier died from asphyxia by hanging, described in the document as “self-inflicted hanging.” Pelletier was 34.
Pelletier was in a cell alone, former Mineral County Sheriff Mike Toth said. A jail staff person was serving lunches to people at the jail when they found him.
…
According to Mineral County charging documents, Pelletier was facing multiple felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from an alleged Jan. 12, 2021 robbery at a travel center convenience store.
An order in the 2021 case signed on Nov. 16, 2022 shows Pelletier was scheduled to be transported from the Mineral County jail to the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs. The order doesn’t list a date of when the transport was scheduled to happen.
Mineral County had one recent prior death in custody in 2021.
I’m very interested in how the rest of the criminal justice system is interfacing with detention facilities across Montana, so I’ll be writing more about this soon, especially considering I’m about to bury the lede by confirming IT’S TRUE, according to Mineral County Deputy Attorney, Wally Congdon, that Ryan Funke’s Sheriff’s Office released the female suspect taken into custody before the shootout at the St. Regis travel center WITHOUT communicating with the Mineral County Attorney’s Office.
How this confirmation came about is a story for another day. Let’s just say I have never been more appreciative of these creatures:
If you’d like to support my work, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to do that. The donation button at my about page is another.
Does it look like this guy has INTESTINAL FORTITUDE? No, it certainly doesn’t, and maybe that’s because SB 523 has a chance at becoming law, thus limiting what people like Brent Campbell can get done with YOUR public money.
Before getting to the legislative action, here is Campbell during better days when stimulus money helped his company buy the building where they currently reside at 1111 E. Broadway. From the link (emphasis mine):
In a $2.8 million deal spurred by stimulus dollars and “intestinal fortitude,” planning firm WGM Group opens next Monday in a new location, and one of its very own.
“It’s a big testament to our faith in the community and belief that Missoula is going to continue to prosper,” said president and chief executive officer Brent Campbell.
He sees the move to 1111 E. Broadway as a glimmer of good news for a community beset with announcements of the closures at the Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. pulp mill and Macy’s downtown department store.
Yes, these were MUCH BETTER days for Campbell’s company because Mayor Engen was alive back then and taking as much money from business men like Brent Campbell as he could. Is that part of the equation for having INTESTINAL FORTITUDE?
Kindrick said the deal is one of 11 the corporation has helped close under the act, and First Interstate Bank was its partner in the WGM project. The main objective of the loan program is to create jobs, and she said WGM was a good fit because the firm was looking to buy its own building.
“They’re just a great business,” Kindrick said. “They’ve got a wonderful reputation throughout the state. This new building fits with what they’re trying to do with their business.”
The program offered a small down payment and a fixed low-interest rate. Stimulus money paid for $25,000 in fees. Even though the move wouldn’t have been possible without the help, Campbell said sealing the deal required “intestinal fortitude.”
Is the APOCALYPSE going to arrive if Tax Increment Financing is rewound by legislators to the original intent, which was to address blight? I don’t think so, but Brent Campbell’s face definitely told a different story.
I’m not sure why the legislative process has Brent Campbell so agitated, since his side presents as the professionals with the confidence that the world will keep bending to their will.
And it does! For example, a supporter of SB 523 was lightly reprimanded for using PROPER NOUNS (of specific banks), which apparently is a rule when speaking “on the floor” of the house. Unfortunately the room where this committee was meeting is not technically considered “the floor” of the house, which was pointed out to the chair by another member of the committee. Whoops!
Another sketchy process maneuver was attempted when a member of the committee asked that supporters identify WHICH CITY they were coming from, since many of us simply identified as Montana residents. This was a clear effort to identify the Missoula people who made the trip to Helena to provide comment. Since this has NEVER BEEN REQUIRED of commenters before, the chairman let us know the specificity of WHERE in Montana we lived was not required.
The Missoulian article covering yesterday’s action helps opponents who want to depict this issue as just a Missoula problem and therefore not something for state legislators to address. From the link (emphasis mine):
Because so many Missoula-based business owners and elected officials spoke both for and against the bill, one committee member called the hearing “the Missoula show.”
The committee chair, Rep. Paul Fielder (R-Thompson Falls), jokingly congratulated Hertz on “bringing people together” and said the 82 public commenters might be a record. The committee took no action on the bill, and Hertz said he would “fine tune” the bill with some amendments.
Going to Helena and being in these spaces, in person, is incredibly important because there are sensory aspects that just can’t be picked up remotely, like the snickering, guffaws and other less than professional noises coming from the PROFESSIONAL class.
I’ll be writing more as SB 523 continues its legislative journey this week. One of the things I suspect might happen is a last minute move by opponents to suddenly support something different, like a STUDY BILL, in order to kick the can down the road to the next legislative session, which won’t be for another TWO YEARS. Plenty of time to work behind the scenes to get what they want.
Is working behind the scenes the reason Ellen Buchanan came to Helena? I ask because Ellen Buchanan, the director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, decided NOT to speak to the committee, which I found kinda odd. I also found it odd that Buchanan stayed at the same hotel as all us supporters, which I realized when she ate breakfast alone while several enthusiastic supporters prepared to deliver their commentary to legislators.
Here’s a quick video recap of the trip to Helena. Remember, I have a competing TIF called Travis’ Impact Fund that is just waiting for your financial support. Or you can use the donation button at my about page. Thanks for the support!
If our elected City/County leaders continue to prioritize things like density and passenger rail over first responder capacity amidst burnout, the tourism economy everyone is pinning their future hopes on will suffer. That is why I have tailored my comment in support of SB 523 to emphasize what’s happening across Montana with drug addiction and the resulting spike in violent crime.
I have referred to the various development plans for Missoula, which all promote density, as sardine can housing plans. Here is our placeholder Mayor lamenting how the neighborhoods on the higher end of the socio-economic spectrum are unfairly protected from the sardine-can-plan by single-family housing zoning. From the link (emphasis mine):
“There is a pattern of segregation by race and ethnicity that is related to the city’s underlying zoning regulations,” explained Jamon Kimmell of Cascadia Partners. “More diverse neighborhoods are in the higher density zoning, while exclusive single-dwelling and duplex zones are significantly more likely to be mapped to less diverse neighborhoods.”
Kimmell’s firm has been hired by the city to provide an in-depth report on inequity in the city’s land use efforts as city planners prepare to undertake a comprehensive code reform process over the next few years.
The presentation was blunt in its assessment. Zoning that allows only single-dwelling and duplex homes covers 64% of Missoula’s land area, but only 30% of Missoula households can afford homes in those areas, according to Census data. Meanwhile, multi-dwelling and commercial zones represent just 36% of the city, but 60% of households can afford to live there.
Before I get to this consulting firm peddling this data, here’s more from the article about the gentrification happening in the poorer neighborhoods across Missoula (emphasis mine):
“Missoula’s zoning concentrates new housing development in lower income neighborhoods,” he said. “And this increases the risk of displacement and gentrification.”
He said his research shows that neighborhoods along West Broadway and in the Franklin to the Fort neighborhood have already experienced early gentrification and have high rates of residents vulnerable to displacement because of a hot housing market. Much of the Westside and Northside neighborhoods are currently relatively affordable, he said, but are vulnerable to gentrification. According to Census data, those areas have lower incomes, higher rates of renters and higher rates of BIPOC residents.
Displacement occurs when rising rents force someone to move out of the neighborhood they are living in, and gentrification happens when displacement occurs at higher rates. Generally, it means a neighborhood goes from being lower income and more diverse to higher income with a larger white population.
The irony here is the fact Tax Increment Financing is ALSO a contributing factor to the increasing rents displacing people across the valley, but you won’t hear ANYONE in local government claim TIF reform is needed. Instead their plan is to pray SB 523 fails because they want to CONTROL the poors by controlling the new type of housing being developed for them, which is WORKFORCE housing.
For a better idea of what is meant by “workforce” housing, here’s how it’s defined by Wikipedia:
Workforce housing is a term that is increasingly used by planners, government, and organizations concerned with housing policy or advocacy. It is gaining cachet with realtors, developers and lenders. Workforce housing can refer to any form of housing, including ownership of single or multi-family homes, as well as occupation of rental units. Workforce housing is generally understood to mean affordable housing for households with earned income that is insufficient to secure quality housing in reasonable proximity to the workplace.
What kind of firm is Missoula working with now? Here’s a screenshot of one of the dudes from Cascadia Parnters and what he’s accomplished in the wonderful Portland, Oregon area (emphasis mine):
If pushing workforce housing density doesn’t work out, maybe the service sector employees that wealth needs around to service them, thus validating their elevated social status, can commute by passenger rail to their barista jobs. To help with that effort, here’s the County Commissioner obsessed with reviving passenger rail across Montana:
Unfortunately, Dave Strohmaier can’t do this train thing all by himself, which is why he was recently panhandling officials in Helena for money. From the link (emphasis mine):
The Federal Railroad Administration is expected to release a short list of passenger rail lines recommended for restoration in July, and the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority is “all hands on deck,” according to authority chairman and Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier, to ensure a southern Montana line is on it.
The authority, which Strohmaier referred to as a subdivision of state government, requested an annual contribution of $4,000 and a letter of support from the city of Helena in an email addressed to the Helena mayor and city commission Thursday.
The letter, signed by Strohmaier, states the authority has assembled a “vibrant rural-urban coalition including 20 Montana counties and many cities, towns, Tribes, and businesses working together to restore passenger rail service across southern Montana.
Yes, for Dave Strohmaier, the effort to revive passenger rail represents an ALL HANDS ON DECK effort because there’s nothing else more pressing for this County Commissioner to deal with, so it’s a good thing Missoula isn’t becoming a lawless dystopia with a corrupt Sheriff’s Office and negligent County Attorney’s Office presiding this dumpster fire, because THAT might require Dave to address a more socially entrenched problem, a problem that could challenge his idiotic liberal ideology.
The harsh reality our elected leaders are trying to ignore is the spiraling drug crisis totally overwhelming our first responders, but those with the job of responding CANNOT ignore what’s happening. All they can do, at least the ones who haven’t committed suicide, is hope that healing from the traumas they’ve experienced is possible.
The article features Travis Gribble, a retired law enforcement official who moved to Phillipsburg, Montana, when the stress and trauma from his work got too much for him. From the link (emphasis mine):
“We want to give the families some tools, help them understand what goes through our minds when we go to a death call, or we go to a fatal car accident, a shooting, whatever that is.”
Overall, Gribble wants to change the culture around mental health in these careers, making it easier for those who need help to reach out.
“First and foremost, I want to give first responders the courage to come forward for help when they need it.”
Gribble plans to work with Montana legislation to allocate more funding for mental health support in law enforcement agencies.
He wants officers to seek help before it’s too late and before they are forced into early retirement because of mental health issues.
Yes, if we want to have nice things, then the ability to have laws enforced is kind of important. This means the people tasked with responding to what happens when citizens don’t abide by laws need support, and that won’t happen without money.
I’ll give a quick example of what this could look like before wrapping up this post, and it’s actually pretty simple: floating! From the link:
As human beings, we are all changed by the experiences we go through in our lives; however, when someone goes through repeated complex traumatic experiences, it has immensely profound impacts on the rest of their life. Despite achieving upper second-class honors in my university degree, trauma from various types of abuse has left me unable to work. I experience many types of complex physical and emotional health issues, many of which I will never get help for from specialist health services (not even privately) due to how complex they are.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result from maladaptively stored traumatic experiences that become “compartmentalized” from subsequent traumatic experiences because the brain was unable to process them properly at the time the trauma happened. Complex PTSD results from repeated, and often inescapable, complex traumatic experiences. PTSD has been shown to physically reduce parts of the brain, such as change the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain which is an important part of the limbic system, regulating emotions. The hippocampus has an important part to play in memory, learning and emotion.
Very sadly, many people — let alone doctors — have even heard of floating, so they just don’t know of its profound benefits. Dr. Justin Feinstein from the Laureate Institute of Brain Research in USA has dedicated his career to studying the benefits of “clinical floatation,” and how floating can help with issues such as anxiety, depression and PTSD. His talks (which can be found on YouTube and on his website, Clinical Flotation) from Float Conferences make incredibly compelling and promising viewing.
I can say, from personal experience, that this type of therapy is amazing, but I stopped doing float sessions because I can’t currently afford to pay $70 dollars an hour, and insurance doesn’t cover this therapy, so something that has proven benefits has significant barriers for those who most need it.
What will happen with all the money floating around in Helena? I hope our legislators make good decisions with the BILLION+ surplus they have, because Montana, like our country, is at a crossroads, and bad decisions could have serious consequences for years to come.
If you appreciate the perspective I’m bringing to these critical issues, you can support Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or make a donation at my about page.
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for my SB 523 update from Helena!
