by Travis Mateer

I suppressed my initial reaction to this article by Missoula propagandist, Martin “Gomer” Kidston, because it was pointed out to me that this TERRIBLE incident featuring a MEAN email sent to a shitty police chief (who was brought to Missoula by Mayor Engen from California) happened in a committee meeting all the way back in 2021. From the link (emphasis mine):

When former Missoula Chief of Police Jaeson White was testifying before the City Council Committee on Health and Safety in 2021, his phone alerted him to an incoming email.

It wasn’t until that June 15 meeting was over did White realize who the message was from, and its subject line was rather disturbing.

“You are a toxic police chief who doesn’t care about our safety or improvement as a society,” the email read. The subject line added, “Can’t wait to see you fired.”

To emphasize how truly DISTURBING this must have been for Police Chief Jaeson White, here’s an image of what I imagine White looked like when he realized what was going on:

After clutching his figurative pearls, Jaeson White must have had a REAL hard time continuing with his duties after this withering attack from Councilman Carlino, since he quit his job earlier this year. Here’s more from the article:

The incident prompted White to file a formal complaint with the city, alleging that Carlino’s email was unprofessional and unethical, and was sent “in an effort to intimidate, threaten, harass and retaliate.”

It also prompted City Council to convene a panel to investigate White’s complaint. In doing so, the panel found that Carlino had violated Rule 5 of City Council Rules covering “conduct of City Council members.” It also found an administrative violation that prohibits the use of a city email to send harassing messages.

“The evidence substantiates that your behavior likely violates City of Missoula policies…,” the panel stated in its findings. “We offered you an opportunity for due process and you have chosen to respond in writing. You were invited to attend an in-person meeting and chose not to attend.”

It appears that Carlino’s momentary lack of professional discretion two years ago has led, thanks to Gomer, to this political gift for Missoula’s political establishment, an establishment led by a woman who violated MY first amendment rights in 2018.

I brought attention to my UNPROFESSIONAL treatment two years later, when Heather Harp was getting the boot from her leadership position on the finance committee. Here’s the comment I made:

My name is Travis Mateer and I’ve lived in Missoula for 20 years. I am here today as a private citizen to speak in support of Heather Harp and her effort to bring more transparency and public input regarding the use of public money through Tax Increment Financing.

I would hope all Council members see the benefit of bringing more transparency to the process of using public money to incentivize development in Missoula. Unfortunately my experience tells me otherwise.

In November of 2018 I wrote and submitted a poem to the Missoulian. The content referenced the sidewalk controversy that emerged after some Missoula property owners got letters from the City about how much they were going to owe for their share of replacing sidewalks. If you read it, the poem was quite critical of Missoula’s political leadership involved in that poorly thought out, economically distressing decision those homeowners faced.

The response I received from Gwen Jones to that poem was quite startling. She used her position as a board member at the non-profit where I currently work to take me away from my paid work duties so she could tell me “her side of the story”.

I won’t get into the details of what transpired out of respect for my current employer except to say I received a written apology from Gwen Jones and the board was informed how my 1st amendment right to free speech was very nearly violated.

Everyone has bad days now and then, but what I am starting to see with this particular public official is a pattern of disregard for the public, a public I might add who has every right to know about the processes and people directing public money, and a right to examine who ultimately benefits when millions and millions of public dollars are set to be directed to just one developer’s big drift.

Thank you for your time in considering my comment and my concern.

This hit piece targeting Carlino is part of a larger effort to control the budget conversation, which is about to heat up soon. Here’s another “article” from Gomer detailing how new rules are being crafted in order to muzzle criticism by limiting late amendments to the budget process.

From the link (emphasis mine):

With the budgeting season set to kick off, members of the Missoula City Council this week set the rules that will guide the process and time it with the state’s release of its latest tax valuations.

In doing so, the majority of council members sought to ensure individual amendments are in early this year to avoid any grandstanding at 3 a.m. in an effort to curry public favor, as was the case last year.

“This has come about to give some process, sideboards and predictability to our budgeting process,” said council member Stacie Anderson. “Every budget is important, but we’ll be discussing some tough issues and will have to make some tough budgeting decisions this year.”

Last year’s budgeting process proved to be a frustrating endeavor for both the public and members of council. Council member Daniel Carlino attempted to make several last-minute amendments on the final day of consideration, pushing the meeting to nearly 3 a.m.

If anything with our municipal processes needs fixing, it’s the absurd process that led our placeholder Mayor to be literally SELECTED IN A DARK ALLEY at 2am, but that’s not getting any attention right now because our pathetic Mayor needs all the propping up he can get as he declares a politically advantageous emergency for our community over the issue of “urban camping”.

There are issues where my beliefs and Carlino’s do not align at all–like when it comes to the supposed severity of the “climate change” problem and what we, as a society, should do about it–but regardless of ideological disagreements, the way Carlino has been treated by his peers and local media narrative controllers is NOT the kind treatment lovers of representative government should be in support of.

I stopped by one of the Missoula Current’s local media partners (KPAX) to see if I could talk to anyone about Martin’s malicious “reporting”. I was told I needed to schedule an appointment, so I started that process, then filmed this brief clip:

If you appreciate my local effort at challenging the narrative controllers hold on power, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is waiting for your support, or you can make a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!