I like to tell the local power structure what I think about their policies to their faces and there’s a reason for this that has nothing to do with the personal satisfaction I get from showing them, through my actions, that I’m still kicking despite their best efforts to shut me down.
Yesterday, for example, when I attended the Police Commission, my physical presence inside the conference room allowed me to hear the pre-recorded banter, which centered on Kelly Clarkson’s Montana connection. When JD Vance and Butte came up, I couldn’t help myself and started shit-talking the Town Pump dynasty and its dubious relationship with the Missoula-based LifeGuard Group.
For context on Town Pump, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Town Pump, Inc. is a Butte, Montana-based chain of convenience stores, truck stops, casinos and roadside hotels founded in Butte in 1953. From a single full‑service gas station, the Kenneally family has expanded the company to more than 200 sites and 3,800 employees statewide.
National business media have profiled Town Pump’s strategy of pairing travel‑plaza fuel sales with franchised hotels along Interstates I‑90, I‑15 and I‑94. The firm also maintains a high public profile through its Town Pump Charitable Foundation, which has raised more than US$52 million for the state’s food banks since 2001.
And for context on Missoula’s police chief, who had to listen to me reference the lack of scrutiny our SHERIFF Office got during Missoula’s little rape scandal, the part about his former police work controlling THAT narrative is very interesting to me.
As a patrol officer, Colyer was a motorcycle officer in the Traffic Unit and Field Training Officer before being promoted to Sergeant in 2001. As a Sergeant, he supervised Uniformed Patrol Teams, the Traffic Unit and the Street Crimes Unit. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 2008 and served in the Office of Professional Standards, where he was responsible for citizen complaint investigation, internal investigations, recruiting and new officer hiring.
In 2011, he graduated from the 244th Session of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Later that year, he was promoted to Captain and assigned to the Detective Division. A significant accomplishment in that position was his role in guiding the Missoula Police Department’s work with the United States Department of Justice to reform the department’s response to sexual assault.
Knowing this context AFTER my public comment yesterday just makes my comment even funnier.
Back at the beginning of July I entered a different conference room and told some hotel developers, our Mayor, and the other Mayor (MRA director, Ellen Buchanan) what I thought about their hotel plans vs. dead bodies that become dead in ways I’d like to know more about, especially as it relates to the shitty and/or non-existent law enforcement investigations.
Part of my shit-talking in THAT conference room included my assessment that MRA’s “land-banking” strategy was a total failure. Now, more than a month later, the Missoula Current has an article confirming this failure and the hilarious reason WHY the former library and empty Sleepy Inn lot haven’t been developed.
Earlier this year, Davis convened the Task Force on City Lands Redevelopment to explore the lack of progress on 45 acres owned by the city. The 11-member group included a range of professionals across sectors and it came to a number of conclusions, some being rather obvious.
Among them, the city’s redevelopment strategy sought to wring too many goals from a single project, making it nearly impossible to deliver at cost. In essence, the city’s aspirations were deterring the sale and redevelopment of the very lots the city is seeking to activate.
Convening a task force to be told your pie-in-the-sky wishlist is a major impediment to achieving your goals is quite something. Is this what Harvard teaches our local officials?
Last week, when I rolled up on two of our three County Commissioners on my bike, I jokingly said “WHAT’S THIS, A QUORUM?” Without missing a beat, the Commissioner who ALSO just attended Harvard said “Yeah, and we’re about to raise your taxes, Travis!”
Although it was meant as a good-natured response, Slotnick’s words belies the maddening reality that not only did we pay for this Commissioner to attend Harvard, he absolutely IS part of the quorum raising your taxes and then asking for MORE money for infrastructure. Galling isn’t strong-enough a word for this:
This November, voters in Missoula County will face a decision on a proposed $1.8 million infrastructure levy. The levy aims to address local maintenance needs, according to county officials.
Chief Administrative Officer Chris Lounsbury explained the purpose behind the levy. “We have this request that we ask the commissioners to put on the ballot for the public to consider an ongoing $1.8 million that would be used year over year towards maintenance and also towards matching those federal and state projects that we go after,” he said.
If you feel upset about all this and are looking to send a message in the form of helping a citizen journalist who speaks truth to power despite significant risk and continued fallout, I’ll remind readers I do still have that GO FUND ME page where I accept donations.
If you want a more entertaining experience, I’ll be having a garage sale this Saturday and this flyer, posted locally, will have more specific information (please excuse the dyslexia ChatGPT seems to have):
Thanks for reading!