Providing public opportunities for “meaningful participation” is one of the job requirements for being on City Council because that’s THE LAW that they must follow.
Want to use public money for a food truck court, or build a new home for fire trucks? Then be prepared to take public comment from members of the public, some of whom might not appreciate the methods of disenfranchisement deployed against undesirables, like me, who tried and failed SEVERAL TIMES last night to be virtually heard before I finally got through.
Needless to say, by the time I was finally allowed the privilege of unmuting myself, I was no longer a patient commentator ready to be super-mindful of the sensitivities of our elected officials, who struggle themselves to comply with the most basic parts of doing their fucking job, which is interacting with the public (not digging a latrine with golden shovels, which I had AI depict in the image above for therapeutic reasons).
While there are rules of decorum to adhere to, my hope is that City Council takes those rules and shoves them up their collective ass, because going forward, I think I’ll be caring about decorum about as much as the rule-benders themselves seem to care, which appears to be only when it suits them.
Take the latest act of rule-bending by the Missoula Redevelopment Agency so that a private property owner, who is currently allowing his property to be used by drug-addicted vagrants, can get $50,000 dollars in public TIF money to remove that building for a food truck court.
See how gentrification works? Missoula’s leadership enables homeless drug addicts as they degrade certain parts of town for years, catering to their “needs” while adding to downward pressure on property values in these negatively impacted areas, which then provides the justification for public money intervention and opportunities for private developers to take that public money so they can create a safe space for ethnic food trucks.
And this asshole wanting public money thinks “emulating Bozeman” is a compelling marketing pitch?
If you don’t think private developers taking public money are assholes making our community MORE expensive and LESS safe, it’s probably because you don’t understand how Urban Renewal Districts and Targeted Economic Development Districts work, financially handcuffing first responders by taking increased tax revenue and diverting it to unelected bureaucrats, like Ellen Buchanan, and if you don’t understand why this TIF shell-game is a public threat, it’s probably because local media is particularly reluctant to connect certain stories–like resignations at the Missoula Rural Fire District–to growing opposition to this shell game.
Before I get to the NBC Montana news articles from June, which omit any reasoning for Paul Finlay’s sudden departure from his position at Missoula’s Rural Fire District, let’s take a look at the warning he provided right before his resignation about TEDDs:
After this warning about subsidized development within TEDDs, Finlay was suddenly out at Missoula Rural Fire, which was reported as minimally as possible by NBC Montana:
Missoula Rural Firefighters local 2457 announced they acknowledge Chief Paul Finlay’s recent resignation.
This comes after the fire district announced Friday that Finley would retire effective June 21.
The union stated that they “look forward to working collaboratively with the district’s new leadership to advance our shared mission and continue providing exceptional service to our community.”
Around this same time NBC Montana also reported on other concerning resignations impacting first responders at Missoula’s Rural Fire District amidst weird behavior from a closed-door meeting being kept secret, even from fellow firefighters:
A room full of firefighters and members of the public gathered at a Missoula Rural Fire District Board meeting on Tuesday evening amid concerns about the departure of two assistant chiefs, and transparency concerns.
This comes after Board Chair Ben Murphy adjourned a meeting on May 12 while Secretary Dan Corti tried to open discussion to the public. Corti has since resigned.
The article continues with this:
At the forefront of concern in the latest meeting was a decision made at a closed-door executive session on May 27, where the board passed one agenda item — a separation proposal.
Firefighters repeatedly asked what was passed at that meeting, including during public comment on other agenda items.
But Murphy maintained there wasn’t a need to release that information to the public, or the firefighters.
“We have, are, and continue to follow the law regarding open meetings,” said Murphy following a 10-15 minute discussion of district transparency.
Isn’t this interesting? It’s almost like there’s a direct correlation between Urban Renewal Districts, Targeted Economic Development Districts, and local officials struggling to follow open meeting laws in order to actually ACT in a transparent manner for the public good. In this case, I’m sure it has nothing to do with the new sewer district for the Blackfoot Crossing development in Bonner.
It’s cool, I get it. Four years ago I went on KGVO and helped educate listeners of a talk radio show, hosted by Nick and Peter, about why I thought the Crisis Mill Levy was a bad idea and THIS was the electoral result:
Whether it was inflation, the stock market or a general malaise around taxes, voters in Missoula were clear on Tuesday night, saying they weren’t ready to fund any more projects or services — at least right now.
For the first time in recent memory, Missoula voters upended two funding initiatives, one being a $19 million bond to improve the county fairgrounds and the other being a levy that would have raised $5 million annually to support crisis services.
Both campaigns spent months working to drum up support but in the end, they both fell short of their goal. What happens next in the realm of crisis services will likely take center stage in the months to come.
“I wouldn’t have tackled this project if I didn’t have strong convictions about it in the first place,” said Shannon Flanagan, who spearheaded the crisis services levy. “I still feel that in our long-term solution to these things, we took the wrong step yesterday. But I certainly have to respect the results of the election. It’s a bitter pill, but we’ll move forward and pivot to different solutions.”
Did our local officials learn any lessons from this failure to convince voters to give them more money?
Yes, I think they learned that they needed to be more sneaky with how they’re operating to make deals while simultaneously escalating tactics behind the scenes to ensure members of the public, especially a citizen journalist/whistleblower like me, pay a HEAVY PRICE for mapping out that giant space between bullshit rhetoric and on-the-ground reality.
To help show readers of this humble blog (watched closely by unwell people) that I’m not the only public commenter keen on naming the names influencing the harsh housing reality for the poors while elected rubber-stampers stamp, here’s the public comment the preceded mine:
And here’s mine, which I don’t consider successful, since showing frustration is a gift to the extended prosecution team going after me and others, like Brandon Bryant, who I invoked in my comment before dropping the F-bomb and getting scolded by the Mayor:
I hope this comment is somewhat softened by the EVERYONE IS AWESOME Lego set visible in the background, which I added to my Lego world so that it could more accurately reflect the seriousness of our REAL one, where some people’s right to be heard are VERY important to our local elected officials.
Here’s a better shot:
If you would like to help me expose how local power operates, click on my new GoFundMe page and make a donation today!
Ten years ago I sounded so much more reasonable as I discussed my non-profit work at the blog of former Billings reporter, Ed Kemmick.
But read some of the 27 articles I wrote about “urban camp cleanups” since then and, well, you might understand why I’m more than a little frustrated about Missoula’s current state of affairs.
And on that note, thanks for reading!