We took notice of this handy app, linked below, offered up by the Montana Secretary of State. It’s an easy way for Great Falls voters to check their current voter registration status.
The next opportunity for Great Falls residents to vote will be a Great Falls citywide election on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. That’s just a little over three months way so it’s definitely not to early to make sure you’re registered to vote in this upcoming mail ballot election.
The six candidates vying for two Great Falls city commission seats are:
Tracy Houck
Bruce Pollington
Kim Rodriguez
Jasmine Taylor
Terry Thompson
Rick Tryon
E-City Beat will be asking each of the candidates to provide their candidate profile, agenda, and reasons for running so stay tuned.
On Monday we received an email with the following letter from GFDA President/CEO Brett Doney to the Cascade County Zoning Board of Adjustment attached. The letter is concerning the permit application for the proposed Big Sky Cheese plant which the ZBOA will be considering this coming Thursday, June 27th. You can also view and download the letter here GFDA ZBOA letter.
“The proposed project will be criticized for being the precursor of something too big. However, all that is before you today is this one proposed project.” – Brett Doney
Doney’s comment here seems to be the crux of the issue. But there’s also plenty of very interesting reading in Doney’s letter revealing the true state of our current local economy.
This will continue to be a very hot issue in the months to come. Let us know what you think in the comments section or on our Facebook page.
We applaud and appreciate the great work United Way of Cascade County does for our community yearly in raising money for important local organizations and causes. Kudos to them, their work is vital.
But we have to wonder why one of their top paid employees, Volunteer Program Coordinator Lynette Scriver-Colburn, would jeopardize opportunities to raise funds from potential donors by being so blatantly partisan in a public forum.
If you’re one of the thousands of Gianforte or Stapleton voters/supporters and you see the Volunteer Program Coordinator for United Way of Cascade County responding publicly to your candidate, saying “Gag me”, would you be inclined to donate to United Way? Or would you find another charity to give to?
Does Scriver-Colburn have the right as a private citizen to express her partisan opinions publicly? Of course. Is it wise to do so when you’re name is known and you are a paid representative of a non-profit trying to raise money?
This isn’t the first time Scriver-Coburn has allowed her personal political views to be displayed publicly in a way that seems counterproductive to her employers interests. Last year she attempted to intimidate a local business owner and discourage him from advertising with another local business – E-City Beat. You can find the details here.
We encourage folks to donate to worthy causes like United Way of Cascade County, you can find out how to do that here. We also encourage non-profits like United Way and their employees to exercise a little more wisdom and a little less partisan vitriol in their public statements.
Last week a concerned citizen sent us an email he/she sent to each Great Falls city commissioner concerning the secret meetings going on between two commissioners, Moe and Robinson, and the MaClean Animal Foundation. These negotiations continue to be conducted secretly in order to intentionally exclude public scrutiny and input.
Four commissioners responded to this taxpayer’s concerns, one did not – Tracy Houck. Below is the content of the email and the responses, all of which are public record.
“Dear Commissioners,
I have been following the articles about the addition to the Great Falls Animal Shelter Cattery. I congratulate the Citizens of our community who donated all the money needed for this addition. I am very proud of this group of people.
On the other hand I am not very happy about the City Commission deciding some kind of merger should be put in place between the Maclean Foundation and the City Animal Shelter. I feel this deal is a bad one. It leaves City taxpayers paying all the bills for a private foundation. This is another poor decision by City Commission.
Taxpayers voted for the Park Plan increases and now the golf courses have been turned over to a private identity and the Natatorium is shut down due to unsafe conditions. Why don’t you spend your time working on updating items which help the taxpayers of this city instead of wasting our money on a private foundation. This City losses more money on stupid ideas than any place I have ever seen.
I will not bother to itemize the 15 and quarter million dollars lost in the last decade to stupidity. The City does not need to take on yet another waste of money project. Please start working for the benefit of our citizens and taxpayers.”
Bill Bronson’s response:
“Thank you for your e-mail and your comments.
I agree with your comment concerning the cattery. That is why I was not in agreement with the initial decision to postpone consideration of the successful bid, and why I supported the initiative to rescind that action, bring the matter back, and allow the bid and construction to go forward. The cattery is very much needed at this time, given the size of the abandoned cat population and the need to treat these animal humanely while they await adoption by caring individuals.
As to your statements about a proposed “merger” with Mclean, your e-mail presents an opportunity to set the record straight as to what is actually before the Commission. There is no proposal of any kind for the City Commission to consider at this time, let alone a “merger” plan. It is true that my colleagues, Commissioners Moe and Robinson, have had some communications with representative of Mclean, but they have not presented anything back to the City Commission for consideration as of this date. At the last work session, Commissioner Robinson indicated that he and Ms. Moe are planning to present a summary of their communications to the full commission at a work session in July. This is a public meeting, during which anyone can come and listen to their presentation. This will also give interested members of the public and opportunity to digest any of their recommendations before any final proposal comes before the Commission.
Any final proposal that is brought forward will have to be vetted by our staff, especially as the the financial aspects and any legalities associated with it. It will then have to go before the full Commission, in a public meeting, with opportunity for public comment, before any decision is made.
I acknowledge that some people think that some kind of a proposal has already been made to the full Commission, or has been acted upon. It hasn’t. I also know there is a document out there that lays out some ideas for a working relationship between the City and Mclean. I have seen that document. Frankly, I would not support the essentials of that proposal, as laid out, for several reasons, but I won’t get into those, as I doubt that anything of that kind will ever make its way to the full Commission.
I appreciate your concerns and would invite you to continue staying tuned to the process, and to comment on any final proposals that may come forward. I will need input from the interested public before making any decisions of my own; the subject of animal care and protection is a complicated one, and I will need all the factual information I can get in order to make good decisions.
Thank again for reaching out.
Bill Bronson, City Commissioner”
Mary Moe’s response:
“Dear —–:
Thank you for contacting me directly. My interest in a partnership with the Maclean Animal Care Center is based solely on the public interest in providing at least the same quality of care for animals while accruing substantial savings and/or increased revenues to the City. When we are unable to allocate the public funds necessary to staff our police and fire departments sufficiently, it is difficult to justify duplicating animal care services that other entities provide.
If the discussions Commissioner Robinson and I are engaging in with representatives from the Maclean do not arrive in a partnership that will be significantly beneficial to the City from a financial perspective, neither of us will bring a proposal forward. There’s a lot of work to do before that day comes, but I continue to believe the potential benefits to the City are worth the effort.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I appreciate hearing from you.
Best,
Mary Moe”
Bob Kelly’s response:
“Good morning —-, Thank you for your note below. The decision on any change regarding the current relationship between the Maclean Animal group and the City run Animal shelter will be contingent on the taxpayers of Great Falls achieving substantial savings and animals receiving the same or better care. Absolutely no decision has been made regarding changing this relationship; there are merely exploratory conversations between the interested parties. If, in fact, a proposal does come forward, it will need to be placed on a City Commission agenda for approval. The public will have an opportunity to comment and question any part of the proposed agreement. Again, we are trying to create efficiencies with taxpayers funds and would hope to direct any realized savings to other areas of concern, including public safety. Our goal is certainly NOT to increase our expenses for animal care. However, at this time, no proposals have come forward to the City Commission. Your concern and comments will be appreciated when, and if, there is a recommendation to change the current relationship. Please stay in touch. Best, Bob Kelly”
Owen Robinson’s response:
“Dear —,
Thank you for your inquiry concerning possible cooperation between the City’s Animal Shelter and Maclean. It is very early in the research phase, so it is not possible to predict any proposal which may be forthcoming nor the acceptance by the other three Commissioners to such a proposal. However, I can tell you that both Commissioner Moe and I will not make any proposal to the full Commission unless it can produce significant savings for the City – savings which could better be used for urgent needs such as public safety. So to your point, our goal is to save money which will be used “updating items which help the taxpayers of this city”. If we can’t find significant guaranteed savings for the City, we will move on without making a proposal.
Editors note: the following is an article we received today from a Great Falls resident who for obvious reasons has asked to remain anonymous.
Thirty years ago when I bought my home and was head of the youngest family on our block, the old-timers living nearby imagined, and some so-stated, “There goes the neighborhood!”
Fast forward to June 6, 2019, all those former community members are long gone, some of them, first to rest homes then, finally, deceased. My home is by far the best groomed, nicest home on our block although we have three other neighbors who do pretty well maintaining their domiciles.
Presently one of our neighborhood homes is vacant, neglected since its forfeiture by foreclosure in December, last year, the third home on our block to be foreclosed upon; another is vacant and neglected for more than a year now. A third has become a Federal Transport rental, I mention their name only because the poor quality of their rentals and their management of them is so well known.
Thirty years ago you couldn’t have convinced me that, today, we’d have homeless people living in cars on our street, that other vehicles, long abandoned to our avenue, are unlicensed, filled with trash, and vacant. Presently, and since last Thursday, a homeless female, probably between forty and fifty years old, and her pet cats, has been living in an old, tan, unlicensed Pontiac van, first next to our home at the vacant foreclosure next door, now in front of the rental on the corner. Both tail-lights are broken out of her van, and one of the headlights.
Using an assortment of dirty blankets and tarps, she shelters herself from the sun during daylight hours, from the cold at night.
She has no formal restroom but utilizes the street, leaving her “toilet paper” where she drops it. she has no facility for food storage or cooking, and no trash service or, as already mentioned, indoor plumbing.
The Great Falls Police Department knows she’s there and does nothing, claiming they can’t do anything about her vehicle, even though it’s unlicensed and uninsured, unless it stays in the same spot for more than 72 hours at a time. This law is actually to the woman’s benefit: First of all, she’s legally granted a place to park for 72 hours at a time; secondly, it prompts her to move as her toilet and bidet overflow!
Frequent visitors to our block are Montana Department of Corrections Parole Division employees, evidently checking on some of their wards living in the rental on the corner. Apparently, through them, members of the Great Falls Police Department then visit this residence upon contact. Ducking their new prisoners’ heads into the back seat of patrol cars, they make arrests but, since our under-staffed local jail and prison population presently and for some time now exceeds its legal head-count, a bondsman returns them to our neighborhood where they stay until their next arrest and re-release.
Drug paraphernalia is carelessly strewn around our neighborhood, much of it in the alleys behind our homes but some out front as well…
…our trash dumpsters overflow with hoards re-deposited weekly; adults, mainly males, openly and visibly urinate daylight and dark, on lawns, in alleys, and on the sidewalk. So much for Great Falls City “code enforcement,” and not because local code enforcers are unaware of these problems: they’re brought up-to-date more often than weekly yet do nothing.
Some of our local policemen and women, when confronted with the situation in our neighborhood, tell us, “You do something about it; it’s your neighborhood,” almost as if they’re part of a plan to make sure our community fails. Others, and I’ve heard this several times recently, believe our police-men and women are afraid and, therefore, avoid this type of situation.
For us….and we’ve loved our home, our business, our church and our town….the obvious thing to do is to move to live elsewhere. This isn’t what I planned when I bought my home those many years ago. It was going to be the last place I lived but things change.
We all know how Bob Kelly’s City Commission is conducting itself in dealing with the Maclean Animal Adoption Center. But how did the City tackle this issue under its previous mayor, Michael Winters?
Winters jumped onto the E-City beat comments to tell everyone just that, and he did not mince words:
Wait just a minute folks !! Try to remember days gone by when Bob Jones, Fred and I were new on the commission–Openly Bob and I met with the folks of the Mc Clean project–There was nothing in it to benefit the city and all to the advantage to the New Mc Clean center. We discussed this both at work sessions and commission meeting. There was NO CONFLICT of interest, none of us on the commission had served on any board nor donated financially to the McClean project. The city was asked to give a large amount of financial backing and to boot would receive nothing in return and by doing the city could save a great deal of money. Wasn’t sure how that would work, the commission at that time declined any involvement with McClean project. Please some one tell me how and when did things change to reopen in private conversation involvement and bring about a joint mission statement. Perhaps there is a snake in the wood pile !
Whose style of leadership do you prefer, Kelly’s or Winters’?
We couldn’t help but notice two related local topics this week:
Tracy Houck announced her intention to run for reelection to the Great Falls city commission.
The City of Great Falls is proposing doubling downtown parking meter fees.
We find it rather ironic, and quite amusing, that Houck is using the slogan “A Leader Who Listens” as part of her campaign branding.
In 2016 Mayor Kelly “tasked” Houck and then Commissioner Fred Burrow with finding solutions to our downtown parking problems, partly by staying plugged into the citizens Parking Advisory Commission.
According to meeting minutes, since January of 2016 there have been 41 Parking Advisory Commission meetings – Houck attended a total of 4 of those meetings.
There were at least 5 PAC Special Planning meetings during that period – Houck attended none of them.
Editors note: We’re introducing a new feature on E-City Beat – Letters To The Editor. If you would like to opine on a state or local topic just email your letter to info@ecitybeat.com. Please limit your letter to 250 words or less and include your email address and real name.
Letter to the Editor
The recent announcement by Greg Gianforte that he is seriously considering another run for Governor is problematic. He barely won against a gun grabbing liberal entirely out of touch with Montana values. Now Greg wants to run for Governor?
Tim Fox is an excellent candidate for Governor, and Rep. Gianforte should be thinking about maintaining his seat in the House of Representatives. Gianforte should stay in the House of Representatives instead of crowding the Republican field of candidates and detracting from candidates with an actual shot at winning the general election for Governor.
Rumor is, Matt Rosendale is already committed to running for an open congressional seat if Greg Gianforte makes another bid for Governor.
That is a mistake! Republicans can’t afford to recycle losers. We need electable candidates. Rosendale had all the help in the world against a flawed candidate, but couldn’t get it done. Despite President Trump and VP Pence visiting the state several times, Rosendale couldn’t overcome the “Maryland Matt” moniker.
In 2020, Senator Daines also faces tough re-election prospects. Having Tim Fox as the Gubernatorial candidate, Daines for Senate, and Gianforte for the House makes the strongest ticket and gives Republicans the best chance of winning.
We will not be publishing Polaske’s response at this time due to the nature of the content of the letter. Almost every other sentence is a personal attack on Mr. Hagan rather than a reasoned and logical response to the facts and content of Hagan’s press release, which did not mention any individual in the CCRCC by name.
We strive to be fair and will be happy to publish a response from Mr. Polaske or anyone else from the CCRCC as long as it isn’t a thinly veiled personal attack on Hagan, or anyone else, but addresses the issues.
We are not adverse to criticisms of public officials or elected representatives, Hagan is neither.
PRESS RELEASE FROM ROGER A. HAGAN ON RULING BY REPUBLICAN PARTY ON CASCADE COUNTY REPUBLICAN CENTRAL COMMITTEE RULES
I am pleased to announce the Montana Republican Party has issued an important decision nullifying rules intended to prevent reform of the Cascade County Republican Central Committee (CCRCC).
Last week, a subcommittee of the Montana Republican Party Rules Committee determined all rule changes to county rules made by the CCRCC Executive Board from June 2018 to the present are null and void. The ruling was made in response to a challenge I submitted to the Montana Republican Party on March 8, 2019 on behalf of ALL Cascade County Republicans.
The rules, nullified by the Montana Republican Party, include rules allowing the use of unauthorized proxies in the county convention, rules designed to remove duly elected committeemen and committeewomen from their positions, and rules requiring people challenging members of the current executive board at the convention to submit a petition for consideration for an executive board position at least 30 days in advance of the convention.
These rules were adopted in secret meetings occurring in December 2018 and February 2019. The rules were adopted without notice to the duly elected committeemen and committeewomen.
The rules adopted were nothing more than an attempt by the CCRCC Executive Board to restrict the vote at the County Convention and to prevent the duly elected committeemen and committeewomen from exercising their right to represent their constituents and elect a new executive board.
I am delighted the Montana Republican Party has decided to crack down on the Cascade County Republican Central Committee.
Although we have won this battle, I expect that we are going to continue to see more efforts to undermine the will of the people and to stop the duly elected committeemen and committeewomen from electing officers of the executive board. I would hope that I am wrong.
Nonetheless, today is good day for those who believe in ethical and transparent political parties and the voice of ALL Republicans in Cascade County. A central committee should not be allowed to write rules in secret and attempt to impose them on duly elected officials in an effort to control a central committee.
Wait just a minute folks !! Try to remember days gone by when Bob Jones, Fred and I were new on the commission–Openly Bob and I met with the folks of the Mc Clean project–There was nothing in it to benefit the city and all to the advantage to the New Mc Clean center. We discussed this both at work sessions and commission meeting. There was NO CONFLICT of interest, none of us on the commission had served on any board nor donated financially to the McClean project. The city was asked to give a large amount of financial backing and to boot would receive nothing in return and by doing the city could save a great deal of money. Wasn’t sure how that would work, the commission at that time declined any involvement with McClean project. Please some one tell me how and when did things change to reopen in private conversation involvement and bring about a joint mission statement. Perhaps there is a snake in the wood pile !