Rick Tryon

New Glory Days Ahead For Great Falls?

Rick Tryon on May 2, 2019

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Whenever the topic concerning the lack of growth, development, and good jobs in Great Falls comes up, the discussion often goes something like this:

Mr. Wannaknow: “Why can’t we seem to prosper and grow like other Montana communities?”

Mr. Knowitall: “Well, obviously it’s because we aren’t on a east-west interstate and we don’t have a state college here. Stop being so negative.”

Mr. Wannaknow: “Oh, okay. Sorry.”

I’ve got news for Mr. Knowitall – that dog don’t hunt, or that horse don’t buck, or that chicken don’t lay eggs, or whatever other folksy metaphor you choose that means ‘WRONG-O’.

Whenever people ask me if I’ve lived in Great Falls all my life I tell them, “Not yet”.

But I have lived here long enough to remember when our beautiful little city was the biggest, most prosperous, bustling town in Montana. We were the envy of the Treasure State. We didn’t have a state college or an east-west interstate back then either.

To which Mr. Knowitall replies: “Yeah but we had the smelter and a flying mission at MAFB and Great Falls Select brewery and Burlington Northern. Stop being so negative.”

To which I reply: “So it’s not because we don’t have a state college or an east-west interstate?”

To which Mr. Knowitall replies: “Stop being so negative.”

Actually, we need to stop being so blind. We have the potential here in Great Falls to once again be a thriving, growing place to live, work and raise a family.

In order to do that we need to fix the problems we can do something about and that are right in front of us instead of making lame excuses for our abysmal lack of vision and growth.

Now here’s the good news.

Back in 2014 when I was serving as the Government Affairs Director for the Great Falls Association of Realtors we organized a group of realtors, developers and business leaders called the Coalition to meet with City officials and staff to discuss the local development process and policies. As a result we identified three major areas that needed to be addressed:

One point of contact – Having one city contact from the beginning stages of a project all the way through completion would help guide the developer through the process and greatly increase customer satisfaction.
Streamline the overall development process – Either do away with the Design Review Board, which is currently suspended, or make it completely optional. The added expense and time involved for developers is an unnecessary burden and hassle for design issues that could be addressed in city code.
A verifiable document trail – signed onto by city staff for every step of the development process required, including inspections and permitting. Having such a record for each project readily available, preferably online, would insure against future disagreements and misunderstandings between city staff/officials and developers. It would also provide accountability and transparency.

According to a recent article in The Electric, the City Planning and Community Development Department is undertaking some of the changes we advocated for and discussed back then. This is awesome news for Great Falls and congratulations and kudos are in order, City staff has listened to local stakeholders and is implementing the much needed changes.

This will go a long ways towards getting Great Falls back on track. I know we can’t return the old glory days, but we can and must make new glory days.

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Cascade County 0.4% Growth Too Cold

Rick Tryon on April 24, 2019

Last week the U.S. Census Bureau report revealed some surprising information about county population growth in Montana between 2010 and 2018. It’s not only surprising, but for Cascade County it’s troubling.

Looking at this data I’m reminded of the story of the Three Bears.

TOO HOT! – Gallatin County (Bozeman/Belgrade area) grew by 22,363 people, or 25%.

TOO COLD! – Cascade County (Great Falls area) grew by 320 people, or 0.4%.

JUST RIGHT? – The Helena, Missoula and Billings areas grew by a little over 8% each.

I think most of us Great Fallsians would agree that we don’t want 25% growth or the rapid boom development Bozeman is experiencing, even though it has real advantages. But I don’t think we should be celebrating, or even accepting, a measly 0.4% percent growth rate either.

In fact we should be alarmed that we grew by only 320 people since 2010. Very alarmed. Heck, even the Butte area more than doubled our population growth.

We need more people and “new blood” in Great Falls/Cascade County. It’s that simple. Here’s why:

Adding population means we grow our workforce – something almost every local economic development analyst and civic leader recognizes as the number one need for Great Falls.
New people are new customers for local businesses.
An expanding population results in an expanding tax base which results in more revenue for infrastructure, schools, and parks.
A stagnant population means higher local taxes because of the rising costs of infrastructure, schools, and parks.

So, why are people flocking to the other counties and cities in Montana but not ours?

Please don’t try to palm off the oft-heard, phony answer that “It’s because we a have a negative narrative and we’re not thinking positively enough in Great Falls”. No, that’s not the reason.

We need to address the reasons behind the “negative narrative” and lack of enthusiasm and optimism for our community. Here are a few goals that we should bring a sense of urgency to achieving and that speak directly to the reasons Great Falls/Cascade County continues to struggle to remain stagnant.

We will earn the reputation of having the most honest, ethical and transparent city/county government and public officials in the state.
We will become known as the most business and jobs friendly community in the state, with a motto of “How Can We Help You Succeed”, not “You Can’t Do That”.
We will be the safest community in the state.
We will have a consensus vision and a plan of action for measured growth and prosperity over time.
We will encourage new ideas, innovation and full participation by ALL of our citizens.

Stay tuned as I and others begin to flesh out some of these ideas and goals. We can do it, we can achieve JUST RIGHT!

Great Falls’ Cult Of ‘Believe Or Go Away’

Rick Tryon on April 22, 2019

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In an article I wrote last week called ‘Mr. Narrative Comes To Great Falls’ I discussed the bogus notion that a ‘negative narrative’ is the reason that Great Falls continues to struggle to remain stagnant. In that piece I referenced the local Future of the Falls young professionals group and their upcoming event, BaseCamp.

As I said then and will say again, I appreciate and applaud the hard work being done by the volunteers in Future of the Falls even though I am dubious about the motives and extent of involvement by the original organizers of the group – Mayor Bob Kelly and Commissioner Mayor Moe.

Subsequently several current and former participants in the group have contacted me to express their opinions about my article and the Future of the Falls/BaseCamp organization. All of them said basically the same thing – the group went from ‘several hundred’ participating in forums last year to the current number of around 35 because many participants were disappointed in the goals and mission of the effort as pushed by Moe and Kelly.

…the group went from ‘several hundred’ participating to the current number of around 35 because they were disappointed in the ultimate goals and mission of the effort as pushed by Moe and Kelly.

Here’s an example of an email I received and have permission to publish on the condition that the sender remains anonymous, for obvious reasons:

“Rick,

First, I wish to remain anonymous but your latest piece hit me where I live, if you know what I mean. I was at the FoTF (Future of the Falls) events initially and this is how it ended. I came away with a strong sense of disappointment that never recovered.

I invite you to look into the attendance numbers from the FoTF events right up until the real agenda was revealed and anyone not committed enough was invited not to return. As I remember it, there was significant support at that last meeting from many “young professionals” to continue with the FoTF forums and form the Basecamp group as a sub-committee for anyone interested but Moe saw it differently — “a cloud” as she says.

As such, it’s my impression that the entire thing was simply a screen for her ultimate goal: this Basecamp event. Only time will tell, and I do think Basecamp could be a good thing for the community, but as for the FoTF, I think we can safely say that the summit was the end game.

I felt this was relevant to your last piece so, without further ado, here’s how it ended:”

Following is the content of the email Commissioner Mary Moe sent to the October 2018, forum participants

“Dear Ones,

I am writing to confirm that we will meet next Wednesday, Jan. 16, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. in the same room to plan the “summit” or whatever we’re going to call it. I am really excited about the potential of this event. I am even more excited about the prospect of seeing all of you roll out your potential and your considerable talents to plan and deliver it.

But mainly I am writing to follow up on the feeling that was in the room last night, a cloud I tried to push away with my closing comments. Although I think the discussion we had last night had to happen, I worry that many of you found it discouraging. Heck, I found it discouraging. But I never stay discouraged for long because I learned a long time ago only one person can keep me down. And that’s me. That’s as true of communities as it is of individuals.

You asked last night to see the feedback from the forums. I am attaching the spreadsheet I created for the feedback from the first one. I altered it slightly last night to protect the confidentiality of the commenters, but otherwise it’s the same document recording the take-aways people had as they left the forum into the October sunset. If you do nothing else between now and next Wednesday, look through those take-aways. You will conclude what I still believe: The one thing that binds this group together is not a interest in economic development or a distaste for the way “the city” does things. It’s a thirst for a more positive conversation in Great Falls, a more positive self-image, a more positive message that we send to visitors and new arrivals and to each other about who we are. And the second take-away is also worth remembering: There is an “ah” of relief that almost bounces off the spreadsheet: “I’m not alone! So many other people feel like I do!”

That’s where we need to start. That’s what we’re trying to build on with the summit. As I tried to convey last night with my “not getting married” comment, the summit isn’t the end game. But, boy, it sure is a good way to throw the first pitch. Great Falls has a great story to tell, and a lot of people want to know about it and figure out how they can be a part of it. Like all good stories, it has a lot of subplots and characters, and the summit is a way of not only telling the story but pulling people into it in the way they choose. Let’s engage in a little show-and-tell.

Believe. And if you don’t, no offense intended, but please don’t come next week. We have work to do.

Mary” (Emphasis added)

I suppose one could ignore that the “Dear Ones” greeting sounds downright cult-like if it weren’t for the last line in Moe’s email which actually is cultish – believe, or don’t bother coming back? What? I’m sorry Dear Leader Moe, that is really weird.

It’s also troubling that Moe seems completely oblivious to the reality that a lack of “economic development” and a genuine “distaste for the way the city does things” is precisely the reason there is a negative narrative here.

Trying to treat the symptom rather than addressing the cause is a fools errand. But Moe and Kelly aren’t fools. They understand perfectly well that by claiming that the boogie man is a “negative narrative” rather than failed leadership, they can deflect attention away from their own incompetence, cronyism and neglect.

Now here’s the good news.

Mike Bicsak, the sponsorship coordinator for the upcoming BaseCamp event, posted this on the comment thread on E-City Beat’s FB page concerning the article I wrote after he and I had a good conversation about the subject of partnering with city commissioners or the City of Great Falls.

“I had a very nice chat with Rick today over coffee. After this Facebook discussion I had a talk with a few other members of the Future of the Falls and we have decided that we will be proceeding on our own in the future.

Although there has been no wrong doing by anyone regarding BaseCamp or Future of the Falls, we agree that we can’t have the perception that we are puppets or pawns to anyone’s political agenda.

Good talk, Rick. Thanks again.”

And thank you too, Mike. I encourage everyone to check out the BaseCamp event on May 18th from noon to 6:00 PM at the Civic Center.

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Mr. Narrative Comes To Great Falls

Rick Tryon on April 15, 2019

Heads up, Great Falls. There’s a new guy in town named Mr. Narrative.

Here is an actual comment on the BaseCamp Great Falls Facebook page from city Commissioner Mary Moe: “A group of young professionals in Great Falls is tired of the negative narrative about this community and is determined to turn it around.”

So, the city poobahs are going to try to give us a different shiny object to distract us from that mean old Mr. Negative.

Of course BaseCamp isn’t really a “group of young professionals” that spontaneously coalesced in response to the “negative narrative” about Great Falls. BaseCamp is another incarnation of the former Future of the Falls group that met a couple of times last fall. BaseCamp exists because, “Commissioner Mary Moe and Mayor Bob Kelly rallied us young professionals together…” as the BaseCamp spokesperson explains in a recent promo video.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that BaseCamp Great Falls is a great idea and can do wonderful things for our community. I admire and applaud the folks who are volunteering their time in this effort.

But let’s not kid ourselves – this is the brainchild of Mary Moe and Bob Kelly and is an obvious attempt to introduce Great Falls to the shiny new Mr. Narrative in the hopes that we’ll all be smitten by his positivism and bright sunny outlook rather than looking at the dishonesty, incompetence and cronyism still residing in our city commission.

The new positive Mr. Narrative is polished and slick. He’s such an important figure that the City has hired a Communications Specialist at a cozy salary figure (paid by us taxpayers) to make sure his voice is heard. As if the Assistant City Manager couldn’t possibly handle communications, as previous assistant city managers have.

Instead of a focus on public safety (and how about more police officers?), government transparency, careful avoidance of conflicts of interest and outstanding ethics on the part of city commissioners, we are paying for an opaque polishing finish with smiley faces tattooed on top.

The latest shenanigans by Commissioners Mary Moe and Owen Robinson, who’ve been secretly meeting (can we say ‘Transparency’?) to negotiate some deal with our tax dollars with the Animal Foundation, is another example of “they just don’t learn” (remember the Community Development Block Grant conflicts of interest?) and “they forget who their constituents are” – which is us, the taxpayers. Commissioner Robinson has a long and monied history with the Foundation. Can we say more conflict of interest? See The Electric’s excellent piece here.

Now after the red flag is raised on these secret meetings and conflicts of interest and the public has been made aware, Moe suggests the City get rid of the recently established Ethics Committee – “During the April 2 meeting, Moe said she would argue that the ethics committee is not needed since there are provisions in state law regarding ethics and public officials.” (from The Electric)

Well, maybe that will solve her problem of being held accountable to the public for obvious ethical violations but it doesn’t sit right at all with me and many others.

These are just a couple of the most recent examples of the reasons Great Falls continues to struggle to remain stagnant. I will continue to highlight examples like these in the coming weeks, in detail.

I really wish our so-called leadership would stop treating us like we’re stupid by trying to con us into thinking that a “negative narrative” is the problem rather than the actual, real-world reasons that folks are angry and speaking up about around here.

But we’ve seen this picture many times before. The mayor happily led the charge to slap the happy face of Charlie Russell, flying saucer included, on a parking structure that is bleeding for real fixes, not just fresh paint. And Commissioner Moe is helping to clear the path for Mr. Narrative.

In truth our City Commissioners do not seem to care what we think and seem determined to run their agendas behind closed doors.

So keep your eyes open for Mr. Narrative, I have a strong feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot of him around town saying, “Welcome to Great Falls where everything is fine and we’re getting better all the time. And if you don’t agree then shut up or leave.”

Folks, we’re being fed more propaganda from the Machine and I for one won’t be silent about this farce.

Cronyism Continues In The Great Falls City Commission

Rick Tryon on April 8, 2019

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There’s really no other way to say it – Great Falls city commissioner Owen Robinson should not be voting on any issue regarding a proposed City of Great Falls partnership with the Maclean Cameron Animal Adoption Center. But he did anyway.

Robinson’s actions as a city commissioner stink to high heaven and anyone who is familiar with this matter knows exactly why.

Robinson is a former president of the center’s foundation.
Robinson donated a quarter of a MILLION dollars to the foundation.
Robinson is a long-time advocate for the Maclean Cameron Animal Adoption Center and the creation of a partnership between the city and the center.

At the April 2, 2019 city commission meeting, Robinson along with Commissioner Moe and Mayor Kelly voted to postpone the decision on a $462,000 contract for a cattery at the Great Falls Animal Shelter. Not only is this a major conflict of interest for Robinson it’s also another boneheaded commission decision potentially costing taxpayers another pile of hard-earned money and further delay in order to re-bid the addition at a later date.

To add insult to injury Robinson revealed that he and Moe have been secretly meeting with a group called Animals First to discuss plans for a partnership between the city (taxpayers) and Maclean Cameron Animal Adoption Center.

What??? Two city commissioners secretly meeting with a non-profit to discuss a “partnership” without any public scrutiny or input?

This is outrageous and totally unacceptable. And it appears that including only two commissioners in these meetings was intentional so as to avoid a quorum which would require public participation and the necessity of an official record.

Do these people never learn? What in the world makes Robinson and Moe think they can go behind OUR backs and meet with MCACC to discuss plans like this? What arrogance and total disregard for transparency.

The cronyism and good ol’ boys and gals nonsense continues unabated right here in River City. Regardless which side you come down on with the animal shelter issue itself there’s absolutely no way Robinson should have voted or be voting in the future on this issue given his past involvement with and his official position as president of the MCACC foundation.

And where is Mayor Kelly’s leadership here? Why didn’t anyone on OUR city commission insist Robinson recuse himself and that he and Moe immediately stop their secret negotiations with MCACC?

The damage to public trust here is significant.

No wonder Great Falls has the reputation of being run by the good ol’ boys’ and gals club. Better wake up fellow citizens, and soon.

You can view the city commission discussion and vote on the issue here starting at about 1:40:00.

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Great Falls: ‘You Can’t Do That’ Or ‘How Can We Help You Do That?’

Rick Tryon on March 29, 2019

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In a previous article, “A Development Process Advisory Board For Great Falls Makes Sense”, I explored some of the ways a DPARB could be beneficial for growth and development in Great Falls, as it has been in Billings.

Today I want to look at what I consider to be the most important thing our city government and city officials can do to help Great Falls go from struggling to remain stagnant to once again becoming the envy of Montana’s cities.

And here it is in a nutshell:

From the mayor and city commission to the various department heads and other city employees, when dealing with business and development issues the motto and attitude for all city public officials and staff should always be, “How can we serve you and help you succeed?” and not, “You can’t do that!”

We have a ways to go yet in order to instill that attitude into our city government’s bloodstream. It starts at the top, but unfortunately our city commission has missed the mark badly and repeatedly.

The M&D Construction debacle is just one example of why Great Falls has gained the much-deserved reputation of being an anti-business, anti-development community.

M&D Construction moved out of the city when our city commission unanimously voted against a conditional use permit for the company which employed around 30 people.

This anti-business, anti-jobs unanimous decision by the five Great Falls city commissioners, Kelly, Bronson, Moe, Houck and Robinson, against the conditional use permit was made even though City staff, the City Zoning Commission and Neighborhood Council 7 all voted unanimously IN FAVOR of it.

You can find all the sad details about the M&D decision in the minutes, video and further documentation here.

We’ve allowed wealthy old-money elites, who are pals with and campaign donors to sitting city commissioners, to have veto power over local business development and expansion. If this kind of high-level cronyism isn’t stopped once and for all in Great Falls we will never reach our potential.

While I believe we need a radical change in the way we do business and the way our city commission has incompetently and dishonestly operated recently, the changes and continued improvements in policies at the department level, where the rubber meets the road, don’t need to be revolutionary, just based in common sense.

I honestly think we have seen some progress and improvements over the past ten years or so in Great Falls when it comes to our business and development processes. But we can do better, in Some cases a lot better.

Here are three ideas for continued improvement (with plenty more to come):

One of the main complaints I’ve heard from developers over the years is that they have to call or visit multiple city departments to mitigate issues for a single project. A better solution would be to have one certain point of contact within the city for development issues. Having one city contact from the beginning stages of a project all the way through completion would help guide the developer through the process and greatly increase customer satisfaction.
Streamline the overall development process by improving the project review process. Either do away with the Design Review Board, which is currently suspended, or make it completely optional. The added expense and time involved for developers is an unnecessary burden and hassle for design issues that could be addressed in city code.
Make a verifiable document trail signed onto by city staff for every step of the development process required, including inspections and permitting. Having such a record for each project readily available, preferably online, would insure against future disagreements and misunderstandings between city staff/officials and developers. It would also provide accountability and transparency.

The City of Great Falls has undertaken various versions of some of these ideas and others but I don’t think we have made enough solid progress yet. Let’s keep the ball rolling and the ideas for solutions coming.

It all starts at the leadership level and with the right attitude.

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Score One For Transparency

Rick Tryon on March 22, 2019

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As most local folks in Cascade County are now aware, former Cascade County Sheriff’s Office undersheriff John Stevens has been charged with felony theft related to public property, firearms, he allegedly absconded from the sheriffs office and traded for a four wheeler.

Of course Stevens is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise.

I would like to focus on something other than the details of this particular story and look at a broader issue and some possible lessons we can learn here.

We often wonder why Great Falls/Cascade County seems to be struggling to remain stagnant while other state and regional cities are growing and prospering.

I have long maintained that part of the reason for our economic and cultural stupor is a general anti-business and development attitude, and policies that go along with that from our local public officials.

But another factor contributing to our failure to progress and grow here is a longtime culture of cronyism and a lack of transparency as it relates to public officials and employees and the processes involved in our local government and public institutions.

Some examples:

For years, maybe decades, there were major conflicts of interest in the Great Falls city commission and city advisory boards surrounding the Community Development Block Grant money allocation. The public knew little if anything about these shenanigans until very recently and only because citizens starting speaking up and demanding change.
The Great Falls Public School District covered up the theft of public property by a district employee several years ago and also tried to sweep some very disturbing rape allegations at Great Falls High School under the rug. (I’m told to stay tuned for a more detailed reference to the rape allegation in an upcoming piece.)
Remember Electric City Power? The details of that fiasco and the incompetence and possible dirty dealings of those involved with it were largely unknown to the general public until it was too late.
Even now there are lots of questions about how transparent Cascade County officials have been in the Madison Food Park (slaughterhouse) development.

Enough said.

Okay, now for the good news – I am very impressed with Sheriff Jesse Slaughter and Undersheriff Cory Reeves and how they have conducted the peoples business over the last 3 months. As soon as the states DCI investigation into Stevens, and possibly others, was concluded Sheriff Slaughter sent out a press release and conducted a press conference fully open to the public with the details.

The law enforcement community is a very tight knit group and they take care of their own, sometimes possibly at the expense of honesty, transparency and fairness.

How easy it would have been for Slaughter to minimize and try to cover up, as much as possible, the charges against a fellow law enforcement officer. But he didn’t.

Back during the 2018 campaign for sheriff, Slaughter and Reeves reached out to me and asked to meet for a cup of coffee. I was a little surprised by the invitation and asked why. I was told that since I am known as a vocal opponent of the local good ol’ boys & gals club they wanted to assure me that they were running on a platform of transparency and zero tolerance for cronyism.

So far so good in my opinion. I hope the example being set by the new sheriff and his administration will be an example and the start of a new way of doing business in Cascade County and Great Falls.

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A Development Process Advisory Board For Great Falls Makes Sense

Rick Tryon on March 7, 2019

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In the introduction to my series, “Ideas For A Greater Great Falls”, under the category of Creating an environment for more jobs, higher wages and a vibrant, growing community, the second bullet point is the following:

- Create a Development Process and Advisory Review Board along the lines of the Billings model.

The Billings Development Process and Advisory Review Board, DPARB, has been in place for about a decade now and continues to work quite well by most accounts for the growing city of Billings. I think we could and should adopt and adapt a similar board to address issues surrounding the development process here in Great Falls.

Here are few of the features and details of the the Billings model taken from the City of Billings web site and the Billings DPARB PDF.

“DPARB Purpose

To act as an advisory board to the City Administrator in regards to the entire development process, its related policies, and procedures.
To review and evaluate the administration of the development process.
To review and evaluate policies that affect the development process.
To serve as an appeals board for development issues that are not addressed by existing procedures, rules, or regulations.”

Ideally such a board for Great Falls would work either as an official City Advisory Board or as an advisory panel to the City Manager. I prefer the former. Now would be a good time to consider this idea because the Design Review Board has been suspended temporarily, permanently would be better in my opinion.

The Great Falls Design Review Board has been, in the opinion of many, a hindrance to development because of the extra time and expense project developers are forced to incur due to DRB requirements .

A DPARB would be a different kind of board. Instead of being another regulatory hoop to jump through it would serve as a panel to help developers and it would act as a citizens mitigation board, advocate for developers large and small, and an appeal mechanism for unaddressed issues between city staff and project developers.

Here is a summary of the Billings DPARB purpose:

“Will hear all appeal issues not covered by other mandated City, County, State or Federal regulations, codes, ordinances or laws. If you feel there is a problem with the timeliness consistency or cooperation with City staff, please complete and submit the Appeal or Review Request form on the reverse side.”

View the Billings DPARB PDF here.

It would be very important that members of a Great Falls DPARB be make up of regular citizens and folks from the local construction/development, business, and real estate industries who must deal daily with city development policies and regulations and the consequences of flaws and miscommunication in our local development process.

We would need to give a lot of thought to how we would appoint members, but I would prefer to see at least half of the members appointed by means other than nominations done solely by City Commissioners. Maybe Neighborhood Councils or business and development could nominate people.

Here are the objectives outlined for the Billings DPARB:

“To accomplish its purpose DPARB has two objectives:

To provide a forum for review and discussion of the policies, rules, regulations and procedures associated with the City’s development process and
to provide an appeal process that addresses the timeliness, consistency or cooperation with City staff as it relates to the City’s development policies rules regulations and procedures.”

In conclusion, a Great Falls DPARB would go a long way in making sure that we complete the transformation from “You can’t do that here” to “How can we help you succeed” when it comes to Great Falls’ local development regulations and process. We should be willing, and even eager, to look at what other state and regional communities are doing to gain success and not be too proud to adopt those ideas.

Let me know your ideas.

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Electric City Voices On Local Jobs

Rick Tryon on February 28, 2019

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Earlier today I saw the following meme/comment on a popular Great Falls public Facebook page, Remember Great Falls When…

What I found particularly interesting were the comments posted by local citizens and employers. You can click here to see all of the comments, but I’ve copied a few excerpts here that are very revealing and highlight a few of our major challenges in Great Falls.

Michael – “Unemployment in Great Falls is at 4%. I own a local business and I can’t find any qualified people to work for us. We have to look out of state. There’s not enough workers, especially skilled workers in Great Falls for the jobs that are required. We’ve had companies look at Great Falls and after looking at the lower unemployment and the skill level they back out.”

Todd – “Good, skilled employees with work ethic are so hard to recruit locally. Makes it very difficult to operate a business in Great Falls.”

Lori – “The wages are unrealistic and insulting here for the cost of living and prices of EVERYTHING. My skills and work ethics are EXEMPLARY but the jobs & realistic wages are not here for me. GF is letting me down.”

Ken – “…it is the low waves paid by people knowing that workers will take much less just to have access to Montana’s outdoors and recreation opportunities. How many tourists have you met that moved here expecting to find cheap land and the ability to ‘live’ off of it on the cheap?
I have met hundreds. The woman gets a job in town and the guy builds canoes, or works at a ski area in exchange for a season pass or just hunts and fishes. While attempting to qualify for SSI Disability.”

Robert – “Retired military can live on minimum wage jobs that’s one reason businesses in Great Falls offer poor wages quality people require about twice minimum wage…”

Keith – “I reluctantly left Great Falls specifically because of the lack of work.

I stayed a lot longer than I should have and lived lean for way too long.

All these many years later I am plotting my return (to Montana, not necessarily Great Falls) within a year and a half & I can’t wait to get back home in Montana where I belong.”

Nikki – “You can drive down 10th n see tons of help wanted signs.. but after applications r in they never call.. I have had 4 different kids putting in apps n never a call back.. they have to start somewhere not everyone can be college educated.. I have 2 kids (young adults now)that are work horses.. will do anything for anyone.. can only find part time jobs.. they have all pounded the pavement.. they r off the couch n games n TVs.. where r these jobs that really hire?”

Mary – “…We left Great Falls and then came back and the company I was working for closed up, I went to work for another company and they closed up, my husband worked for a company that closed up, my son owns a Carlot they closed up, our friends owned car lots that closed up, my son-in-law works for batteries warehouse and they closed up, we have many, many, many friends that moved over to Spokane area to get work and have good lives!

We got good jobs here because we weren’t lazy enough to just sit around to try to make ends meet in Great Falls. We got good jobs that were lasting and didn’t close their doors and we were able to retire from those jobs. My children still work at the good jobs here in our area.

We are from Great Falls Montana and didn’t want to have to leave, but we had no choice, it was either live on minimum wage at McDonald’s or get off our asses and find a job in another state and that’s what we did!

Great Falls is a military retirement city, there’s nothing for young people to do there. I go there and I feel depressed because of all the gambling and everyone sit in the bar’s drinking Free beer/wine and Gambling in the bars all day, I can’t wait to get home. But I have family and friends there that I want to go and visit so we still visit once a year for a couple of days.

Great Falls used to be a blooming beautiful city and then I was proud to live in, it’s a dying old town now that needs the military to keep it going.
I’m glad that I’m from there, but None of us that we moved over here would ever want to go back and live there again.”

You get the idea. For too many years our so-called leadership here has focused on making sure we have a thriving poverty industry and little else. What did we think was going to happen?

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Ideas For A Greater Great Falls: Introduction

Rick Tryon on February 26, 2019

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In my most recent article here on E-City Beat I said I would be doing a series of articles focusing on what we can do to build a better Great Falls by looking at what other Montana cities are doing to grow and develop while we struggle to remain stagnant. In other words, what are we not doing that maybe we should be, and what are we doing that maybe we should not be?

There is a lot of ground to cover so I’ll be developing a series of easily digestible sized pieces over a several month period of time. In this first piece in the series I’d like to present a rough overview of what I’ll be covering going forward. There are four main areas to look at with several sub-topics and general ideas for improving our city.

1. Create an environment for more jobs, higher wages and a vibrant, growing community.

- Work towards less red tape and fewer regulatory ‘hoops’ for businesses and citizens, partly by a line-by-line review of city code and policy.
- Create a Development Process and Advisory Review Board along the lines of the Billings model.
- The motto and attitude for all city public officials and staff should always be, “How can we serve you and help you succeed?” and not, “You can’t do that!”
- Economic development should not be the sole domain of the Great Falls Development Authority which has no public accountability and very little oversight. Look at ways to create competition in the business of economic development in Great Falls.
- Develop, attract, and maintain a quality local workforce.

2. Safe streets and neighborhoods.

- Review and revise if necessary city public disorderly conduct, panhandling, and vagrancy ordinances and strictly enforce them.
- More police foot patrols downtown and in high crime areas.
- Prioritize funding of the Great Falls Police Department, adding the necessary resources and personnel to meet the demands of increasing crime.

The motto and attitude for all city public officials and staff should always be, “How can we serve you and help you succeed?” and not, “You can’t do that!”

3. Zero tolerance for conflicts of interest in our city government and demand transparency and honesty at all times.

- Prohibit any employee or board member of any organization receiving taxpayer funds or resources from serving on the committee/board that recommends or approves allocation of those funds or resources.
- Term limits for Great Falls city commissioners and mayor.
- Require all local elected and appointed public officials to fill out and sign annual conflict of interest forms and agreements.
- Require the mayor and city commissioners to make public on the city website a list of any of their personal potential conflicts of interest. This would include business/professional associations and clients, personal and family member affiliations with organizations who lobby the city for resources, and campaign donors who do business with the city or seek official consideration from the Commission.
- When the 10 year local government review and vote comes up again we should seriously consider switching to a precinct/ward system, rather than the current at-large system. for electing city commissioners. At the same time we should consider electing a mayor who would also serve as a paid city manager with direct voter accountability.

4. Encourage more civic involvement from the public by making City resources, meetings and processes more transparent and accessible through proactive, improved communications and public relations methods.

- Allow Great Falls citizens to participate in city commission and other public meetings in real time via social media and email.
- Explore the possibility of setting meeting times for all city boards and councils at times most convenient for the public to attend and make participation by members and the public available via real-time technologies like Twitter, Skype, and teleconferencing.
- Allow Great Falls citizens to use Power Point presentations and other visual/technology aids at city commission regular and work session meetings just as city staff is allowed to do.

Note – some of the conflicts of interest items under #3 have been started and implemented, but only because of citizens speaking up and demanding change, not because of any real desire or initiative on the part of the mayor or commissioners to require accountability.

In the next piece I’ll be looking at the Development Process Review and Advisory Board concept, how it’s worked in Billings and how we could adopt something similar here in Great Falls.

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