Ambulance Rate Increase And Animal Control/Adoption Issues On GF City Commission Agendas

ECB Staff on June 1, 2020

Editors note: E-City Beat has requested and received permission to copy and paste Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s reports from his public commissioner’s Facebook page, ‘Rick Tryon for a Greater Great Falls’.

“COMMISSIONER TRYON’S GREAT FALLS CITY COMMISSION REPORT FOR 6/2/2020


As a way to partially fulfill my personal commitment to working for transparent and responsive City government I’ll be posting brief regular previews and recaps of Great Falls City Commission work sessions and regular meetings.

Here’s some helpful info for Tuesday nights Great Falls City Commission work session and regular meeting. There are a few items of special interest to the public on the agendas.


Work Session – we will be getting a presentation from Maclean Animal Center representatives on a proposal to contract out animal adoption services.


Regular Meeting – we will be discussing rate increases for the Great Falls Emergency Services ambulance service. We’ll also be appointing members to the Business Improvement District Board of Trustees.


The public may attend in person or remotely.
Work session: Commission Chambers, Civic Center June 02, 2020 5:30 PM Agenda here – https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/greatfls-pubu/MEET-Agenda-838cf87ba8e8402f9b4f5bbf74a27d40.pdf


Regular meeting: Commission Chambers, Civic Center June 02, 2020 7:00 PM Agenda here – https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/greatfls-pubu/MEET-Agenda-31b85b332bb2485c8fe43f4d3fbcf5dc.pdf


The public can also live stream the meetings here https://greatfallsmt.net/livestream.
Meetings are also available live on cable channel 190.


Comments may be sent via email before 5:00 PM on Tuesday, to: commission@greatfallsmt.net.


The public may call in during specific public comment periods at 406-761-4786. All callers will be in a queued system and are asked to remain on hold and be patient.”

Participating In City Government During COVID-19

ECB Staff on May 4, 2020

Editors note: E-City Beat has requested and received permission to copy and paste Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s reports from his public commissioner’s Facebook page, ‘Rick Tryon for a Greater Great Falls’.

“Here’s the link to the agenda for Tuesday nights Great Falls City Commission meeting. The commission will be meeting via Zoom (hopefully for the final time).

The public can attend in person even though doing so is discouraged due to COVID-19.

2 Park Drive South, Great Falls, MT
Gibson Room, Civic Center
May 05, 2020 7:00 PM

The public can also live stream the meeting here https://greatfallsmt.net/livestream.

Meetings are also available live on cable channel 190.

Comments may be sent via email before 5:00 PM on Tuesday, to: commission@greatfallsmt.net.

The public may call in during specific public comment periods at 406-761-4786. All callers will be in a queued system and are asked to remain on hold and be patient.”

GF City Commission Issues Next Week: Slaughterhouse, Design Review Board, Maclean Animal Center

ECB Staff on February 28, 2020

Editors note: E-City Beat has requested and received permission to copy and paste Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s reports from his public commissioner’s Facebook page, ‘Rick Tryon for a Greater Great Falls’.

“COMMISSIONER TRYON’S GREAT FALLS CITY COMMISSION REPORT FOR 3/3/2020


As a way to partially fulfill my personal commitment to working for transparent and responsive City government I’ll be posting brief weekly previews and recaps of Great Falls City Commission work sessions and regular meetings.


The idea is to highlight a few of the upcoming City Commission meeting topics that would be especially relevant and interesting to local citizens and to encourage your feedback, ideas and input, through the comments section here and by your personal attendance at the meetings if possible.


You can find the full agenda and agenda packets for the upcoming meeting, as well as minutes for previous meetings, here – https://greatfallsmt.net/meetings


WORK SESSION – Tuesday March 3, 5:30 PM Gibson Room, Civic Center
Items of particular public interest:


1.) Community Risk Reduction Plan – Steve Hester.


2.) Animal Shelter Request for Proposal Review – Chuck Anderson.ALERT – This item is the beginning step in the process for a possible official city commission consideration to ALLOW THE CITY TO UTILIZE THE SERVICES OF THE MACLEAN ANIMAL ADOPTION CENTER.

REGULAR MEETING – Tuesday March 3, 7:00 PM Commission Chambers
Items of particular public interest:


ORDINANCES / RESOLUTIONS
1.) Resolution 10334, Requesting a Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Environmental Impact Study for the proposed Madison Food Park Slaughterhouse Proposal. Action: Adopt or deny Res. 10334. (Presented by Commissioner Moe)


2.) Resolution 10335, Requesting that Cascade County require a Comprehensive and Cumulative Study of the impacts on the City of the entire package of the Madison Food Park Proposals.Action: Adopt or deny Res. 10335. (Presented by Commissioner Moe)


3.) Resolution 10336, Dissolving the City of Great Falls Design Review Board and assigning the functions outlined in Title 17, Chapter 28 to Planning and Community Development Staff. Action: Adopt or deny Res. 10336. (Presented by Greg Doyon)


View the whole agenda and detailed agenda items information here:
https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/greatfls-pubu/MEET-Agenda-57e59291db684b3e8d65d92ccf909e55.pdf


This is your city government and these issues affect you and your family. YOU’RE THE BOSS.”

2/18 City Commission Meeting: Golf & Garbage Fees, Climate Change Task Force

ECB Staff on February 17, 2020

Editors note: E-City Beat has requested and received permission to copy and paste Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s reports from his public commissioner’s Facebook page, ‘Rick Tryon for a Greater Great Falls’.

“COMMISSIONER TRYON’S GREAT FALLS CITY COMMISSION REPORT FOR 2/18/20

As a way to partially fulfill my personal commitment to working for transparent and responsive City government I’ll be posting brief weekly previews and recaps of Great Falls City Commission work sessions and regular meetings.

The idea is to highlight a few of the upcoming City Commission meeting topics that would be especially relevant and interesting to local citizens and to encourage your feedback, ideas and input, through the comments section here and by your personal attendance at the meetings if possible.

You can find the full agenda and agenda packets for the upcoming meeting, as well as minutes for previous meetings, here – https://greatfallsmt.net/meetings

REGULAR MEETING – Tuesday February 18, 7:00 PM Commission Chambers

Here are a few items of particular public interest:

PUBLIC HEARINGS

VOTE ON RAISING GARBAGE COLLECTION FEES – Resolution 10324, Establishing Residential and Commercial Sanitation Service CollectionRates Effective March 1, 2020. Action: Conduct a public hearing and adopt or deny Res. 10324. Presented by Jim Rearden and Melissa Kinzler)

VOTE ON RAISING GOLF FEES – Resolution 10329, Establishing Golf Fees for Eagle Falls Golf Club and Anaconda Hills Golf Course. Action: Conduct a public hearing and adopt or deny Res. 10329. (Presented by Steve Herrig)

ORDINANCES / RESOLUTIONS

VOTE ON APPOINTING A CITY TASK FORCE AND HIRING SOMEONE FOR A YEAR TO DEVELOP PROPOSALS AS TO HOW THE CITY CAN MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND BECOME MORE “CLIMATE RESILIENT” THROUGH ENERGY USE POLICY – Resolution 10333, A Resolution of the City of Great Falls regarding the adoption of an Energy Response Task Force. Action: Adopt or deny Res. 10333. (Presented by Commissioner Moe and Citizen’s for Clean Energy

View the whole agenda and detailed agenda items information here detailed agenda items information here https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/…/MEET-Pack…

This is your city government and these issues affect you and your family. YOU’RE THE BOSS.”

Tryon Raises Refugee Resettlement Letter At Commission Meeting

ECB Staff on February 6, 2020

At Tuesday nights Great Falls City Commission meeting, Commissioner Rick Tryon brought up the “kerfuffle” surrounding the issue of Mayor Bob Kelly signing on as Mayor of Great Falls to a letter to the President expressing support for refugee resettlement in “our communities” and the Mayors apology and explanation.

Below is the video transcript from the exchange. You can view the meeting video on the city website. The portion of the exchange starts at about 1:04:25

Commissioner Tryon: “Your honor, just two quick things.

You know there was a bit of a kerfuffle last week on an issue concerning a letter that Mayor Kelly signed, concerning refugees resettlement here in Great Falls and I’m sure you heard a lot about, I know I did, people asking questions and so I, and I appreciate you stepping up and and doing an explanation and apologizing in a clear way I thought and it was very good and I appreciate that.

But the question has arisen and I would like to raise this, is that I wonder if, if we could find a way that we clarify or establish a policy that clearly sets forth where or in what circumstances a member of this and future city commissions can appropriately use their official title to endorse a cause or sign on to a public document or event if it has not been publicly vetted and voted on by the City Commission.

This is primarily for the benefit of the public so they can be assured that they are not being represented without their input or knowledge but also for the benefit of the members of the City Commission, both future present, to avoid any misunderstanding or inadvertent crossing of the line between public policy of the city and a private political or other position on an issue or issues.

And I’m just wondering how we can best, I’m looking for guidance on how we can best accomplish that I did look through the Charter and some of the ethics code and I didn’t see anything that was that gave clear guidance and I’m wondering if we might be able to find a way to address that.”

Mayor Kelly: “So if I can respond to that – we have a training with Dan Clark from the local government center and he is designed to teach us about specifically those things and trust me when I tell you I reached out to him for some advice for him to study this and to come to will help walk us through kind of the decision-making process we need to do that going forward.

So that’ll be on the 28th during the Commission meeting that we have which is open to the public and I look forward to having that discussion then.”

So stay tuned, Great Falls.

Tryon’s February 4 City Commission Meetings Preview

ECB Staff on February 3, 2020

Editors note: E-City Beat has requested and received permission to copy and paste Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s reports from his public commissioner’s Facebook page, ‘Rick Tryon for a Greater Great Falls’.

COMMISSIONER TRYON’S GREAT FALLS CITY COMMISSION REPORT

As a way to partially fulfill my personal commitment to working for transparent and responsive City government I’ll be posting brief weekly previews and recaps of Great Falls City Commission work sessions and regular meetings.


The idea is to highlight a few of the upcoming City Commission meeting topics that would be especially relevant and interesting to local citizens and to encourage your feedback, ideas and input, through the comments section here and by your personal attendance at the meetings if possible.


You can find the full agenda and agenda packets for the upcoming meeting, as well as minutes for previous meetings, here – https://greatfallsmt.net/meetings


WORK SESSION – Tuesday February 4, 5:30 PM Gibson Room – Civic Center


1. Library Strategic Plan – Susie McIntyre.

2. Civic Center Facade Project Update – Craig Raymond, Melissa Kinzler and Tony Houtz.


Interesting and important information here and as always there will be time available for public comment. View the entire agenda here.


REGULAR MEETING – Tuesday February 4, 7:00 PM Commission Chambers


Among the items of special interest will be:

Ordinance 3200, repealing and replacing Title 17, Chapter 36 of the Official Code of the City of Great Falls (OCCGF) pertaining to parking, and reserving Chapters 33 through 35. Action: Accept or not accept Ord. 3200 on first reading and (set/not set) a public hearing for March 3, 2020. (Presented by Craig Raymond)

Even though the agenda item concerning Ordinance 3200 is a vote on first reading the presentation is important because it deals with the issue of streamlining our development process. View the entire agenda here.

This is your city government and these issues affect you and your family. YOU’RE THE BOSS.

Poll: Should Mayor Kelly Remove His Name From The “Refugees” Letter?

Philip M. Faccenda on January 31, 2020

To recap a wild week here in River City, Mayor Bob Kelly took significant heat for unilaterally inviting refugees to Great Falls. (He has since apologized.)

While some of the comments on E-City Beat and elsewhere have not been particularly receptive to the mayor’s mea culpa, I think it’s possible that some of us have been too hard on Kelly — though I say that with a caveat.

I agree with those who say that the mayor’s apology runs on the “virtuous” side. For me, though, that doesn’t change the fact that Kelly sincerely deserves credit for issuing a clear apology:

“While I stand by this support of the group in Missoula, I must at the same time apologize to those in Great Falls who felt that I was making a commitment to house refugees in Great Falls without consulting the community. Refugee resettlement is a complex and apparently divisive issue that each community must consider in its own way. It requires community input and consideration. I now realize that by using my title of Mayor alongside my signature , I implied a larger sense of community support than I had intended.”

He continued:

“By implying your inclusion in my concern, I misrepresented you. For that, I am sorry. As Mayor of our wonderful community, I try very hard to navigate only toward local issues or state issues that affect local communities. The national issues that currently divide us deserve little, if any, role in our decision-making process at the local level.”

I couldn’t agree more. Kelly did misrepresent us, which brings me back to the aforementioned caveat.

Kelly misappropriated community support for his pet project, acknowledged that he did so, but the letter he signed still bears his signature and title as Mayor of Great Falls. Apologies are great, but they must be followed up with action.

If Kelly is truly sorry, he should contact his leftist friends in Missoula and see to it that his name and title are removed from the WelcomingRefugees2020.org letter. Then, we should all accept the mayor’s apology.

What do you think?

[poll id=”19″]

Are Refugee Resettlement & Climate Change Great Falls Issues?

Rick Tryon on January 30, 2020

Great Falls Mayor Bob Kelly deserves kudos for stepping up and apologizing to the public for signing an online letter, as Mayor of Great Falls, to President Trump asking for refugees to be relocated to “our communities”. I appreciate his willingness to take responsibility for his actions.

More importantly, the citizens of Great Falls deserve major congratulations and kudos here.

According to E-City Beat, which was the first to break the story, they got a tip from an alert local reader about the letter posted on welcomingrefugees2020.org, did the research, asked the questions, and then wrote and posted the story, which went viral.

But it was, and is, the citizens of Great Falls that made their voices heard and pressed the issue so that the Mayor was compelled to reconsider his actions in signing the letter and to apologize, admitting that it was not appropriate.

I’ve been involved in and have observed several controversial local issues over the years but I have never seen such rapid, voluminous and passionate public response to a single local issue. Ever. My own phone, email and social media page were buzzing.

This kind of public response is good, very good. Our local public officials, and that includes yours truly, need more public scrutiny, not less. More demands for accountability and transparency, not fewer.

Continue paying attention and being engaged in our city/county governments, Great Falls. We need citizen magnifying glasses, not blindfolds or endless rah-rah-rah media stories.

Our Great Falls public officials should be focused like a laser beam on local bread and butter issues, not caviar and chardonnay politically correct or ideological national issues.

For instance, at a recent Great Falls City Commission visioning session to lay out potential priorities for the coming year, a few of my colleagues on the commission identified “responding to climate change” as one of our top-three priorities.

I’ll be asking many questions and challenging notions like the one that claims that “climate change/resiliency” should be our focus here.

We have urgent issues that MUST be addressed first – like local crime, lack of economic opportunity, and the need for more transparent and responsive city government.

Stay tuned, stay engaged, and stay salty, Great Falls.

#TBT: More Mayoral Overreach

Philip M. Faccenda on January 30, 2020

In honor of Bob Kelly’s recently exposed extracurricular activities, I thought it would be interesting to share a story from 14 years ago, penned on New Year’s Day in 2006. It is from Gregg Smith’s old blog, and it tells the tale of another big government liberal mayor of Great Falls: Randy Gray.

Back then, and just before losing his re-election bid, Gray declared war on the gaming industry. Like Kelly, he leveraged his office to advance one of his pet political projects:

“He discusses his support of a bill to double the gaming tax. (As I have noted before, this would put many operators out of business.) He argues that he testified in favor of this bill as a private citizen, not as Mayor. He neglects to tell the readers that he repeatedly referred to his position as Mayor during his testimony. He also neglects to tell the readers about his quick trip back to Great Falls after the hearing in order to bask in the accolades and receive the check from the tavern owners payable to the Save Malmstrom group. In other words, he has no problem with gaming money when it gives him a chance to seek a little publicity.”

Gray’s freelancing, like Kelly’s, came without official City Commission action or discussion — there were no public meetings held — and consisted of Gray wielding his title as mayor to bolster his personal crusading, all at the expense of his unknowing constituents.

It was just as wrong then as it is now, and some might say (in our hyper-charged political climate), that it is an “abuse of power,” and of course we all know the remedy for that.

😏