Category: City Commission

Thanks to one of our discerning readers, who sent us this yesterday: about six months ago, and without authorization from the City Commission, Great Falls Mayor Bob Kelly signed a letter addressed to Donald Trump, asking the President to send refugees to the City of Great Falls.

According to the website Welcome Refugees 2020, Kelly has teamed up with local officials from 46 states urging Trump to send up to 95,000 refugees to the communities of its signatories:

“As leaders in our community elected at all levels of state and local government, we write today to express our strong support for resettling refugees in our states and communities and to urge your Administration to resettle at least 95,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2020.” 

And according to the letter that Kelly signed on our behalf, we, the voting public, want these refugees to move here:

“The American people – our constituents – express their support for resettling refugees in our communities every single day.” 

Is that so? Do you want Great Falls to absorb a bunch of refugees?

I would also like to know where Kelly thinks these folks would live. We are warned ad nauseam by municipal figureheads like Kelly about the dearth of affordable housing in Great Falls. Now the mayor wants to import refugees here? OK, where to?

Regardless of one’s position on immigration, it would be one thing for Bob Kelly to encourage this sort of liberal advocacy as a private citizen. It is quite another, however, for Kelly to invoke his title as the Mayor of Great Falls, and to put words into his constituents’ mouths without first checking to see if they are actually true.

Instead of pushing his progressivism on our behalf and without our knowledge or consent, Kelly should have put a resolution onto the City Commission agenda and held a public hearing on the matter.

Maybe next time?

READ MORE: Will Great Falls Voters Re-elect Gavin Newsom?

This Tuesday, the Great Falls City Commission voted 4-1 to extend the terms of Design Review Board (DRB) members.

Because some of the members’ terms were set to expire, the commission moved to extend them by one year, thus allowing the DRB to maintain a quorum. The City suspended the DRB in November of 2018.

City Commissioner Rick Tryon cast the lone dissenting vote, as reported by the Tribune’s Karl Puckett:

“The quality of the board members isn’t the issue for him, Tryon said.

He voted no because many in the development community are opposed to the DRB and he agrees with the opposition, Tryon said.

The meeting wasn’t the time to discuss the future of the DRB, Tryon said.

‘But I also want to make it clear along with developers and citizens we all need to revisit this issue and soon especially since the DRB has been resurrected from a 12-month slumber,’ Tryon said.”

Puckett also cited support for the resolution from City Commissioner Tracy Houck:

“Commissioner Tracy Houck said the expiring positions put the community in jeopardy. [emphasis added] Allowing current members to continue to serve allows time to ‘figure out where we’re going,’ she said.”

Really? Allowing a de facto phase-out of the terms of unelected individuals — whose sole functions are to tack on onerous and additional regulations to developers — puts the community “in jeopardy”?

Talk to any entrepreneur: the City has been running just fine, and arguably better, without this extra layer of bureaucracy for the past year.

It might be one thing to support the resumption of the Design Review Board. But to suggest that Great Falls would be “in jeopardy” without it is hyperbolic to the point of absurdity.

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, January 21, 2020 – 5:30pm – Gibson Room, Civic Center

1. Malmstrom Air Force Base Update – Colonel Jennifer Reeves.

2. Montana Air National Guard Update – Colonel Buel Dickson.3. Sanitation Rate Review – Jim Rearden.

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

REGULAR MEETING – Tuesday January 21, 2020 – 7:00pm – Commission Chambers, Civic Center

Among the items of special interest will be:

1. Information will be presented by NHC 5 Chair, Eric Ray, concerning several NHC resolutions asking the City of Great Falls to hire a consultant to conduct a study on the impact on Great Falls of the proposed slaughterhouse east of town.

2. A public hearing Declaring a condition on certain property located at 804 4th Avenue Southwest, a nuisance, order the nuisance be abated and authorize City Staff to force abatement if necessary.

As I mentioned earlier, please feel free to go look at the details in the agenda packet linked here for a comprehensive handling of the items to be discussed/decided and weigh in with any of your own comments or suggestions.

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

Editor’s 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 RECAP – Tuesday, January 7, 2020 – 4:30pm

Parking and Land Development Code Revisions – Craig Raymond. (Continued from December 3, 2019)

Development Review Update – Craig Raymond and Jim Rearden.

While I support the efforts to streamline our development code and processes I have some serious concerns about the proposed fee increases for developers and builders.

The City Commission will be discussing, vetting and voting on the increases and process changes in the next couple of months.

Please take note and plan to attend the meetings and make your views known during public comment.

REGULAR MEETING RECAP – Tuesday January 7, 2020 – 7:00pm

Reappointment/Appointment to the Great Falls Planning Advisory Board/Zoning Commission.

Members Seeking Reappointment are Michael Wedekind (10/7/2015 – 12/31/2019) and Charles Pankratz (6/20/2017 – 12/31/2019)

Applications from Other Interested Citizens – Laura Vukasin

The City Commission voted unanimously to reappoint Mr. Pankratz and appoint Ms. Vukasin.

While I voted for Ms. Vukasin and think she’s a good choice for the Planning Advisory Board/Zoning Commission, I did so with concerns and an admonition about the potential for the appearance of conflicts of interest due to her position as President of Marketing for a local bank.

You can see my brief comments here https://www.facebook.com/rick.tryon.73/videos/3393703324005222/

Please feel free to go look at the details in the agenda packet and minutes which I linked above for a comprehensive handling of the items that have been or will be discussed/decided and weigh in with any of your own comments or suggestions here.

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

Here are the agendas for the Great Falls City Commission work session and regular meetings on Tuesday, January 7.

The public is encouraged to attend.

You can find the agenda item details and documentation here – https://greatfallsmt.net/meetings

Work Session

Regular Meeting

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.