Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) With the budget deadline approaching, the Missoula City Council spent nearly five hours Wednesday discussing proposed cuts and additions to the fiscal year 2025 budget.

From cutting funding for a range of homeless services to funding incentives for sustainable building, all but one attempt failed, and some sparked heated and passionate debates.

Among other things, Councilman Bob Campbell wanted to eliminate funding for a number of positions. These included positions for a civic engagement specialist ($118,000), which failed by a vote of 8 to 2, and positions for the city council lobbyist ($43,000), which failed by a vote of 7 to 2.

He expressed his disappointment with what he saw as the overly lenient city court system and also wanted to cut funding for the Shelter Court program ($255,000), which was defeated by an 8-2 vote. He also wanted to cut funding for the city’s special homeless program ($98,000), which was also defeated by an 8-2 vote.

Almost all Council members voted in favor of maintaining the programs and positions in the budget for fiscal year 25.

“This is a critical part of the multifaceted policy of how to address the homeless problem in Missoula,” said Council Member Gwen Jones, who voted to keep the homeless ordinance. “It’s a very difficult problem that you can’t fully address, but we’ve made really good progress in these areas, and it’s precisely because of ordinances like this that we’ve been able to make that progress.”

Campbell also suggested that some city enterprise programs should be left to the private sector. For example, he proposed eliminating the city’s $38,000 aquatics assistant position, which was defeated 8-2. Supporters said the city’s fee-based aquatics services recoup more costs than almost any other city program.

Campbell’s attempt to eliminate the ongoing operating costs for Marshall Mountain ($160,000) also failed by 8 votes to 2. He had spoken out against the purchase of the mountain earlier this year.

“I knew from the beginning there would be ongoing costs associated with this,” Campbell said. “Now we have to deal with management and maintenance on top of that. That $160,000 is just the beginning. We’ve got that price tag hanging around our necks forever.”

While Campbell primarily wanted to cut funding for certain programs and positions, other council members wanted to create new programs. Among them, Council Member Daniel Carlino tried to allocate an additional $10,000 for grants for neighborhood projects, but failed 7-3.

Carlino and Council Member Kristen Jordan also wanted to add $60,000 to the sidewalk fund and change the sidewalk program by proposing either taking the money from another fund or cutting the “private security guards” provided to residents around homeless shelters.

However, city staff said that while more money was needed for the sidewalks, it was not their intention to deprive the security service of that funding. The vote ended in a tie and was rejected.

Carlino also wanted to create three new road maintenance positions at a cost of $536,000, but he reduced the request to one employee at a cost of $179,000. In return, he proposed cutting $60,000 from private security and $110,000 from the fund.

But the proposal was amended again and ultimately failed on a tie vote. Carlino attempted to override council rules that allow the mayor to break a tie vote. The result was a 6-4 vote that fell short of the required two-thirds majority.

“In the past, the mayor would have broken this tie,” said Carlino. “There are not enough council members and it would be a shame if there were no clear decision on these issues.”

Carlino also wanted to allocate $100,000 to provide seed money for sustainable building incentives, which he suggested could be funded by tapping into the city’s savings account.

“This program is ready to go as soon as we commit the funding,” Carlino said. “We have an extreme drought. We see the smoke coming into our community. We need to set an example. Why aren’t we doing more to stop the climate crisis? This is an urgent problem. We have the money in our savings account.”

The city’s cash balance is around $2 million – less than half of the city’s goal. That has made some hesitant to use the account to fund new programs. The cash balance deficit could also worsen the city’s credit rating and affect the city’s ability to obtain bonds.

“It’s not a good idea to withdraw from the fund at this point,” Jones said. “It may be frustrating, but there are a lot of moving parts to it.”

The only effort that passed was an attempt to move a quiet zone along Spruce and Madison Streets further up the queue for traffic improvements. The measure, proposed by Council Member Eric Melson, had no immediate financial impact, but funding would be determined in a future budget cycle.

The measure was passed by 8 votes to 2.

“This project has been in the works for over a decade,” Melson said. “The city was so close before the railroad changed hands, and we had to start over.”

Five proposals will be considered Monday, including Jordan’s request to increase the neighborhood traffic management program by $20,000 and Councilwoman Sandra Vasecka’s push to eliminate funding for the Johnson Street bus shelter – a move that would save taxpayers more than $1.8 million.