Local study commissions get started on options at monthly meeting of City Club Missoula

In the short few months Missoula’s Local Government Study commissions have been working, the advice Dale Mahlum has heard most often has been an old saying:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

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By: Ginny Merriam for the Missoulian

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“And, of course, that’s against any change," he said Friday noontime at a forum at City Club Missoula. “Well, my folks, we were elected by the people to give folks some other options.”

Mahlum, who’s chairman of the Missoula County Local Government Study Commission, earned his nonpaying job on the commission during last November’s elections, along with six others voted on the study group. Seven others were elected to the Missoula City Local government Study Commission. They elected Sue Malek Chairwoman.

Both the chairs spoke to Missoula’s new civic discussion club’s March meeting on Friday about the commissions’ work so far. Other members of the commissions joined them, sitting at round tables with citizens attending City Club. After the presentation, people at the tables discussed what they want the commissions to find out and to do. Then one person from each table reported to the group the things they had come up with.

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The next City Club Missoula luncheon will be on the third Friday of the month April 15 at 11:30. The topic of discussion will be the Milltown Dam and water. The venue is yet to be determined. For more information please contact [email protected]

Please share this information with other Missoula residents who share an interest in making Missoula a more connected and civic-minded community.

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“Our charge is to listen to the community at large,” Mahlum said.

“I think we’re working well together,” Malek said.

Much of what the commissions have done in their first months has been information gathering. How is government structured now? What are the alternative forms allowed by Montana’s progressive constitution?

Soon, Malek said, “We’ll be splitting up probably two at a time and going out among the public.”

Both study commissions will begin public meetings this spring.

The people attending City Club had some ideas. Here are some of the things they suggested and the question they had:

When we propose a change, it needs to be research- based, not personal.

We need incentives to work together to manage growth.

Why are there only three county commissioners? Should there be five? But why would there be five?

It’s an old-dicey question, but: Should the city and the county merge their governments? How would that work?

Should the city have a manager instead of a mayor?

Is the Missoula City Council too big with its 12 members? Too little?

Should we start a government Internet blog?

Is there something to be done for citizens who feel disenfranchised?

Should the City Council have one or more at-large representatives who think outside the ward?

The city has a charter ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/documents/citycharter/charter.pdf . Should the county?

Could government be more efficient?

One table’s report included: “We had some people at our table who said democracy is messy and that efficiency isn’t always the best result.”

There are counties that have five county commissioners, said former commissioner Fern Hart, a participant at one of the tables.

“There are options in the statutes,” she said. “We don’t have to look at them through a box.”

Think about this, said one man: What if we had no government and were inventing it form the ground up? What would it look like?

Meetings of the local government study commissions are included in the Government week column in the Missoulian on Sundays. The county study commission has an office in the county courthouse. The city study commission is linked to the city’s Web site, http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us at http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/LGSC/

The county commission information can be found at: http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/LGSC/

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Regular meetings of the City LGSC shall be held on the third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. Meetings will be rebroadcast on MCAT.

County meeting information is at: http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/LGSC/news.htm

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Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or by e-mail at [email protected]