Missoulians to Weigh Iraq War Referendum

By LAUREN RUSSELL

Missoula is thousands of miles from Iraq, but city voters are being asked to decide a referendum calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that war-torn nation, an issue some say has no place in city politics.

The decision to put the referendum on the mail-in municipal ballot was made by six Missoula City Council members and Mayor John Engen, who cast the tie-breaking vote at the June 25 Missoula City Council meeting. Engen said that he wanted to put the issue before residents and allow them to express their desire for change.

Sponsored by Ward 3 Councilman Bob Jaffe, the referendum contains the following language:

“The citizens of Missoula, Montana, hereby urge the Congress of the United States of America to authorize and fund an immediate and orderly withdrawal of the United States military from Iraq in a manner that is fully protective of U.S. soldiers.”

If passed, this nonbinding document will be sent to Congress and the president. Jaffe said that though the measure is mostly symbolic, its passage would unite Missoula with other communities making a statement about the war.

Besides Missoula, Helena and more than 300 other cities have passed similar resolutions, said Karen Dolan with the Cities for Peace Campaign of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies.

“President Bush is deaf to the wishes of the American people to stop pouring money and lives into this failed war,” Dolan said in an e-mail. “Because federal representatives on Capitol Hill seem impotent to challenge him, citizens all over the country are forcing the issue in their town and city halls and state houses.”

The cost of the war and the strain on the country’s economy prompted the Missoula Area Central Labor Council to endorse the measure, said Mark Anderlik, the organization’s president.

“It’s costing trillions of dollars that could go to health care and other issues here,” Anderlik said. “From a labor standpoint, it’s what the representatives of the Iraqi Labor Federation and the Iraqi people are calling for.”

Others support the referendum because of the freedom of speech it represents. Major Dean Roberts, of the University of Montana’s ROTC program, said that though he supports the war, he also supports the right of the people to debate it.

“As an army officer, it’s neat that I get to live in a country where I get to defend the right to have these debates,” Roberts said.

Rob Harper, student political action director for student government at the University of Montana, said that the group debated its support of the issue and ultimately decided that its engagement of students was worth endorsing.

“We support it as an engagement issue because it gives 15,000 students all the way out here in Montana the ability to have a voice,” Harper said.

But some people don’t think a referendum on a divisive national issue has any business being on a city ballot because it won’t have an effect on the national political stage.

Ward 4 Councilman Jon Wilkins, a veteran and adamant opponent of the resolution, said that the issue was meant to split the council on partisan lines before the election and shouldn’t cost the city time or money.

Professor James Lopach, head of the University of Montana's political science department, shared Wilkins’ opinion that city government should stay out of national politics. He said that the measure represents the personal politics of City Council members, not the population of Missoula.

Council members are neither sufficient representatives of Missoula nor the state, said UM President George Dennison. Citizens, he added, should leave the decision-making up to elected federal representatives.

“I don’t believe in plebiscite government,” Dennison said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to make this decision because we really don’t have the information to make an informed decision.”

Missoulians’ concern with national issues is a good thing, UM College Republicans president Allie Harrison said, but it shouldn’t be expressed at the cost of Missoula taxpayers, who have no jurisdiction to deal with national issues.

“To me, it seems like a glorified poll that wastes a few thousand dollars of taxpayers’ money,” Harrison said.

But Matt Singer, a spokesman for Forward Montana, which supports the measure, said opponents are just grasping for reasons to oppose the referendum and that the homegrown response to a national issue is “wholly appropriate.”

“We’re building a chorus of voices,” Singer said. “People can make a difference individually and we must work together to demand that D.C. do a better job.”

Singer said that he is confident Missoula residents are ready to bring the troops home from Iraq. The question, he said, is whether these people will vote on it, since many people are unaware that the issue is included on the ballot.

This was the case Friday afternoon at the downtown Veterans of Foreign Wars club, where five of the eight customers said they hadn’t heard of the referendum.

However, Jim Bobbitt, commander of Post 209, had -- and he offered an opinion about it.

“Instead of wasting time and money, they could fill another pothole,” Bobbitt said.

Bond Issue Would Pay for High School Security, Other Improvements

By KRISTIN GREGORY

Voters in Missoula’s School District No. 1 are scheduled to decide a $10 million bond issue designed to improve Missoula high schools.

If passed, the High School Building Reserve will be used to finance improvements for the district's four high schools: Big Sky, Hellgate, Sentinel and Seeley-Swan.

The additional property taxes to pay off the $10 million bond issue would be spread over the next five years.

If the bond issue passes, district taxpayers with homes valued at $200,000 would pay an average of $24.42 extra per year.

But that increase would be offset by lower general property taxes, which should average of $21 less per household, said Lesli Brassfield, a spokeswoman for the district. The upshot, she said, it that the bond issue would increase the average district taxpayer’s burden by about $3.

Almost $8 million of the $10 million bond would go directly into renovating and maintaining high school facilities, while $1.5 million would be used for equipment upgrades and for the Safer Schools Program. Almost $500,000 would be left for contingency.

If the bond issue is passes, security cameras, gates and card entry systems would be installed at all four high schools.

Meanwhile, Big Sky High School aims to remodel its science rooms, improve lighting within the parking lot, and upgrade fire alarms.

Sentinel High School wants improve parking facilities, redesign its heating and ventilation systems, and build locker rooms at Stegner Field.

Among other things, Hellgate High School hopes to upgrade its heating and ventilation systems and improve the lighting and acoustics in its auditorium.

Seeley-Swan High School would replace its roof and windows, build a running track, and install new flooring.

All mail-in ballots must be completed and mailed to the County Elections Office by Nov. 6.

Meet Lewie Schneller, Ward 6

AGE: 64
OCCUPATION: Independent licensed Montana contractor and semi-retired entrepreneur
MARITAL OR DOMESTIC STATUS: Single parent of four grown children
EDUCATION: University of Montana, bachelor's degree in liberal arts, ROTC
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: ROTC
PUBLIC SERVICE: Fundraising for Missoula YMCA and UM athletic department
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
ENDORSEMENTS: Chamber of Commerce rating: 2.2 of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

''My age and having been able to live in Missoula for almost 27 years, watching it grow from a small town into bordering on a good-size city. My basic qualification is that for the past 25 years I’ve been self-employed as an independent contractor. I’m familiar with what it takes to make a business successful, and I’m involved in the entrepreneurial aspect of business."

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

"The e-mails during meetings are a real problem. They are camouflage for partisanship, and I think the e-mails will reflect that when they’re all uncovered. The City Council has become very partisan, and it’s been orchestrated by a progressive, New Party move. If elected, I would never use a computer during the meetings, and I would ask for everything to be presented to me on paper."

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

"I would like to help restore the balance of dignity, respect and communication on City Council. I would like to see the City Council become a symbol for uniting and not dividing Missoula. I would like to be a contributing factor in ending that divisiveness. I would also like to be a voice for protecting and maintaining the integrity of the neighborhoods in the ward that I represent and for the different neighborhoods in Missoula."

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

"What I can do is promote and encourage city government and the county government to promote our city and the availability of all of the different talent pools and the excellent living conditions that Missoula offers. Then we can have a pool of major employers, which would establish a competitive spirit. If we have a multiplicity of employers in this city, then we will see wages naturally increase because of the competition for the employees."

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

"Missoula created this mess in the first place. Missoula allowed rampant developers and investors to come cherry-pick available space and multiply its worth by the so-called boundary reconfiguration. And so Missoula has allowed this problem – we created this mess. What it’s going to take to solve this is a lot of hard work in terms of backing up and reconfiguring the direction that we’ve gone. First, we have to admit that there’s a problem, then whole-heartedly search for a solution."

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

"The Iraq referendum was a horrible, horrible mistake. It was brought by the power brokers on City Council, and it isn’t the city’s business at all. The war in Iraq is a national issue."

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

"I think the biggest traffic problem is congestion slowing down traffic where we have these mini traffic jams, bordering on big city traffic problems, like you see out on Reserve. We’ve got to stop trying to choke off traffic. I ride my bike recreationally, but I don’t ride it in bad weather or in heavy traffic. We need to free up traffic, and the way to do that is not to discourage the use of automobiles."

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

"I am against excessive crowding of our neighborhoods. Back-alley houses and infill wrecks our old neighborhoods. In my ward, 50 percent of the people are transient renters who are gone within a matter of months. The city needs to stop pushing off special improvement districts on neighborhoods too."

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

"I am neutral on occupancy standards. I understand that it is an important issue to students in the university area, but not as big in my ward. I would be sensitive to both sides of the fence, and would be happy to hear both sides."

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

"I would like to keep high-density zoning out of my neighborhood. There are certain areas in Missoula that can be high density, like downtown, but there shouldn’t be large, clustered neighborhoods in my ward."

Meet Ed Childers, Ward 6

AGE: 60
OCCUPATION: Retired
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Married to Patricia for 37 years, two children
EDUCATION: University of Montana, bachelor's degree in creative writing, 1971
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE : Missoula City Treasurer, 12 years
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: None
PUBLIC SERVICE: Missoula City Council member, 8 years
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula County Democratic Central Committee, Missoula Area Central Labor Council, Missoula Organization of Realtors, Missoula Independent, Mayor John Engen, City Councilwoman Heidi Kendall, City Councilman Dave Strohmaier, Sen. Dave Wanzenried, Sen. Ron Erickson, former City Councilman Myrt Charney; Chamber of Commerce rating: 1.6 of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“I’ve been elected city treasurer of Missoula three times. I served for 12 years on that. I ran for mayor and failed in 1997, and then I was elected to the City Council in 2000. I’ve put a lot of my acquired knowledge to use as a city councilman. I used to build SIDs (special improvement districts) and calculate splits and business licenses. I understand those things.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“A great thing is we opened a section of England Boulevard recently. Negatives? When I got on the City Council we had a subdivision tool called the density bonus. It allowed developers to put more housing in an area than the zoning allowed. When I got on the council I thought that was simply unfair.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as an alderman?

“I just like things to keep getting a little better all the time. I’m really concerned we could get people elected to the City Council who don’t have that view. If that happens, we’re going to stop having new sidewalks and improvements on streets, and stop adding to the police force and having fire stations. That’s not going to make Missoula a desirable place to live.”

What can the city do to attract better paying jobs?

“We’ve got an educated and dedicated workforce. I don’t know that my goal is really to attract businesses. My goal is to keep the businesses that are here here, and let them roll.”

What should the city do to encourage more affordable housing?

“The only thing I’m aware of that’s really within our power is zoning and subdivision things that let you build smaller homes and let you build condos. But there’s a lot of opposition to that, even where the zoning says you can already do it. Do the small simple things we know help, at least for a while.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Even though everybody sends a letter in and calls individually, sometimes it’s helpful to have something come in a group form from an organization or particularly from a subset of the government, so if this referendum passes and we send it to all the powers that be, they’ll have that to look at. They’ll have that to refer to when they vote on things.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem, and where should turn for the money to solve it?

“The worst intersection in the state I guess is Reserve and Mullan. One solution is to have less traffic on there. And it’s possible that if we ever get Russell Street done in a wider fashion, if that’s what ends up being done, that will take a little bit of demand off of Reserve, but not much.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why?

“In Ward 6, the land was platted into subdivisions with rather small lots, and the zoning that’s in place allows fairly high densities. We have one that allows 12 units per acre, or 16 with some caveats, and we have some rezoning that allows way higher density than that. I want to continue to make that available to people who want to build small homes.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house? Why or why not?

“We have a quality of life officer, and if you guys throw a wild party in your house and the neighbors complain, (he) would come and explain to you the negative aspects of that. That’s the kind of thing I’m all in favor of. I don’t like the idea that me and other poor old folks living in our houses that we’ve been in for a long time are going to be unduly disturbed.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“Well, I would like some sugar daddy to come pay to put sidewalks on the main routes through Ward 6. We’ve got places where a lot of kids walk to Franklin School, and they use streets where there aren’t sidewalks. And there’s more traffic, particularly on Johnson Street, because of the Malfunction Junction redo, and people’s inability to follow the signs that tell them were they should appropriately go. So it’s become kind of dangerous.”

Meet Christine Prescott, Ward 5

AGE: 56
OCCUPATION: Self-employed facilitator
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Married, 34 years
EDUCATION: University of Oregon, Lewis and Clark Northwestern School of Law, Western Evangelical Seminary, George Fox Evangelical Seminary
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Cashier, University of Montana's University Center Bookstore; pastor, ordained by American Baptist Church; trial and criminal defense attorney, Multnomah and Washington counties, Ore.
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: None.
PUBLIC SERVICE: Missoula Public Library board of directors, Montana State Library’s board of directors, Habitat for Humanity.
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula Independent, Missoula County Democratic Central Committee, Missoula Area Central Labor Council, City Councilman Dave Strohmaier, City Councilwoman Heidi Kendall, Sen. Ron Erickson; Chamber of
Commerce rating: 1.5 of 3.0.
Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“I think having been an attorney, especially a trial attorney, gives me the ability to look at proposed ordinances, to look at things that have been prepared by the city attorney and see what they say. I want to look at the issues as they come up, from all sides, be open about everything. So neither the “grumpies” nor the “friendlies” know what side I'm going to be on.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“I think the worst thing that they've done is to allow decisions to be made and then allow people to bring them back up again. The people who lose bring it back up until they win and they shouldn't be allowed to do that.

“The best? I think the city is pretty healthy in terms of zoning and planning and I think it's sometimes a struggle, but the City Council has really tried to help Missoula grow in a healthy way.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“I would like to help Missoula continue to be diverse. I would like to help keep it a place that not only rich people come to, a place where real people can live. I want to keep it healthy as it grows.”

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

“I think it's outside the City Council. Some jurisdictions have economic development coordinators to try to tell businesses how good it is for them to be here. I think that's all the city could do. Try to make sure that there are places for businesses here, something that's compatible with Missoula. Try to lure them with who we are.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“I would like to get the whole development community together -- developers, contractors, realtors, bankers, nonprofits, and the city government -- to decide what is best for Missoula. We need to keep our rivers clean. We need to make sure people have access to recreation and keep our open space. We need to keep it the way we want it to be.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“I think that we're doing it the right way. We went to the people and I think what the people vote for is the way it should be. I hope it passes. I will vote for it, but I would also respect it if the majority of people vote against it."

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“I think that is the most pressing traffic problem ... where do we get the money? A lot of people are opposed to the transportation impact fee, but I am not. I think that it's part of the council's job to press the state senators and representatives to give us more options. We can't count on federal money to pay for everything because it's going to decrease.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

“The dreaded 'I' word. My opponent has said she's going to vote no on 'infill.' My position is: How do you know you're against it until you know where it is? You don't want to cram houses into every neighborhood. I think there's a way to do it responsibly and do it in a way that fits with the neighborhood.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“That is an issue that should be dead. You can't enforce it. I'm more concerned about getting the students and the established neighbors get to know each other. So if the students are having a party or if there's garbage everywhere, people won't be afraid to knock on someone's door and compromise. I would rather see that.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“I would like to see Hillview Way get fixed. I don't know what's going to happen with that. It would be nice to have a fix for Miller Creek Road. I would like to see more streetlights on Garret Street. Twenty-third Street needs sidewalks, and there are ongoing transportation issues. It's kind of the forgotten ward.”

Meet Renee Mitchell, Ward 5

AGE: 58
OCCUPATION: Missoula Youth Homes manager
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Married to Jack Mitchell
EDUCATION: University of Montana, bachelor's degree in education
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: None
PUBLIC SERVICE: Volunteer with Youth Homes, Easter Seals; promoted neighborhood concerns on Briggs Street; president of Montana State Women’s Gold Association
PARTY AFFILIATION: None
ENDORSEMENTS: City Councilman Dick Haines, former City Councilwoman LuAnn Crowley; Chamber of Commerce rating: 2.4 of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on City Council?

“As a Neighborhood Council member, I was elected to be a Community Forum representative. That group meets once a month. I also have been attending the City Council meetings for about the past four years. Because of this experience, I have learned a lot about other issues in Missoula.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“The best thing is that despite all the obstacles and political division, we can still get things done. The worst thing the council has done is to allow for infill without a property owner's right to protest. City Council never saw a petition against the Lincoln School development because of a decision on planned neighborhood clusters.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as an alderwoman?

“I would like to see city government truly represent people and become open and transparent so people can know what’s being done and why. We need more accountability. The budget shows money going in and money coming out, but it doesn’t show the sources. It’s not a question of honesty. It’s a question of detail.”

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

“The city can work with businesses that might want to come to Missoula, to see what their needs are. I don’t think we can always address every aspect, but we shouldn’t tax them so heavily they can’t survive here. Tax incentives might be an answer, but there should be reasonable conditions for them to want to come to Missoula.”

What should the city do to encourage more affordable housing?

“Land prices have gone so high in Missoula. I think it’s almost impossible for someone to get a starter home. I am not totally against infill, but we need to do it wisely. Infill is not always the answer to creating affordable housing. The council needs to work with agencies that help people get affordable housing.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Whether or not there’s a referendum isn’t going to make a difference. We spend a lot of time debating the big picture when all we can control is the local, small picture stuff. I’m grateful to everybody who has ever served so we can maintain our freedom, such as putting referendums like this on the ballot.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem, and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“Hillview Way needs to be addressed. A few people, because they have a lot of property up there, are paying the lion’s share for improvement. We need a more equitable tax base, and I think the whole city benefits from that road. It keeps traffic off my street, so even though I don’t use it often, it certainly helps me.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why?

“I think we need to follow the zoning, and I don’t think we should compromise the integrity of existing neighborhoods. Also, what’s affordable isn’t always acceptable.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house? Why or why not?

“We’ve already tried that. We don’t need to go down that road again. It just caused a lot of dissention and City Council members weren’t able to agree. We have a lot of other things that need attention.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“Obviously, Hillview Way and how to pay for it is a big, big hot-button issue. Also, where Upper and Lower Miller Creek meet, the roundabout needs to be addressed. Otherwise they can’t build up there.”

Meet Lyn Hellegaard, Ward 4

AGE: 49
OCCUPATION: Executive director of community affairs for the Missoula/Ravalli Transportation Management Association and coordinator of the Montana Transit Association
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Married with two kids and a dog
EDUCATION: Sentinel High School graduate
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Nineteen years as an AVP at First Interstate Bank and seven years in her current position; adult instructor for the American Institute of Banking, where she conducted classes in lending, marketing, and customer service
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: None
PUBLIC SERVICE: Missoula Youth Court Community Council, the Small Urban and Rural Transit board and the Rural Transportation Advisory Program board
PARTY AFFILIATION: Nonpartisan
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula Organization of Realtors, Missoula County Republican Party, Councilman Dick Haines; Missoula Chamber of Commerce rating: 2.6 out of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“My 18 years experience in the financial industry, managing a non-profit agency and owning a small business with my husband should prove valuable to developing positive solutions for Missoula’s future. My position at the Missoula Ravalli Transportation Management Association has required an ability to work on “both sides” of the aisle to secure sustainable funding.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“Worst: Allowing the City Administration to keep the fees collected for fire hydrant maintenance and reallocating it rather than refunding to the citizens.
“Best: Requiring city staff to present their oversight committee’s recommendations to council, rather than staff recommendations.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“The community’s wishes seem to be ignored. For example the Broadway Road Diet, the aquatics project, and fire hydrant issue. These processes have created a very deep sense of resentment and distrust in our city government that could be detrimental to all future projects. Also, the fact that we are ignoring our infrastructure and setting nothing aside for a major failure could put an enormous burden on future generations.”

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

“I believe the local government should take a very active and supportive role in encouraging business development as this creates a solid tax base, taking some pressure off of residential taxes. Incentive programs that have been successful in other communities that need to be considered are fast track permitting, fee deferral programs and a procurement technical assistance center incorporated with fiscally responsible spending priorities.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“I believe that a review of city policies, streamlining of permit process and consistent application of zoning ordinances should all be incorporated into our strategies to address attainable housing issues. Affordable housing for some of our citizens will be rentals. We need policies in place that will ensure the rentals are safe places to live.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Foreign policy is not under the jurisdiction and/or authority of the Missoula City Council. Missoula has some major issues that council does have the authority to address and our time should be spent on those issues.”

What is Missoula's most pressing traffic problem and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“Russell/South Third road project. Fixing Russell could minimize some of the issues on Reserve Street. If this is a top priority then funding may need to be taken from lower priority projects. We were able to secure an earmark from Senator Baucus for the bridge work, now we need to institute some sound fiscal policies to identify other funds.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

“If the city wants to change the structure of a neighborhood, then they should be required to seek a super majority of property owner’s approval. People purchased home in certain neighborhoods because of the character or structure of those neighborhoods. They bought believing the covenants and zoning would be protected the integrity of the neighborhood.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“In circumstances where the number would create unsafe/unhealthy living conditions for the occupants or where they are in violation of current ordinances there should be a limit.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“Hillview Way SID and road improvement.”

Meet Jerry Ballas, Ward 4

AGE: 64
OCCUPATION: Architect at the University of Montana’s Physical Plant
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Married
EDUCATION: Architecture degree from Montana State University
PROFESSIONAL: Owner FBB Architects for more than 30 years
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: Served in Vietnam as an Army combat engineer and officer.
PUBLIC SERVICE: Habitat for Humanity
PARTY AFFILIATION: Declined to comment
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula County Republican Central Committee, Missoula Indepedent; Chamber of Commerce rating: 2.5 of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

"I’ve had lifelong residency in Missoula, 35 years as a homeowner, almost 35 years as a business owner, working with the community and being active in community affairs. Being an architect, I’ve worked with just about every segment of the community, listening to their needs, dreams and goals, and helping them achieve those dreams and goals. City Council is just kind of one more segment of that community service.”

What are the best and worst things City Council has done in recent years?

“The best thing that I think the council did was approving the aquatics facilities for the community. ... I think that was an extremely challenging job, but one with tremendous benefits for the community. As for the worst thing the council has done, to allow the boundary line process to proceed as far as it did without challenging or questioning the legality of that issue.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“One major goal, and the reason that I decided to run again, is to make sure that the zoning and subdivision rewrite is clear, concise; that it addresses some of the problems in the city, and also protects the character of the core neighborhoods. The only way I can do it is by utilizing the experience I have in trying to analyze and review and approve ordinance changes.”

What can Missoula do to attract better-paying jobs?

“The city by itself can’t do anything. The city needs to find ways to partner with economic development corporations and other business promoting entities to create the atmosphere to develop those types of jobs. The city also needs to make sure that ordinances don’t discourage the development of new jobs.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing for Missoula residents?

“We need to make sure that we have a very modern, progressive housing authority that can help us address the greatest needs. We have to seek opportunities like redeveloping the mill site, and partner with private developers interested in developing those larger pieces of ground. We must keep administrative costs manageable and decisions timely.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“No. I was an officer in Vietnam. I was a pretty young and inexperienced officer. You had to figure out how to keep the morale up in a situation that wasn’t the best. For me, the opposition to that war totally demoralized many of our troops. I associate the resolution with having an effect of demoralizing the troops without really achieving the ends.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem, and where should the city turn to for money to solve it?

“The worst traffic problem we have is probably Reserve Street. A lot of our major thoroughfares in Missoula are also state highways, and our best opportunity is to work the state and federal government to approve them."

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“I supported the occupancy standard limitation when it was first raised. The basis for my argument is, if you turn around and let a house be used for something that it wasn’t designed for, very probably it will lead to deterioration of the entire neighborhood. I think if you adopt occupancy standards you've got to then find a better way of providing housing for students. We could encourage the university to provide a higher proportion of housing for students. There isn’t any one single solution.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“We need to improve Hillview Way, because it is substandard and it’s a hazard. We need to find a way to develop hillsides and sloping sites so that new development doesn’t impact people who have invested in this property for many, many years. I want to better develop the standards for planned neighborhood clusters. We are susceptible to planned neighborhood clusters which I don’t think will fit in with the character of the neighborhood.”

Meet Stacy Rye, Ward 3

AGE: 38
OCCUPATION: Coordinator, University of Montana Women and Gender Studies Program
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Married to Paul Bowles
EDUCATION: University of Montana, bachelor's degree in anthropology; two years of graduate study in sociology
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: for executive Director of Brain Injury Association
PUBLIC SERVICE: Missoula City Council; Rose Park Neighborhood Council; Literacy Volunteers of America;Ward 3 ice cream social; campaign volunteer for President Bill Clinton, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, and numerous City Council and School Board candidates.
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula County Democrats, Missoula County Democratic Central Committee, Missoula Area Central Labor Council, Mayor John Engen, Missoula Independent; Missoula Chamber of Commerce rating: 1.2 of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“First of all, I was the director of a nonprofit for five years. That’s an enormous amount of work. In the nonprofit world you don’t get paid, but you do get to wear a white hat. I’ve sat on City Council for four years; I’ve put in a lot of hours, probably 20 hours a week at least. I’ve chaired the Administration and Finance Committee; I’ve worked on state issues such as public power …. Working for a non-profit, you have to be able to write and vote on by-laws. You have to be able to report to a board in an objective manner. I was staffing that board. Now, on council, I am the board. So I’ve worn both hats at the same time, and to know the difference is critical. Politics are one thing, but crafting policy takes some skill and people have to know how to be able to do it effectively and objectively.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“Transportation and growth are our two most contentious issues. In regards to affordable housing, we have had a difficult time with it. We kind of agreed to put an end to some policies which the community had been extremely reactionary to in a negative way, mainly density bonuses and PNCs. We haven’t gone back and revisited why those policies were put into place in the first place and what, if any, positive things came out of them. So that’s a problem. We’re there to see the community in 50 years, not what happens next month. Montana Public Power, going forward with that bid, was just thrilling. It is a state issue, and the cities took an initiative to do something about a bankrupt supplier. I think the widening ordinance was remarkable. Missoulians care about quality of life issues. There’s an old lumber mill that ran for a lot of years in Missoula that is being cleaned up and turned into a mixed use neighborhood.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“Definitely something about affordable housing and growth. Some sort of inclusionary zoning would be wonderful, just the idea that we have a developer put in 10 percent of their development as affordable housing. We talked about a land trust non-profit in town that could help take care of that, that would be excellent, or an affordable housing bond. I mean, this community really has picked up when it comes to things like open space and parks, things like that. I think it’s time to do something regarding affordable housing, because affordable housing and economic development are tied together. Anybody that claims to be a big business candidate, if you don’t have the work force here to support those businesses and (a workforce) able to live here on $12 an hour, then you’re not going to have that (businesses). So if you’re not pro-affordable housing, you’re anti-economic development.”

What can the city do attract better-paying jobs?

“Work-force housing, have housing available for people to be here. Businesses are attracted to a couple of different things. They’re attracted to the work force that’s here, which is largely educated, much more so than the national average, and amenities. It’s our job to provide the unsexy infrastructure like sewers and roads, but it’s also our job to make sure that business owners are attracted to open space and trails and things like that.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“The city has two-fold responsibility. One is the development of work force housing, and the other is the social justice argument that the government is here to serve all people, not just the people who can afford to live here. I think we have some responsibility to encourage by regulation or manipulate the market by regulation to some extent to help the market and median house price. The median house price is $210,000. There has to be some recognition of power, too. It used to be that parents or families could help college graduates with the down payment. A down payment on a 20,000 dollar house is about $2,000. Families would scrape that together and help kids buy houses. The down payment on a $210,000 dollar house is $21,000 dollars.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Since I co-sponsored the ballot initiative, I certainly do (think so). One or two cities here or there that have no power or say in this issue means nothing, but the more cities that do it and the more populations that work for it fill up a bucket. If one city is a drop, many cities start to fill up that bucket. If federal officials are acting contrary to what the general public has said that they want, and their values aren’t being listened to; then they start to look to local officials to do something about the gap in those belief systems and value systems. If it were to pass, it gives a message to three congressional representatives in Montana as well.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“The most pressing traffic problem is that we don’t have the money to fund anything. I would say possibly Russell Street. Russell Street has been due for improvements for at least 11 years and it had a $20 million price tag about four years ago. I would guess its now about $40 million. We just don’t have that kind of money. So far we have about $6 million in our combined budget. That’s nothing, that’s peanuts. We also have Reserve Dtreet, Miller Creek, the Higgins-Hill roundabout – it’s a never-ending list of improvements, and drying up federal and state funds. We don’t have leadership at the federal or state level to either fund this realistically or come up with a viable solution, and we’re paupers here, our budget couldn’t possibly come up with that. So, we have to face some harsh realities here and, in my view, we do need those improvements. We can’t build every single road to be four or six lanes to carry single occupancy vehicles. That is a hugely inefficient waste of money. If we throw a little bit of money, like 10 percent of those budgets, at different modes of transportation we could make a huge difference, huge. We have a tiny little gas tax that goes to supporting single occupancy vehicles. I don’t know why we continue to go down a path leading us to a train wreck.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

“They should encourage it, especially if it doesn’t increase the overall density. If we have a parcel of land that’s zoned for apartment building, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to build condos, town homes or single-family homes. It doesn’t increase the overall density of that parcel of land. If you have an eight-plex you can have eight houses or eight condos. I would like to see Missoula look at the possibility of mother-in-law units. And that would probably increase the density but they’ve been built for decades behind existing houses. They’re small little cottages usually, they’re attractive. We’re talking tiny. So that would increase the density and that would increase student housing, which I think is not great right now and I don’t think students want to live out behind Wal-Mart. I’d rather students be one or two per cottage rather than eight per house.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“No. It’s unconstitutional. They can’t do it. It’s not right. It’s a dead issue, hasn’t come up in years.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“Parking for the university. I’d like to see the city and the university get together and determine how that can be mitigated. I don’t think the answer is necessarily more future parking lots at the university because it just encourages more people to drive. So that’s a huge problem. Housing is a huge problem in Ward 3. And I feel like development is not. We have a diversity of housing plots and neighborhoods, but we don’t have a lot of affordable housing. It’s more toward the 60th percentile of the median house price. We don’t have any under the 60th percentile.”

Meet Doug Harrison, Ward 3

AGE: 53
OCCUPATION: Customer service supervisor Mountain Water Company (1983-present)
MARITAL OR DOMESTIC STATUS: Married to Rosemary, 32 years; two children: Greg, 22; Allie 19.
EDUCATION: high school diploma
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: none
PUBLIC SERVICE: City Council member for Ward 4 from 1986 to 1998; City Council president for two years; council representative to Missoula Health Board; United Way board of directors; council representative on the city-county Growth Management Task Force
PARTY AFFILIATION: None
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula Organization of Realtors; Missoula Chamber of Commerce rating: 2.8 of 3.0.
WEB SITE: http://dougharrisonward3.com/exp.html

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“I served for 12 years on the City Council from 1986 to 1998, and during that time I served on all kinds of committees and subcommittees. During that time, the City Council also elected me president for two years. I’ve also worked extensively with United Way; I’m on its board of directors. I’ve worked for Mountain Water Company for 24 years. I’ve seen the private aspect, the public sector, and I’ve seen the nonprofit sector, and so I have a pretty broad perspective of the community.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“When I was first on the City Council, the economic life of the community was dead, and we kind of resolved the financial issues of the city. From there we ended up doing the Riverfront Park system. We also did things say, in the environmental area. When a few people approached me about running, I couldn’t think of what we’d done since the time I’d gotten off. We did build the Orange Street Bridge, which I think is beautiful. It’s great. In the Montana Constitution, it guarantees you certain things, and one of them is the right to know and the right to participate. I felt like the way West Broadway was handled was all backwards. You should pull everybody together first, and then allow people to participate. If people don’t have the right to know and the right to participate until it’s done, then you kind of bypass their rights.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“I think government needs to be involved with the people aspect of the community. Missoula’s known as the greatest city for young people or the greatest city to retire in … maybe we ought to be the healthiest city. I think we could screen everybody from the age of 21 or 23 and under in a health screening. Then we’d be doing the right thing for the right reason, and it’s something the whole community could get behind. We have those issues here in Missoula. You’re going to hear about transportation and spending, but there are some real-life needs on the ground.”

What can the city do to attract better paying jobs to the community?

“We’re positioned very well to do that right now. We’ve built an infrastructure that makes people want to move here. While I don’t think DirecTV is the answer, I think it did show that when governments like the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. and the local government work together, they can pull people in here. I think we need to focus on that a little bit more.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“I think affordable housing hinges on two things: You have to raise the wage in Missoula, and you have to increase the supply of housing. When we talk about those, then you have other issues that come up. But if we don’t talk about that – increasing the supply and raising the wages – then we’re never going to address that affordable housing issue.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Missoula has a lot of real needs. I think if our local government could handle its local issues, then we’d be doing really well. I am all for freedom of speech though, but I don’t think (the City Council) ought to cost the community money by putting it on the ballot. We could use that money in a lot of other places. … I’ll not support the referendum. Decisions have to be made at different levels of government. If we can’t build three swimming facilities for $8 million, how can we even think that we should tell the national defense how they ought to run their stuff? But, at the same time, people have the right to say what they want.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem, and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“We have two major issues in transportation: Number one is the congestion aspect, like on North Russell (Street) and West Broadway (Street). And the second issue is the interaction between bicycle/pedestrian and vehicles. The last one has a lot quicker fix. And that is that we finish out the trail system and that we kind of establish an independent transportation system for bicycles and pedestrians. We can separate out bikes and cars to a good degree. … But (when it comes to) the money that it takes to relieve congestion, we’re not working very smart. I think we need to focus more on our designs and what we’re trying to accomplish with them. I think we can definitely do Russell Street and Broadway, but then we really need to focus on how we’re designing roads and our transportation systems.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

We spend millions of dollars on open space, on the trails and everything we do to enhance our quality of life. We bought open space so we don’t fill up every little inch, and we want to make it nicer here. If we spend all this money over here, it seems counterproductive to go in and trash out your neighborhoods. I think the question we ought to be asking is can we increase the supply of housing and maintain the quality of life or enhance it? I would leave the neighborhoods alone, but we have a few sites that we can build, and we can build denser there.

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“That’s a practical impossibility to enforce, to where you know who’s living in a house. You don’t want the government to have to deal with that stuff. The whole idea of zoning to begin with is how to we minimize the impact of neighbors on neighbors. There definitely is a difference between high-impact, high-noise (rental units) versus a residential (home). I think there should be places for people who want it quieter and places for higher-impact uses.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“This is a very diverse ward, really. The biggest issue right now kind of deals with the infill issue. If you walked around this ward, I could take you over where infill has been done and fits perfectly, and I can show you in the same trip where it’s just a disaster. One of the issues we’ll have to work out is how do we move ahead and placate all these different needs. Everybody I’ve ever talked to on either side of the issue has some fairly reasonable points.”

Meet Pam Walzer, Ward 2

AGE: 52
OCCUPATION: Jewelry maker
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Divorced
EDUCATION: Indiana University, bachelor’s degree in biology and minor in chemistry; West Virginia University, graduate work in biochemical genetics
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Space rocket researcher and quality tester; EPA hazardous waste management of chemical agents and explosives; substitute science teacher
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: None.
PUBLIC SERVICE: member of Missoula County Local Government Study Commission and Missoula Downtown Association; volunteered for International Wildlife Film Festival and U.S. Sen. John Tester’s election campaign
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula County Democrats, Missoula Area Central Labor Council, Mayor John Engen, Missoula County Commissioner Jean Curtiss, Sen. Greg Lind, Sen. Dave Wanzenried, Rep. Ron Erickson, former Rep. Gail Gutshe; Chamber of Commerce rating: 1.2 of 3.0.
WEB SITE: http://www.pamwalzer.com/

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“Part of it has to do with my very varied background. As a scientist, the analytical thinking of having to find what the problem is and looking for a solution is all part of my background training. Businesses and cities are similar, and I have a lot of experience in the business end that can be applied to the city. Not to mention being a member of the Missoula City Local Government Study Commission. I do know what’s going on. People say it’s the closest I can get to being an incumbent. Also, the environmental work I did, disposing of toxic wastes, made me very much involved with the regulations. Because of that, in the study commission I dug into government relations, something most councilors can’t do. And that makes me an asset.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“The worst is a no-brainer, the scuttling of the 2000 Northside/Westside neighborhood plan. Council took all that the residents wanted and destroyed it by amending the update. Luckily, it was killed. Nothing about the update changed, but there was an attempt to damage the original plan. The neighborhood’s original update describes the vision for what should happen in the neighborhood. Part of it has to do with the expansion design of the Safeway store. It doesn’t fit into the neighborhood plan of expanding West Broadway as a part of downtown, keeping it pedestrian and bicycle friendly. The amendment would remove Safeway from the plan. One store might not be a big deal, but it sets the ground for the rest. Currently, a compromise is about to be reached, and the neighborhood’s real excited about that.

The best is the Iraq war referendum. Putting it on the ballot is nonbinding, but it gives Missoula a voice. This is truly something that City Council offers the people of Missoula: to speak as one voice, not just individually sent letters.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“I would like to see council regain its job of well-arranged planning. They seem to be wrapped up in day-to-day minutia without a great road map to follow. We need to have a big plan to follow so the City Council knows what to do. Right now, they don’t know what they’re supposed to do. From election to election it changes without reflection of any big plan.”

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

“I’m not for trying to drag businesses in from the outside. I’m not against anyone coming in, but I’d like to see ways to take advantage of the brain trust we have here, through the university and the medical community. We have so much opportunity for spin-off. And to do that, we need to start small and build up from within. That way, the entrepreneurs themselves are getting the wealth. (Take) for example, the Missoula Children’s Theatre. So much money comes into Missoula because they’re going out. The idea is to grow it here, keep your smart guys here in town.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“We need to continue efforts of nonprofits for low-income affordable housing. We also need to think of affordable rentals. But everyone forgets quality. We need to look at models around the country to adapt and apply here. Maybe even giving landlords tax incentives to cap rents. People are seeing increase in taxes, meaning special improvement districts and impact fees. Make developers pay upfront, but they say it’ll increase the cost of the house. Maybe, but wouldn’t it be better to know when you bought your house you could afford it, than later get hit with a $100 a month charge? In the meantime, they’re trying to encourage development within the city. But there’s a minimum lot size which is too big. Large houses on large lots equal poor affordability. We need to change those rules to (offer) small houses on small lots.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“Yes, because even though it’s nonbinding, it gives Missoula a voice. This is truly something that City Council offers the people of Missoula: to speak as one voice, not just individual letters.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“Problem is we’re looking at roads and cars. (The) more roads you build, the more cars you get. To prove that, look at North Reserve Street, and we still haven’t learned that lesson. We need to change how we’re thinking about transportation. When we develop, we want to make it so people don’t have to drive across town to do anything. Mixed housing is the answer. That way, low income doesn’t mean you’re stuck living in one section of town. You’re mixing things together, and essentially that doesn’t cost anything. Secondly, we need to increase Mountain Line service. I feel the demand is there. I hear many people say, ‘I’d take it, but it takes too long to get anywhere.’ Finding money is always a big issue, but if we don’t build more roads, it might be there.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

“Yes, it should, in all neighborhoods. We need to spread the wide variety of housing prices throughout the city. There’s no reason well-built multi-family dwellings can’t exist very nicely in different locations. I think the city should let the market decide where the growth happens, whether it is within the city or not. No matter what, more housing vacancies mean lower prices.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“I once had 10 people living in a neighboring duplex; they were great, other than the seven cars. That’s a complex issue, and it has to do with health and safety. Related or unrelated doesn’t matter. The issue is if they can safely live in a location. That’s a really hard thing to govern. Having been a student myself, I’d rather see safety in rentals and not just discriminating against rentals.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“The ward has three distinct areas, and traffic is in issue. We need to increase Mountain Line availability throughout the ward. Also, I’m not a bike Nazi. I don’t ride a bike. I have one, but I don’t ride it. But I want people to appreciate being in your car is not a fun thing. We need to design the city to be pedestrian friendly. And I am for chickens.”

Meet Don Nicholson, Ward 2

AGE: 73
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Wife, Ardice, and combined family of eight children and 14 grandchildren
EDUCATION: University of Montana, bachelor’s degree in chemistry
OCCUPATION: Retired from construction and management of paper mills, owner of Mountain States Collision Repair Inc.
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: Two years in the Army, stationed in Korea from 1956-1958
PUBLIC SERVICE: Lions Club, Sentinel Kiwanis, UM Alumni Association, UM Hall of Fame Committee, seven and a half years on the Missoula City Council, including a term in the late 1960s
PARTY AFFILIATION: Independent
ENDORSEMENTS: Ward 6 primary candidate Dave Huerta; Missoula Chamber of Commere rating: 2.8 out of 3.0.

Questions and answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“I think my business experience and my previous experience on the council; my practical management. (I’m a) fiscally responsible person.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“This gridlock we've got going on now between members, talking about trivial things, is the worst. (An) example I guess is the chicken ordinance, needing to vote on whether the city should be in Iraq or not … That's a federal issue, and unfortunately at the federal level it's a partisan issue, but it's not a city issue. We should deal with issues such as sidewalks, potholes, that sort of thing. That's the worst. The best efforts, I would guess are, we have really three awful good departments in this city. Cemetery is far and away – it’s very inconspicuous – but it’s far and away the best run. The fire department is next, and the police department is next. And those are really well run.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“I think we need to be more fiscally responsible in looking at the spending side of our budget. Currently, we spend lots of time on how to get more money, finding new taxes, but almost no money, no time, on how to spend less and how to be more efficient. (There’s a) thing called ROI – return on investment. We do almost no ROI justification. In business you don't even look at a project unless it had a good ROI that would pay out in two or three years.”

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

“The thing we should build on is the medical community. The medical community is as good as it gets in any part of Montana -- or Idaho, or Wyoming or whatever. You see, good doctors like to hunt and fish. So they come here. Two ingredients that most people want are good hospitals and good doctors, and we've got those two done. So we should encourage the hospitals and the doctors, say ‘OK, what more do you need, what service, what technology, what locally can we help you do?’ The thing we should not do is go out and find some brand new thing to come to town. We should take the local businesses that want to expand and need help, that are growing …We could become the Mayo Clinic of the West. Rochester, Minnesota, is a little rinky-dink town in southern Minnesota. But the Mayo Clinic is there because the Mayo brothers were there. Missoula could be like that.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“You're not going to develop affordable housing without good paying jobs. That's the only answer that makes any sense. Other than that is subsidizing. ... If we had fifty thousand bucks to hand out to the thousands that need homes in this town, we could subsidize them. But the subsidy issue is kind of where we all veer into the ground because we don't have that kind of money – federal government-wise, state-wise, or whatever. Here we go talking about affordable housing like it’s a warm fuzzy feeling people would really like to have. But the practicality of it is that in order to have an house you can afford, you have to have a job.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“That's not a city issue and we should not be endorsing or whatever. It's a national issue. That certainly is an individual, partisan-type question. It should not be a question that city council members are talking about or the city should be voting on.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem, and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“We have the worst intersection in the state at Mullan and North Reserve. While those are complications of our traffic systems, a good many of the roads in Missoula are state and or federally owned; we don't spend city money on fixing a state road. The state's money is what's needed here. There are some minor things we could to Mullan/Reserve. The most obvious one is a second left-hand lane turning into Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a huge nightmare at that traffic light. So we put that second left hand lane in. For the first time we could learn how to time traffic lights … so it will go green, green, green, green, right through Mullan/Reserve, so we wouldn't have this terrible backup. And we could come the other way the same way.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

“There are a few pieces of property that really should have more houses on it. This is the infill question. If there's a vacant lot and you already have a sidewalk and a street and a sewer, then obviously you should put a house on it. But where it falls apart is that the neighbors of those places … have expectations of what their neighbors are going to look like. These pieces of property are vacant for a reason: they're not very buildable. They're steep, they're tiny, they're whatever. So they're not built on. So the infill question was kind of rampant around here four years ago. People were taking their two lots, changing boundaries. ... That may change your alleys into main streets. Follow that progression (and) every house has an alley house. Pretty soon you've got kids playing in allies that aren't wide enough, they have no curbs, no sidewalks. That's a bad idea. I think much of the stuff we tend to stuff inside the town is going to be bad job construction. ... But the growth of Missoula is – and I think the whole council's united in this – we want it to stay the way it is in terms of character and feel, and neighborhoods, and accessibility to businesses. We're very fortunate to have small businesses downtown. We have the Southgate Mall, we have North Reserve.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“I'm not too familiar with the arguments that went on. Ultimately, it was in front of the City Council about six years ago. I think it was voted down. It was sort of an artificial situation when you couldn't find a place to rent so people were cramming into houses and living there. So I think the answer is no but ... there was some legal problems, there was a suit that came up. People were sued because they were doing that. So it's not festering very much right now. … I'd rather there not be a requirement. I think it was an artificial situation when it was there and it was there because of traffic. It was there because of all the darned cars that were parked there, as much as anything.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“Let me talk about my ward first. It's Ward 2, which includes the Northside-Westside, which is kind of a wealthy person's area. It includes Grant Creek, which is a management person area. It includes the Mullan Road area out by Costco. So it's easily the most complicated ward in town … But that Mullan/Reserve traffic situation, as we all know, is a pretty high priority. Northside-Westside, there's the concern about housing and the affordability of housing ... So those kinds of ongoing things need to happen. Better paying jobs. St. Pat's hospital, which is in my ward, could be helpful to the people in residences over there if they could qualify for the jobs. ... There's nothing wrong with the talent of the people in Missoula to do these jobs. It's just that the jobs aren't there. ... We go in circles a lot. Billings decides to build a new bank building and they build a building. The guy that runs the bank over there, he's a get-with-it guy. We don't have many get-with-it people in this town.”

Meet Jason Wiener, Ward 1

AGE: 30
OCCUPATION: DirecTV customer service representative
MARITAL OR PARTNERSHIP STATUS: Single
EDUCATION: Wabash College, bachelor's degree in economics and philosophy; University of Montana, master’s degree in philosophy
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Financial analyst, teacher, journalist
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: None
PUBLIC SERVICE: Volunteer for Garden City Harvest, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula Community Market, Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation Party
PARTY AFFILIATION: Democrat
ENDORSEMENTS: Missoula County Democrats, Missoula Area Central Labor Council, Missoula Independent, Mayor John Engen, City Councilwoman Heidi Kendall, City Councilman Dave Strohmaier, Rep. Ron Erickson; Chamber of Commerce rating: 1.2 of 3.0.
WEB SITE: http://www.jasonwienerforcouncil.org/

Questions and Answers

What qualifies you to be on the City Council?

“The most important thing that the City Council can do is to bridge the details of the policy that it makes with the values that people hold, and this is what I’ve done all my life. First as a student of philosophy and economics – bringing those two disciplines together – and then later as a financial analyst, teacher and journalist, I have always been able to find the specifics and to integrate those into a larger vision. And this is really what government needs in order to be effective and ethical. … This is what I do when I go to City Council meetings. The chicken question, for instance, is on everybody’s mind and everybody wants to talk about this, and what I see in this debate is a lack of appreciation for the value of pluralism. You have a group of people who are maybe not in the mainstream, but who really cares about wanting to have a connection to their food, and they’ve asked for reasonable regulation of their activity, and a reasonable regulation has been formulated. And then you have a group of people who will say nothing but 'no,' who won’t negotiate on any point, who have no willingness to compromise, and what that shows is an inability to accommodate world views that are not one’s own, and to me that shows a lack of pluralism. And so it’s this kind of, like, catchy, funny thing that we have in this massive debate over chickens, but it’s really about how tolerant are you for the value systems that others might hold.”

What are the best and worst things the City Council has done in recent years?

“One very good thing that they’ve done is they’ve undertaken an effort to rewrite the zoning ordinance. Our zoning ordinances that govern Missoula were written in the 1930s and the 1970s; they may as well have been written for another planet, given the conditions that we’re living under right now. And so the City Council has hired consultants to help us to rewrite that ordinance, to make it something that’s modern and forward looking and can help us deal with the pressures that are coming to us as a city. They have placed an emphasis on having public involvement in that effort – having lots of meetings, listening sessions, hearing what people expect this thing to do, and what they want it to do – and then trying to incorporate all that input, make people feel like they’ve been heard, listened to, even if what comes out maybe doesn’t reflect everybody’s opinion, because it can’t because there are, of course. contradictory positions.”

And the worst thing?

“A couple months ago the City Council considered a revision to the Northside-Westside Neighborhood Plan. This is a plan that was created years ago, I think maybe a decade ago, by some citizens on the Northside neighborhoods to talk about a positive construction vision for what their neighborhood should look like in the future. Neighborhood plans do not have the force of law in Montana and they are merely advisory. It was a very contentious project involving Saint Pat’s Hospital and the Safeway store and the project does not reflect the wishes of the neighborhood, it certainly didn’t at the outset and you could still contend that it doesn’t. There was even a lawsuit that came of that, created a lot of animosity between some of the folks that did that plan and other folks within the city. When they tried to revise their neighborhood plan, the feelings about that and about West Broadway and about a number of other things led City Council representatives, led by one of the representatives of Ward 2, which hosts the Northside and the Westside neighborhoods, to gut the plan. And what they did is they basically said the West Broadway corridor from beginning to end, will be sliced out of this neighborhood. Well, West Broadway is a critical part of that neighborhood, and what those folks envisioned for West Broadway should be part of the vision for their neighborhood. So they did that and it was a really terrible thing because you have this sort of grassroots constructive involvement by a group of citizens, and then you have folks at the highest level of government negating that input and gutting it. It just runs contrary to encouraging citizen involvement and was a very troubling thing.”

What one thing would you most like to accomplish as a member of the City Council?

“The main impetus that drove me to running for City Council was feeling like the people of Missoula do not know and understand how what the council does affects their life daily. City government is the most intimately tied branch of government to people’s everyday lives. It's roads we use, parks we use, neighborhoods we live in. It’s really important stuff; it’s the fabric of everyday lives. But decisions of City Council are very detail-driven – it’s a lot of sometimes tedious policy – and so my ambition is to bridge that, to frame the issues, the details of policy, in terms of the values that people have in Missoula. To make it understandable and comprehensible so people can participate in a meaningful way in what the future of the city is going to look like.”

What can the city do to attract better-paying jobs?

“There’s an interesting assumption framed in that question, which is that we somehow need to pull these better paying jobs from outside of our community, that we have to somehow attract them here. And I actually think that emphasizing the growth of local businesses and providing support to start up entrepreneurs is a better way to go about that. We spent about $10 million to get DirecTV to move here to Missoula. For $10 million we could give an awful lot of help to an awful lot of local businesses, and these are going to be people who get a chance to turn their passion into an occupation. If we’re going to subsidize business, it ought to be these folks who are already contributing to the community, helping them to achieve their aspirations, and to develop an economy with roots in it. When I think about how we can help economic development in Missoula, there’s a whole host of tools in subsidized development. We could provide grants, we could provide loan guarantees. It’s really about which businesses are we going to pick, and my preference there is the same as my preference with most things, which is small and local.”

What should the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

“This is another case where the tools are in place already. You could have an inclusionary zoning ordinance that requires market rate development be accompanied by some sort of affordable component or cash-in-lieu requirement. You could actually do land trust housing with the city itself. This is really where you don’t sell the land, you lease the land out for 75 years, renewable for another 75-year term, and then you sell the house on top of the land. (This) allows people to get into the house at a low equity contribution and then enjoy appreciation as the market goes up, which allows people to move on and move out into nonsubsidized housing. It keeps the market from moving away from the people who are living here. And there are other tools. The question is how are we going to pay for it.

“I like to turn to open space for an analogy on this. Thirty years ago, open space was not a settled question in Missoula. There were hard-fought battles over it, and it took a lot of work and a lot of vision to make it happen. Well, there’s been a sea-change … (W)hat people decided is, ‘We value open space and so we’re willing to pony up at the ballot box for it.’ Well, what does affordable housing give us? I think what it gives us is economic diversity and I think that that’s something that people value in Missoula, is that it’s a place where people of every class can live together. And that’s not going to be the case if we don’t ensure (affordable housing for) people who don’t have income sources from outside of Missoula, who don’t have access to the housing market because the housing costs are being driven by factors from outside of the city. We’re going to lose that economic diversity. And so, it’s really a question ultimately of values and whether the political will exists to do the things that are going to be necessary to pay for affordable housing. Economic diversity is enough of value here in Missoula that that’s where we’ll be in a couple years, I think.”

Should Missoula endorse a troop withdrawal from Iraq? Why or why not?

“I supported placing the referendum on the ballot … because I feel like people are very cynical about government. They feel like their interests are not being represented by the state. People are right to feel that in a certain sense. I mean, government is supposed to work for the public’s benefit, but it’s clear in so many ways it works for a set of private interests, and I think that that sort of cynicism is corrosive to democracy. Now, the war I think is an excellent example of how people feel this way because, and I think it was reflected in the 2006 elections and in the general sentiments that people have about the war, people should be able to organize themselves at levels of government lower than the national level to present a voice of solidarity on an issue on an issue like this that is incredibly important. And so that’s why I supported putting it on the ballot, and I support a ‘yes’ vote on it because the war is clearly impacting the city in so many ways. The city is very stressed to pay for the services that it needs … and one of the main reasons for that is the federal government has taken a smaller and smaller stake in helping with the infrastructure needs of communities like this, while these costs have increased tremendously. And part of that is because we’re spending a lot of money in Iraq. I mean we’re spending to the tune of more than a gigantic road project a day, and I would like to see the federal government shift its priorities toward building infrastructure in America and not involvement over there. At the same time, it’s a complicated question, and we’re essentially taking a sledgehammer to it with this referendum. It is a delicate situation over there, one that we never should have gotten involved in the first place, and that we have made a mess of, make no mistake. And I’m not under the illusion that passing this referendum will get us out of there, or that even an immediate troop withdrawal is smartest policy move, but we need to send every message that we can that this thing has to end, and has to end as quickly as possible because this is not the way for America to spend its money and people and prestige.”

What is Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem and where should the city turn for the money to solve it?

“I think Missoula’s most pressing traffic problem is a problem of perception in large part. I think there are certain times of day when our roads are congested and it is not all times of day. And so there’s an expectation from folks that they’re going to have a very high level of service whenever they step into their car to go somewhere. And I don’t think that we can build our roads for maximum traffic, because if we do that, everything would be an elevated freeway and we would decimate our city. Roads have an impact on neighborhoods around them, and so the best way to fix that is to change the way we lay out the city. We lessen the demand upon people for the roadways and that means spreading out commercial throughout the city so that people don’t have to travel so much for shopping, maybe work as well. … It also means lessening people’s demand for using cars by improving public transit and creating infrastructure for walking and biking that’s accessible and not intimidating. That said, we obviously have road projects that need to get done, and when we do those we need to make sure we build them with this idea that bigger is not always better, but that roads need to be tied to the land uses around them.

“The money for building roads is a huge problem and we’re going to need to figure that one out, and it may mean looking for additional sources of revenue like a local-option gas tax or a local-option sales tax. The city is very much hamstrung by what the state says it can do in order to raise money. Property-tax growth in Missoula is limited to half the rate of inflation. Now, the cost of oil and asphalt are going up greater than the rate of inflation and we have a government source of revenue that is growing by less than the rate of inflation. So we’re actually shrinking our government each year, even as our costs are outstripping the natural rate of decrease in the value of money. That’s an untenable situation, and really the solution lies in the state changing its ideas about how municipalities can fund themselves. And we need the national government to make a renewed commitment to infrastructure and cities across the country.”

Should the city encourage or discourage more housing in existing city neighborhoods? Why or why not?

“The solutions are going to be different in different parts of the city. By and large, I favor growing within the area that is now developed. I don’t think we should be tearing up green fields to put in new housing when it can be avoided. That said, people are very attached to the character of their neighborhoods, and so when you say to them we are going to build twice as many houses here as are here right now, they get really angry about that. It creates a lot of animosity and hostility to change, but the fact is, the zoning in most of Missoula is already denser than what is built on that zone. So there is a difference between development interests that a property owner has and what’s actually built. So when the person builds to the interest that’s allowed by the law that creates this anger because people’s expectations are formed by what they see rather than what the law is. This is going to be a very tough question and one that we’re going to have to work out in this development and zoning ordinance rewrite that’s coming up right now. … I prefer growing within the city limits, but it will take attention to design and attention to the character of existing neighborhoods to do that properly.”

Should the city limit the number of unrelated people who may share a house?

“No, and I’m pretty sure that’s illegal anyway. I think that was a mean-spirited thing to do. That said, some of you college students need to clean up your living conditions a little bit. I like my street, and there are college students who live on my street, and we all get along with one another, but there are some houses down in the U-district that really are pretty nasty. There’s a residential safety and standards subcommittee that’s meeting right now, and I don’t really know what they’re up to, but I know they’re trying to work on ways to regulate on the quality of housing, specifically that kind of absentee landlord, student-occupied housing. I’m a renter, but my landlady lives upstairs and I live downstairs, and there’s never any question that I’m going to rampage through her property because she’s paying attention. One of the things we can do is encourage these kinds of accessory dwelling units where the landlord is actually living on the property. That becomes a self-regulating situation. And that’s something we can do in the zoning ordinance: Make those accessory dwelling units a better possibility. But it’s also the way to do infill smartly because if you have people building on lands that they own and they continue to occupy, they’re going to do it with greater attention to good design than if they are from far away and don’t have to look at what they’ve done or live with the consequences of it.”

What specific problems in your ward would you like to see solved?

“The Rattlesnake essentially has two exits, and they are both crossed by train tracks that are heavily used. So there could potentially be a chemical spill that would not allow people to exit, or there could easily be a wildfire. If you look at the timber on Mount Jumbo, some of those nooks and crannies are ready to go whenever. So we need to be prepared for an emergency in the Rattlesnake, and the fire department’s plan for a disaster does not include getting people out of the Rattlesnake. And that’s not what we want anyway. We don’t want people all rushing to the exits. They need to go to the valley floor, they need to shelter in-place, and it takes being prepared to do this and I would really like to work over the next four years on a good emergency preparedness plan in the Rattlesnake. That just means getting the supplies that people are going to need to shelter in-place there. You can tell people you need to be prepared to live for 72 hours off of what’s in your home, but that’s not going to make it so. And so this is really a responsibility of the city to have the resources in place so that people that need to get out of their homes can get out of their homes and be safe and cared for during the time of a disaster. And it’s something that’s going to be faced by other parts of the city. Grant Creek, Miller Creek, these are all similarly closed drainages. If we do this well in the Rattlesnake, we can expand the program to include those areas.”