MISSOULA — With the budget deadline looming, the Missoula City Council on Wednesday spent nearly five hours deliberating proposed cuts and additions to the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
From defunding a range of homeless services to funding an incentive for sustainable building, all but one effort failed to pass and some sparked heated and impassioned debate.
Among the attempts, council member Bob Campbell sought to defund a number of positions including a community engagement specialist ($118,000), which failed 8-2, and the city's legislative lobbyist ($43,000), which failed 7-2.
Expressing frustration with what he described as an overly lenient Municipal Court, he also sought to defund the shelter court program ($255,000), which failed 8-2, along with the city's houseless operations specialist ($98,000), which failed 8-2.
Nearly all council members argued on behalf of keeping the programs and positions in the FY 25 budget.
“This is a crucial part of the multi-pronged policy on how to address the issue of the unhoused in Missoula,” said council member Gwen Jones, who voted to keep the houseless position in place. “It's a very hard issue to completely address, but we've made a lot of really good progress in those areas, and it's exactly because of positions like these that we've made that progress.”
Campbell also suggested that some city enterprise programs should be left to the private sector. As such, he proposed defunding the city's aquatics assistant position ($38,000), which failed 8-2. Proponents said the city's fee-for-service in aquatics recaptured more costs than nearly any other city program.
Campbell's effort to defund ongoing operational costs for Marshall Mountain ($160,000) also failed 8-2. He opposed purchasing the mountain earlier this year.
“All along, I knew there was going to be ongoing costs associated with this,” said Campbell. “Now we're into the additional responsibly going forward for administration and maintenance. This $160,000 is just the beginning. We've hung this price tag around our neck for perpetuity.”
While Campbell largely sought to defund certain programs and positions, other council members set their sights on adding programs. Among them, council member Daniel Carlino sought to provide $10,000 more to fund neighborhood project grants, though it failed 7-3.
Carlino and council member Kristen Jordan also sought to add $60,000 to the sidewalk fund and to modify the sidewalk program. To do so, they suggested either taking it from another fund or by cutting it from the “private security forces” provided to residents around homeless shelters.
But city staff said that while more sidewalk funds were needed, it wasn't their intent to take the funding from security. The vote resulted in a tie and failed to pass.
Carlino also sought to add three new street maintenance positions at a cost of $536,000, though he cut the request to one employee at a cost of $179,000. To do so, he proposed cutting $60,000 from private security and $110,000 from the fund balance.
But the measure was modified again and ultimately failed on a tie vote. Carlino sought to suspend council rules allowing the mayor to break a tie vote. That resulted in a 6-4 vote, not meeting the required two-thirds threshold to pass.
“In the past, the mayor would have been breaking these tie votes,” Carlino said. “There are council members absent, and it would be a shame to not have a decisive decision on these issues.”
Carlino also sought to add $100,000 to offer startup funds for sustainable building incentives. He proposed funding it by tapping into the city's savings account.
“This program is ready to launch, as soon as we have committed funding,” Carlino said. “We're in an extreme drought. We're seeing the smoke pouring into our community. We need to set an example. Why are we not doing more to stop the climate crisis? This is an urgent issue. We have the money in our savings account.”
The city's fund balance is around $2 million — less than half of the city's target. That made some reluctant to use the account to fund new programs. The shortfall in the fund balance could also lower the city's credit rating, impacting the city's ability to secure bonds.
“Pulling from the fund balance isn't a good idea at this point,” said Jones. “It may be frustrating, but there's a lot of moving pieces to this.”
The only effort that passed was a push to move a railroad quiet zone along Spruce and Madison streets further up in the transportation improvement cue. The measure, proposed by council member Eric Melson, came with no immediate financial implication but rather, funding would be determined in a later budget season.
The measure passed 8-2.
“This project has been in the works for over a decade,” said Melson. “The city was so close before the rail changed hands and we had to start over.”
Five proposals will be considered on Monday, including Jordan's request to add $20,000 to the neighborhood traffic management program, and council member Sandra Vasecka's push to defund the Johnson Street shelter — a move that would save taxpayers more than $1.8 million.
