Missoula mayor Andrea Davis presented a shortlist of funding priorities as the city nears deciding next year’s budget, with many top-ticket items focused on ongoing projects around houselessness and bolstering city infrastructure.
Davis, who was elected to the office in November, said the city’s top priorities include implementing its new urban camping laws, continuing funding for its shelter system, building a sixth station for the fire department, finding a location to build a new police station and securing more indoor space for youth programming.
Much of the mayor’s priorities for fiscal year 2025 continue priorities seen during the last three years of city leadership, including under mayors Jordan Hess and John Engen.
Top needs
Last month the city passed a set of laws that restrict urban camping, which are set to go into effect on July 25.
People are also reading…
In the meantime, city staff are developing new information and guidelines, including maps of places where camping on city property will be allowed.
City staff have proposed spending almost $1 million on enforcing the urban camping restrictions and other city code violations, according to a Community, Planning and Innovation budget report from June.
City council must also mull how it will pay to operate the Johnson Street Emergency Shelter for another year, which has been using temporary federal funds the last three years.
The shelter would cost $1.8 million to run for another year, which previously has been split between the city and the county, but it remains unclear if the county plans to support the shelter.
“We have a temporary location for that facility and we continue to work with our community partners to identify the most appropriate shelter response,” Davis said.
In May, voters approved $7 million levy that will allow the Missoula Fire Department to build a sixth fire station and hire 20 new firefighters.
The department announced on social media that it is currently hiring for the new station. Applications will stay open through July 22.
“That’s a big deal,” Davis said
Davis hopes to develop a plan for a new city police station as well. The department currently operates out of city hall and a station on Catlin Street. The police department has increased by more than 30 full-time employees since 2008.
The city is also looking to incentivize more programs for children in Missoula, including finding more indoor spaces for child care and programming. The city is currently using the old public library, which is set for redevelopment in the next year.
“Something that we don’t really have much of is indoor recreation space,” Davis said. “Our old library has been great as a temporary location, obviously that is not something we will have for a long time.”
Other priorities listed in Davis’ presentation include forwarding the city’s green energy project, improving the city’s urban tree health, working to sell city-owned land for private development, finishing its long-term code reform, and creating affordable housing.
The city is also working to address its space needs by using the former Federal Building downtown, now renamed to the John Engen Local Government Building.
Performance-based budget requests
Davis said during the presentation that she hopes to develop a budget process where more data and results from projects can be considered in tandem with department budget requests.
Davis, who comes from the nonprofit sector, said this spring she asked all city departments to complete “program inventories” that better show how effective a project was along with the price tag.
I would say it is a step in the right direction, but it’s not complete,” Davis said.
Ward 6 Councilor Kristen Jordan said she still had some concerns with the process so far, calling the priorities list “aspirational” rather than performance-based.
Dale Bickell, the chief administrative officer for the city, said becoming more performative-focused will be different for each department, depending on what data is available.
He added that much of the city metric data is used internally and not readily available to the public.
“One thing that we need to do a better job of is taking the data that we actually use to make metric decisions and share them with the public and council in more meaningful ways,” Bickell said.
The mayor’s executive budget is set to be presented on Aug. 3. From there, city council will make proposals and amendments before passing the final budget on Aug. 19.
“We are only going to get better, that is our aim and our goal here,” Davis said.
To see the full presentation, visit the city’s public meeting and agenda website.
Griffen Smith is the local government reporter for the Missoulian.
