by John Dowd
Last Thursday, the Stevensville Town Council met to discuss several topics that have been in the works for some time. The most important of these was the upcoming government study, which is a state-mandated assessment of the local government by the community that must be offered every 10 years.
At the last town council meeting, the council voted to adopt a resolution to place the question of holding such a review on the next ballot, which will be this year’s primary election on June 4th. The vote will determine whether the residents of Stevensville want to opt into such a review this year. If the vote is no, then the community will need to wait another 10 years for this opportunity to come around again. (All incorporated municipal and county governments will be voting on the government review question during this year’s primary.)
If that vote passes, then a commission will be set up, where community members will be able to campaign to be on the commission to review the local government of the town of Stevensville. Five spots will need to be filled, and the commission will have two years to review the government. After the review, the commission can propose changes to the way the government works, and put them out for a community vote.
The Montana Local Government Review, as it is called, will allow coordination between residents, the MSU Local Government Center and the town to elect and train reviewers.
If the vote fails to pass at any point along the way, then nothing will change until the next local government review comes back up again, in 10 years.
The town has allocated $25,000 for the review, if it does pass. According to Stevensville Mayor Bob Michalson, “It is a people’s government and it is a way that they can change the government.” In his research on these reviews, the last one to pass in Stevensville was in 1977. According to Michalson, the 70’s were also an important time in the state’s history overall, where the people were getting more involved in all forms of local and state government. Following these influences from the public, in 1972, the state adopted a new constitution. At that last Stevensville review in 1977, the community elected to have all the department heads report before the council directly, among other things. For more information and clarification on the review, community members can contact Stevensville Town Hall.
At that same council meeting, the council revisited job descriptions for the Town, some of which have not changed since 2018. According to Michalson, these descriptions defined which employees and administration did which tasks. Michalson explained that there were several vacant positions. Some of these jobs have never been filled, and those tasks that they would have been responsible for have been carried out by other employees within the town. The council’s review resulted in consolidating tasks into the descriptions of those who have been fulfilling them all along. One example was the zoning administrator, a job which has historically been done by the mayor. Even though it was a part time position, it was one of the positions that was never filled. The position was abolished during the meeting and that responsibility was officially added to the mayor’s job description.
The town also sent out bids for the Mission Street water-main project. Bids will close on Feb. 23, and that Thursday the bid offers they receive will be opened up before the council for review. After that, if one is chosen, it will be sent to HDR, the engineering firm assisting the town, for a final review. On Feb. 29, a special meeting will be held to approve the over $1.8 million project to replace all the water mains along the street.