Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Opinion & Editorial

by Bob Frost & Lorraine Crotty, Hamilton

We attended the Hamilton City Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, 2/21/08. We are gravely concerned about the attitude of this new Committee, and the behavior of the city employees who also attended. The specific agenda items that cause this concern are as follows.

Merrill  Lynch Presentation:

Merrill Lynch presented a proposal to take a minimum of $1 million of city funds into their management portfolios, to invest in corporate bonds. Right now, the city Finance Administrator is receiving a paltry 1.5% on his investment of city funds, at 1st Interstate Bank. We were amazed that he had the gall to even tell us this. He should be embarrassed. Anyone in Hamilton can receive at least 3.45% with $5,000 and 4 months or less, with no upfront costs. Merrill Lynch will charge a fee of .68% to manage our money, which may not even produce the return offered by a regular bank CD. We are completely against this arrangement, given the financial problems in America these days, and the dwindling reputation of Merrill Lynch. We have asked the de facto Treasurer, Mayor Randazzo, to invest excess city funds in CD’s or US Government securities only.

Draft Investment Policy:

Unless some drastic changes were made to this policy in the last few months, we feel that the one city administration concocted last year is cumbersome, difficult to understand, far too complex for a city the size of Hamilton, and quite frankly, dangerous. Does anyone besides Craig Shepard even understand this policy? If the mayor does not understand it completely, she needs to ask him to revise it again so that she does understand it completely. Again, absent an elected Treasurer, this is the duty and responsibility of the mayor. The Finance Committee recommended that the City go ahead with this ridiculous policy, and no meaningful discussion ensued. That is because they do not understand it either.

RML Backbilling:

The Finance Committee all agreed to accept the $231,000 water bill settlement offer made by the NIH last year.  Councilor Steele suggested it in order to “put this baby to bed.”  In our opinion, this was the most irresponsible and immature decision made by the Finance Committee that we have ever heard, in all the years we have been attending. Given the fact that the RML owes over $700K to the citizens of Hamilton for their water bill, how can this decision be in the best interest of those citizens? Why are we subsidizing the Federal Government? And, most importantly, do the mayor and city council even have the authority to give away that much in public funds? These are serious questions, and unless the citizens of Hamilton agree with this decision, the mayor and council are obliged to continue with the collection of this bill.

Marcus Street Water Main Bill:

The bill is for $122,415, and is for the intersection of Marcus Street and Big Corral Road.  It was budgeted during the reign of  Joe Petrusaitis, and he apparently never paid the bill back in 2005.  Our question is:  What happened to the money that was budgeted for this expense in FY 04-05, and why wasn’t it brought forward into the next fiscal year?  The citizens were certainly taxed for this expense, and if the bill was not paid then, where is the money?  

Comp time versus hiring another employee:

This issue has been a sore spot with us for many years.  We are in the process of contacting the Federal and State authorities on this. The practice of paying “comp time” to department heads has got to stop.  It is an unfunded liability that has the potential to place the city Treasury at great risk. It is effectively turning “exempt” professional positions into “non-exempt” positions, and paying overtime to people who are not legally entitled to it. It also sets the city up for a lawsuit.   

We would suggest that no comp time or overtime ever be allowed for any department head in the city of Hamilton. These people were hired, and agreed, to do the job, regardless of the amount of time required. If they are incapable of doing the job in a reasonable amount of time, they should be fired.

Our main concern is why department heads have been allowed to work with no supervision and no control over what they do. Why hasn’t anyone paid attention to this? As a result, hundreds of “comp time” hours have accumulated over the years, and now these folks want to be paid for it. They are essentially holding the city hostage with unauthorized and unsupervised overtime that no one can explain.  

This is a very serious problem, starting with improper staffing, improper time accounting, and improper supervision. Our suggestion is to get outside legal advice from a qualified labor attorney, and then establish an ironclad policy of no comp time to exempt department heads under any circumstances. Certain ones have abused their position of power and should be severely reprimanded or removed.

We have expanded these subjects in a recent letter to the mayor, and have yet to receive a response. What do you think about this, citizens of Hamilton?

Letter writer wrong on zoning

Dear Editor,

In response to the Ron Olfert letter published February 20, 2008, I first have to say Mr. Olfert did a huge disservice to all Ravalli County residents by making statements that are not factually accurate. I too was at the meeting referenced and I believe his quotes are less than accurate.

“Ravalli County is in the throes of having a Zoning Ordinance crammed down its throat.” The zoning proposed will replace a Citizen Initiated Zoning voted by a majority in the last election.

“They (Ravalli County) did this by dividing up the county into seven districts, appointing a CPC over each…” To find a logical way to break down Ravalli County into reasonable sizes, Ravalli County chose to use the school district boundaries. Those serving on each CPC volunteered as either a core member (voting privileges to resolve an issue(s)) or as a satellite member. The Board of County Commissioners did formally recognize the core members of each CPC, so each community area would know who to take their concerns to if they could not make the CPC meetings.

“They (zoning district legal boundaries) are drawn, not by the property owners, but by outsiders who think they know better than the property owner… should or should not do on his his property.” Had Mr. Olfert read the Montana Constitution and Montana State Law, he would understand the right to regulate land use rests with the State of Montana, not individual property owners. So it is inaccurate to imply that a right is being taken away that did not exist previously. I presume fellow county neighbors might be outsiders to some, but I believe the majority will think of each other as neighbors. If he intended the comment about Clarion, I would suggest that county residents along with the County Planning Board and the Board of County Commissioners will make the final decision.

“Once the zoning law is in place there is no backing up. It is set in concrete.” While it may be much easier to convince the community that a certain use makes more sense for a particular property now in the initial stage, there will be a provision for any individual property owner to apply to be zoned to another district after preliminary zoning is adopted. That provision will involve another review process, which may make it more difficult.

A couple of final thoughts. Land use is a difficult subject to understand so please read all you have available to be as thoughtful as possible when providing input, i.e. have a factual basis for your argument, not just an opinion. As much as landowners have paid all their fair share of taxes to fund public services, the rest of us (small parcel owners and renters through their rents) have helped pay taxes too. None would enjoy the current level of service without the other helping and therefore we all should have a say in what future costs may be as a result of new development creating demand for additional public services.

Clayton D. Floyd, Jr.
Stevensville

Pay for it

Dear Editor,

Such a simple statement:  “If you want my land then buy it.”

Yet the average person living in the Bitterroot today has not been a

farmer or rancher. They have not had their family invest generations of sweat equity, tears and minimal financial reward while trying to hang on to the agricultural lifestyle.

Many of the people who are pushing for zoning and feel land owners are selfish and greedy were themselves free to  sell their businesses and family homes without restriction in order to live in our valley.

Loggers, ranchers and farmers built the infrastructure of the Bitterroot not just with their tax dollars but literally with their bare hands.  My father-in-law and his father before him helped dig the main irrigation ditches that have served agriculture. Family members have owned various businesses in the valley to help supplement the family ranch as growing crops and raising cattle has rarely been a money maker for the average land owner.

Agriculture is a lifestyle and it is love of the land and livestock that drives those in it. To suggest that these people are greedy and selfish when they need to make a lifestyle change, the people who have spent their lives working long hard hours in all kinds of weather to produce a product that feeds not just our nation but the world, is perhaps a bit short sighted and selfish.

It is hard to have neighbors tell us that we have to sacrifice our right to a full and hard earned retirement because they want to see our “open space.” What about what we want to do for our children? We cannot afford the subdivision that would be required in order for our four children to each have an acre or two of land free and clear on the ranch they grew up on.

There is not enough income off of the ranch to support one family, much less five, so there is no way they can handle hundreds of acres yet they would love to have a small piece of the family heritage. Voters have already removed that opportunity for many of us in Ag.

We are told we need to consider what is best for everyone. When did we become a socialist state? When did it become our responsibility to make sure that the last person who moved here gets to keep things just the way it was the day the moved here?  Heck, we would have loved to have things stay the way they were in 1975 when open range was still in effect.

The answer is clear and simple. If you want our land, don’t take it by zoning and takings, pay the fair market value for development rights and do with it what you want. That is called fair. That is what America is about.

Suzy Foss
Hamilton

Setbacks good for riparian zones

Dear Editor,

There's been a lot of talk lately about trying to save our county by zoning it. Thinkers plan and planners think that's the only chance we have to reverse the not so gradual erosion of our environmental qualities and necessities of life. At the top of the list are riparian zones (I'm talking about rivers, cricks, banks and all the vegetation that critters feed on and hang out in). Years ago I would have fought and yelled at any politicians who tried to tell me what to do with my own land and I would have been especially indignant if they told me I couldn't live right on the crick. That's changed.

I live on the bank of Skalkaho. I like it here. But twenty years of watching the water and the wildlife have wised me up a bit. Water is essential, precious, beautiful and all that but it's also more powerful than I imagined. One of my houses is coming apart because the gravel it's built on is migrating towards the creek. The concrete is breaking up. I've learned that the migration is part of a long term degradation (dropping) of the stream bed caused by the straightening of the channel years ago by the original settlers. That was a goof but they weren't stupid. They built way back. The Republican Ditch diversion structure, built just upstream from my houses, has sped up the degradation. I thought that the big rock placed along the bank by the Corps of Engineers after the '64 flood had stabilized it - wrong again.

Here we sit with one house breaking up and the other at risk of falling in. So we got a 310 permit to try and reverse the degradation. Our neighbors and friends across the creek pitched in to build a weir to protect one section but that exacerbates the problem downstream. To address that we'll have to build another one. We're hoping to get a grant this year to help pay for it.

I hadn't even thought about flooding when I bought the place.  One day a neighbor came by shaking his head at our attempts to improve drainage near a building. That's when we learned how high the water got in '64. "It came right up there to your driveway," he said, pointing to the highest area of our land. We've been paying a lot more attention to snow pack since then, waiting for the next big event that will put all our buildings under water. Joetta and I are wondering if 2008 will be the year.

I'm telling you this because I think it's a good idea for the county to restrict building, especially in riparian zones. Setbacks protect newcomers and goofs like me from making costly mistakes that adversely affect ourselves, our neighbors and our qualities of life.

I called long time friend and realtor, Bill Bradt of Sapphire Realty, for his views on the possible effects setback zoning might have on riparian properties like ours.  Bill's property has creek frontage also.  "If there's any change at all," he said, "it'll probably increase value because of the reduced risk to structures." Even if Bill is wrong about that, which I doubt 'cause he's been in the business for nearly 30 years, we aren't worried about it.  To us there are lots of things in the Bitterroot more important than property values.

May we all enjoy peace, harmony and health, the real wealth.

Doug Soehren
Hamilton

Thanks from Friends of NV Library

Dear Editor,

What a party it was!  The 13th Annual Chocolate and Authors Fundraiser recently held at the North Valley Library in Stevensville was a very successful and enjoyable event. With over 90 guests, thirteen very talented Montana authors, every variety of chocolate imaginable, a Mardi Gras theme and outstanding raffle and door prizes, it was a festive time to remember.

The beautiful masks that decorated the library were created by members of the Friends of the Library, Charbonneau's Chocolate Co. donated a spectacular, delicious chocolate display in keeping with the theme, and patrons, staff, library volunteers, Library Board members and Friends of the Library contributed not only marvelous desserts, but much time and effort to make this event a memorable one.

Our wonderful raffle prizes were donated by the Stevensville Hotel, Bitterroot Community Market, Lolo Creek Streak House (formerly Guy's), and the North Valley Public Library. The lucky raffle prize winners were:  Joan Nygaard, Susan Moore and Steve McCarthy.

The following businesses and individuals generously contributed to our door prizes:  The Beaded Pony, Cutting Loose, Robi Herbert and Jody Torrey from Kutting Edge, Ray Lyons, Stoneydale Press, Valley Drug, Yoga in the Root, and Heidi Zielinski, with special mention of Super One, Subway and the Olde Coffee Mill.

To everyone involved in helping to make this 13th Annual Fundraiser the fun time and success that it was, and to all who attended, please accept our grateful thanks.

Beverly Helrich, President
Friends of the North Valley Library

Cookie sale helps local theater

Dear Editor,

I am working on my Gold Award for Girl Scouts. I will be directing the two-week long Children’s Summer Workshop at the Stevensville Playhouse this July. All profits from the Girl Scout cookies I sell will go directly to the workshop to pay for royalties and help with the show. If you would like to purchase cookies you may call 777-5934. I will be glad to deliver cookies to you. Thank you for your support.

Kori DePauw
Stevensville

Praise for local theater production

Dear Editor,

Don’t tell me that there is nothing to do in Stevensville – that you have to go to Spokane or the big cities to see good plays, good acting, hear marvelous voices.

Right here in little ole downtown Stevensville we have the opportunity to see and hear one of the best productions I have ever seen. “Honky Tonk Laundry,” starring Beth Schreiber and Cara Ayers at the Chantilly Theatre (now the Stevensville Playhouse), directed by Ken Johnson with music performed by Ken Johnson, Jeff Schroeder, Joel Isaac and Julie Ludington, is standing ovation quality.

Kay Sylvester
Stevensville

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