City Commissioners are still considering a poll to gauge public support for another try at a public safety levy.

During their April 2 work session, Commissioner Susan Wolff said that she thinks they need to gather data to inform themselves and the new public safety advisory committee that they established later in the evening.

City Manager Greg Doyon said that he’s heard from other cities that polling would cost an estimated $35,000 to $45,000.

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Doyon said that Billings surveying residents and “that was very helpful in understanding where that threshold is” in terms of a public safety levy.

He said that what they’ve heard from voters is they support public safety, but the levy was too much, so if they were going to make another ask, they want to know what would be more palatable to voters.

The survey in Billings was conducted after voters first approved a $4 million levy to avoid public safety layoffs, according to local media coverage, and Billings voters approved another $7.1 million public safety levy in late 2021.

Mayor Cory Reeves asked if they should wait to let the advisory committee decide if they should conduct a poll.

Commissioner Rick Tryon said he thought they should wait until the new committee gets started and isn’t sure they should fund polling with general fund dollars.

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He said a poll is a good idea, but would prefer to fund it through a grant or other funding sources, such as private donations, which could also be a gauge of the public’s willingness to get involved.

Commissioner Joe McKenney said that he worried about timing and that it could take too long to get poll results.

McKenney said that the three current commissioners who were involved in pursuing the levy in 2023 did the best they could with the available information.

“We didn’t have the pulse of the community,” McKenney said.

He said that most voters agreed public safety was important but commissioners asked too much or didn’t time it right.

The commission awarded a $150,000 contract to Wendt last year for an awareness campaign about public safety needs and the levy.

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The city employees at least two people that have communication duties.

Doyon said they could open a request for proposals and make a decision based on those responses.

“I know that the public is watching this thinking what is going on here, we just told you no,” Doyon said. “There is a concern that without additional resources, we’re going to let the community down in a major way, that is my concern.”

He said city officials have been trying for years to find ways to address major concerns in public safety, but there’s not much in the general fund to redirect to public safety.

Public safety agencies in Great Falls are primarily funded through the city’s general fund, which is largely property tax revenue.

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Property tax revenue only makes up about 20 percent of the total city revenues.

In the current fiscal year budget that commissioners adopted in July, public safety is $30.8 million.

This year’s city property tax revenue for the general fund is projected at $24.2 million.

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Since 1969, fire and emergency calls have increased by 700 percent, according to the city, but “due to staffing and a lack of resources, Great Falls’ first responders can only adequately respond to one major incident at a time – leading to longer emergency response times,” according to the city.

Doyon said the city faced a failed public safety ask in 2009 followed by the collapse of Electric City Power, which cost the city millions. The city was able to extricate itself from ECP with a $3.25 million settlement that required cuts to stabilize city finances, but then lacked the resources to make significant investments in public safety, he said.

Over the years the city has reduced general fund subsidies in an effort to funnel more funds to public safety, but it hasn’t been enough, Doyon said. Those reductions included cutting the city fireworks display and Christmas tree, which have been taken on by community groups. There have also been reductions in general fund support for the library, Civic Center events, changes in subsidies for park and recreation and planning over the years.

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Some of those shifts allowed the city to add resources to public safety in a piecemeal fashion, such as a special victims detective one year, retaining four cops after federal grant funding ended and fire prevention positions another year.

Doyon said they didn’t know what would be palatable to the voters, but “obviously the public is not educated entirely in law enforcement operations.”

He said they tried to educate the public on the challenges and needs, but it didn’t resonate.

Wolff said that Kalispell and Billings did studies and passes public safety levies.

“It’s the data,” she said, “we didn’t gather enough information from the public in our last request.”

Both Billings and Kalispell contracted with the Center for Public Safety Management for a review of their public safety resources. Those studies are different than public polling.

When the Great Falls officials discussed conducting similar study in 2022, Andy Zoeller of the Billings finance department told The Electric that the cost of that analysis was:

• law enforcement analysis: $64,800
• fire and EMS analysis: $55,800
• travel and incidentals: $8,000

The total actual costs Billings paid was $125,162.24 since they didn’t need as much travel as estimated and that was paid through their general fund, Zoeller said.

Great Falls public safety officials have provided detailed analysis of their call volumes, types of incidents, response times, staffing and more in recent years, and have reviewed their resources needs annually during the budget process for at least the last 11 years.

During their regular meeting, commissioners voter unanimously to establish a new public safety advisory committee.

City discusses potential public safety levy; crime study [2022]

Jeni Dodd, a regular attendee of local government meetings, said she didn’t like that one of the local legislators selected for the committee doesn’t live in the city limits and asked why the process to appoint members was different than other advisory groups.

McKenney said the commission meeting wasn’t a question and answer period but would talk to Dodd after the meeting, but when Tryon also raised the issue of legislators not living in the city limits, McKenney answered.

McKenney said he wanted them to have districts that included the city and both do, and one owns property and pays taxes in the city.

As approved, the committee includes: Sandra Guynn, Mike Parcel, Wendy McKamey, Jeni Dodd, George Nikolakakos, Aaron Weissman, Tony Rosales, Thad Reiste, Joe McKenney and Shannon Wilson.