New city public safety committee meets May 1

Jenn Rowell

2 years ago

The city’s new public safety advisory committee meets for the first time at 6 p.m. May 1.

The meeting includes an overview of the purpose of the committee from City Commissioners Joe McKenney and Shannon Wilson, according to the agenda, as well as selecting a chair and vice chair.

The group will then review meeting etiquette, the code of ethics, public participation process, length of meetings, notifications of absences and the frequency of meetings, though the day and time has been determined, according to the agenda.

The May 1 agenda includes educational presentations include the city attorney and Municipal Court judges.

City Commissioners established the committee during their April 2 meeting.

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.

The committee’s role is to provide recommendations to the commission and the primary focus areas, according to the staff report, include:

determine broad priorities for public safety;
determine priorities for police, fire, court and legal;
recommend strategies for funding public safety priorities;
if so considered, consider timing of a future levy; and
strategies to engage a broad spectrum of community members and businesses

Committee meetings are publicly noticed and open to the public.

Commissioner Joe McKenney had taken the lead on establishing the most recent public safety think group.

The concept was mentioned during the commission’s special meeting on Feb. 12 about public safety in light of the levy failure.

The concept is similar to the crime task force the commission established in 2021 that spent months learning about local public safety challenges and needs for public safety. In late 2021, that task force provided eight pages of recommendations to the City Commission.

Commissioners and city staff spent months discussing those recommendations, which morphed into the public safety levy and bond that failed on the November 2023 ballot.

The vote on the levy was 5,620 in favor and 9,095 opposed.

The vote on the bond was 6,726 in favor and 7,925 opposed.

“It failed, it went down in flames, it wasn’t even close,” McKenney said the of the levy during their March 19 work session.

McKenney said they took what they learned from the crime task force to craft the levy and had some public comment during that process that “was relatively weak.”

He said it was a top down decision.

The crime task force in 2021 initially included:

Mary Lynne Billy – Indian Family Health Clinic
Shawna Jarvey – transition consultant, Benefis Health
Nicole Crosby – Victim Witness Program
Sandra Guynn – chair of Neighborhood Council of Councils and president of Crime Stoppers
Sara Sexe – city attorney
Jeff Newton – Great Falls Police Department chief
Jesse Slaughter – Cascade County sheriff
John Parker – District Court judge
Shane Etzwiler – Chamber of Commerce

The task force meetings were public and they presented their recommendations to commissioners during public meetings.

Commissioners spent months discussing those recommendations with city staff during public meetings and crafted their levy language during public meetings. They made their decisions on whether to send the levy and bond, as well as ballot language, during public meetings.

In this iteration of a public safety advisory committee, McKenney said they needed to go from the bottom up and ask them for advice.

“Let’s think hard and put some folks on that council who bring different thoughts,” he said.

He said he wants to council to be conceptual rather than specific on an actual public safety ask, but it would be okay to say a new fire station or more police officers are needed.

“We’re looking for conceptual advice. Do we need more funding? Are we going to make more cuts? If we do need more funding, how are we going to do it,” McKenney said during the March 19 meeting. “Is it the non-public safety part of our budget that gets cut or do we ask for a levy?”

The non-public safety portions of the general fund include Park and Recreation, the Mansfield and Civic Center events, the City Commission, administration, animal shelter, legal, Municipal Court and the city contribution to the City-County Health Department.

For more background on the public safety levy, see our previous coverage:

City discussing creation of public safety advisory committee

City considering poll on public safety needs, levy

Great Falls Public Library expands hours with levy funds; discusses management agreement

Tryon asks to review library management; library board to discuss at Feb. 27 meeting

Library continuing levy implementation; Tryon asks to consider pulling some funding for public safety

City to review budget; Tryon drops push to move library funds to public safety

Library continuing levy implementation; Tryon asks to consider pulling some funding for public safety

City officials discuss public safety after levy, bond failure [2023]

Municipal elections results: Reeves, Tryon, Wilson win commission seats; public safety levy and bond fail [2023]

Ballots due Nov. 7 for city races, public safety levy and bond

City adjusts public safety ballot language to reflect updated tax impact estimates