During their September meetings, city officials continued their discussions on public safety.

During their Sept. 3 work session, Sandra Guynn, chair of the city’s public safety advisory committee, briefly presented the groups recommendations.

She said the committee was focused on public engagement as “the public needs to participate. That’s really been lacking.”

Guynn said one of the committee’s recommendations was to draw back the seven mills that have gone to the Great Falls Public Library under a management agreement since 1993.

City, library reopen negotiations over management agreement, funding

She said that those on the committee who opposed that recommendation only did so because those mills were already under negotiation, which wasn’t the case as Aaron Weissman, committee member, said during the meetings that he was wary of taking those mills after voters said they wanted more library funding and services.

Commissioners Joe McKenney and Shannon Wilson served on the public safety committee and abstained from that the vote on the library mills recommendation since they’ll have to vote on the ultimate decision and McKenney has been part of the city’s negotiating team with the library.

City Manager Greg Doyon said the report included links and resources to get into the nitty gritty of public safety and reviewed the timeline of public safety discussions before COVID.

Timeline: library, public safety levies

“I’ve watched this process and this discussion since I’ve been here,” Doyon said.

Regardless of what the community does, the city will continue to do the best job possible in providing public safety, he said.

“That’s what they’ve done, that’s what they’re expected to do,” he said, and they’ll continue to work with what they have to make do.

There have been some changes in operations and responses since the levy failure that have been subtle and the city is monitoring the impact to public safety personnel.

City’s public safety committee sends recommendations to commission

Doyon said that comments were made during the committee meetings over the summer about curtailing the use of overtime. Doyon said it’s hard to take officers or firefighters away from calls saying they can’t use overtime.

“When they’re called to work an incident or an issue or a legal matter,” Doyon said, they’ll do what’s required.

City officials are also watching workers compensation claims to ensure public safety employees are staying safe.

Doyon said he thinks the city is three years out from making another levy ask of the community for public safety and he thinks the next one will have to be very targeted and specific.

Public safety committee continuing discussion of city’s funding options, needs

The response from voters for the 2023 public safety levy ask was that it was too big.

He said that the public has the impression that the city has a good public safety posture, but those leading those agencies know where the vulnerabilities are.

Doyon said the community doesn’t see the urgent need for public safety resources until they need them.

“I do think at some point in the future, the public will let the commission know that there is a problem,” Doyon said.

It could take something significant or catastrophic to show those vulnerabilities to the public, Doyon said.

He said some things need to settle out at the legislative level and there are some indicators that Great Falls is slowly changing, but cost often comes with change and growth.

Doyon said people are starting to talk about some of those impacts.

GFFR discusses needs, challenges with public safety committee

Commissioner Rick Tryon said the committee’s recommendations were similar to those of the 2021 crime task force.

He asked staff what the course of action is to implement some of the recommendations because, “I don’t think we’re anywhere near ready to ask for a levy again any time soon.”

McKenney said, “it’s not easy” and funding is the biggest challenge, which goes back to the state funding formula and the cap on property taxes.

He said the city can’t keep up with inflation, straining budgets.

Library board rejects city proposal to cut mills, approves counter proposal

McKenney said the city should pursue grants as much as possible though they don’t help with longterm personnel resources.

Great Falls Fire Rescue has pursued a number of grants in recent years to help purchase needed equipment.

Another levy is a long-term option, he said, and “I think the earliest is in the spring of 2026” assuming there’s a “strong advocacy group that steps up soon and helps.”

He said they have to look under every rock for funding and “the library has become a new rock” that the committee recommended taking a hard look at that.

City, public safety committee continues discussion of gauging public opinions

Tryon suggested a work session on tax increment financing districts soon and shifting federal Community Development Block grant funds.

He said he’d like to maintain the public safety advisory committee and perhaps they could come up with ideas on how to implement their recommendations.

Doyon said that maybe of the recommendations can’t be implemented because there’s no funding and until there’s a real problem the community can see, he doesn’t think a group is going to show up and lead the charge.

“There has to be some compelling reason to do that,” he said.

City creates new public safety advisory group; still discussing whether to poll on public safety levy

Staff does a quarterly budget review for commissioners and they could add a quarterly public safety review, he said.

“I’m not sure that another advisory group is going to be able to be successful in articulating a message any different than we did,” until there’s a real problem, Doyon said.

Tax appeals are also impacting the city’s budgets, Doyon said. 

Calumet Montana Refining has a pending protest that equates to about $1 million annually in revenues the city cannot access while that case is pending.

If the commission were to redirect dollars from Park and Recreation, events, administration or other areas of the general fund, there would be a noticeable impact, he said.

Doyon said that CDBG funds have specific rules and can only be used in certain census tract areas, so attempting to use those for public safety doesn’t work well as a community-wide solution.

City considering poll on public safety needs, levy

He said that legislatures might be successful in making some changes that may sound good to individual taxpayers but may take away more local control.

“I have a real concern with that. The local taxpayer should be able to support efforts of their governing bodies,” he said.

During their Sept. 17 work session, staff and commissioners discussed whether to do a public safety poll

Doyon said they’ve had discussions on what they could have done differently after the levy failure and some proposed a poll to help assess what the community would support.

Earlier this year, the city released a request for proposals for polling and received four responses over the summer with bids that were valid through Sept. 19.

City reviewing public safety needs, resources after levy failure

Staff and the commission had essentially said earlier this year that they’d wait for recommendations from the public safety advisory committee but there has been a “lot of confusion” as to what a poll is and its intent, he said.

They want statistically valid sampling and a selected contractor would have worked with the city to come up with questions to get a clear picture on what the community’s perceptions were of public safety to see if they’d consider a future levy.

The library and schools foundation have done similar polling to prepare for their levies, he said.

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

Doyon said his recommendation was to wait, but that Mayor Cory Reeves wanted further discussion during the work session.

He’d like to see the poll conducted eventually and would prefer to see it done through a grassroots organization rather than the city.

Doyon said he thinks they’re at least two years out before pursuing another levy so it’s too early to do a poll now and opinions and circumstances would change.

“I think people would be pretty upset if the city embarked on this” right now, Doyon said.

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

McKenney said that having the city pay for polling would leave a bad taste for the voters as did last year’s public education campaign in which the commission approved up to $150,000 to Wendt Agency.

He disagreed with Doyon on the timing and said they needed do the polling sooner.

“We’ll know when we’re going to do a levy. We know the need is out there,” he said and the poll would help with messaging if they decide to make another levy ask.

Tryon said he wasn’t willing to proceed with a poll or public safety levy “until this commission has demonstrated it’s willing to use all the general fund sources available to it to fund public safety.”

He said he also wasn’t in favor of using city funds for a poll and he was opposed to contracting Wendt for the education campaign last year.

City considering PR firm contract to educate public on safety levy [2023]

Commissioner Shannon Wilson said she supported a community group stepping up to fund the poll.

She said if the business community wants to grow Great Falls, they should step up.

Mayor Cory Reeves said he wants to see a grassroots effort to fund the poll but doesn’t want to wait and would like to do the poll in the summer of 2025 and send another public safety levy to the ballot in the spring of 2026.

If the city polled next summer, that would give them about a year to raise funds and get people involved, he said.

“If we’re told no again, we’re told no again,” Reeves said.