City’s new TIF advisory board to meet for first time
The city’s new tax increment financing advisory board is scheduled to meet for the first time at 2 p.m. April 7.
No agenda has yet been posted on the city website.
City Commissioners appointed the fifth member, Don Ryan, during a February meeting as the county representative, which is required under a 2025 state law change.
Ryan is a former county commissioner and Great Falls Public Schools board member, but Cascade County told The Electric before the appointment that it did not recognize Ryan as its representative.
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During the Feb. 17 commission meeting, there was no public comment on Ryan’s appointment.
Commissioner Joe McKenney said he strongly supported appointing Ryan as his background “checks every box” for providing oversight and guidance on TIF.
Commission Rick Tryon said that he supported Ryan’s appointment, as the board was advisory and would not make any decisions with respect to TIF or land use.
The city solicited applications for a county representative to the TIF advisory committee for a four-year term through Dec. 31, 2029.
The opening was posted for one week in early February.
The applicant must be a Cascade County employee to be considered, according to the city’s vacancy posting.
The city received one application by the time the commission meeting packet was posted Feb. 12 from Ryan, who is currently a part-time driver for Cascade County Aging Services.
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City Commissioners voted to establish the committee during their Oct. 21 meeting, after the Oct. 1 deadline established by the 2025 Legislature in a law signed by the governor on April 1.
The law specifically requires that the TIF advisory board include a representative from the school district and county that are affected by the TIF, which locally is GFPS and Cascade County.
In December, the commission appointed four members, including a GFPS representative, to staggered terms ranging from one to four years.
Staff had recommended appointing County Commissioner Joe Briggs as the county representative during the same December meeting, but commissioners opted not to do so.
The TIF advisory board would serve as the advisory and recommending body for policies and expenditures across all five of the city’s TIF districts.
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The new law requires a county representative as a member and without one, the board couldn’t meet to review TIF applications or set policy for staff to administratively review and approve TIF funding under a certain threshold, as was past practice.
Carey Ann Haight, Cascade County deputy county attorney, told The Electric in February that both City Manager Greg Doyon and Mayor Cory Reeves had requested the county to submit the name of at least one non-elected official to serve on the TIF advisory board.
It’s the county’s position, Haight said, that the law provides clear language indicating the board shall include a representative from county government.
Since the county commission represents the county, “only an elected county commissioner is able to serve on the board,” Haight said.
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The county referred to a section of law pertaining to urban renewal agencies, as the city did initially.
The city does not have an urban renewal agency within any of its TIF districts.
The section of law pertaining to the TIF advisory boards states that the “committee must include at least one representative from each incorporated city or town, county, or school district with boundaries that overlap with the urban renewal area or targeted economic development district.”
Haight said that the county commission maintains their selection of Briggs as their representative and it’s the county’s position that until Briggs is appointed, the committee won’t be properly established under the law and will lack legal authority to act.
“Cascade County does not recognize any individual whom the city may unilaterally select and seat as having any authority to serve or represent Cascade County’s interests under MCA 7-15-4234,” Haight wrote.
The city’s solicitation for applicants to the TIF advisory committee states that it will “provide guidance on the administration and use of TIF funds. Committee members will review and provide recommendations on TIF-related proposals and expenditures, ensuring transparency, consistency, and community benefit across all districts. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of economic development in Great Falls. The City Commission encourages individuals with experience or interest in urban renewal, economic development, education, or community planning to apply.”
During their Dec. 16 meeting, Commissioner Susan Wolff moved to appoint Luke Diekhans of Great Falls Public Schools to a one-year term; Ed Brown of the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce to a two-year appointment; Mitch Tropila to a three-year term; and Kellie Piece of the downtown association and business district to a four-yearserved term.
Staff had recommended that Briggs, a county commissioner, be appointed to the new TIF committee as the county representative.
During the Dec. 16 meeting, Mayor Cory Reeves said that they were looking for “boots on the ground” and “trying to keep the elected officials out of it.”
Commissioner Joe McKenney said that he would prefer the county representative not be an elected official.
He said he’d called the bill sponsor to ask if the county appointee had to be an elected official and was told no, it needed to be a stakeholder.
Commissioner Rick Tryon asked Brock Cherry, city planning director, who he’d talked to at the county and GFPS for their recommended members.
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Cherry said he’d emailed county commissioners and GFPS Superintendent Heather Hoyer.
The city staff report from the Oct. 21 meeting when commissioners established the new committee, stated that the committee must include “one representative serving in an official capacity with Cascade County,” and that “at least one representative must be from Cascade County government.”
The resolution adopted by commissioners in October stated that the committee must include a “representative from Cascade County government.”
Tryon said he had a concern and that when they first established the committee, they’d discussed trying to get people from the five TIF districts in the city.
He said they’ve appointed two members who were distinctly downtown and while he wasn’t questioning their ability to make fair and unbiased opinions, they had discussed having a more diverse board.
“Doesn’t look like we got there,” Tryon said in December, and asked if there was a reason for that.
Cherry said the city posted the openings and extended it, and the people presented to commissioners that night were the only people who’d applied or been recommended by GFPS and the county.
He said city staff were also wishing for a diverse population to apply for the committee.
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Previously, the Downtown Development Partnership board served as the recommending body for TIF requests in the downtown district and the city planning board served as the recommending body for TIF requests in the other four districts, which include West Bank, the airport, AgriTech Park and north industrial park that includes ADF and Malteurop.
The DDP has been the downtown TIF recommending body since 2014 and the planning board has been the recommending body for other districts since 2008, according to the city.
During the Oct. 21 meeting when commissioners voted to establish the new TIF advisory committee, required under the new state law, Brock Cherry, city planning director, said staff’s initial analysis of the new law was incorrect, but decided to use some of the urban renewal components of the law to be forward thinking.
The Electric reported on the local discussion of creating the committee and Sen. Jeremy Trebas, the bill’s sponsor, commented on the story, “I think the powers that be are overcomplicating the intent behind the new law. I’m glad they are taking it seriously but it was only meant as advisory with no real authority to control TIF affairs.”
The comment was pointed out to city staff and during the Oct. 21 commission meeting, Cherry said the city could uncomplicate it and see if the legislator went back on the new law.
Commissioner Joe McKenney said that the city had worked on streamlining the development process to move faster.
“Are we adding red tape? Is this going to slow down the approval process for projects,” McKenney asked.
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Cherry said he’d love to have a conversation with the bill’s author to determine if the intent was different than the actual consequences.
He said that Great Falls has been the model for TIF programs and it was working with the Downtown Development Partnership.
Cherry said if the city were to appoint members to DDP, it would make that body a subsidiary of the city and change its partnership dynamic.
He said he believed the intentions for the bill were good, but “don’t believe we’ve fleshed out all of the consequences.”
Cherry told commissioners in October that staff hoped to have a committee ready to function by the end of the year.
Commissioner Rick Tryon asked what was the intent of the legislation.
Cherry said he believed it was just oversight, which isn’t a bad thing, but perhaps the language could have been more specific regarding membership and whether the commission could appoint an existing body.
Tryon asked if other communities used Great Falls’ model of different recommending bodies for different TIF areas.
Cherry said in October that he was unaware of any and Tryon said it struck him as odd to have two different bodies making TIF recommendations so it could be good to have a single body advising on TIF, or establish five different recommending bodies for each of the five TIF districts.
Billings has three urban renewal districts and each is managed by a different entity and is considering establishing a fourth, according to a recent report by the Billings Gazette.
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Tryon asked if they could just designate the city planning board to review TIF as long as the board included a GFPS and county representative.
Cherry said the ordinance pertaining to planning board membership doesn’t include members representing GFPS or county interests and staff considered having those members on the planning board only for TIF reviews, but that started getting weird, so opted for a separate TIF advisory committee.
Tryon asked if the committee would include someone representing each of the five districts and Cherry said that in an ideal world, they’d have dozens of applicants.
Mayor Cory Reeves asked in October if they could require members to live in the five specific districts.
Four of the city’s five TIF districts do not have residential components at this time: West Bank is commercial, two are industrial and the fourth is the airport.
