‘State of the City’: From housing to growth, crime to COVID, Great Falls leaders share vision

City commissioners heard presentations from nearly a dozen city officials during a “State of the City” special work session on Monday.

City Manager Greg Doyon asked officials to outline their department’s challenges and what they would like to accomplish in 2022.

Doyon outlined some of the city’s current challenges as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; determining how to prioritize federal funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES); and managing big projects like the Aim High Big Sky Aquatic and Recreation Center.

He saw opportunities in working with the commission to adapt some of the recommendations from the Crime Task Force. He also said there was an opportunity to prepare the city for potential growth.

“I'm not talking Bozeman growth, I'm just talking maybe a little bit more growth than what we're normally used to,” Doyon said.

He said Great Falls was Montana’s “best kept secret” in being one of the most affordable large cities in the state.

“I can't help but think that in time when that secret gets out, that there's going to be more interest in moving here.”

Long-range comprehensive planning was an area Director of Planning and Community Development Craig Raymond said the city needed to work on during his presentation.

“If you don't know what kind of community you want to become, how you want to get there? Where do you want to grow? How much it's gonna cost? I think, honestly, you're just kind of waiting for good things to happen,” Raymond said.

Raymond said that lack of specific vision makes it difficult for developers that are coming into the community and city departments trying to provide services, though he admitted it isn’t easy to come up with. He gave examples like the sizes of pipes needed to complete projects and how much they’d cost and what that would require of different departments.

“Honestly, it's tough, because again, it's another project that takes a lot of time and a tremendous amount of financial resources to complete it,” he said.

He said his department is working on a minor change to the growth policy and intends to finish it this year.

Commissioner Rick Tryon commented that he, too, believes that the city is due for major work on the growth policy. Commissioner Eric Hinebauch asked how that process would get started, to which Doyon said that the city used to have a full time employee dedicated to updating the growth policy, a nearly two-year process, but that the position was never filled again due to budget constraints.

The last major update to the city’s Growth Plan was published in 2013.

Doyon said that communities typically hire consultants to help with the bulk of the work and that staff could look into the price of a potential consultant for the commission.

Commissioners Joe McKenney and Susan Wolff echoed interest in expanding the growth policy.

Staffing shortages across departments

Several department heads spoke about the impact of retirements and in some cases COVID-19 on current staffing, as has been highlighted during work sessions throughout the past year. To view all the openings at the city, go to https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/greatfallsmt.

Housing Authority Greg Sukut said he’s not seeing as many applicants in recent years as there were 15 to 20 years ago. His department is trying to fill a maintenance position.

“These jobs were coveted, I mean, you'd be swatting people off like flies,” he said.

City Attorney Jeff Hindoien cited staff turnover as the biggest challenge facing the department, especially with the loss of experienced staff like former City Attorney Sara Sexe. Hindoien said that the department has been understaffed for years, but that the criminal division saw a “chronic undersize” and has made it hard for prosecutors to keep up with their caseload. However, he said the department has high morale.

“This is probably the best group of people I've ever worked around in the quarter-century of being an attorney,” Hindoien said.

Public Works Director Paul Skubinna joked that he was developing a “cake problem,” averaging “a cake a week” with all the retirements in his department. He said recruitment and retention was a big thing for them. He also echoed the challenges expressed over a shrinking applicant pool. Skubinna also said he would like to hire a city engineer.

Police Chief Jeff Newton and Fire Chief Jeremy Jones also said their departments need more resources for staffing.

Newton said the Police Department is down six sworn officers and down five telecommunications dispatchers, “and that's just trying to keep up to get us back up to full staffing on paper.”

Jones spoke to the aging infrastructure at the fire stations that is in need of repair, citing 52 years of “wear and tear.” He also said as the city is expanding, it would be necessary to plan out additional stations to meet the public safety needs of new developments.

“We are two stations behind in this community and that's just to get caught up,” Jones said. “And that isn't even going into a strategic plan of really, where are we going after this?”

Drugs and mental health episodes

Director of the Great Falls Public Library Susie McIntyre spoke to how the library acts as a place of refuge in the community, which can sometimes be a place where people with behavioral health issues come and staff isn’t always equipped to handle situations that happen.

“We're really working to try to build community partners; we have a community paramedic coming in a couple times a month, we're building relationships with people, but it is just really hard,” McIntyre said.

She said a man came in recently and started licking bookmarks and other items in the library. She said they were able to convince him to leave without calling law enforcement but it was a lose-lose situation where someone clearly needs help.

Sukut of the Housing Authority said mental health and drug use has impacted his department. He said that people are evicted from housing if they don’t follow rules on drug use. He cited an incident where a woman with mental health issues was evicted and there was $25,000 in damages to the property.

Tryon asked nearly every department head whether issues they’re facing in their departments would be eligible for ARPA funding and to flag them for the commission for their continued conversations on how that money should be spent.

Mayor Bob Kelly expressed appreciation for the staff’s hard work.

“We really appreciate the perspective that you've given us and it gives us a lot to think about before they'll go into this budget conversation,” Kelly said.

Doyon said the next step would be getting commission guidance over how they wanted to coordinate a “planning retreat” to work on how to move forward after hearing from all the departments and touring throughout city facilities.

The State of the City work session is available to watch on the city's website.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: ‘State of the City’: Department leaders share vision for Great Falls