Back on the agenda for this week’s Polson City Commission meeting was appointing members to the vacant Fire Code Appeals Board.  

During the previous commission meeting, this agenda item was tabled due to the majority of applicants being City of Polson Fire Department volunteers. Some commissioners saw it as a conflict of interest, as they would be appealing their commanding officer, the fire chief’s interpretation.   

The appeals board has been in the city code since 2015, but to the city’s knowledge has always been vacant. This six-member board is responsible for interpreting the International Fire Code adopted by the city, with qualifications in “experience or training to pass upon pertinent matters.”  

With more applicants for this meeting, the commission moved forward with the appointment of board members. Mayor Laura Dever brought up the conflict-of-interest discussion from the previous meeting, and City Attorney Dave Michie explained that being a firefighter isn’t a direct conflict of interest as long as members uphold their oath.  

City Manager Ed Meece said he understands where the argument comes from, but disagrees, believing these firefighters can make decisions based on broader interests.  

However, Commissioner Lisa Rehard held her point from the previous meeting and said, “You can’t be on a board that is called on to pass on the legality of your own actions.” Commissioner Carolyn Pardini added that her biggest issue is the public perception it presents.  

Mayor Dever read the previous Montana Attorney General, Marc Racicot’s opinion about trustees serving on their fire department into the record. She noted doesn’t think it quite fits this situation. The opinion stated that it does not constitute a conflict of interest in the case of a trustee serving on the department.  

The commission filled all six positions on the board, with only one, Steve Clement, being a volunteer firefighter. 

Public hearing for grant match funds 

Before the typical Monday night meeting, the Polson City Commission held a public hearing to hear about the Montana Coal Endowment Program and a Montana Department of Resources and Conservation grant opportunities presented by Zach Maassen of HRD Engineering.  

This would be a one-to-one grant match to upgrade the Seventh Street East sewer lines connection near Highway 93, along with upgrading and replacing the Riverside Park Life Station.  

With the recent implementation of the Ridge Water Life Station, Maassen noted that they have been able to gather real-time data to better understand the city’s wastewater infrastructure. Using this data, Maassen’s team was able to make a model that operated the system at full capacity, which is an increase of 500 people on that line, to understand the pinch points.  

While Maassen explained that it would be a long time before that much growth occurs on that line, he said this is the area the city needs to focus on fixing for the future.  

Maassen said they had intended to fix this portion of the line years ago with American Rescue Plan Act funds, but those funds ran out. But that makes the project easier because the plans were already designed for the project, they received Montana Department of Environmental Quality approval, and had already bid out the project, he said.  

The endowment is a state-funded program through the Montana Department of Commerce designed to help make local infrastructure projects more affordable. Early this year, the city received $30,000 from that endowment to update its water preliminary engineering report. 

Maassen said they will be filling out those applications for both grants as the deadlines approach and requested that the commission approve the one-to-one grant match for the endowment.  

According to previous Lake County Leader reporting, Maassen presented this grant opportunity to the commission in February and explained that the grant ranges from $500,000 to $750,000. He believes the city would fall in the $625,000 range but aims for the full amount.  

During the commission meeting on Monday, April 20, the commission unanimously approved the resolution for the one-to-one grant match.  

Other agenda items  

As the meeting kicked off, Commissioner Rehard motioned to hold the first reading of an ordinance and move the action time to a workshop discussion to address the change in time and “numerous” updates to departmental job titles, structures and responsibilities in the municipal code. 

Michie presented this agenda item to the commission and explained that the code has not been updated since it was enacted and does not include some departments or the structural changes made within the administration.  

One cited was the recent move of the Parks Department into the Public Works Department.  

Rehard motioned to change this to a discussion because it is confusing that sub “departments” are being moved into major departments, and her suggestion was to change it to read “division” instead of “department” inside the overseeing department.  

The administration said it would edit the document and welcomed any specific language or edits from the commission. 

Another continued point of discussion at recent commission meetings is the 40 pounds per leg requirement for pop-up tent weights, which would affect the Polson Farmers’ Market and Flathead Cherry Festival vendors.  

While this item was not on the agenda, market vendor Wendi Arnold explained during public comment that she kept asking herself why there were new regulations. She noted that the only explanation she was given was that there was one issue “at some point, some year” during the cherry festival.  

“I have issue with that, that's vague. There's nothing specific, nothing that warrants all of these new rules that happened” after they applied for the special use permit for the farmers market, Arnold said.  

Arnold said she is frustrated that this didn’t happen during the market season, because they could have completed walk-throughs and reviews.  

“So, we're left in the lurch, doing all this busy work,” she said as she had to get vendors to measure their square footage outside of season and determine the new spacing needed between vendors.  

City manager announcements  

Meece also had a number of announcements during the city manager's comment. He noted that the Salish Point project is fully underway and that the city has agreed to provide minor equipment and staffing assistance.  

Meece said the City of Polson Fire Department also received two Conex boxes as a donation from the Ronan Fire Department, which will be used for training. Fire Chief Kevin Straub completed his drone license. Meece noted that the department now has several drone operators, and drones are being used on many active scenes.  

He also provided an update that construction on 13th Avenue was not satisfactory. He said they have done multiple engineering reviews and believe it is a construction failure. Meece said he will provide further updates to the commission. 

Meece also gave the commission a presentation on administrative cost allocation, the accounting process for distributing shared indirect expenses across departments. Meece said Mayor Dever asked him to speak about this topic ahead of budget season, and because it has come up at the golf course lease proposal meetings.  

Meece said the idea is for the city to calculate the accurate cost of service for each department. An example he provided was that the golf course generates more workers’ compensation claims than the city court. He said each department has a calculated percentage based on the services they need, calculated by a three-year average.  

When he joined Polson in 2020, the administrative cost allocation for the golf course was $30,000, which he determined was based on no calculation.  

“I could find no rational reason for it to be $30,000, so at that point, I came to the City Commission and said, ‘hey, you know we need to adjust this, otherwise we're using general fund dollars to subsidize the golf course,’” Meece said.  

He said the administrative cost allocation has been “woefully misrepresented” for the golf course, so when people see the admin costs now, they say, “The city is taking our money.” He noted that the admin cost for the golf course has changed from $30,000 to $74,000, and now, Rehard said, it is $100,000.  

Rehard asked Meece if the three-year average plays into why the admin cost increased the way it did. He said the best way to explain it is to throw out the $30,000 figure because it comes out of nowhere, but the $70,000 is correct. He added that as expenditure growth increases, that number will rise as well.  

During the consistent final agenda item, which is “commissioners' comments on matters not on the agenda,” Michie noted that if these are discussions rather than announcements, the commission may be in conflict with open meeting laws because these items were not listed on the agenda.  

Pardini, who advocated for this to be a consistent agenda item, said she had a hard time seeing it as a violation if no action is taken. She pointed out that the commission cannot meet as a whole without it being a public meeting.  

Meece said the commission can have conversations during this time, but “substantive conversations” need to be on the agenda.  

“That was not the intention that I had at all when I asked for this agenda item to be included. It was so that we had a time to have open conversations in a public meeting and to reflect on something we've been thinking about that involves the city,” Pardini said. “So, I don't want it just to be an announcement.”  

Meece said he believes it is the mayor's or presiding officer's responsibility to determine whether the discussion has gone too far. However, this is an opportunity for commissioners to ask whether something can be placed on the agenda for an upcoming meeting.  

Pardini pointed out that it has been an issue getting things on the agenda, and three commissioners requested an item on this week’s agenda that was not there. Meece said this was regarding the weight requirements for the pop-up tents, which he said was “totally a miss” on his part.  

He said it will be on the agenda for the first meeting in May, but Pardini said that it is awfully close to when the market kicks off. Meece responded that he heard what the commission is saying about the tent weights and that the city won’t be running out in the next two weeks to enforce the 40-pound regulation.