Mayor & City Council

WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL December 2, 2024 SPECIAL SESSION AT 5:15 PM 1) Call to Order Deputy Mayor Sweeney called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Feury, Davis, Norton and Caltabiano. Mayor Muhlfeld and Councilor Qunell were absent. Staff members present were City Manager Smith, City Clerk Howke and Planning and Building Director Taylor. 2) Interviews The Council interviewed incumbents Carolyn Pitman and Annaka Egan for the Whitefish Community Housing Committee; and incumbent Don Harring and new applicant Regan Peschel to the Whitefish lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee; new applicants Toby Scott, Zak Anderson, Annelise Sokol, Bill Vetter and Nathan Tuebner for the Sustainable Tourism Management Plan. 3) Public Comment None 4) Appointment Appointments were made at the end of the regular session due to time constraint. 5) Adjourn Deputy Mayor adjourned the meeting at 7:00pm. /s/Francis J. Sweeney Deputy Mayor Sweeney Attest: /s/Michelle Howke Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk  WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL December 2, 2024 7:10 P.M. 1) CALL TO ORDER Deputy Mayor Sweeney called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Feury, Caltabiano, Davis, Sweeney, and Norton. Mayor Muhlfeld and Councilor Qunell were absent. City Staff present were, City Clerk Howke, City Manager Smith, City Attorney Jacobs, Finance Director Gospodarek, Planning and Building Director Taylor, Public Works Director Workman, Parks and Recreation Director Butts, and Police Chief Kelch. Approximately two people were in the audience and zero attended virtually. 2) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Deputy Mayor Sweeney asked Councilor Caltabiano to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3) COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC– (This time is set aside for the public to comment on items that are either on the agenda, but not a public hearing or on items not on the agenda. City officials do not respond during these comments but may respond or follow-up later on the agenda or at another time. The mayor has the option of limiting such communications to three minutes depending on the number of citizens who want to comment and the length of the meeting agenda) Richard Hildner, 104 5th Street, reminded the Council to begin to prepare for the 2025 wildfire season now. He urges the Council to take action on 1) vacant lots that have not been mowed and have vegetation particularly cured grasses exceeding four inches in height, 2) address the issue of wood fences that pose a danger, 3) he suggested the city begin to gather and prepare educational materials to be included in billing statements, and published on the city social media prior to fire season, 4) he suggests a complete review of building codes and regulations to promote fire hardening throughout the city for both new and existing developments, structures and landscaping. 5) address the risks and consequences of wildfire in every element of the growth plan. We live within the wildland urban interface and the most recent 2024 United States Forest Service Wildfire Risk to Communities Assessment. Whitefish is not immune and we need to be more proactive. 4) COMMUNICATIONS FROM VOLUNTEER BOARDS None 5) CONSENT AGENDA (The consent agenda is a means of expediting routine matters that require the Council’s action. Debate does not typically occur on consent agenda items. Any member of the Council may remove any item for debate. Such items will typically be debated and acted upon prior to proceeding to the rest of the agenda.) a) Minutes from November 18, 2024, Special Session (p.37) b) Minutes from November 18, 2024, Regular Meeting (p.38) c) Consideration to approve the third agreement between City of Whitefish and Northwest Montana Community Land Trust, Inc. to assist with the purchase of land under a home at 711 Trailview Way (p.42) d) Consideration of a recommendation for confirmation of Firefighter/Paramedic Keith Lederman pursuant to MCA §7-33-4107 (p.44) e) Resolution No. 24-46; A Resolution declaring certain property to be unneeded and obsolete, and authorizing the disposal of such property (p.45) Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Norton to approve the Consent Agenda. The motion carried.  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES December 2, 2024 6) PUBLIC HEARINGS (Items will be considered for action after public hearings) (Resolution No. 07-33 establishes a 30-minute time limit for applicant’s land use presentations.) a) None 7) COMMUNICATION FROM PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR a) Consideration to award the contract for the Riverside Pond Dredging project (p.48) Public Works Director Craig Workman presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Norton to award the contract for the Riverside Pond Dredging Project to Thompson Contracting in the amount not to exceed $137,025. The motion carried. 8) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY MANAGER a) Written report enclosed with the packet. Questions from Mayor and Council? (p.54) b) Other items arising between November 27th through December 2nd None c) Consideration to set legislative priorities for the 2025 Montana Legislative Session (p.55) City Manager Dana Smith presented her staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Manager Smith included in the packet, Montana League of Cities and Towns adopted priorities. There are recommendations in the report from the Governors Housing Task Force and Property Tax Task Force that will likely become bill in this session. Councilor Norton asked the lobbyist to introduce himself to the public. Drew Geiger, with CMS, has been a registered lobbyist since 2009. He also suggested getting to know the legislators and encouraged people to show up in Helena. Councilor Davis provided a few suggestions he would like to see added to the list; 1) more flexible taxation options as it relates to the visitation economy, 2) as it relates to the resort tax, allowing municipalities to have as much control as possible over the amount and method of implementing, such as the landlord tenant law where it applies to short-term rental properties, 3) differentiating property taxes based on primary residents versus out of state owners, the state has the best information to determine who is a full time resident and therefor one concept would be to allow municipalities and the state to work together to determine who is a primary resident in Montana and who is not for purposes of taxation, 4) the worst part of what came out of the last session is the piecemeal zoning bills, implementing zoning policy broadly across Montana is very difficult and how it applies in every town is ineffective. Councilor Norton is concerned civil rights and the City’s non-discrimination ordinance (NDO) may be in danger. She doesn’t want anybody’s civil rights to be taken away and thinks we should be expanding civil rights and human rights. Attorney Jacobs stated she doesn’t think the NDO is at risk in the legislature at this point. Manager Smith stated the list of priorities are broad. She suggested adding “Any legislation that limits the city’s self-governing powers or Charter abilities”. The Council agreed with head nods. 2  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES December 2, 2024 Manager Smith agrees with Councilor Davis’s concerns and feels what is included covers his concerns. Related to resort tax, we could clarify taxation is not just property taxation, but taxation related to resort tax. Attorney Jacobs agrees with Councilor Davis’s concerns with the Landlord Tenant Act and is a change we can push for and will be easy to get through a code change. 9) COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILORS a) Consideration of appointment to volunteer boards and committees not made during the Special Session preceding tonight’s meeting. Deputy Mayor Sweeney re-appointed, with Council’s ratification, Rhonda Fitzgerald, Carolyn Pitman and Annaka Egan and appointed Kevin Gartland to 2-year term for the Community Housing Committee. Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Norton to re-appoint Don Harring and appoint Regan Peschel to the Whitefish Lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee. The motion carried. Deputy Mayor Sweeney appointed, with Council’s ratification, Annelise Sokol, Bill Vetter, Nathan Tuebner as members-at-large, and Zak Anderson as CVB Representative, and Tammy Zamoyski as staff member to the Sustainable Tourism Management Plan Committee for a 2-year term. Deputy Mayor Sweeney re-appointed, with Council’s ratification, Phil Boland and Scott Wurster to the Community Development Board. Deputy Mayor Sweeney was not in attendance at the time Mallory Philips was interviewed, he will leave that appointment to Mayor Muhlfeld. b) Letter from Pat LaTourelle addressing concerns with leaf collection, the extension of Riverside walking path, awarding lobbyist contract, along with other concerns (p.72) Councilor Davis asked, and Director Workman stated leave collection was going well until it snowed. Staff has switched gears and now hauling leaves in trucks rather than with the vacuum. Leaf collection happens all at once, everybody wants them picked up immediately. We switched to the vacuum a couple years ago to try eliminating the plastic bags. We could honestly use three vacuums, but they cost $1 million. It is a slow and steady process. We do incur quite a bit of overtime in the season because having the leaf vacuum out 40 hours a week is not cutting it. It has been out on the weekends and after hours. Councilor Norton asked, and Director Workman stated there would be little participation if there was a centralized place for people to take their leaves. It has become the expectation that the city picks up the leaves at the curbside. Our crew will pick up bagged leaves and deliver to Purple Frog for composting. Council Comments Councilor Caltabiano wished everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy start of the last year of the first quarter of the third millennial. Councilor Norton thanked Chris Schustrom for putting the Christmas decorations up. It was difficult because the Flathead Electric trucks were gone. Director Workman stated there is a significant volunteer effort from Flathead Electric every year. Due to power outage the night prior, Flathead Electric was not able to help. He mentioned the whole Whitefish Shines group is a huge part of the decorations. 3  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES December 2, 2024 Councilor Feury addressed Pat LaTourelle’s comment on hiring a lobbyist. The city hired a lobbyist in 1995 to help get the resort tax legislation through the legislature, which died in committee almost seven times. We brought it back and that particular $35,000 spent on the lobbyist generated more than $74 million in revenue for this community in the last 30 years. When we question the value of lobbyists, we need to think about what value they bring for us. The amount of staff time that would have been spent after the last legislative session, to deal with all of our land use regulation, it is very valuable for us. He respectfully disagrees with Pat LaTourelle’s analogy on that. He also took a moment to remember Terry Abel who passed away. A long- time member of this community and our best and all our thoughts go out to Terry’s family during the holidays. Also, to Jake Cooke, who lost his father a week ago. Councilor Norton addressed Richard Hildner in the audience regarding his concerns with Wildfire Mitigation. She provided him with guidance to work with Fire Chief Hadley directly. Deputy Mayor Sweeney would like Fire Chief Hadley to provide recommendation for materials for education, regulations or zoning changes that we might need to make to ensure we are a fire wise community. Manager Smith stated Chief Hadley is aware and would appreciate meeting with Richard Hildner to discuss his concerns. The Wildfire Protection Plan is on the Council goal list, and we will be going out for an RFP and asking Council for funds since it is not a budgeted item. Deputy Sweeney stated his is an important goal and is a bet your community type of thing. 10) ADJOURNMENT (Resolution 08-10 establishes 11:00 p.m. as end of meeting unless extended to 11:30 by majority) Deputy Mayor Sweeney adjourned the meeting at 8:00 p.m. /s/Francis J. Sweeney Deputy Mayor Sweeney Attest: /s/Michelle Howke Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk 4