Mayor & City Council

WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL February 3, 2025 7:10 P.M. 1) CALL TO ORDER Deputy Mayor Sweeney called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Qunell, Feury, Caltabiano, Davis, and Norton. Mayor Muhlfeld was absent. City Staff present were, City Clerk Howke, City Manager Smith, City Attorney Jacobs, Finance Director Gospodarek, Public Works Director Workman, Parks and Recreation Director Butts, Police Chief Kelch and Fire Chief Hadley. Approximately four people were in the audience, and one attended virtually. 2) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Deputy Mayor Sweeney asked Phil Boland 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, spoke towards two legislative bills that have been introduced at the 2025 Legislative Session. 1) SB146 which would bring an end to zoning. It protects individuals and property rights but would eliminate zoning in municipalities. He encourages the Council, staff and the public to stand in opposition. 2) HB 378 that deals with inclusionary zoning. This would remove restrictions on inclusionary zoning and bring that back into the city’s toolbox. He encourages the Council, staff and public to stand in support. Marilyn Brandt, 575 Armory Road, spoke towards an email that she sent to the Council over the weekend. She works at Bookworks, and on Friday someone left a White Supremacist Flyer in their front window. This is part of a larger pattern of behavior that initially began in late 2016 and escaladed from there. Bookworks put a sign on the front door, and it did not stop them. Pages have been torn out of Ann Frank’s Diary, and pamphlets with alarming things have been dispersed. Bookworks did report at the time to police who were responsive at first, but after awhile it just kept going and going and there wasn’t a lot they could do. There is a lot of hate speech and a lot of hateful rhetoric happening. People feel embolden by that. She is asking the Council to issue a public statement in opposition to hateful speech, hateful rhetoric, hateful behaviors. She hopes this does not go the direction we saw locally with the hazing of Tanya Gersh and the proposed White Supremacy march. 4) COMMUNICATION 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 January 21, 2025, Regular meeting (p.24) b) Consideration of a recommendation for confirmation of Police Officer Hadyn Koch pursuant to MCA §7-32-4113 (p.28)  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2025 Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Qunell to approve the consent agenda. Councilor Caltabiano congratulated Officer Koch. The motion carried. 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) COMMUNICATIONS FROM PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR a) Resolution No. 25-04; A Resolution approving an Amendment to Definite Term Lease Agreement No. BF71038, Roundhouse Landing, with BNSF Railway Company, to include an additional property, to be named “Ted Kusumoto Park,” those certain portions of parcels of real property, situated in the City of Whitefish, County of Flathead, State of Montana, along Line Segment 0036, Mile Post 1219.55 Whitefish, Montana. (p.30) Parks and Recreation Director Maria Butts presented her staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Davis to adopt Resolution No. 25- 04 as presented by staff and recommended by the Park Board. The motion carried. 8) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY MANAGER a) Written report enclosed with the packet. Questions from Mayor and Council? (p.39) b) Other items arising between January 29th through February 3rd Manager Smith provided a brief legislative update. She and the City’s lobbyist is following both bills that Mr. Hildner mentioned earlier. They did submit opposition comments for SB 146. They plan to provide supportive testimony for HB 378. The Firefighter Union is sending someone to comment in opposition of SB 204. 9) COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILORS a) Consideration to re-appoint Public Works Director Craig Workman to the Flathead County Solid Waste Board for a three-year term as the Whitefish Garbage Czar (p.51) Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Davis to re-appoint Public Works Director Craig Workman to the Flathead County Solid Waste Board. The motion carried. b) Letter from Mallory Phillips recommending the City Council create a Youth Advisory Council (p.52) Councilor Qunell asked that this be included in the list of discussion at the Council retreat. Councilor Feury stated this is something that we tried a couple of times in the last several decades. We have to have good solid support and a teacher that is willing to do it year after year. He encourages Council to look at it, but we need to come up with a system that will allow it to sustain. Kids graduate and then you get a class that students are not interested. c) Letter from Tom Thomas with concerns of handling emergencies (p53) Deputy Mayor Sweeney stated this request should be directed to the County. The city cannot control what goes on in the areas outside the city limits. Council shares his concerns. Manager Smith stated Council will hold a work session in March to discuss emergency preparedness with the fire department and what 2  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES February 3, 2025 efforts DNRC has been doing for mitigation. Councilor Norton added that the Wisconsin Avenue Corridor Plan calls for a secondary fire station and police substation. Council Comments Councilor Davis asked Attorney Jacobs if there is recourse on letters being distributed in town as Ms. Brandt mentioned during Communication from the Public. Attorney Jacobs stated Council has adopted resolutions and mayoral proclamations in the past. If the Council would like to write a statement, she is willing to take on that task. Councilor Caltabiano asked and Chief Kelch stated if a business receives discriminatory flyers report it immediately to the Police Department. The quicker the police respond to look at the subject matter gives them the opportunity to do some investigation. Deputy Mayor Sweeney stated there is no reason we should not reiterate this city and community’s position that this is unwelcome. He would entertain an appropriately worded statement from the Council. Councilor Norton asked if staff could create a sign that stores could put in their windows stating it is against the law and what the repercussion would be if caught. Councilor Norton asked, and Manager Smith stated our city code dictates jurisdictional area that Council has. Any requests come to City Manager to determine if it is within the Council jurisdiction to proceed. City Manager’s recommendation can be superseded by a majority vote of the City Council. Pertaining to the tariffs specifically, she felt that a) affecting Whitefish different than other cities and citizens probably applied; as well as there are other elected officials that actually have the authority and experience and our best position to take action, such as Congress. Manager Smith’s recommendation was to wait and see what happens. One area that could be of importance is if the federal funding freeze affects our grants. At that point we would want to provide comment and reach out to our elected officials at the federal level. City Council members are able to provide their own personal comments. Councilor Feury commented on the amazing natural phenomenon with the unbelievable sheet of ice on the lake. It was really great to see all the people using the ice on the lake, but the next couple days we are probably going to see freezing out to Houston Point, people are comfortable being out on the ice. He encourages everybody to be careful. 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 7:52 p.m. and re-opened the work session in the Council Conference Room to continue their discussion on the Ethics Policy. /s/Francis J. Sweeney Deputy Mayor Sweeney Attest: /s/Michelle Howke __ Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk 3