City Council - Regular Meeting

going to go ahead and call this January 5th, 2026 meeting of the Whitefish city council to order. Thanks everyone for coming this evening. We're also joined remotely via hybrid uh via Zoom. But hope everyone had a great holiday season. Merry Christmas, happy new year. All the best for 2026. We will start with our pledge of allegiance and I would ask Terry Fury to please lead us tonight.

I aliance to To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat]

Thank you, Terry. We'll move on to item three of our agenda, which is the oath of office and the seating of our incumbent council. I would like to acknowledge all of those who did run uh for these city positions and I'd like to also acknowledge the hard work that Jeppy, you have put in, Ben, and of course Andy, and it's much appreciated. I don't think most people in the public realize how much time and commitment these positions require in particular honestly of city council members who take up the lion share of the committee appointments in our town of which we have about 16 or 17 uh committees. So a big congratulation to all three of you. It's been a pleasure to work with you and I look forward to working with you for two more years. And at this moment, I'd also like to specifically acknowledge uh Andy Fury. It was 20 years ago this month, that Andy took the trust in me when Tom Muri stepped down from vacating his four-year term and I applied for a city council position and Andy and the city council at the time appointed me. And it's it's pretty ironic that it was 20 years ago this month and you've been a huge mentor of mine and the work you have done for this city is immeasurable and I honor you tonight as well as you Jeppy as well as Ben. But thank you Andy. [applause]

You might be the last one I swear in. Might be the last. Well, tonight [laughter] and we will start in alphabetical order and we will begin with Jeppi. Where would you like to be sworn in? Jeppe.

Okay. Yeah. Jeppe reminded me that he memorized the oath, but I said it's my one small honor as mayor to repeat the oath. So, please repeat after me with your right hand raised, please. I, Jeppe Calabiano, I, Jeppe Calabiano, as a city councelor of the city of Whitefish, Montana,

as a city councelor of the city of Whitefish, Montana, do solemnly swear that I will support, protect, and defend Do solemnly swear that I support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Montana and the Constitution of the State of Montana. and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God. And I will discharge the duty the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God.

Congratulations, Jeppi. [applause] Thanks, Ben. I, Ben, please raise your right hand. I, Ben Davis, I, Ben Davis, as a city councelor of the city of Whitefish, Montana, as a city councelor of the city of Whitefish, Montana, do solemnly swear that I will support, protect, and defend Do solemnly swear that I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States

the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Montana, the Constitution of the State of Montana. And I will discharge of the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God. And that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God. Congrats, man. Thanks, John. [applause]

Andy, can't believe I'm actually nervous. [laughter] Me, too. Oh, good. [laughter] Please raise your right hand after me. I, Andy Fury I, Andy Fury, as a city councelor of the city of Whitefish, Montana, as a city councelor of the city of Whitefish, Montana, do solemnly swear that I will support, pretend, and defect, do solemnly swear that I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the State of Montana

constitution of the state of Montana. and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God. And that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God.

Congrats, Andy. [applause] [applause] Well, again, congrats to you all. Uh, again, my my privilege to swear you in this evening. We'll move on to item four, which we have a presentation from Glacier Nordic Club.

Excuse me. Absolutely. We now need to move on to the election of the deputy mayor. [laughter] Very important position. [laughter] Uh Mr. Mayor, um if he's still willing because he does such a great job, I would move to nominate councelor Sweeney, current deputy mayor, as our deputy mayor for the next two years. I'm dying to say for the sake of but I'm not going to do it. I'll say on it. [laughter]

And I would just like to say a few words. Uh Frank, thank you so much. You've been a stellar deputy mayor assistant. You've filled in when I couldn't due to other personal reasons. And I just appreciate your role as deputy mayor. You've been stellar and more importantly your your friendship. So, I look forward to serving with you for next two years. Thank you, sir. And I I have to say that I am I'm honored that I have the uh support of all the members on this on this council. That means an awful lot to me. So, thank you so much for the opportunity.

You're welcome. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed like sign. And the motion does carry with a five to one vote with, of course, councelor Sweeney obstaining. I did. If I was correct. No, I voted. Oh, you did. So, it was unanimous. It was unanimous. Isn't Isn't that a conflict of interest? [laughter] No financial gain. So, we'll move on to item four of our agenda, which is a presentation from the Glacier Nordic Club. I believe Cameron Blake's here to present on the whip winter operations. Cameron, I think it would be Jenny. It's Jenny Ben. Excuse me. Sorry.

She could give the same presentation. It's fine. This has been going on for a while. So, Um, good evening everyone. Thank you for having us up here tonight. I My name is Jenny Bender. I'm the executive director of Glacier Nordic Club. Um, Cameron Blake was the previous executive director of Glacier Nordic Club. Also talked about this project. We are really excited about the progress that we have had in the last I would say even six months but a year with this uh capital project. The grooming headquarter facility is huge for our staff and our operations and overall winter recreation. Um just as a quick reminder, Glacier Nordic Club has three main branches. We have programs for about 250 kids and over 100 adults. We have we own and operate the Glacier Nordic shop on the White Fish Lake Golf Course. And then we groom uh 65 kilometers consistently over four different main venues. And so we have a lot of machinery, a lot of trailers, a lot of gear. Uh last year we groomed 3,688 miles of trail in the winter, which for not being the best snow year is is still pretty that's a big number. Um, so having this building will be super uh beneficial to all of our operations and grooming at large for um all of our venues. We are in a um the process we've gotten through the process of design. We've worked with Montana Creative uh A Toz Engineering TDH Engineering for plans. our footprint. Um, we've got a 37x 66 which includes that additional carport which we're hoping to put a vehicle in. Um, we're very cognizant of the parking and we're working with

Whitefish Legacy Partners and the city and making sure that it accommodates all of its needs for being at the Big Mountain trail head which is where this will be stationed. Um the big mountain trail head for us is extremely important especially these days where we just got uh snow in the golf course. So that has been uh consistently the headquarters or the the home base for this project. Um we are working with uh the city for finalizing construction and lease agreements. Our goal for start date for this project is this spring pending um financial goals and fundraising. We're working with um applying to grants and donors and other operations for funding of this project. Um, we've worked with Legacy Lands Advisory Committee, uh, Steve and Andy, and have gone back and forth quite a lot with Carla and Marie and Angie on this project, and, um, I'm here for any questions if anyone does have any for me, but we just wanted to give an update of where we were at with this project.

Thanks very much, Jenny. Any questions of the Glacier Nordic Club? Rebecca, I read about that guy that went off the backside and then end up at that cabin. And so I just wondered is there any way to to have something for emergency response here in case there is an emergency or is it too close to the mountain to worry about that?

Um well, oh am I What's funny is that there is actually a different search and rescue that ended up on the Nordic trails. um not a Nordic skier, but we are hoping part of our discussions is to actually have uh a public space that will have security cameras and uh basically a warming hut. The two windows there and the and the first door to the left would be for um members of the community and of Glacier Rick to go in and change their boots and bring bring their kids and help get ready and stuff like that as well as part of this building. That's still in discussion though that is not confirmed. So, um, that kind of just ties in a little bit to what you're saying, um, from a like a search and rescue type. Is that what you're referring to?

I think people that live here are pretty good with, um, winter safety, but, you know, we have a lot of visitors that are not very savvy in the woods or with emergencies. So, I know we have a fire station up on the mountain, but I just thought maybe we should just put them wherever we can in even a phone or, you know.

Yeah, totally. That's the phone's a good idea. And to be honest, the Nordic trails and what we groom in that area has been a safety place where a lot of people come down and find our groom trails from the mountain, from going back country, and then they're like, "Oh, I'm somewhere." And then they follow a groom trail out. So, uh, it's it has benefited many people who have gotten lost from the mountain and gone over and found a groom trail, but some sort of emergency phone is a great idea. We can talk about that. Any other questions for Jenny?

I don't have a question, just a comment. Um, Jenny, I I just want to congratulate you and your board members for sticking with this project. It's going to be a great uh benefit to not only the trails up there, but to NOR skiing here um in Whitefish and for Flathead Valley residents as well because uh that place is busy. Um and I hope we get more skiers up there because uh and and I hope that um that people recognize that it's mostly done for skiing. Um uh but to answer your question, Rebecca, if people make it to this area, they're right next to the road. So, uh, it's not it's not like it's out in the back country somewhere. It's right it's right off of Big Mountain Road. It's right it's going to be right there at the at the trail head. So, but an emergency fund is a good idea. Um, the other thing I I just want to say is that this is going to be a great amenity and and I and I usually in the winter time I thank Glacier Nordic Club at the end of our meeting, but since you're all here, I'll thank you now for all the hard work you do to even get trails open. I got to ski at the golf course a couple times over Christmas break and it was great um for the the two time well was really good one time. Next time was a little uh sloppy, but just with the the lack of snow down here in the valley, it's clear that we need to that the facilities need to be up on Big Mountain and um and I I look forward to getting this thing done and and we just know that you have us as a partner to get this through.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. To your point, Steve, 10 years ago, February 2nd this year is when we adopted the Haskell Basin Conservation Easement formally at the council. And one of the biggest rationale or one of the rationale for that project was establishing a Nordic retreat, 1500 feet above town, acknowledging that things are changing in town and the lack of skiing. So, I want to also thank Glacier Nordic. you guys have been an incredible partner in kind of seeing that vision through to fruition. So, thanks very much.

Thank you so much. Yeah, we're we're very excited for this and we're really fighting to keep the trails going up there and there's uh we've been working with the resort and they've been great with kind of working through some of their changes as well and trying to keep we're we're seeking altitude hardcore these days. So, uh the 40 degrees and rain isn't helping. But um yeah, the the we're excited for what's to come and um phase two and three is increasing our uh infrastructure, increasing the trails up there as well as adding some machinery. Great. Thanks so much, Shane. Thank you.

Yep. Appreciate your time tonight. We'll move on to item five, communications from the public. We do have three public hearings scheduled for tonight. If you're here to speak to those individual hearings, please wait until I call those hearings which will be under item number eight of the agenda. Otherwise, if you have anything to bring to the attention of the council, uh name and address for the record when you approach the podium, please. Good night, Terry.

Hello. Um I'm Jan Metsmaker, 915 Dakota Avenue. Um, happy new year counselors. Um, on November 18th, 2019, I came to public hearing or not of public hearing, I came to public comment and I presented a report that I compiled about the deer problem in the city. And some of you may remember that because I talked to insurance companies, food bank, repair companies, the department of transportation and the department department of transportation at that point said they were getting 18 to 25 deer kills pulled off the roads in our area a week and repair shops were getting five to 10 cars that had had collisions with deer a week. So at that time the council decided they would create a deer management plan. And I'm wondering, six years later, where's the plan? Um, the deer problem is increasing. Um, it's incredibly frustrating where I live. I have six deer that live in my yard. Our yard is completely covered with deer poop. All fall we have deer chasing each other around our house. It's kind of scary to go out there. And I'm wondering, are you waiting till all the deer are killed by cars or they starve to death or we get chronic wasting disease, which will be a gamecher. So, I'm wondering what the status is of any kind of deer management plan. I'm I [clears throat] know that many C cities have them. Helen has had one for 15 years. Ford Benton has one, has one. I'd be willing to contact any of these cities that have plans, find out what they're doing, if they work, and present that to you. But I really think it's critical that the problem and if chronic wasting disease, which is at the dump, if it comes to town, it we're going to have a real problem and we should be more proactive than we are now. Okay. Now, second thing I want to bring up. I was talking with former mayor Jensen a little while ago and [clears throat] we were talking about the dark skies ordinance and that's been around almost 20 years and it's been

very effective. city's done a great job with bringing down the lights, but I think there's a problem now with the proliferation of those strings of high intensity LED lights. They're not Christmas lights. They're incredibly bright and they're all over town. And from my house, I can see three strings of them. And one of them comes into my living room and I have to put up shades and I've also put up a curtain between me and my neighbor because it is intense and it's very troublesome. um according to the light ordinance um you can't see the source of lice and they should be full cut off and they shouldn't trans um be on trans they shouldn't trespass on person's property so I would like the council to kind of look at that um this proliferation of these lights they're really cheap at Costco but they're really annoying and unfortunately most of the problems you have to complain and I don't like to complain to my about my neighbors but if the city could kind take a look at the Dark Skies ordinance, probably be a little more proactive. I know Andy has some other issues that we've talked about with the Dark Skies Ordinance and get make people understand why it was created, what it does, and why it's helpful in our community. Um, I would greatly appreciate that.

Thank you, John.

Further public comment this evening, Toby. Toby Scott, Whitefish, Montana. I have a couple of items, several of which I have presented to you at least two or three times before. Um, one is the suggestion to paint the signal boxes. Callispel has painted all theirs. Boseman has painted all theirs and there's quite some artwork on those. And then another item is uh to install a traffic light at uh Baker Avenue and 13th Street. I brought that up a many times. You guys will encounter the problem there on occasion, but sometimes summer or winter, traffic can be backed up Baker Avenue all the way to the post office. It's a pain in the butt. Uh, you know, for those of us that know, we could just turn, go up six, and take O'Brien and come out. Oh, sorry. Never mind that. Uh, let's see. I got my glasses here for the rest of it. Um, oh, also to add EV charging stations for cars around. I'm seeing there's a lot of them in town. Teslas, Rivians, other companies, they're all making sure that u that [clears throat] we can run on electricity, but I presume they all have chargers at home. But nevertheless, for those people from out of town that come in, they're staying at a hotel. Be nice to have chargers. And speaking of e EV chargers, several months ago, I parked my hybrid vehicle in a parking spot right outside

the back door here because the city parking area has two EV charging spots. And this was at about 5:30 or so. And I thought, "This will be fine." It happened. And I went out a little bit later and I either saw the officer or found a warning on my car that this is leased parking. You can't park there. And I said, "What? It's so that means that you have to own an EV and a leased spot in order to charge your car there. It doesn't seem right. And so I would like to see the city council or perhaps the city manager or someone investigate this to find out why do you have to lease a spot in order to charge your car. At least those two spots should be given just a extended parking you know you can park there for two hours or whatever something like that. That's all. It looks like that's new news to some of you. I normally don't comment on comments, Toby, as you know, but I believe, and Dana, correct me if I'm wrong, that the lease parking is only valid through 5:00 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

It's uh 6:00 a.m. to 600 p.m. Monday through Friday. And those EV charging stations do not have a mechanism for us to charge per hour of charging. So, it's the mechanism of recouping some of the cost. But between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. um every night and on weekends you can charge for free. Okay.

Yeah.

Thanks, Toby. Further public comments this evening.

Hi, happy new year. My name is Mary Beth Morand. I live at 604 Gettys Avenue in Whitefish. I'm also the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Flathead Valley. Um, I'm commenting tonight because Habitat Flathead's construction capacity currently exceeds the land we have available to build on. Um, Habitat for Humanity of Flathead Valley respectfully requests to be considered for the construction of the 22 town homes on the snow lot. Um, Habitat Flathead proposes using the same model that we're using in Columbia Falls um on the six homes on the railroad property where the land is transferred to the community land trust who has the first right of refusal on these units when they come up for resale after Habitat homeowners vacant vacate them. Um, Habitat Flathead has reviewed all of the construction drawings for Depot Park or the snow lot um, in great detail and we are confident that we can build these units close to plan for under $350,000 per unit if the city of Whitefish would consider slight modifications to the plans that would reduce the price while maintaining the overall aesthetics that are presented in current drawings. Um, Habitat Flathead has calculated that we could build these units between 250,000 and $300,000 each. Um, we have some drawings to share with you and a formal letter requesting to uh submit a proposal to you. Um, Habitat Flathead proposes to work with the city of Whitefish to determine how many of these 22 units would be dedicated to households between 30 to 80% of the AMI, which is the demographic that we serve. And then how many would be above that? The units that would be below 80% would

be constructed by Habitat staff, our volunteers, and the homeowners that have been selected for those units. um because as you know we always do sweat equity and those units would be um eligible for the 2% 30-year mortgages that we get through the Montana Board of Housing. Um units above 80% would be constructed by our private sector construction partner Ironstar Construction uh per our proposal and we already have a memo of understanding um signed with them. Um, I think what's really important in this request for a proposal to submit a proposal to you is knowing that Iron Star could begin construction in this spring 2026 and Habitat Flathead could uh start later in the summer of 26. Ironar projects the completion of their units probably by January 2027 and then Habitat Flathead would probably compete uh complete by December of 2027. Um so I think there are many positive aspects to Habitat Flathead working on this project on the snow snow lot. Um we I it's a great opportunity for volunteerism within the community for all the people who have approached and talked a lot about affordable housing that could actually get involved with us in building these these units. Um it's also um a way to engage the community um the the vendors in the community, the churches, the uh the restaurants who could provide lunches for our volunteers. It's just an excellent outreach um opportunity for for everyone. Um, and I'd also like to remind the council that Habitat Flathead um really benefits some from some very deep discounts um and inind donations from the construction

supply companies in this community. Um, moreover, this mixed AMI project allows us to execute a model that we have recently conceived where we co-build with private sector builders. Um, and um I'm here joined by uh Garrett Robertson, our construction manager, who can um talk about what would make these units more affordable without changing the aesthetic and the viability of this timeline. Um Cameron Blake is here and she can also speak to our new model that allows us to work above the 80% AMI and work with uh private sector builders. And Kisa Davidson, the uh owner of Ironar Construction is here and can also speak to um what can be provided by Ironar in this cooperation with Habitat for Humanity of Flathead Valley. I'd like to present you a letter asking for consideration of a proposal from us and also some drawings of the original drawings from encompass that you've approved and then drawings from Habitat for Humanity from humanity um about the modifications we would make and you can see that they're nearly identical but some of these um modifications would bring down the price drastically.

Thank you. Hey there. My name is Garrett Robertson. I'm the construction manager for Habitat for Humanity. I'll just speak to a few things. Um, we we've been doing affordable housing for uh many decades now at Habitat Flathead and I think it's something that we do very well. Um, right now, as Mary Beth mentioned, we're at a a point where our capacity has grown. Um, kudos to Mary Beth. Um, since she's become our executive director the last two years, we've really, uh, scaled up. Um, we're very, uh, excited about actually doing something about affordable housing and keeping up with uh, to some extent the demand that's needed as the demand also increases. Um, for us, obviously, one of the biggest things is our volunteerism. Um, and I think we we have a really good track record of also designing homes that are not only good for volunteers to build, um, but just affordable in every aspect of the word. And so, yeah, I would just I would just encourage you to, you know, look at what we have there. Um that's by no means a fully fleshed out design, but um there are a lot of uh very what I would call minor modifications that can be made generally that bring down costs while also not um you know just building a big square box with no windows. Um so I think there's there's definitely a middle ground that um everybody can probably be happy with.

Thank you. Thank you,

Cameron. Uh Cameron Blake 825 Lexand Trail White Fish and as long as I'm here to speak on behalf of Habitat I have to do a plug for the storage barn and I and I just want to got my representatives I still came off the course Glacier Nordic but um I wanted to add to what Jenny said that um Glacier Nordic has 1100 1200 members a year and that's families too so really serve like 3,000 skiers out there. I mean, it's an incredible number when you look at how many people in this community and the surrounding community ski and it's serving that community as you guys pointed out. Lack of snow down low. We need that up there. So, thank you on that. In terms of Habitat, um been working on a fund model that for mixed income neighborhoods where could go in and develop Habitat develops a portion as Mary Beth said, um looking to private sector builders like Kissa who would develop at the 80 to 150% AMI that the city of Whitefish is looking for. Um at those lower habitat numbers, there's super advantageous mortgage financing available. And then when you move above 80% um still looking at assisting buyers um and helping them out, there's down payment assistance. The big hurdles right now to home ownership are coming up with that 20% down payment to avoid private mortgage insurance. So with some down payment assistance and potentially lower price mortgages, maybe we're talking at percent or 2% below market can really increase affordability for people. And that's all possible looking at this model. Um, you know, of course, local workforce is served um with the down payment assistance both with Habitat and with other down payment assistance that's been used around Montana. There's also homeowner education. Um, Habitat has a great mentorship program for new homeowners, teaching them how to take care of their property, how to be good neighbors, and there's also with most down payment

assistance programs, there's also a required um homeowner education and finance education in advance of that, which really helps people manage their finances going forward in the house. Um, as Mary Beth mentioned, the vendor discounts allow Habitat to build really, I think, below anything I've seen in the market. Um, they're nonprofit and can receive those. So, just wanted to add that as well. Thank you. Thanks, Cameron.

Hi, my name is Kissa Davidson and I'm the owner of Ironstar Construction and Callispel. Um, I won't take much of your time, but I do want to reassure you that my team has looked at the plans that you've provided and or that have been approved, although they were a few years ago, and we feel very confident that we can come in at um very reasonable numbers. I don't know um necessarily where the value engineering I've looked at the val value engineering that um Garrett has come up with and I think certainly there's quite a bit that can be done where you as a city want to make some of those concessions that's a conversation I'm really excited to be able to have so that how this could happen um we have a team a machine that's already in place we are production builder we build 20 to 30 homes a year we don't build in the very very high-end. So, we've been able to afford a lot of efficiencies in our systems, our processes, and the relationships that we have with subcontractors and suppliers. This can easily be extended to this project here in Whitefish. Um, we are ready to mobilize. We've got um several projects that due to some delays won't be starting until now mid to end of summer. So, being able to begin uh a project like this late spring would certainly work into our schedule quite well. Um, and then obviously there is some urgency on on your part that I'm I'm pushing you to to make some decisions and approve so that we can have those conversations and get some of that pricing locked down. And then the why is probably the most important part. You all are in a really really unique position that you have this piece of property. You have nonprofit and land trust willing partners and now a private sector willing partner to really do more and do different than has ever been done before. Uh the fund that Cameron was speaking to is a project that we've all

been working on for nearly a year now. And I think that's a testament to how as a community we are all committed to making sure that people not only have homes, but they have homes that they can own and homes that they can be proud of and an opportunity to participate in their community beyond just working and paying rent. So I encourage any questions at this time and I look forward to what the future holds. Thank you. Thanks, Kissa. Any questions? Jeppi,

uh, just a quick one. First of all, a comment. I'm very pleased to see this team put together. I do not know if the staff has been involved in that. I reserve that for comments at the end of the meeting. My question is, knowing how normally Habitat operates, uh, there is a vested skin in the game by the future owner of of the dwelling. uh will that apply here too? Meaning uh when we volunteer, we work with the future owners who are there putting nails and framing stuff. So if that moved forward, the model is still the same.

Yes. Um yes, you're speaking to our sweat equity requirement and this is why we would need to identify within the next few months. Um, if these were to become Habitat homes, we'd have to put them up for application, like we're currently taking applications for six homes that will break ground on come April in Colombia Falls, and we identify the homeowners in advance so that they can do their uh sweat equity requirement, which is a minimum of 275 hours, but truly, it's a day a week until they close on that house, which is, by the way, a great community builder, especially especially when you have 22 units and you have people building their houses together and each other's houses.

Further questions? Thanks very much for the public comment tonight. We'll take your comments into due consideration uh for sure. Any additional public comments, Rhonda?

So I have twofold comments as well. One is the Nordic um house for the track sitter that is um we've come a long way baby from 10 kilometers on the golf course uh 40 years ago. So this is so exciting to see and the trails the amount of trails these guys are grooming and the quality of the grooming and the size of the program is just so heartwarming to see something that's completely come out of the community. So, I hope that you guys can support this in any way that you can because it's wonderful. Uh, and then on the snow lot, I was on the original snow lot task force and we spent quite a bit of time keeping the neighborhood engaged with this process so that they were comfortable with it. And there were a number of design cheretses. And so I think that having all these puzzle pieces come together and make this a possibility is so exciting. Um I do think you need to be very cautious about design changes. I'm all for value engineering, but don't change what the com what the neighborhood is comfortable with because it was a slog to get there. And I think it's really important to honor that uh participation from the neighbors. And um having ownership opportunities is the hardest thing we're going to do in our community and it's the most important. So I say um strike while the iron's hot. Grab these guys. Don't let them loose and let's get those things built because it's been 10 years. Thank you.

Thanks Rhonda Mary.

Good evening. Mary Flowers, Citizens for a Better Flathead. A lot of good presentations for you tonight. Um hope I can add to that. Uh I want to speak to you on two items regarding the lakeshore protection uh regulations. Um I think we've brought to you before that on January 14th, sorry on that. Um the uh county is hosting a planning board workshop where they are taking suggestions for uh improvements that need to be made uh to the Flathead County Lakeshore Protection Regulations. There are 59 lakes over 20 acres in Flathead County, which just blows me away every time I say that because I had no idea that there were that many lakes. I believe Whitefish is the only one that has a lakeshore protection committee. Um, and unfortunately you don't have that uh lakewide. It would not be nice to see uh collaboration in that regard between you and the um county. We will be going to that meeting and we'll be sharing with the public here shortly a series of improvements that we think need to be made to these regulations. One of which is something that you do within your regulations, which is to require a registered surveyor to mark the lakeshore protection area before activity moves forward. um that's not happening in the county on county covered lakes. And one of the issues right now with the uh property on White Fish Lake where there was a blast to uh that unfortunately went into the lake

itself. Um there has not been a survey done even though after the fact the county realized they needed a survey to kind of identify how that had shifted the lakeshore protection zone. Um they need to have it in their regulations not only for when accidents like that happen but so that the public is really aware of the ways that they can do it right. um and really have that uh area marked out. So, the second item in addition to that January 14th meeting which is at the uh county planning office in Callisbell, 6 PM, it's the only item on the agenda and so it's ripe for uh having recommendations come in. We just learned to our surprise on uh New Year's Eve that the county has scheduled tomorrow morning a uh series of approvals of Lakeshore um permits. They do this periodically. It's amazing how many come through the county's office, but this one tomorrow has the um property that was subject to the blast. um on that agenda for approval. And we are concerned and we've asked our attorneys to represent us in presenting comments on this issue because uh they have been county has been saying for three months that they need to have a survey. There's been no survey and yet they're proposing to move forward. It's an after the-act permit which is uh asking to permit the artificial concrete and stone structures that have been

built that are not allowed under the lakeshore permit um county lakes shore permit system as uh we understand it. Um there has not been a public hearing and the regulations say when there is going to be a significant um activity in that that affects the Lakeshore uh zone. There should be a planning board hearing that allows the public to come forward and to raise issues and concerns about a particular piece of property and the uniques whether it's the wave dynamic or whatever is happening. The county does not do that. In fact, almost always just moves towards issuing a permit. We do not believe that the permit coming up tomorrow, which is an after the fact permit, is legal um under the regulations. And so there are a lot of issues that um you have on your agenda tonight, a letter that was drafted without the knowledge of this meeting coming up tomorrow. So, I'm hoping that you will uh consider some of the issues um and to ask the county to uh table this particular permit until there's more information and so that we can make sure that uh restoration and corrections are done um properly. And it also becomes a way to let the public know that there uh is a process that should be followed. And we have a a large uh what responsibility I think to educate the public on how to do it right and to really showcase uh properties who are doing it right. So my final point is

that I think it would be uh we would be very interested in working the city and your uh uh lakes share protection committee and staff to identify properties that have really done a good job on uh protecting these this zone. It's only 20 ft and uh we know that the science says you need even more than that to really be protective of a lot of the resources. But at 20 feet, we ought to be pulling out all the stops to make sure that we're complying with these regulations. So, I hope as you look at your um letter tonight, you would consider adding something for the county for their meeting tomorrow. And as you know, um, the county has a section on their agenda at 8:45 where any member of the public can come in or city and come in and comment on an item under the jurisdiction of the county. This item itself comes up at 10:15 on the county agenda and there is no public comment during that portion of the meeting. Um, I'll be here to answer questions if you need questions later on.

Thank you, Mary. Yep. Appreciate it.

Richard, honorable mayor, counselors, [clears throat] Richard Iner, 104th Street. Happy New Year. Um, I know you're expecting me to expound on fire, wildfire, but not tonight. Uh, I know that you have a very busy schedule coming up over the next several months, um, dealing with planning and planning issues, and I appreciate all of your and all of the staff's dedication uh, to our city. But tonight, I want to encourage you uh to move forward as expeditiously as you possibly can on the report for consideration to revise an ordinance. And that's um title six that Chief Kelch presented to you on September 18th of 2025 with regards to non-motorized and some depending upon how you define motors uh ebikes um golf carts and that sort of thing. [clears throat] The uh the reason that I bring it up now is because in December on December 12th uh the week magazine I had an article on innovation of the week and this is a two- wheeled battery powered bike. Uh that is just one of those little tiny bikes that we all tried to build on our own with gasoline motors, but these are battery powered and are designed with the same technology as motorized skateboards. Um and as a

result, these things can go for up to 50 hours. Uh and with their gyroscopes, the kid [clears throat] drivers operators uh can pop a wheelie. uh for a considerable amount of time through our bike paths. And I want to share uh with you. The picture of the three ladies on a single bicycle, ebike, um was taken right after the chief made that presentation to you. uh as I walked back home again. I think it'll be uh instructive if you look at that and then also take a look at what Columbia Falls has done with their ebike uh issue. And then there is an article in the New York Times that I've referenced there as well um that acknowledges the uh accidents and safety legislation um that uh communities in California are taking a look at. So uh again I encourage you um to take headon uh the issue of these motorized electronic vehicles but also at the same time encourage in the development of the ordinance that you are respectful um and consider those who are mobility impaired. Thank you and have a great year. Thanks, Richard.

It'll be fun.

Hello, Keegan Seboler here, 306 Lur Avenue, and I'm speaking tonight as the executive director of Shelter WF. Um, so I'm here to talk about those items that are on your agenda to revise the 2025 housing needs assessment. Um, I don't want to reiterate all the written comments that I made. Um, I do just want to give you a little bit of insight into our motivation for bringing this to you. Um, as well as kind of the specific requests that we have for city council. Uh, so after the housing needs assessment came out a few months ago, we began to hear a common narrative develop around housing and in a lot of these committee meetings and that narrative basically says that Whitefish has been building enough units every year. We don't need to increase supply. Uh, we just need more subsidized units. Um, ShelterWF exists as a nonprofit because we believe that to be false. Um, both based on kind of the economic reality of Whitefish, but also, uh, you know, those conversations we have every day with renters that kind of prove that the status quo amount of housing we've been building has like led to a significant shortage. Um, our membership believes that there's a significant shortage of both market rate and subsidized housing in Whitefish and that we can't find solutions through the growth policy process without acknowledging this. Um, housing need stats that stop in 2019 and population projections that are based on preandemic numbers uh just don't meet that moment. This is why I was heartened to see the memo from the consultants that acknowledged that the city should adopt higher numbers. Um I want to quote the key part of that memo which states integrating a scenario that captures a higher inflow of population in line with the 3.9% growth of the la last 5 years is a viable option for understanding potential needs. Preparing for this higher growth scenario is of value to the city and could be integrated into the needs assessment as an additional finding. So that's the motivation for coming to you here today. And it's also

a request that the city adopts either as an amendment or an additional finding to the housing needs assessment these revised numbers that are more in line with reality. Um we think that's really important not only to counter that narrative but also because the housing needs assessment is the data that the housing element, the land use plan and the upcoming zoning changes are all targeting. I think there's regulatory reforms that make sense if we have a housing needs assessment that says we need three to 400 homes a year but might might not make sense under the current housing needs assessment which says we need between 100 and 150. So we think it's really critically important to just get those numbers right. Thank you for your time.

Thanks very much for your comments. Further public comment tonight, Scott and then Z and we're going to move on. I'm sorry, what? Oh, okay. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, Scott Worster, 222 Montana Avenue. [clears throat] Um, I would appreciate hearing some discussion tonight at the appropriate time about what the current status of the uh Oshanosy property is there at the corner of Edgewood and Wisconsin. Thank you.

Thanks, Scott. Hey, I'm Mac uh 6005 St. Lawrence Drive. Um I would also just like to speak um in favor of the shelter WF uh revised housing needs assessment. Um I think they raise a lot of good points. Um and it's kind of a little bit different than just the status quo. Um that has been kind of the narrative so far. And I also just um of the mindset where if we at least give the opportunity or the availability, what's the best way to say it? Sorry, I hate public speaking. Um, just the option to build more housing, right? It doesn't mean it has to be built, but it's like, okay, let's open up the um the potential to do so. Um, so I just wanted to voice my support in that. Thank you guys.

Thanks, Mac. Appreciate it. Further public comment this evening? for the record. Z 418 Eastn Street. Good news everyone. I will not be providing yet another fruitless public comment calling out the council for their refusal to support our LGBTQIA+ youth. Instead, I will be playing the audio from the body cam footage of former Whitefish Police Department officer, Michael Hingis' traffic stop of Beckair Renhifo del Castillo. Isn't it ironic that some moments ago, Jeppe, Ben, and Andy swore an oath to the Constitution of the

United States that they are being sued for violating. Let's begin.

[clears throat] If the technology cooperates, that is. Thank you for your indulgence. As we get underway, it's silent and then once Officer Hingis exits his vehicle, then we'll get the audio. Mr. Mayor, could I just interrupt for one second? I'm I'm [clears throat] not sure if showing a poster of our police department in arm-in- arm with people in white hoods violates our rules for civil dialogue or not, but it sure feels like it does to me.

And I really you're going there. We're talking about violating rules of civil dialogue. Dialogue. Yes. Showing our police with in arm-to- arm with someone in a hood, a KKK hood. Yeah. As in racial profiling. As in, you're being sued for racial pro I don't think you need we don't need to go into a back. You don't need I'm going to call this discussion off because we're currently in litigation and we're not right. That's why I'm not asking for litigation. So, if you don't mind putting the poster down, thank you for bringing it and continue with your comments.

Okay. So, just the poster itself. put the poster down and I would appreciate if you do not play the audio. You'd appreciate it. I would appreciate it if you didn't violate Beckair's constitutional rights, but here we are. Okay. So, I don't I I'd like you to cite for me specifically how you're going to stop my public comment. Show me in your in your policies. I I asked.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for that. I you know what if Beccair would have been given the same courtesy we would not be here so thank you for asking unbelievable so I'll turn the poster okay it's a sign by the way not a poster wow Steve you're really really bold on podcasts okay here we go again so gross trying again. This is really for the edification of the community, the ones that are going to have to pay the price when you lose your lawsuit. Technology not cooperating. Here we go. Well, I'll just while I'm trying to do this. Okay. I will um just remind everybody that it was within two minutes of the initial interaction. That's why the volume was off. Sorry all. Thank you. Okay, here we go. Better that you hear it so you don't take my word for it. Sorry, technology does not want to cooperate as I give my public comment. Try one more time. Thank you for your indulgence. Okay, here we go. It should work now.

Okay, hold on a sec. I really want you to hear the initial so you can hear. Here we go. Okay. Sorry. Do you have a driver's license which then he produced? Perfect. I'll be right back with you. Okay, here we go. We'll pause there. That was two minutes. Not quite. Few seconds short of two minutes. Two minutes. Calling border patrol. And as we all heard, got someone here who only speaks Spanish. You might want to come check him out.

Sounds like racial profiling to me. We'll see what the jury decides. Let's continue. There's no volume after this, so there's nothing to listen to, and I'm really not going to force the audience to sit through this, okay? But just know that it took another 12 minutes. Perhaps Deputy Chief Conway, you could do a demonstration on how long it takes to issue an ecitation. Now, I haven't gotten one, thank goodness, in a long time, but I have friends that have, and didn't take them that long to receive their ecitation. And I wonder why it took that long for officer Hingis to get that citation printed. Perhaps it was because that was how long it took for Border Patrol to show up on the scene and take custody of Bare. Perhaps reasonable people can decide. Don't take my word for it. This is available thanks to the local reporting. Thank you local journalism. Support your local journalists. The Daily Interlake and the Daily Interlake released the body cam footage. Don't take my word for it. Play it for yourself. Set a timer and ask yourself as Beckare sat there after handing over his documentation and waited and waited and waited for either to get a ticket or the cit or the warning or whatever it was. What might have been going through his mind? He was here legally. People, this is wrong. Everyone should be outraged. You're not, but you need to be. Maybe you'll be outraged when the city loses

or settles and your property, your taxes go up. I don't know. It's wrong. And it's just wrong. And remind you, Officer Henus is no longer with the city. Wonder why. Kinky dink. The chief is being sued as well. And the city council is being sued. Keep that in mind as you're all proud of yourselves for all the wonderful accomplishments that you do. That's all. Constitution my ass. Thank you. That's it. Further public comment this evening. Michelle, anyone online? Uh for those attending online, if you would like to address the council for anything that is not advertised as a public hearing on the agenda, please raise your hand.

We're good. Thank you, Michelle. I'm going to go ahead and close the communications from the public portion of this agenda and move on to volunteer boards. you do have a letter enclosed from our city planner um to the county commissioners regarding the lakeshore protection committee and I think we approved this at our meeting a few weeks ago. Any motion required on this Dana or just showing of hands to support the letter submittal? A showing of hands would be great.

Yep. Showing of hands and that's unanimous. You also have a letter from Kelly from the Whitefish Community Library Board of Trustees to appoint a trustee in training. Kelly, anything to comment if you're here tonight? Thanks for being here. Thank you,

Mayor Mfield and council members. My name is Kelly Pepmire. I am the current chair for the Whitefish Community Library Board of Trustees. On behalf of the Whitefish Community Board, I submitted a detailed letter of application for our open trustee and training position as well as the applicant's letter of interest. Uh we the board recommend that Dr. Moira McKinnon Linm be appointed to that position based on her skills and previous board experience. We believe she would be an excellent addition to our board. That's all. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you. I would entertain a motion to that effect, please.

Uh, I move to appoint Moer McKinnon. And I second it. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Jeppi. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed, like sign, and that motion does carry unanimously. You have enclosed in the packet the consent agenda for December 1st and December 15th. Can I have a motion, please? Yes, Mr. Mayor. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? I'll second. Rebecca,

I just have one correction which was on the um minutes for December 1st. I was present at that meeting and I wasn't absent. Michelle already knows this. I will accept the amendment. Thank you, Jeppi. All those in favor of the motion as amended, please raise your hand. Those opposed like sign. And that motion does carry unanimously. Which brings us on to our first public hearing tonight, which is item 8A. Point of order. Yes, sir. Don't we have communications from the boards?

I'm sorry. Yes, we do. Any volunteer board reports this evening? Toby, apologies. Toby Scott, Whitefish Montana, chairman of the Lake Shore Protection Committee. I thought you were [clears throat] going to skip me over with that brief approval of the letter. Never. I'll send you the deal. I'll tell you.

Uh, excuse me. Um, I just wanted to bring to your attention the letter which you have approved. It's been consolidated regarding the two violations that the county is overlooking on our lake. And uh Mayor Flowers mentioned a planning board in the county on the 14th of which I do plan on going to that as a either an independent citizen or a representative or Whitefish to try and encourage them to develop some sort of interlocal agreement. And beyond that, I'm also uh continuing uh our city's quest to take control over the county portion of the lake through an amendment to the state regulations which was uh brought before the uh committee and the Senate. I think it was Senate Bill 304 which was going to expand our thing but it unfortunately failed in uh in committee I believe but we're going to try and rephrase that and just want to let you know that we're doing our best to maintain the entire Whitefish Lake shore all the way around including the county. So that was my thought.

Thanks Toby. Okay, thanks for all you're doing. Any additional volunteer board reports from the audience or the council? Jeppi.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Uh this morning the uh bicycle pedestrian path committee met and pretty much the whole meeting was u uh discussing and supporting the finally drafted or ordinance by the police department. And I wanted to reassure our audience that uh there are vehicles that are pushed by human power and vehicles that are pushed by other stuff. And then there is mobility aiding. Uh we're not discriminating between in in internal combustion and electricity or solar power. So the ordinance is much cleaner uh so environmentally friendly. And um I was asked to report that the committee supports uh that draft uh unanimously.

Great. Thanks, Jeppe. Appreciate that update. Additional board reports. Not seeing any, we will move on to our public hearings. And we'll start with item 8A, a request from the Whitefish School District for a conditional use permit to develop an expansion of academic and athletic facilities located at 1143 East Street, zoned WR, which is our one family residential district. Thanks for your report tonight.

Good evening. All righty. So, I have this request for a conditional use permit to construct a two-story academic extension to the existing Whitefish High School and to redevelop the associated athletic facilities. Um, this is a request um for a conditional use permit because in the WR1 zoning district, we require CUP for schools that are K through 12. The site is currently developed as the existing high school as well as there's parks to the north, residential to the um south, east and west um all surrounding the school. Uh the proposed uh development complies with our regulations. Uh this includes setbacks, height requirements, lot coverage, off- streetet parking will be maintained. uh building orientation will be met as well as bicycle and pedestrian standards. The proposed application effectively addresses parking locations and layout as well as traffic circulation open span open space um fencing and screening along the athletic facilities as well as landscaping that will be implemented into the project. there is going to be adequate storm water drainage. Um, currently they're going to be up updating their facilities. There's two um that address storm water drainage. Um, this new proposed project will have three drainage facilities where it's kind of more effectively um sending the appropriate water to the different facilities instead of kind of overloading one or another. The neighborhood will have minim minimal impact. Um, traffic will generally stay

the same. Uh, noise and vibration will only be anticipated during construction. Uh, that goes for dust, smoke, glare, and heat as well. The hours of operation will remain the same as well as the sports fields will remain its current use um schedule as what's used at Memorial Park. Um with playoff games being subject to scheduling outside of those usual hours, the community character will be maintained. Um they are going to keep the new additions uh similar and alike to the existing high school. At the December 18th public hearing, we did receive one public comment um about parking, lighting, and traffic flow. Shane and Brandon, uh the applicants were able to address these concerns. The planning commission unanimously voted to approve the request um adopting the staff report as well as the conditions of approval. Do you have any questions for me?

Thank you, Lauren. Any questions for Lauren? Not seeing any. Thanks very much for the staff report. We did advertise and we'll hold a public hearing for item 8A. Any public comment this evening? Good evening, mayor and counselors. Uh Brandon Ty with Civil Solutions. Um I'm here to answer any questions you might have about the COP for the Whitefish High School project. Just I'll give you just a quick narrative. Um the staff report covers everything quite well, though. Um it's two projects basically, two different bonds, athletics and academics. Uh new track and field for the athletics portion with a concession building and a bathroom building. And we'll have a about a bleacher setup with about 1500 seats in it. Pretty nice facility. We'll also have a practice field just south of that. Also in the same site, um we're going to put a storm water pond also on the athletic side, the east side of the site that will um collect storm water and treat it. It's got some sediment storage in it. Um it will be picking up roof runoff from the actual school and the landscaped areas of the um athletics portion. So we're not sending any parking lot water to that pond which will ultimately be flow controlled and then released to Cal Creek. Um four street we're looking at putting in a new sidewalk along the city rightway of four street um to make a vital connection there that's in your uh safe safe streets for all plan I believe. and um that'll have a about a four foot wide boulevard. It's kind of all that we can fit in there, but uh we're going to get a sidewalk in there for the city and for the residents in that area. Um switching to the other bond to the west, the academics where we're adding on to the building, a two-story structure on the pine side of the street, new parking lot. We'll also go in where that loop is right now. We're actually going to put in a proper

parking lot there. Now, um altogether we're going to be providing about um let's see 388 parking stalls. So, it's 20 more than what's currently there right now. So, we're doing a lot of moving and shifting on the site to try and increase pedestrian safety, increase traffic flow, you know, some like one-way angled parking type situations so we don't have like two-way traffic kind of make kind of hurting the cats, I guess, for lack of a better term. And um yeah, um the parking lot will also doesn't need any flow control, but it'll have a u a treatment device in it to treat the storm water before we send it to Pine Avenue, which also ultimately goes to Cal Creek. Um that's about it. If you have any questions at all about the what's on in front of you guys tonight, I'd be more than happy to answer.

Thanks, Brandon. Any questions for Brandon? Uh not a question, just a comment. I think Illinois State just tied up the game. Sorry. Illinois State just tied up the game. Yeah, it's 2828. Yeah, [laughter] it's it's Yeah, we're nervous. Thank you. I couldn't tell. Thanks, Brandon. Any public comment this evening on this item? Is it related to this? Yes, please. Yeah, just approach the Of course. [clears throat]

Um, where is the storm water drain? the collection for storm water. You said that it was onto Park Avenue and then ultimately through an interceptor down to Cow Creek Park Avenue. That's correct. So on the east side of the school on the back side of the school. I don't know. I think that's correct. Okay. Yeah. What's the name of the street that it's close to? Park. Park. Thanks, Jamie. Further public comment. I'm going to go ahead unless there's anyone online. Michelle,

for those of you who are attending online, if you'd like to address the council, um, please unmute your mic and state your name and address, please.

We're good. Thanks, Michelle. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and turn it over to Rebecca for a motion. I move to approve WCU25-13, the findings of fact in the staff report and recommended 11 conditions of approval as recommended by the Whitefish Planning Commission on December 18th, 2025. Is there a second to the motion?

Second. Seconded by councelor Sweeney. Further discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed like sign. And that motion does carry unanimously, which brings us on to item 8B, consideration of request from Little Little Bear Developments. Number four, LLC for a CUP to add a beer and wine liquor license to expand sales at Bonsai Brewery located at 549 Wisconsin Avenue. And the property is zoned WB1. Dave,

good mayor. Good evening, mayor and council. So, um, Little Bear LLC has applied to expand the operations at the Bonsai Brewery, um, at 549 Wisconsin and 635 Denver to a full beer and wine license. Right now, they just have a brewery permit. They've had a couple of conditional use permits over the years. Um, the initial one when they operated the mall, then uh, two more at that location when they initially put it in, and then when they expanded the facility, um, they came in for an additional conditional use permit. And then adding this beer and wine license is something that our code requires. um unless it's a restaurant beer wine and this is a full beer and wine. So, they'll have the ability now to serve wine there as well as stay open till 11 p.m. No other changes to the facility are being proposed. That site's one and a half acres. Um on the north there's professional offices. To the west there's a restaurant and a bar. Um to the south is their parking and a bed and breakfast. And then to the east a professional office. It's currently zone WB1 which is our limited business district. We put out a public notice uh all properties within 300 feet. We did receive three written um emails, two supporting the CUP and one with concerns about outdoor noise at night and proximity to the bike path. Um in reviewing a conditional use permit, there's certain criteria that are required to go through. Um is it um comply with the growth policy? And this particular use does comply. It's um consistent with our zoning of neighborhood commercial zone WB1. Um is it compliant with the regulations? There are no proposed changes to the footprint of the existing buildings. It does comply with our zoning regulations. All standards are being met. Um it is an existing facility. Um as far as site suitability goes, um it has suitable access. Um that's not being changed. Um all the other standards are being met. There's no environmental concerns. As far as quality and functionality, they're not proposing to change the existing parking lot. Staff is um adding a condition that they restripe it since the um stripes on that lot are somewhat faded. And we do have requirements for ADA spaces now in our code. And we so we

need to show those uh two of those delineated. Um fencing and screening. It does have an existing privacy fence between the facility and the bed and breakfast to the south and a split rail fence along Wisconsin Avenue. Um so the quality and functionality again it's an existing site that's not being modified and no chains are being proposed and it does adequately meet those um requirements. There's existing public services available uh water and sewer etc to the site since it's existing condition. Um we don't anticipate substantial traffic generation um for the additional two hours that they might be open in the summertime. Um as far as noise and vibration, they do um plan on occasionally having live music at that facility. Uh the city noise ordinance prohibits outdoor live music after 10 p.m. They plan on complying with that. Um all other um similar types of facilities within the city have that same limitation that have outdoor music. They are allowed to do it until 10 p.m. Um you know, brewing beer does have a slight um odor of roasting cereal grain that it shouldn't affect anyone. And again, their hours of operations um they're proposing 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the winter and 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the summer. They might close at 10:00 at certain times of the year. Um the applicant can elaborate on that, but we don't anticipate that project to have any negative impacts um on that neighborhood. Um it's compatible with existing uh uses established business and um staff does recommend approval of the conditional use permit subject to eight conditions um to highlight some of the unusual ones. Um if they do propose any changes to the interior that requires a building permit, obviously they'd have to get that. um and any changes to the exterior, they would have to um go through our review process with architecture review. Again, I mentioned striping the parking lot um because two handicap spaces are required for parking lots of 25 to 50 spaces. Um we did put a

condition that outdoor live music shall not occur past 10 p.m. That is currently in our noise ordinance, but it's just a reminder. Um and then they also are subject still to the conditions of their previously approved conditional use permits that they had in the past. Um this did go to our planning commission um on December 18th uh following a public hearing. Um only the applicant spoke and the planning commission unanimously recommended approval. Be glad to answer any conditions that you guys or any questions that you guys might have. Thanks Dave. Any questions for Dave on his staff report? Steve, just have a quick question. since they're going from just a brewery license where they would close down at 8 when it's still light in the summertime

to um something that could keep them open till 10 or 11. Um does it make sense to have to require them to have signs that say beer can't leave the premises? You know, can't take anything off the premises. I know that that's we don't have those signs necessarily in town, but it might be something that feels different because most of their seating is outdoors there. Did that come up in discussions at all?

The state regulates that? I mean, the police sometimes require a sign saying, you know, you know, I mean, obviously people can buy a growler full of beer and leave the premises with a growler. So, but um you know, I guess that's something that I mean, typically you see that regular up at all. That's fine. Thank you. Additional questions for Dave. Not seeing any. We did advertise for a public hearing on item 8B of our agenda. any public comments and I'll take the applicant representative or applicant first.

Hey guys, uh Daniel Wright, 28 Fairway View, Whitefish. Um firstly, happy new year to you all. Uh thank you to city council members and planning staff for putting Bonsai on the agenda today. Um we took [clears throat] over Bonsai, the operation of it at the end of June. Um just been running the business for five months. Pretty challenging business. Food and beverage industry is very hard work. [laughter]

and it never seems to get easier. Um, we intend to keep uh Bonsai running in the same vein that Keeler and Graham did as a community focal point. Um, where people can come and enjoy good food, great beer in a relaxed family environment. Um, um, and we keep to intend on keeping that going. From a business point of view, um, us being able to be open for an extra three hours in the summer, um, the the three hours that we're choosing from 11 till 10 would make a huge business uh, difference to our business and will probably, you know, will definitely be be able to make us survive these quite slow, challenging winter months. Although we've just gone through a very busy period, it's still it was still very challenging operating any food and beverage from September until um you know the summer months come and the tourists come through. Um so yeah, the the the requests we're the things we're asking for are quite uh small. Um we will be stacking our license on top of uh our current brewery license. We're still going to remain a brewery. U predominantly selling beer that we brew onsite. Uh we will be selling some wine. Um it will having this license will also allow us to move our brewery from where it is and I don't know if many of you have been back there but it is just located behind the uh tap uh where the taps are in the tap room. Um and it's probably in the place where we should have a full indoor uh commercial kitchen which we don't. So, our winter offering is, you know, challenging for our staff um because we're shuffling from between uh our prep kitchen in the back to our uh galley kitchen. Um and for us to do

that, we we'd love to see a beer brewed in Whitefish. Um you know, a business that we can build on, employ more people, um and ultimately try and make the best beer in Montana come out of Whitefish. Um, so to do that we would need a uh beer and wine license to allow us to distribute our own beer at the premises that would be bonsai. So those are kind of our future visions um if we get there. So yeah, thank you. Any questions? Thanks very much. Any questions? Jeppi, are you going to add the word pub to the name of the business?

Not no as of now. No. We we've hired a great brewer. um a local guy called Marty uh who's who's really doing a great job in there. I'd implore you all to come in and taste some of the old classics that you may have refined a little bit, some of his newer beers, but um no, we intend to stay as a brewery. Um and I think it is more of a family sort of environment, which is what we want to, you know, keep and foster and I think the community enjoy the space. So, yeah. No, it will be a brewery. Further questions? Thanks for what you're doing there. It's a great addition to that side of the neighborhood. Thank you guys.

Appreciate it. Further public comment this evening. Michelle, anyone online? For those of you who are attending online, if you would like to speak towards uh WCUP212 Bonsai Brewery, please raise your hand. I think we're good. Thank you, Michelle. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. Steve, I move to approve WCP25-15 with the um eight conditions of approval. Thanks, Steve. Second.

I second it.

Seconded by Councelor Norton. Just beat you to it. Further discussion. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed like sign. And that motion does carry unanimously. Thanks for your time tonight. Good luck with everything. Do you guys want a quick break or push through the last hearing? We'll move on to item 8 C, resolution 2601, approving an increase in ambulance fees and establishing new fees for certain fire rescue services provided by the WFD. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I am taking this one on um as you'll hear from Cole here later tonight on the CWPP. So, we're splitting duties here. Um the Whitefish Fire Department provides ambulance service for city residents and non-residents within the Whitefish Fire Department's emergency medical response area, which extends beyond city limits. Um, for those calls outside of city limits, um, the city does, uh, receive a small response fee from the Flathead County EMS levy. However, most of the cost of the call is covered by charges for services build, um, to the patient. Um, the ambulance fees for the city of Whitefish, um, the last increase was July of 2019, so it's been quite a while. Um before that we had a three-year period where it was automatically increasing based on CPI for all urban consumers um for medical care services. Uh that uh once that was ended we were really kind of crunched with time for staff trying to manage everything from COVID to uh growth policies. So, um, in March of 2024 though, the city council contracted with, uh, Baker Tilly T Baker Tilly to, um, update our ambulance fees and provide a recommendation for, um, what those rates should be based on a cost of service analysis. We received that report in May of 2025.

Um after their presentation, council directed staff to prepare for a public hearing um updated rates with um kind of a recommendation that those be lower than what was proposed by the consultants. And I'll I'll get into that here in a minute. Um staff took a look at what the consultants proposed um and recognized that their fees would increase our fees, our ambulance fees would increase based on their recommendation from 21% to 67% depending on which fee it was. Um, a lot of that came from the 2021 uh, Whitefish Fire Department master plan that recommended the fees be increased to provide a collectibility rate of only 28 to 35%. We average closer to 49 to 59% depending on the year. And part of that has to do with dealing with insurance companies and making sure you can get get your um, costs covered. That said, we know that not everybody has insurance. And so, um, seeing the rate increase, we also wanted to compare that to our neighboring jurisdictions. You have that comparison, um, on the back side of, uh, my staff reports. But, um, when we take away the adjustment made to reach that 28 to 35% collectibility, um, those costs come down quite significantly. We looked at taking what our fees were uh our current fees are now and applying from from the last increase annually uh CPI rate and see what that would actually compare to. And that would still increase our um ambulance fees about 22%. And so that's the proposal that we have before you is to um increase our current ambulance fees specifically by about 22%. Um that includes basic um BLS uh life- saving services I think ALS which is

advanced and then treat node transport. We have mileage rates um those would all increase by about 22% which would go from for our basic service of $1,70 to uh $134 compared to the consultant recommendation of $1691. Um there's also a recommendation in the report from the consultants to add new fees. Um and that was something that the master plan called for looking at uh what fees are we not charging for that we should be especially when we can recruit them from um auto insurance um or other insuranceances that individuals might have. And so we're looking at adding new fire response fees for automo automobile accidents and other events where medical services are provided by our fire personnel. So those that are responding on a fire engine and then also fire responses to gas leaks. Now gas leaks are unique. You're supposed to call you dig. So this is kind of a penalty fee quite honestly that we're having to show up for contractors who have broken a gas line. Um and so it is a much higher fee because of that. uh we went with the actual cost of response versus trying to reduce it um anyway uh because really we shouldn't have those calls um they should have called UDIG already um so for those the automobile accidents the initial response um the consultants recommended a flat rate of $1,124 our proposal is to actually look at it on an hourly rate because the the response depends on how long we're on scene for staff time and so $350 $50 was the calculation that Cole and I came to. Um, which is actually based on the um, Montana Department of Natural Resources, our contract with them when we provide an engine that's staffed for wildfire response. So, um, it's reasonable cost in that that's what the state is um, actually reimbursing us. We felt that it was still reasonable based on, you know,

the time that we see ourselves on an automobile accident. Um, and so that would be the same for if it was an automobile accident or if the fire truck responded to some type of medical emergency and started providing medical care um while an ambulance might be elsewhere. We know that we are called multiple times with a small crew. It might be that we are separated, which is why you often see um the fire truck respond um with the ambulance is to allow for that next call for them to move. Gas leaks though would be about $1,294. We did remove from the consultant fees the adjustment again to get to that 28 to 35% collectibility. Um so it is a bit less for them there. Um there's less comparisons for those type of fees though there are some um we do have uh for example um Big Fork they charge for an automobile accident response from $150 to $750. Um Belgrades 319 to 669. So we did compare them to other communities as we could. Um gas leaks would be a unique response fee that we would charge. Um so that that's somewhat new for um when looking at a 22% increase. It sounds very high, but if you divide it over the number of years that we did not increase, you'd be looking at close to a 3% increase. So much less than um a true 22% increase um just in one year. It really covers the costs that we've been paying for through property taxes.

Real quick question, Dana from Steve, if you don't mind. Yes, please. Um, Dana, on the the automobile accidents and the gas leaks, it seems like there's, you know, the the amount of time we're there really varies. Yes. Should there be like a, you know, a mobilization charge and then an hourly charge after that? Is that something that you considered or is that just not really that too complicated or Right. So, so we try to keep it simple and that the initial like the response regardless of the time it takes, you're you're charged that one hour. So, $350 for the response, regardless of how long we're on scene, right?

And then for each hour after that, it's $350. And part of that is that mobilization. We're out of the station. We might only be there for 15 minutes, but um that time it took us away from other calls to provide service. So, and is that the same for the gas leaks as well, or is that just a one-time charge that we have to respond to a gas leak? So, the gas leak is different. It is a one-time flat charge that if we have to show up to a gas leak where contractors um had had a a break in a line, it is a flat fee of 3546. So, that was 1294.

I'm sorry. That is So, so the the gas leak on that that's 1294. That's for residents versus non-residents. Sorry, you are correct. That is the resident rate. So, we do have different rates depending on where they are located. For gas leaks, there's a typo in my staff report, but I'll double check the resolution is correct, but we're going to charge for gas leaks. The fire service area that we're contracted to provide fire response, we will charge in the resident rate. But otherwise, if you're outside city limits, just like our ambulance rates, the one that I said, that's a resident rate. non-residents do pay a higher rate because they are not paying the property tax levy that is funding our fire department as a non-resident.

Okay, thank you. Yes, thank you for catching that. Um the uh one thing to consider as you compare us to other jurisdictions is that um qualifications of firefighters that are responding or medical personnel that are responding varies by jurisdiction. We actually hire um only paramedics now. We do have one advanced EMT that remains on our department, but we are responding with highly qualified individuals. You know, the type of population we serve and then the services that we offer, they vary by each entity. So, for example, Eureka, correct me if I'm wrong, Cole, they don't provide advanced life services. Correct. Most of the time, I think right now they have no paramedics or BLS only.

So, BLS only, you don't have a paramedic. ALS, you do. Um and so um you know that's just one thing to consider. Um rescue care though is a program that the city does offer which is unique um for us in that um we understand not everybody has insurance and they should be able to call for an ambulance if they need it. So we still have our rescue care program for $59 for primary residents. Um they can have it to where we will respond to a call for everybody listed in your household who's their primary resident. We will respond to your home. We will bill your insurance and anything that we do not collect from the insurance company, we consider that payment in full. We don't go to private pay because sometimes your insurance doesn't cover the full cost. So then it goes to the individual to pay the remainder. Under this program, it it provides really a great benefit for those that might need it. So um again uh like I said we um understand it's a big increase but I think if you look at over the past five to six years um we've seen a fair share increase in our costs um from personnel to equipment to supplies. Um the budget does assume an increase for our ambulance um service charges um but does not account for any of the new fire fees. Um and part of that is because we had already started the um consultant process with them creating this cost of service analysis. we knew that a rate increase needed to happen. So, um what we would uh generate based on our proposal um based on the number of calls, I'm estimating that it will it'll match what we have projected in the budget for ambulance revenues or at least close to. Um and so with that, if you have any questions, um staff recommends after holding a public hear hearing that the city council adopt the resolution um approving an increase in our ambulance fees and establishing new fees for certain fire rescue services provided by our Whitefish Fire Department.

Thank you, Dana. Thanks, Cole. Any questions for staff? Ben, Dana, do we have the ability to d differentiate our fees? Well, let me back up. What happens if somebody's uninsured?

So, if they're uninsured, it becomes a private pay where we would build the individual. Um, there are in instances where the fire chief may um provide in certain uh extenduating circumstances a write- off of the debt. Um, so we go through the billing company and they would bill that person person individually and then the billing company works that individual and I believe makes recommendations to Cole on um, anything that would be considered a bad bet right off.

Do we have the ability to differentiate our rates for those who are uninsured? You could, but I think when it comes down to Medicare and Medicaid, that would be a challenge because I believe what we charge private and Michelle might even know this from when she did ambulance billing, but I believe that will be a conflict with the Medicare and Medicaid. We we would have to build that at the lower rate if you create a lower rate for um those that are uninsured. So, if you're uninsured and you ride in an ambulance, do you receive a bill automatically for the full amount? Yes, you would receive.

So, even though we know we would only expect to collect at best 50% of that from most insurance companies and that's why our collectibility rate ranges from 49 to 59%. Also Medicare we end up writing a lot off as well because Medicare and um uh Medicaid do not cover the full build amount, right? And then you can't bill after, right? Medic Medicaid you cannot bill. Yeah.

If we are unable to differentiate rates, are we able to have an internal policy that would say something to the effect of we don't collect from uninsured individuals? I don't I don't recommend that because we offer the rescue care program where $59 a year one $59 payment you can be covered to where correct me if I'm wrong. Can you do rescue care without insurance? Yes. So you can for $59 cover yourself for your ambulance ride. And is can you do that retroactively or do you have to do that ahead of time? No, you have to have be have it at the time but you can sign up anytime during the year. It's a membership,

but I mean, if somebody's uninsured, they're not going to do that, right?

Ideally, they see that as an insurance option if they needed an ambulance ride. But I I would recommend if you're looking at doing something like that, you identify a funding source because um you would need to, you know, make up the cost that it's going to take to to care for those individuals. somebody else is paying for it essentially because in our budget, you know, the revenue we're generating, the write-offs we already know that we're going to do of like 40% um up to 40% write-offs that we're we're trying to cover the cost of the department and the services provided. So, I I understand where you're going, but for $59 a year, they they have it covered. It's just individuals need to think about that, but often nobody thinks they need an ambulance, right? And I understand that as well.

Yeah. Yeah. And so when we say we we ride off, I believe you said, "Yeah, we wave private pay." So to the extent the insurance company, does that factor deductibles? Probably not, right? Like like if somebody, right? Okay. Yeah, it would it it would just factor whatever the insurance company is going to pay. So if they assume there's a deductible of $1,000, so they're not going to pay the first thousand, they'll pay the remaining portion. So if you have a high deductible insurance, which a lot of people do,

the the insurance the insurance company doesn't pay it. So they the entire bill would go to the the insured if they aren't under rescue care. Okay. But we do run it through insurance. So like we run everything through the insurance, right? Y but the insurance company like if if if they haven't reached their deductible, then the bill gets forwarded essentially to the insured.

And so the like the insurance companies will push back on rates if they're paying. But what if they aren't paying because it's am I making sense? Like if if that bill if if the person has a high deductible insurance and let's say they haven't reached it and then we bill that full amount to the insurance company, they're going to in turn send the full cost of that back to the insured. Are they going to send it back at the retail cost or are they going to send it back at the negotiated lower cost? There's no negotiation on our fees. Well, there's 50%.

No, that's just uncollectibility. So that is basically anything for medicaid Medicaid once we bill Medicaid we cannot go private pay we cannot ask for the remainder from the individual um for others you know you go through the insurance and then whatever they pay the remainder will go to the private pay for rescue care we go to the insurance and then if they don't pay at all we consider the bill paid in full similar to Medicaid So why why do we have the 50% uncollective rate? I mean

majority I mean a majority of it is going to be Medicaid write offs write offs through Medicare and Medicaid because they want they're all because they're at a set rate. Yeah. They're going to charge you're allowed to charge what you can charge based on their policies. Okay. Which is a lot of our calls. So, I will I will say that we have a higher, you know, uh it could be even higher uh that we would have a higher um well, a lower collectibility rate just as our population ages. We'll continue to see that. I

mean, if I told you I had moral objections to the concept of billing citizens more than Medicare is willing to pay for the same service just because they don't negotiate. I mean, how do is there any solution to this problem? I It just feels unfair. I don't think we can. I mean, I I really don't think that there's a means to do that. I mean, we're doing it the same as every other ambulance service out there. Um, and and really that's how any health care system works. Yeah. So, all right. Thank you, Jeppi.

Yes. Uh, I guess uh some of this discussion uh is independent from raising the fees. I mean there is something that maybe later we can review because we can have that conversation regardless of how high the the the rates are. My question is say there is a a visitor here who rents here but it doesn't own here gets hit by the car gets in the ambulance. Do we differentiate the rate because is he or she it them is not a resident versus if if so if I can show I'm a property owner while I'm bleeding I get a discount. Is it practical? I mean does it work that way?

It's resident or property owner, right? But uh I live here but I rent and I don't vote here. So I'm not a resident. Um you rent here. your Yeah, it goes off of your address. So, if you rent here, like it's a long-term rental. I mean, it's not for short-term rentals. It's not for You have to be a resident. Yeah. Yeah. Your legal mailing address. Further questions for Dana Andy. So, in theory, if rates go up, collection rate should go down. Correct.

Correct. And that Yes. And that is how it works and that's actually how it shows in the budget. So, uh because the more that you're billing to Medicare or Medicaid, the less they're going to pay,

the less they're going to pay. And that that's the theory of why you should have a lower collectibility rate is because of um you know higher rates eventually they'll catch up and then also your private pays your in your non-Medicare Medicaid the insurance companies will pay more. And so you know if you think about 3.6% 6% over the past six years is the increase that we're proposing. Tell me what your medical insurance costs went up those five years. It's way more than what this cost is. Um so we are Medicare and Medicare Medicaid providers. Correct. Correct.

Because we can bill for them. Yes. So they legally you can't charge more than what they've set their annual fees at, but private insurance companies will set their own rates as well, which is um variable all over. Um so to me it seems like what we should do is actually advertise rescue care a lot and I'm just wonder and because it's $59 a year, you're covered. you won't have to pay more than that even if you don't have insurance. Um, so how do people sign up for that, Dana? And what like is there a timeline for signing up? You said we can sign up all year long,

but how how and it's a year-long subscription. And then how do people get on that program?

So you can um go to our website and they have the application form. It is for a full year. Um you can sign up at any point during the year, but it's the same price. So, but it starts July one and goes through June of each year. That's the the membership um period. Um you know, in the future, if we did see all of our customers go to rescue care, we would have to put um restrictions on it because it would um effectively decrease our revenues um if you think about it. But it really is a program that's out there for those that might be frequent flyers or those that um maybe do not have health insurance and and could have that. I think, you know, we haven't seen it grow over the past six years or since I've been here. Um the school district participates, we participate as the parks department for our summer camp program. So, we do have a couple contracts for like sporting events for the school. Um they do cover their athletes under that um program. So there's certain um agreements we've been able to make um but so kids that might not be covered under insurance um they're covered during those events. Um but yeah, it's it's um it's one that we will have to eventually look at the fees also just given those fees haven't been increased in some time as well. And it's only for medically necessary transport and it has to be transport that originates in Whitefish response area. Um, and so there's there are some requirements. It has to be deemed medically necessary.

Is there a flyer or anything for this? There is. Yeah, you can find it online. Okay, great. On our website. Thank you. Yes. Do you have any other medical advice for us? No. Insurance advice for us. Dana, call to bear. No. Have I rode our ambulance and had to pay full price even though I knew that program existed? Absolutely. Yeah. Additional questions for Dana? Not seeing any. We did advertise for a public hearing on resolution 26-01. Any public comment this evening from the audience? How about online, Michelle?

For those of you who are attending online, if you would like to speak towards um resolution 2601, um increase in ambulance fees and establishing new fees for certain fire rescue, please raise your hand. We're good. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and I'd entertain a motion. Frank, I would move to approve resolution 2601, a resolution approving an increase in the ambulance fees and establishing new fees for certain fire rescue services provided by the Whitefish Fire Department. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Cornell. Further discussion? Just one comment. I think

when we first started the rescue care program, which was over 25 years ago now, I think it was $59. So, I think we might We might want to take a look at that here sometime in the future, but I don't think the numbers ever changed from when Dave site first said it. I mean, I think it's the same number. Non-resident might have changed. Non-resident might have changed. Yeah, that's the only one that I res. Was it 49? I think it was 45. 45 and then we increased it to 59. Yeah. 25 years. It really maybe could go up a couple more dollars than that. Not done.

All right. Um, Dan, I've done a great job putting this together, and I mean that. Everything I'm about to say has nothing to do with the work that's been done here, but I I just I got to say a few things, and I'm sorry if this is a soap box, but I guess I'm an elected official, and I can do that. Um, this system in my view is a force. It It really is. It's like we and and I'm talking about the broader medical system and I realize I'm sitting here in a city council meeting raving about the world, but I'm voting on something in front of me that is a part of that. And we have this system where we set these artificially high rates. We know insurers are not going to pay them. And the people that get hurt the most by this are the people that are underinsured, that are not insured, who are not in a position to push back on these rates. And where the world is going these days, insurance deductibles get higher and higher and higher. Those costs get pushed back onto the citizens. I I think nobody should be scared to call EMS. If there is an emergency, you should be calling EMS and not being worried about getting hit with a bill. I have problems charging people in this town more than we are willing to pay other people for the same services like Medicare or Blue Cross Blue Shield or some other company. If they say, "I'm only willing to pay this much." and we accept that, but we're going to go to other citizens and we're going to tell them, "No, no, you have to pay more." The system is just broken. And I I just I know it's not our fault. I know it's not staff's fault. I know it's not this

consultant's fault, but I'm looking at this thing and I'm saying, man, we are voting on something that is just a cog in this wheel and I just can't do it. So, I'm not gonna vote for it. I don't know. I don't have another solution right now. It's too complicated for me to come up with another solution. But I'm just just so I'm on the record saying I don't like this. I don't think this is fair to people and I hope that one day we can figure out something better. So, thanks for listening. Thank you, Ben. Rebecca.

Yeah. So, what happens then? You're right. It's a crazy system. Um but what happens in medicine is most organizations have foundations that develop a pool of money so that people that don't have the capacity to pay um they can access that by applying for a scholarship kind of. So we could we could look at something like that. I think historically our ambulance services have lost money through billing and things like that. Oh yeah, Dana's like, "Oh yeah." And and so so that's why we fund them through um general funds and bonds and things like that because it's an essential service. So the public knows it's an essential service. Um uh but you know, in the future if there's a way that we could come up with extra funds to help people, I would be open to that concept. But most hospitals have foundations for that purpose and um and it's part of the game. You write off things a lot when you're in the business because I did insurance my own insurance things for years and it is heartbreaking and a lot of people can't pay their bills. Um so I appreciate your good heart around that.

Have a question. Sorry. Uh Steve then Jeppy. Okay, can I ask you a quick question? Do we we send these people to collections who we've build that they don't pay? They don't have insurance or they get sent to collections. Yes, they do. Um I haven't seen how many are going to collections. Um but with medical billing on collections is a little bit different. I think there's some like as long as you're making a payment a dollar. I mean that's all that you're required to. There's not much they can do. Do we have any control over whether that affects their credit rating or not? because I know that there was a

we control who sent to collections like that. They usually send a report and then we're we're provided the opportunity. I don't know how many they are sending to collections. We're looking at potentially going out for a bid for um a new ambulance billing company. Um but the bottom line is we control who we send to collections. We should be Yeah, I believe we control who's being sent to collection. Correct, Cole. You you should be or was getting

We're not getting asked. We're not getting asked. Well, we were getting asked. Um and so we'll follow up with that, but um no, if it there is the opportunity to send people to collections, um we we don't do that on utility bills because we shut water off. We do that at the court, they go to collections. Um ambulance rides can go um in Montana. Maybe an ambulance response. Let's not belabor the point too much. Maybe maybe part of the solution that Ben is looking for lies in that piece and maybe we could investigate that a little bit.

We we do. Yeah. So we have people on monthly payments. So like we we have people paying $25 a month for the rest of their lives probably because it's going to take that long for some maybe. I don't know. Our bill our bills are not the expensive part. If you go to the ER, you know whose bills way more than ours. But we do allow for time pay which is $25 a month or whatever whatever the agreement becomes. So we have time pays um as long as they're trying to make payments. They don't go to collections.

Um so it's the communication aspect. You know if they ask for a hardship we might even just write off a portion and then agree to a certain portion that they time pay over a period of time. So we do work with the customers. It is not just we're billing you and if you don't pay you don't you know we're going to send you to collections. That is not what occurs. Okay. Well, yeah, not maybe I don't know if the rest of the council agrees with you, but I'd like to see some statistics about how many people we send to collections and for what. Yeah, we can pull that information.

I'd like to know that just because if maybe that's an out for us in some ways. Um maybe not. I don't know, but I'd like to see I'd like to have a little more information about that and if that's okay with the rest of council, maybe we could look at that as, you know, a possible side solution to this. Um, other than that, Ben, I agree with everything you just said. And at the same time, we're elected to govern and we have to govern the best we can. And in this case, this is one of those things where you just have to hold your nose knowing that you're voting for a stinking pile of crap. And that's what it is. And that's so I I am going to vote for this knowing that I don't like it, but I don't see another solution in terms of funding our emergency services. Jeppi,

uh, thank you. Just a followup question. you have been you've been speaking in the past tense meaning we have been doing this we have been withheld uh withholding collections and so on that was before we even voted to increase the rates correct correct so the issue councelor Davis is discussing applies to the status quo and will apply even more if we voted to increase the rates am I correct

the yeah the policies that we have the practices we have would not change. It's just the rates that are changing to recoup the increasing costs of offering ambulance service which is not a required service in the state of Montana. So our our vote tonight is not affecting the process and is not affecting the uh damage the the financial damage we cause to people who are not insured. uh we might increase that financial damage by a little bit but the issue is already in place. Correct.

Okay. So Ben I I fully agree with your sentiment I think I'm learning about this issue in a more hidden manner tonight but the issues has been there in my mind. So my so while I agree with your point and I would offline propose that we look at this work session wise or however at this point I will vote in favor while I agreeing with your principle excuse [clears throat] me further comments I'm going to call the question all those in favor please raise your hand those opposed like sign and the motion does carry on a 5 to1 vote with councelor Davis voting in opposition and we're going to take a five minute break and we'll reconvene at about 9:23. Oh, I know. I know. I can't do anything, but it's just

it's beyond

I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting back to order and we will move on to item 9A, consideration to award the consulting contract for the CWPP and authorize a city manager to finalize the PSA. And I'll turn it over to Chief Adley.

Thank you. Uh good evening, mayor and council. Uh, city of Whitefish issued a request for proposals on October 22nd, 2025, seeking for qualified consultant to complete the community wildfire protection plan. Uh, consultant selection process followed the rating panel and selection panel structure. The rating panel included the deputy fire chief, city manager, and myself reviewing all submitted proposals. Finalists were identified based on experience, approach to wildfire planning, and project timeline. The city of Whitefish received timely RFPs from eight consulting firms and through the review process five were selected for interviews. DJNA, SWCA, Bentel Incorporated, MC Fire and Cholleta. The selection committee consisted of Deputy Fire Chief, City Manager, Councelor Sweeney, and myself. Structured interviews with the top five firms were conducted with evaluation criteria focusing on technical expertise, familiarity with CWPP development, and overall fit with Whitefish's needs. Following the completion of interviews, the selection panel reached a unanimous consensus that SWCA Environmental Consultants was the most qualified firm. The city's fiscical year 26 adopted budget appropriates $100,000 for updates to the community wildfire protection plan. The bud the budget is utilizing proousing grant funds and the proposed budget from SWCA environmental consultants is $87,364.73 with a projection or with a project completion timeline to be finalized as part of the contract scope. Um staff recommends that city council approve the selection of SWCA environmental consultants to complete the community wildfire protection plan

and authorize staff to finalize the professional services agreement consistent with the RFP. Thanks Chief Hley. Any questions? Rebecca,

I'm sorry. What is the timeline for completion of this? because there's been a lot of chatter online which I know I'm in trouble for being online again but um I you know people are really concerned about the evacuation um out on the other side of the vioduct. So when would we be conclu concluding this then um so that people could be more comfortable. I'm going to help Cole with that. During our interviews, and councelor Sweeney can um agree with this or I I [snorts] think he will. Um we heard a lot about the six month being a very tight timeline, which is what we put the RFP out for. Um all the firms said that they could get it done in six months. Um but many recommended about recommended that we take a longer period. um in talking with the S SWCA as I'm working to negotiate a contract with them um they really wanted to go to 12 months and I said you know with the pro housing grant funds and us wanting to get this done you know as soon as possible you know can we work with the eight nine month uh realm to try to bring that to a better um quicker product but also uh a better product for the community because it's a lot of community outreach and working with other agencies and so I think the contract You can give direction tonight if you'd like um to push it to six months from the contract execution date or um you know you could give direction to do eight to nine months. It's up to you. Otherwise um I wasn't really comfortable with the 12 months that that they recommended but I was more looking at eight months.

Thank you. Dana John, could I just interrupt for a second? Alan, if you and um Scott want to have a conversation, could you step out in the hallway, please? Sorry, it's hard to listen to two things going on at one time. That's okay. Additional questions for Dana.

I would entertain a motion and just for the record in full disclosure and transparency. Um, SWCA did acquire my company, River Design Group, 18 months ago. I had no role in the selection process. I'll have no affiliation with the project. I will not be voting at any point on the adoption of this plan and I have no financial gain associated with how the council votes tonight. Just for the record and full transparency,

please. a move to hire SWCA environmental consultants for the amount of $87,364.73 cents to develop and implement the community wildfire protection plan and to authorize staff to initiate um a professional services contract.

Is there a second to the motion? Second. Seconded by councelor Sweeney. Further discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed like sign and that motion does carry unanimously. We'll move on to Thank you, Chief Adley. We'll move on to item 10A, resolution number 26-02, authoriz authorizing the submitt of an S MC infrastructure planning grant application. Craig. Yeah. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, realizing that you have almost a 300page packet, I'm going to condense this as much as I can. My full staff report uh starts on page 246. Um we've talked quite a bit over the years about uh clear water inflow and infiltration or INI uh in our sanitary sewer system. It's something that we uh budget to try and eliminate every year. Um and we've been at this point pretty much put on notice by DEEQ that we need to do a preliminary engineering report specifically targeted at reducing ini. So, um, essentially, uh, I'm asking council to adopt the resolution in your packet, um, to apply for a $30,000 Montana Coal Endowment Plan or MC um, Grant. Um, we do have the local match, um, for $50,000 budgeted in fiscal 26. So, I'm happy to answer any questions, but that's kind of the nuts and bolts of it.

Thanks, Greg. Any questions for our director, Rebecca? No, just I can make a motion. That's awesome. Okay, get through this quickly. I move to apply for a $30,000 MC infrastructure planning grant from the Montana Department of Commerce as administered by our public works department. Thanks, Rebecca. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Sweeney. Further discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. And that vote is unanimous as well. Michelle, we'll move on to item 11 A, review and consideration of the annual 2025 impact fee report. And I'll turn it over to our city manager, Dana Mer.

Turn it over to Laney. Thanks, Laney. [laughter]

Um, I wish I could be as succinct as Craig, but since I never get to talk to you, I'm going to bore you all. Um, uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. Um the annual impact fee report is required under this under the city code and the information provided in the staff report on impact fees is updated uh for fiscal year in 2025. Um highlights of the recent historic timeline include hiring Tishler buys in 2022 with it through an RFP process to provide an updated impact fee study to more accurately reflect the current growth and expansion needs of [snorts] the city. That study was um completed in September of 2023 and adopted by the city council in October 2023 with an effective date of January 1, 2024. Um, as you heard in the work session with Colin, um, in the updated report, um, some of the impact fees that were existing or changed with the original study in 2023, such as parks and recreation, pave trails, and city hall, as well as well as administrative fees have been eliminated with the 69th state legislative session in the spring of 2025. And this will affect impact fee revenues beginning October 1st of 2025. Water and sewer impact fees are still allowed and continued to be tracked in their own respective enterprise funds. Prior to January 2024, impact fees for city hall pave trails, the park maintenance building, and the emergency services center, and storm water were all accounted for in one impact fee fund, which is reflected in your budget document um as fund number 23.99. With the original study by Tisher Bise in 2023, the storm water impact fee, park building maintenance impact fee, and the emergency services center impact fee were eliminated and an impact fee for police, parks and recreation, and fire and ambulance were created. Due to

reporting requirements and for better transparency, each impact fee was given its own special revenue fund number beginning January 1, 2024. The first part of the annual report on impact fees which is um on pages 249 through 256 of your packet reports on the cash balance revenues and expenditures of the impact fees collected respectively in that fund. Cash reserves for each impact fee except the emergency services center impact fee increased in fiscal year 25 over the prior year. As reflected in the table on the bottom of page 250 in your packet, the increase to the cash balance of each impact fee is due to interest earned. While increasing cash reserves is appropriate when projects are planned within a reasonable time frame, it is generally accepted that the revenue gener generated from impact fees be spent within 5 to 10 years. Cash reserves in this fund are used for their intended growth related purpose and the decrease of the emergency services center impact fee cash balance was due to the outlay for the storage expansion project in fiscal year 25 at the ESC. Sewer and water impact fees are uh impact fee activities are reflected in their own enterprise funds as shown on the table in the table on page 251. And the revenues for impact fees in both funds are at their lowest in each cash each fund since 2020. Water impact fees for fiscal year 25 decreased $23,700 or 10.8% under fiscal year 24. Wastewater impact fees decreased by $51,836 or 18.91% compared to compared to the previous year. During fiscal year 25, the city experienced an increase in building permits, which would typically suggest an increase in water and

wastewater impact fee revenue. However, the methodology for sizing meters was updated to follow the American Waterworks Association standards and the change in meter sizing and types of development projects that occurred led to a decrease in the revenue. While funds were appropriated in the fiscical year 25 budget in both the water and wastewater impact fee funds for appropriate growth related projects, the most substantial outlay was for the Southwater storage project which we talked a little bit about at the works the work session today. Administrative fees were charged to developers at a rate of 5% as allowed by law and deposited into the general fund for the individual impact fees or the respective enterprise funds of water and wastewater. As shown on the table in the table on page 252, there was an overall increase of 32.4% 4% in administrative fees under the new methodology of the 2023 study with the greatest increase attributed to impact fees related to city hall pave trails, parks and recreation, fire and ambulance and police but also reflecting a slight decrease in both water and wastewater administrative fee revenue. As mentioned earlier, the new impact fee funds were created in January of 2024 to better track revenues and expenditures for each impact fee. And fiscal year 2025 was the first full year of collections for each of five impact fees recommended by the 2023 study. This is why the increase in the total revenues for funds 2380 through 2384 from fiscal year 24 to 25 is substantial. When comparing an impact fee revenues includes in including interest and administrative fees across the applicable funds in the table on page 254 there is an increase of 17.05% from the $814,581

of fiscal year 24 to the 953,446 of fiscal year 25. Impact fees may be spent on public improvements, including but not limited to planning, land acquisition, right-of-way acquisition, site improvements, necessary off-site improvements, construction, engineering, architectural services, permitting, applicable impact fees or mit for mitigation costs, and any other expenses that can be capitalized with a useful life of 10 years or more. Impact fees may also be used to recoup public improvement costs previously incurred by the city to the extent that new growth and development will be served by the previously constructed improvements or costs incurred. Impact fees may not be used for the operation or maintenance of public facilities, nor may they be used for remodeling, rehabilitation, or other improvements to an existing structure. Impact fees are used only for projects that address new demands due to growth. Each year, the city updates the capital improvement plan to appropriate resources, including impact fees for applicable projects. As mentioned earlier, funds in fiscal year 25 were spent on the ESC storage expansion project and the Southwater Storage and Production Project. In addition, refunds were issued pursuant to the settlement agreement for the Beck at all versus the city of Whitefish at all case. Finally, to recap the legislative changes of the 2020 2025 legislative session as it relates to impact fees for the city of Whitefish, impact fees can no longer be collected for paved trails, city hall, or parks and recreation and administrative fees for all impact fees have also been eliminated effective October 2025.

We still have the ability to spend what has been collected prior to October 1, 2025 for their respective purposes, but going forward, the city will collect on police, fire, and ambulance, water, and wastewater only. The impact fee advisory committee met on November 12th, 2020 to review the report and move to recommend approval of the annual report by the city council. staff respectfully requests that the city council accept the annual fiscal year 25 report. Thanks, Laney. Any questions for Laney on her staff report or the impact fee study?

Do have a question. I'm sorry. [laughter] As long as it's not about healthcare. Okay. Um Okay. So, we had a presentation earlier earlier today. Those are new impact fees. I'm assuming we're going to discuss these again at some future date about the adopting the new fees and we're given that it's late at this hour, we're probably not wanting to dive too far into that now. Is that fair? Yes. Okay. Um [laughter] Dana didn't answer, but I'll let the council decide. I'd rather know them now to pass them on if we don't know the answers, but we can we can bring it up again.

All right. I I I'll just pass on my feedback from the work session in a nutshell is um the end result is a substantial decrease in impact fees and and that that has me concerned. I mean I know it's not like the cost of anything we're doing is going down. That represents a tax shift, tax burden shift from um developers um to the citizens. And uh I guess in general um I felt like I need a little more explanation of of why they're changing so much because in my opinion it seems like those fees should be changing on a kind of consistent basis, not way up and way down. We just approved a bunch of increases now we're undoing them. Um and so anyway, I I sort of felt like to me maybe some more explanation would help. I know we were kind of rushed in that meeting. I don't know how we want to do this, but I'm just going to put that feedback out there. So,

I can tell you that the majority of the reason of that decrease is due to the peak demand um changing so drastically between 2022 and 2024. And with the impact fees by using peak demand, you know, it's going to change and that's why you're updating them every five years. um peak demand during one year can be different based on usage, based on population visitation, all of that. And so that is a a challenge of it. But um to be consistent in our application of how we calculated the impact fees adopted in 2023, um it's appropriate to reduce them based on new data. And so you'll have an opportunity again though to update those in three to five years. When do you think the new fees will be coming forward for adoption?

No earlier than pro probably March. Okay, that's my guess. Thank you. Further questions or comments? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion. Rebecca, I move to accept the annual impact fee report for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025 as presented by our finance director. Is there a second to the motion? Seconded by councelor Fury. Further discussion. Uh, nice job, Laney. And I really liked how you described the settlement.

All those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed like sign. That motion does carry unanimously. You have Dana's report enclosed with the packet. Any questions for our city manager? Dana, anything additional to report on? Just one thing that's come up and we did hear it at public comment is the Oclo site um cleanup. We've provided two orders in talking to Angie today through the fire marshall. Um, in talking to Angie today, the next step will be um really going through the court process to deem their lack of response um give us the ability to to clean it up. So, um we'll see what happens there, but we are keeping that on our to-do list.

Can I add to that real quick? Um I did earlier today talk to a company that has been apparently hired to do the asbestous um remediation. and they wanted water uh a water connection at a fire hydrant and so we're working with them. He did not give me a schedule but it sounded like it was the asbestous remediation was going to be starting here in the next week or two. So great

I think they're they're moving forward. Frank, I just I think it's really important, Dana, at this juncture that we as a city take the next affirmative step that we have, which is filing whatever is required to be filed with the courts to enforce the removal of that stuff. I mean, I don't think we ought to I'm not waiting around to see what these guys are doing. Yep. If that's council direction, I'm happy to take it and run. I I everyone agree. I think it's really important that we do that. Yep.

Thanks, Frank. We will What's that? I know. We'll move on to item 12 C. Uh Kim is here in the audience. Thanks Kim for attending to consider a request from the Northwestern Montana Land Trust to release the deed restriction on 714 and 7 or excuse me 610 Trail View Way and request funds from the city. Tim,

good evening. I'm glad to see that democracy is alive and well in White Fish. [laughter] Um, I I'm happy to be here again tonight to um inform you that I have an opportunity for the land trust to purchase 610 Trail View. Um, that is 100% certain and we would like to proceed forward with that. Um, we've hit a little bit of a hiccup with 714. I won't know until Wednesday whether or not we'll actually be able to purchase 714 Trailway. If in fact we are able to, then at that time with your permission, I would like to work with the staff to um lift the deed restriction on that one as well. Um and then on Friday, I was notified that um the owner of 506 Trail View might also want to sell his home. And um if that is turns out to be the case, then I might be back in here in two weeks to ask you to lift the deed restriction on that one as well. So those would be number 12, 13, and 14 um that we could purchase in Trail View. So, we're getting a a hefty amount and we're planning to have a um sort of a letter go out to all of the homeowners with deed restrictions and ground leases um at the end of this month just saying we're here and we're working and you're hap we're happy to have you contact us with any questions that you have. So um so my request is for sure 610 714 if um if indeed here in a few days we we deem that that's necessary. And then um my

second request is that um as you have so generously done in the past um potentially $40,000 for each one of those purchases that would assist us in buying the land underneath those homes and bring down the purchase price. Um in both cases the price is somewhere between 400 and $425,000. um the $40,000 from the city on each case would bring that down and then the community land trust would then bring in another 20 to $40,000 to bring it into a price range where the new buyer can can manage the mortgage. So,

thanks Kim. Any questions for Quim Kim on the request? Actually, thank you Kim. Not for Kim but for the staff. Do we have budget for this and under which uh account? We do. So, we have um you have available uh with the $80,000 requested, you would still have $42,000 remaining um as appropriated for fiscal year 26 in the affordable housing fund. So, this this would be $42,000 remaining until June 30th. Correct. Thank you. Ben, would you like a motion?

Yes, please. Um, I would move to approve um the land trust requests um pertaining to 714 and 610 Trailview Way um along with the request for $40,000 for each um home. Is there a second to the motion? I seconded by Councelor Cornell.

Discussion. I I do just have a a question uh about how how would this impact hearing that we've only have $42,000 left in our in our housing fund. How would this impact potentially with the potential purchase of the Habitat for Humanity working with Habitat for Humanity for um snow lot stuff? Um I have never had a discussion with Habitat about that

and so I don't cannot tell you. Okay. Um I have in fact had uh conversation multiple conversations over the last year with housing white fish and um my board is very interested in the community land trust um taking on the management of those homes to be sold and then managed and then resold as we do with all of our houses in the future. if that if those houses are built by whomever they're built by. Okay. And so um the funds that you have in your account don't play um with that that plan.

All right. Thank you. Yes. Further comments? Ben, uh I just wanted to say thanks again for coming back. Um obviously I support what you're doing here. Um and I would just say another one in two weeks and it looks just like this. Uh you can have the night off and send it in and I'll support it for you if you're not here. [laughter] That's very nice of you. Very very generous.

All those [clears throat] in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Those opposed like son and that motion does carry unanimously. Thanks Kim. And um [clears throat] I do remember that last year you asked me to try and come up with a plan that wasn't onesies. And I would like to tell you that I am actually working on a plan and I hope that by February or March I can come back and tell you more definitively about a plan that's more than one or two houses at a time. So thank you.

Great. Thanks Kim. We'll move on to item 13 of our agenda. You have two letters from Shelter Whitefish which included a 27page report. Keegan, thanks very much for the content and detail. I personally would like to defer this to the next meeting so we could have a more robust discussion because it's a lot of information to digest at 10:00 after meeting for five hours. But I'll certainly defer to the council on your discretion, but we could certainly repost this to the uh January 20th meeting. I'm fine with that.

Allan's been in waiting this whole time and I'm just wondering if there's a timeline that we might be running up against with the growth policy. Did you want to speak to us at all? Alan Tippenbach Long. No, no, no. He's still there. Yeah. And I and I figured you were here for this reason. Is that right? Wait, I have to get permission from the mayor to recognize you. No, you don't. Oh, okay. [laughter]

Alan Tbach, long range planner. Um, you are going to have a work session uh about housing. Dana, help me. February. I'm almost wondering if this would be appropriate during that discussion when we're going to actually spend an hour and a half talking about the housing element. February second.

February 2nd. So, um, the day after tomorrow, tomorrow or the day, First of all, I apologize, Mr. Cornell, if my lo my voice was loud back there, I'm so I apologize about that. That was unacceptable. Um, the day after tomorrow or tomorrow, you're going to get you're going to be the lucky recipients of the first fully assembled version of Vision White Fish. Um, minus the sections that you won't be talking about on the 20th. So, you're going to get 147 page document. You'll have two weeks to read it. That gives you a little more than the usual push. Um those first three topics we'll be talking about on January 20th. So it'll be a robust work session. Um but the two really biggies obviously would be housing and land use. You have separate work sessions set aside for that. Housing will be February 2nd. So there'll be an hour and a half work session where we can delve into all that. And also that would be happening after the planning commission has now had a chance to finish housing. So, it to me it's a little more appropriate to because the planning commission is going to be meeting about housing Wednesday. Um, at least that's the first part of it. I'm not sure how many meetings that will take. Um, but they have to be the the planning commission has the final adoption or not adoption of the plan scheduled for February 19th. So, the thing's a little tricky is you're going to be talking about some of you're going to be having work sessions prior to the planning commission actually adopting the plan. So, that was a long-winded answer. Um, there's going to be a whole work session on housing that that you could discuss on February 2nd and you you're going to be well you'll be well apprised of it on that date. I will talk to you about the whole housing

element and all of the issues that were that were um that comprise it, but I don't know yet what the what the um a lot of this I guess there's there's kind of I know everybody's tired um including me. Um it comes down to numbers, what the numbers are and then it comes down to what the policies are and whether the numbers are going to affect the policies. And I, you know, and um that's going to be a decision I'm going to talk to the planning commission about on Wednesday about whether does whether we build a 100 units a year or 300 units a year. This comes down to the policies. We don't build housing. So we we have the policies about how we can try to facilitate it getting done and will those numbers change the policies. That's really what it comes down to.

Thank you, Alan. Um, it seems to me that our process that we have is we ask the planning board to evaluate these things first and and maybe this is what you're saying, but are you basically saying that maybe we should just have the planning board look at this and then we react to it when it comes to council?

I I I think that I think all the research they've they've done is great. You know, I have of course I have research from other parties now saying that research isn't correct. My research is correct. So that's you know, yay my life. um planning commission will be discussing this at length and I'll find out if if they believe that changing the numbers will change the substantive nature of the housing element. That's really what it comes down to, right? We don't build housing, we get funding. We I've never been here long enough to hear that. Um

nuts to shut up Allan Siren. So, you know, that's what it comes down to is whether or not we whether or not changing the numbers is going to really change the content of the housing element because we're just trying to get housing built whether it's 100 units or 300 units a year. Mr. Mayor, I think I think the appropriate time to discuss I mean we should review this obviously. I think the appropriate time to discuss this is when we have our work session. Um, and that's when we probably ought to talk about it and we'll have time at that time and it won't be 10 o'clock at night. I agree, Alan. Thanks.

Sorry. Again, my apologies, Mr. Cornell, hanging out so late. Um, you have one additional letter from Tony Morasco. Any questions on his letter or can we move on to the 14 board appointments? Why don't we go ahead and do so? Um we'll start with the first uh appointment to various boards, committees, and commissions. Bike ped. Um Jeppi, you're the current designate. I can keep pedaling. Climate action committee. Uh Ben,

uh I have been on this committee for six years. I did pick up an additional committee this year. Um, so I I sort of put some feelers out if anybody would be interested in taking the spot. I know I did talk to Rebecca since I did take over a committee from her um recently. If she would be interested um or if anybody else would, that would be awesome. Great. Thanks, Rebecca. Thank you, very much. Uh, housing committee Ben. Okay. You catching all these, Michelle? Okay. Um, impact fee advisory committee. Uh, Jeppi is our current design.

I'm I'm willing to sit there. I'm learning more and more. Mike is there too. Uh, if you have nothing in to the contrary, I'm good. All those in favor. Yep. Okay. Thanks, Jeppe. Uh, the exciting insurance medical committee. Not me. [laughter] Andy and Rebecca, you'll remain as our design. Uh, Legacy Lands, we have the Recreation Conservation Committee, the LLAC. Uh, we have two counselors, Council Fury and Cornell.

Okay, great. Uh, Whitefish Trail Ops Committee, Andy. Great. Thanks for that. Um, NW Jeppi. Yes. Uh, park board. Okay. Planning commission councelor Sweeney and Davis and Fury as alternates.

You want to be a third alternate? Can we do that, Michelle? We have to we have to legally make me the third alternate because I got two hours of notice last time and then Dana said you haven't been voted on but I still did it. Can we go ahead and do that Michelle? Okay then. Should we just have a line? I think it does state [laughter] I think it does state that we need a council member. So You guys could maybe even vote all of you in as alternates. [laughter] Why not? Why don't we just go ahead and do that?

Perfect. To Steve's point,

I don't think that's appropriate. Actually, I will [laughter] I I will say with the alternates and and with all due respect, I think that as the council, um it'd be good for you guys to come up with a plan of notifying your alternates 24 hours in advance, 48 hours in advance just because like Rebecca said, she was notified two hours. It's hard to read a packet or prepare, especially parkboard and planning commission specifically. those two, making sure that those alternate you guys have a plan of like notifying the other person when you're not going to make it because it is important for both those boards to have a a counselor present. Yep. Thanks, Dana. Uh real estate advisory committee currently myself and councelor Fury.

You're good at volunteering other people, aren't you? [laughter] according to some. [laughter] Uh I think Andy and I'll go ahead and stay on that. It's a pretty limited uh commitment. I don't think we've met in a number of years. [laughter] Resort tax advisory committee. Andy. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for your work on that. Tree advisory committee. Uh Rebecca, I imagine I really want to be on that one, Mr. Mayor. the tree advisor. Yeah. Like to see how how often do you meet? Um it's not very common. Maybe

I'll take it. Okay. [laughter] It's actually really fun. You just walk [clears throat] around the streets and just and they all decide what to plant and you learn a lot about trees and how they why they do it. Rebecca, would you like to keep that post? We do like that. Okay. Are you okay with that? Just you can be an alternate. Um and then finally, Whitefish Lake Institute currently, uh myself and councelor Fury who serves as the board president. Happy to stay on that as well.

Yeah, I'm happy to stay on. I actually turned out like I think a couple of terms ago, but they keep extending how many terms you can do it. So, yeah, but I'm happy to do it. So, I think I can do it for life now. Any additional uh comments on board and committee appointments? Not seeing any. We'll start with counselor comments. Andy, would you like to start tonight?

Yeah. Happy New Year. Glad to be back. A little uncomfortable possibly during public comment tonight, but other than that, it was it's always good to be back. I'm honored that one, the community puts their trust in me, and I'm more than honored that I get to serve with all of you. So, I think we're a great council and I think we've grown well together and I think we'll continue to do that in the four years to come and two years for some of us possibly only. But, uh, yeah, and to staff, same. So, anyway, we're a great team and let's keep up the good work even though we just heard earlier that we don't really do anything. So, there you go.

Thanks, Andy. Uh, congrats on your your win, Rebecca.

Yep. The first one is for Z. I know it's hard to speak publicly, but sometimes when you're listening, you have to really listen on another level, and I sincerely appreciate how much she cares about civil rights. So, um, anyways, I just wanted to say that, um, Jan once again brought up the deer management plan. I was really happy she didn't share the picture of her the deers in her yard doing certain things, but I was um wondering if we were moving that forward just so that she doesn't have to show up again for a little bit.

Yeah. So, that is a city council goal. Um Chief Kelch and I, we have the different plans that we've looked at. Um we'd sent them to council for some feedback. We will schedule a work session. And our plan is to schedule a work session um this spring, but you are backtoback uh growth policy update for a couple months. So March, April, uh time frame, we plan to bring that forward to you to to review. Okay. And we have seen the models from other cities in Montana. Chief Kelch showed us those earlier. She also brought up the dark skies with the LED lights, string lights. Is there any way that we could um look at that?

So, that would take an amendment to our current dark skies code. Um those individual lights don't meet the threshold of needing to be um completely covered. Um and we don't our code is not um did not anticipate string lights and so that's not something that we look at the cumulative effect of string lights. Um each individual light bulb and that's wattage is what's triggers whether or not something has to be fully shielded or not. So, it's going to take an amendment of that ordinance in order for us to enforce against string lights, which would be a big change because lots of people have them. So, do you want the council to give you the okay to do that or how do we go ahead with this? If we decide that Jan's got a good point,

um, we would have to have four city councilors agree on having staff review the dark skies ordinance. And I I agree with you, Rebecca. I mean, you walk through several neighborhoods in town. Creekwood's a great example where it's quite frankly obnoxious. And I think, you know, like any policy we have that sits on the shelf for 20 plus years, it's time to maybe take a another look at it and possible refresh. Okay. So, that's two of us.

Yeah, I would I would support that. And I brought up a couple weeks ago, a couple meetings ago about external light from a property coming from an internal spot. There is an example of that. That's a house on the lake and those lights are on 24/7. Can't see them during the daytime, but that's what we're seeing coming out of houses right now. And that, I'm sorry, is not dark skies. [laughter] So, yeah, I I support that. as well. Okay. So, and Ben's okay. And we have four counselors. Okay.

To give Yeah. Just to give you guys like a little bit of just an idea of when this could come forward. Right now, we have to get the growth policy done, the zoning code updated. So, we'll put it on the to-do list, but I don't think that it can be a priority of our our staff at this time, but it will be on the list. That's fine as long as she doesn't have to keep coming back. Toby brought up traffic light at Baker and 13th. Again, nobody wants to talk about that

with MDT. You know, there's there's already plans that um you know that that we have with MDT. I can let Craig talk about it. I know that a letter was sent trying to urge MDT to work with us on some of the things outside of Spokane Avenue um for the downtown highway master or highway master plan. the downtown. Yeah, I actually I still need a signature on that letter, but um yeah, it was one of the things we talked about at the council retreat. I mean,

talking probably about a million-dollar project to to put traffic signal in there. So, um we've very much relied on the Department of Transportation um to work with us on sort of a global solution to um everything Spokane Baker 13th 2nd related. But I mean, if we want to call that out as a separate project and budget for it, um it's definitely something we can talk about, you know, during the the upcoming budget season.

Okay. So, that's our timeline. We'll discuss it at our budget hearings. Okay. So, he doesn't have to keep coming back about that. And then what about any interest in painting signal boxes? you know, if we had an artist approach us with a proposal, then I think we could consider it, but at this point, to my knowledge, we haven't had anybody. Um, there's also just the maintenance, and they aren't our boxes. They're flathead electrics.

They're actually MDT. My bad. They're um the traffic signal control boxes. I will tell you that Heart of Whitefish is very interested in that and um I believe Chris Schuststrom has been working with that artist to come up with a proposal to bring to city council and then obviously we'd have to work with MDT on it to to get approval, but the precedent's been set across the state for MDT allowing it. So, um that that that is something we're working on. Progressing to something. Just something I want to add quick. I was at a meeting in the city of Billings and they they actually wrap theirs. So the artist designs it, they wrap it. So if it gets vandalized, they can rewrap it.

Um it's and it's quicker and easier than painting it. So they take a piece of digital art and then wrap it. Just something to think about.

Okay. Is there anything we need to say about EV charging? No. Okay. Okay. We already covered the oceany status. Richard brought up ebikes polic. that's in play because Jeppi brought that up earlier. Um, I just wanted to give Rhonda a shout out because she started the Nordic Club. I think that's really cool. Her and her husband. Um, and then, uh, Mary Beth Moran brought up Habitat building the depot town homes and it sounds like the land trust is was unaware of that. And I'm just wondering did were you staff aware of this or is this brand new or how do we what do we do about that?

Yeah. So, um Mary Beth and I had talked about it in the past before when we were talking to Housing Whitefish about becoming a developer and they said and at first their response was, you know, those are already designed. We have specific design um standards that we have because we're working with volunteers. They like specific specs and all that. So, it's simple for them to do. Um, since that time though, they've obviously taken a dive into the um design, the the current design and the uh architectural drawings and all of that. And so they uh it does sound like they've come up with a similar design to what was approved um that would be more cost-effective. I'm I'm aware that she has not spoke to Daniel yet about that. Um that she meets with him later this month um based on his availability. Uh, so you know, we do not have an agreement with housing whitefish. Um, I I would like to see I think council could give direction for us to issue an RFP to get proposals. Don't laugh. Just happy. We didn't have interest from them originally. You could go through that process. I told you so. I know. Um, but you could go through that process. Um, because at this point, if you have two interested parties, it's probably appropriate. I do think Habitat will probably come up on top given the cost of construction with volunteers as long as you're okay with the design changes that they're proposing. Um, also can probably get it done maybe more quickly just because they're ready to go and they can house the people. They don't have to get financing uh or at least the financing they do get. They already have those lines. They also have the program for homeowners. the interest rate that they get on a mortgage loan through the state is so much lower that to find qualified buyers is going to be much easier for Habitat. Um that said, I

think we could go and issue an RFP and have them both respond with a more formal presentation. Um we're still working with the housing authority regarding the lean on the property, though we believe that we can get that removed at this point. It just might take a court process um with um Miss Collins and her attorneys and stuff like that, but um that I don't think will be a problem. It just takes a little time. But it seems like this might be a more global issue than something that we can solve right now. Yeah. And given the time, can we move on, please? Well, do you want to just complete this and get an RFP started

and then I'll be and then I'll be all done? Let let's wait on a discussion regarding an RFP to another meeting if that's okay with you. I think it's too complicated. Thanks, Rebecca. Yep. Ben,

yeah, I also wanted to say thanks. It's um it's been wonderful working with you guys the last six years, and I'm sure it will continue to be wonderful working with you for another four. And thank you to the citizens who supported me being here. Um, as Kim said, uh, democracy is alive and well in city hall. I think that's awesome, frankly. Um, as messy as it can be sometimes. Uh, I apologize for my rant earlier. I think I surprised myself with that one. But um I just would say to as it relates to the medical billing um I think at some point if we could visit our our I don't know what it is our billing practices or who we how we forgive and who we forgive and who we charge and who we don't as a separate issue from the rates. I feel like that would be um a worthy discussion to help address um a lot of my really fundamental concerns about how we operate that program. Um, I did want to thank uh, we had a lot of really good public comment tonight. Thank you for Rebecca for going through all of that. Um, a lot of good ideas there that um, I feel like warrant further conversation. I mean, just to go down the list, the deer plan, pay signal boxes, Baker and 13th, the EV chargers, the ebike regs, the oceany, these are all things I I think definitely warrant further discussion and hope we continue to in the dark sky. Um I hope we address all of those at a future meeting. Um and then yeah, as it relates to the habitat, which I think was an important um piece of comment this morning or excuse me, this evening. Feels that way, doesn't it? [laughter]

Yeah, I I think it'd be um I think it'd be beneficial maybe to have a little bit of time to let staff and and others um discuss with our partners about how to react to this. Um it does, but I do think it's something we should take seriously. um there may be some reasons to consider it. Um but I think we have a larger tent of people working on these issues and I think we need to be discussing it with them as well. So um I would say maybe let uh let staff come back and give us a recommendation on RFP or not. Um and maybe that's what we do or maybe not. Anyways um have hope everybody has a wonderful new year this year and uh good to be here. Thanks.

Thanks man. Frank I I'll just add my voice to the idea that the offer we had from Habitat and Iron Star this evening is one we need to fisher cut bait on. I I I think we need to We can't do it tonight. We need to get this thing in a position. This is the first opportunity I've seen in how many years to maybe do something. And what we have to do is do something. So, I think that's something that we need to put on our short list of some things to talk about. The other is um is somebody going to attend or give public comment at that uh planning board or the county commission tomorrow morning regarding that uh the approval of the of the permit for that horrendously um violative construction project on the lake. I mean, we just heard about it today. I mean, I have meetings scheduled. We were trying to plan to send somebody on the 14th when they start talking about the regulations. That is the same night as our open house here.

Okay. Um, so we got to figure out which of our planners isn't necessary for that to be able to go to that because yeah, we have a open house with our consultants on our land use plan that same night. So, um, but I think maybe we'll try to get Lauren to go if we can. So, the answer is no. I mean, yeah. I mean, I I haven't even had a chance to look at that permit to see what the changes are. Um, it's tomorrow morning. I mean, I just Yeah, I'm not sure. I have a meeting at 10. Is not high. I get it.

Okay. Thanks. Um, and that's all I've got in terms of uh things this evening. I thought it was interesting, however, that um everybody came with their year for their their New Year's resolutions for the council and that's kind of what we got for the evening. And democracy is alive and well. Thanks. Thanks, Frank. Steve. Uh, thanks. Just want to say happy new year's to everyone. Happy New Year. How do we say that? Uh, can't remember anymore. It's been so long tonight. Um, but I also want to welcome back uh the three incumbent counselors. Um, you did some hard work to get yourselves back here and as you know, we're going to have we've got some hard work to do in this upcoming year. Um, and I do agree with everyone that uh democracy is alive and well. Um, and when we come into these chambers, I think it's also important that we uh that we remember that these chambers are a little bit different than standing on the street corner. The things that we say there are quite different from from what we should be saying in here. Um, and they they can be and they should be. So, uh, with that, I also just want to give one final shout out to the Glacier Nordic Club because I love cross-country skiing and I'm sad that I'm not able to do it at 3,000 ft anymore.

Thanks, Steve Job.

Yes. U I I marry all of your comments, so I won't repeat them, but for one, I'd like to address Mrs. Bonnie Zipnik's behavior tonight. I respect the right of the public to comment even when criticism is pointed. However, presenting imagery that equates our police officers with hate groups crosses a line. That kind of visual accusation is disrespectful, misleading, and harmful. Doesn't do any good to our community. I will not accept further verbal or graphical abuse under the gre of public comment. Mr. Mayor and colleagues. Thank you, Jeppe. I have just two quick items. Just a reminder, our next meeting is Tuesday, January 20th, Monday being a holiday. And I'd like to give a big shout out and congrat congratulations to Scott Alexander who recently uh retired this past month. long term of service as a Whitefish fire department employee, paramedic, etc. And hope to see him more up on Big Mountain now. So, thanks everyone. Any further from staff

this evening? We are ajourned. Thank you.