Commission considering city self-governance

The Columbia Falls government review commission plans to hear from an expert next month on whether the city should consider having self-governing powers.

Self-governing would allow the city to craft its own laws, as long as they were not contrary to state or federal laws.

The city hopes to have a representative from the Local Government Center of Montana State University speak to the commission at its May 15 meeting on self-governance and other issues.

Commission member Roger Hopkins noted that Havre recently approved self-governance and it allowed that city to write tougher laws on junk vehicles.

The state in the past few years, however, has made it tougher and tougher for cities to have self-governance, as the Legislature continues to pass laws that exempt about 30 subjects from self-governance,

Still, Hopkins noted it deserved some discussion. Self-governing powers would have to be approved by the voters.

The commission earlier this month issued another survey, this time by mail, to about 1,500 residents and businesses in the city on whether they were satisfied with the city’s current form of government, which includes a mayor and city council with the day-to-day operations run by a city manager.

About 75% of the 110 people who took the time to answer the survey saying they were satisfied with the current form. Having said that, they were a little more split when asked if it resulted in smooth city operations, with about 52% saying it did, while 23% said no and the remainder were unsure.

Like a previous survey, opinions on city functions were all over the place and had little to do with reviewing city government.

For example, one person complained about ice on their streets, another hated the resort tax and another said the city did a “p--ss poor job” of enforcing decay ordinances. Another said everyone should be replaced and they should all be, from the city manager to the chief of police, elected.

But several comments seemed to say things were working well, though some complained about developers, while others complained that there was a lack of public notice when it came to public hearings and the like. They wanted the city to have more of a presence on social media.

Many of the comments, noted new City Manager Eric Hanks, were useful.