City of Polson hosts ‘Civics 101’ class
Summer Goddard
Polson City Manager Ed Meece addresses Civics 101 class attendees on Oct. 29 at Polson City Hall.
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POLSON — To increase transparency and understanding of local government and how it works, the City of Polson hosted a Civics 101 class on Oct. 29.
Polson City Manager Ed Meece prepared a Powerpoint presentation that’s available at the city’s website for those interested who couldn’t attend the class. He made the event interactive by giving out small prizes to audience members who answered questions about city government correctly.
Polson, Meece pointed out, has a charter basis of government, similar to how the federal and state governments are based on federal and state constitutions. A city charter spells out the same things as a constitution – who has what power and how the government works.
Polson’s mayor or city manager serve as the chief executive, not unlike how the president oversees the federal government or a governor with state government. Polson’s city commission acts as the legislative, or rule-making body, while the city court is where rules are upheld. He further broke down the roles and responsibilities of each:
As Polson city manager, Meece oversees daily operations at the city, performs human resource functions and recommends policy to the city commission. The city manager, he noted, is the one and only employee of the city commission with the city’s staff communicating through the manager to the commission.
Polson’s mayor, Eric Huffine, presides over bimonthly city commission meetings and is a voting member of the commission. The Polson City Commission is comprised of six city commissioners elected two apiece to three wards. Polson’s Commissioners are Jen Ruggless and Jake Holley in ward 1, Lisa Rehard and Laura Dever in ward 2 while Brodie Moll and Carolyn Pardini serve in ward 3.
The commission meets every first and third Monday of the month (or Wednesday, if the Monday falls on a holiday) at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 106 1st Street E. Among their many duties, the city commission and mayor supervise the city manager, enact local law, appropriate funds, levy taxes, oversee public services and decide land use matters. They accomplish these tasks by passing resolutions and ordinances. Meece provided examples. The city’s budget is adopted by resolution while zoning wards are established by ordinance. He also noted that the mayor and commission can act in a quasi-judicial capacity when it decides matters such as zoning adjustments (variances) or conducts a subdivision review. Per Montana law requiring citizens be given “the right to participate,” commission meetings are announced and open to the public. “Almost everything we do at the city is open record,” Meece said, noting the exception of personnel matters. He added that the city tries not to charge for open records requests but will do so to cover time costs of extensive retrievals – such as one made recently for an out of state developer.
Polson’s City Court is in session Tuesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. The city judge, who in Montana isn’t required to have prior law experience, is appointed by the city commission and serves a four-year term. Meece explained that the city’s judge deals with misdemeanor offenses, violations of city code, hearings, trials and issues warrants. Previously a contract position, Polson now has an attorney on staff who drafts contracts, prepares legal documents, reviews legislation for the commission and prosecutes on behalf of the city.
With 127 total cities and towns, Montana classifies each based on population. First class cities have populations of 10,000 or more, second class 5,000 to 9,999 and third class between 1,000 and 4,999. “Towns” have fewer than 1,000 people. With a current population of 5,100, per the last census in 2020, Polson falls in the second class category but has not, Meece pointed out, passed a resolution to opt in or out of the classification. A second class Montana city is required to have a full time municipal fire department.
Unless there’s a “hot button topic” on the agenda, Meece estimates that commission meetings typically have one to five audience members. Though low citizen participation is common in small to medium cities, he noted that a meeting in which Polson’s $16 million dollar budget was passed had only one audience member. Various financial reports, including the city’s budget, can be viewed online at the city’s website by clicking the BMS Public View link near the center of the page.
As he wrapped up the class, Meece encouraged citizens to get involved in their city government by participating in meetings and events, volunteering on advisory boards or committees, becoming a volunteer firefighter/EMT or campaigning for public office.
He noted that two of the city’s boards and committees, the city’s Board of Adjustments and Tax Increment Finance District, are inactive due to lack of members. A full listing of Polson’s boards and committees and vacancies on each can be found at cityofpolson.com/bc.
