Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Great Falls Public Library
- Sheehy – Breaking Pentagon Rules?
- NIL Political Endorsements
- One More Thing
GREAT FALLS PUBLIC LIBRARY:
The Electric recently reported that the Great Falls Public Library board voted 3-1 during a special meeting Sept. 5 to approve the library negotiation team’s proposal for a new five-year management agreement, essentially rejecting the city’s proposal that would eliminate the current seven mills after two budget years.
The Electric further reported that the library’s team presented a proposed agreement during the Sept. 5 special board meeting that would reduce the city’s support from seven to 4.5 mills for the duration of the five-year agreement.
The city commission is determined to take money from the library. Some commission members say they support the library, but I think it’s a lie.
The commission can take the seven mills, but that would be a dirty thing to do. The library requested a levy and the seven mills figured in their overall budget plan. The levy was approved giving the library an additional 17 mills. Now we are starting to see the positive changes in the library. The library board contends the taking of the mills, “will have severe consequences, including layoffs, reduced hours, and reduced or eliminated services…”
It looks as though the MAGAs on the city commission may have enough votes to take the seven mills. The voters supported the library and did not support the safety levies. I voted for the library levy and against the safety levies.
It was good to see the 70 or so people show up at a commission meeting to voice and show their support for the library.
If the Great Falls City Commission takes the seven mills, they will never get a yes vote from me on any safety levy. I will encourage others to do the same.
Read The Electric report HERE. Read about the Library’s plan HERE.
SHEEHY – BREAKING PENTAGON RULES?
Republican and MAGA-backed U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy appears to have failed to follow Pentagon rules for clearing portions of his autobiography about his time as a US Navy Seal, according to reporting from The Guardian.
The Guardian reports:
Responding to freedom of information requests, officials with the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review (DOPSR) said that after “thorough searches of the electronic records and files”, they found no record of Sheehy submitting a DD 1910 form, required for all such projects, or any communications at all concerning review and approval of Mudslingers, the book Sheehy published with Permuted Press last year.
The Guardian also says that other memoirs of US military service, including service in Afghanistan, where Sheehy served, have generated lawsuits over clearance issues.
How many negative things can be found about Sheehy in this short time? We have the gunshot issue, the parachute story, the business issue, his disparaging comments about Native Americans, where he was raised, and now this.
Way back in November, there were concerns about Sheehy. Read that commentary HERE.
NIL POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS:
MTN News has an in-depth story about the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) issue that was tied to U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT).
The Republicans were very successful in tying this to Tester and it garnered some negative press for him when in all likelihood the Tester folks knew nothing about it. It was funny to read about how the MAGA folks were up in arms over this and acted like it was almost the end of the world.
MTN News reported:
NIL deals are when a student enters into a partnership with a company or organization to advertise their company or product in exchange for some sort of compensation – typically money.
What happened at the University of Montana was that all student-athletes received an offer from a political organization called Montana Together, asking to use the athlete’s name, image, and likeness in exchange for money to create videos endorsing Tester.
MTN News also reported:
Tester’s spokeswoman Monica Robinson told MTN News that the email did not come from the senator’s office or campaign. In a statement to MTN, Tester’s office said: “The campaign had no knowledge of these actions from an outside group, and we are not in communication with them.”
You can read the full report from MTN News HERE.
ONE MORE THING:
Don’t forget about the Presidential Debate on Tuesday night. ABC News is hosting it. More information and the rules can be found HERE.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##
The Western Word 
I usually do a ton of research before I vote on anything.
I voted more for the physical, structural upgrades that the library needs than I did for an increase in services. I saw the plans and worksheets with regard to the physical/structural improvements for the building and I was all for it.
Of all of the times I’ve ever been in the library over the past 30+ years, it’s always been empty (maybe 4 people plus the desk person … tops).
The levy was somewhat of a boon for the library in that it took a $60K fiscal deficit and turned it all into a $940,000 windfall for next year … not bad … not too bad at all.
Not too sure about the mental health gig tho’ … issues regarding mental health are still being referred to the likes of Benefis or Alluvian … even after all this time. The security guard gig is pretty cool too … especially if standing around being bored is your deal.
Still no free parking.
Toddlers still aren’t allowed to go upstairs with their parents.
But I digress.
The building itself was way ahead of it’s time when they built it. It’s actually one of the best looking buildings in town.
I’d like to see the proposed upgrades and improvements to the library building done before the library runs out of money again and suddenly needs to pass another levy in about 3 years.
As far as the safety levy? Well they should have run it along with the library levy in May and took their chances. No one was in the mood for passing anything after Greg Giant40 decided that him and his buddies in Helena needed to hose us on our property taxes.
Library:
When we voted we did not vote to simply replace those base 7 city mills with new levy money and get the same old bare bones level of service from the library in return for higher taxes. We voted for expanded services. But same old bares bones sounds like all that would be left if they do this defunding.
If the City Commission does take that 7 mills away, why would anyone ever vote again for any City levy where the commission would have any control over the money? You obviously couldn’t trust them to respect the wishes of the voters.
If they had any integrity at all they would schedule a new vote early next year on what to do with that 7 mills and let the people speak. If we say public safety, so be it. That would eliminate a lot of the controversy as well as this appearance of total disdain for the will of the voters. We said yes to more library money and no to more public safety money. But the mayor and commission is now telling us they know better.
I agree totally with your points. They don’t know better and that’s the problem. Commissioner Tryon is using social media to make his case for taking the seven mills. He’s still pissed that his safety levies failed. Shameful. -JmB
Guess that mr. commissioner they-work-for-us forgot whom he works for! Sad, sad little man. His MAGA is flagging! They might even take his honorary toy badge away! A tough guy like him hates to get whipped in public by a bunch of librarians! Kinda hard on the ol’ ego, especially when you promised all your cop buddies that like trump, you could just ignore the law and redirect all that money yourself! You’ve been a dictator since day one! Rickolini!
Co-opting a successful library levy to provide money to make up (in part) for a failed safety levy is nothing but an attempt at an end run around the voters who said yes to MORE library money no to additional public safety money.
Commissioner Tryon and couple others who were on the commission in 2023 probably are indeed pissed their public safety levy failed. They are the ones who did not consult the voters and simply asked for too much, then ignored warnings that due to property value inflation their levy would be much bigger than the $10 million they said they wanted. They bulled right anyway ahead with the levy in Nov 2023 even after all GF property owners were shocked and angry earlier in the summer at their new tax bill, unlike the Missoula city council that correctly judged the mood of the voters and wisely canceled their safety levy ask for November to put it off until 2024 … when it passed.
That was a failure of leadership by our commissioners including Tryon. And now they seem determined to turn the success of the library’s levy into a failure too, apparently on the “misery loves company” plan.
Put those 7 mills up for a new vote, commissioners. Don’t end run us. As if.
Terry, if you’d like me to anger translate this I can. You’re much too reasonable. Can’t reason with a MAGA. Their gray matter lacks the requisite convolutions. They say Einstein’s brain was amazingly convoluted, whereas the average MAGA brain tends to be quite smooth! Thus the need for an anger translator. I put things in language they can understand.
Larry
Is anger translate kind of like those online redneck or hillybilly talk translators that will take a normal sentence and turn it into some hillbilly friendly passage?
I used to love the one for hillbilly that would insert gratuitous “Well fry mah hide!” at various points into any paragraph you wrote.
I can’t fins that one but here’s a modern one:
https://lingojam.com/RedneckTranslator
Back the blue and they’ll screw you! What the hell did the voters think when they elected a cop and cop groupies to run the city? Being a cop teaches you one thing. How to be a cop. Being a cop groupie teaches you one thing. How to suck up to the cops! The end result is that regardless of all other competing priorities in the city, cops are the biggest hogs at the trough! Every time! And all the MAGAs are happy.
MAGAs don’t need no book learnin.’ Caint see no use in it. No need to be foolin’ around with books, especially those kind teachin’ our younguns to be godless sex changers! Library only needs three books. The Bible, the Constitution, and the Art of the Deal! Hell, it worked for lil Ricky and Hissonor! And they didn’t turn out so bad!
Bottom line? You have to select carefully the people that run your city. You have to carefully select folks who have the education, experience, and temperament necessary to understand how to balance all the competing interests without skewing priorities to favor one group while cheating another. And you must do so while allowing democracy to flourish so that you maintain the public’s trust. After all, it’s supposed to be the public determining what kind of city we want to live in. Our current crop is not hesitant to ignore democracy and trample the will of the voters. Remember, we hold the purse strings, and they work for us!
No one is advocating defunding the police. It’s the MAGAs who want to defund the library. A stupid populace is a MAGA populace, and a city doesn’t live on MAGA alone!
I’m thinking when Larry goes in for his psych checkups at the VA the doc always asks him, “These MAGA people, are they in the room with us right now?’
Larry would reply, “No, but there are 10 of them in the waiting room wanting to get their Thorazine scripts renewed.”
Good one, Swede! But I’ve got two words for you. Madam President! End of therapy sessions! End of MAGAs!