Polson commissioners set goals, priorities for city manager

The Polson City Commission held a special work session Nov. 18 to lay out goals and priorities for new City Manager Ed Meece, who took over the position Oct. 1 from Interim City Manager Wade Nash, the city’s police chief.

The workshop was requested by commissioners as part of a consulting services agreement with The Mercer Group, which assisted in the hiring process.

Meece presented his proposed goals to the commission at the beginning of the work session, and after discussion five main goals were agreed upon:

• Maintain a positive and productive partnership with the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes.
• Plan and execute critical infrastructure projects in a productive and cost-effective manner.
• Communicate effectively with the community through a variety of media platforms.
• Be an active community partner in facilitating local economic conditions that provide opportunity for the success of local business activity and entrepreneurship.
• Provide strong leadership to the recruitment, selection, development, mentoring and management of an effective municipal staff and leadership team.

“These are great goals, but I’m looking for sidewalks.” Ward 3 Commissioner Carolyn Pardini said midway through discussions.

Mayor Paul Briney pointed out that a proposed resort tax, set for a Feb. 2 special election, would provide funding for new streets, including sidewalks, if passed.

“To me, that’s one of those items that would be included under capital improvement projects,” Meece said.

Briney acknowledged that the goal of being “an active community partner” is particularly difficult under the restrictions created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“I would say even with that, in the past 40 days, since I got to Polson, there’s been opportunities for a lot of phone calls,” Meece responded. “One-on-one visits are still pretty possible. I’ve done some one-on-ones where we keep our masks on and we’re spaced out.”

He cited as an example a resort tax presentation Tuesday with the Polson Chamber of Commerce and business community in one Zoom presentation.

“It does require us to be a bit more creative in how we get together, but there’s still a lot of opportunities to do this.”

No earlier than 90 days Oct. 1 no more than 90 days than exp of contract, no less than 60.

The Commission initially set November 2021 as a date for evaluating progress on the goals, but that part of the process was moved to July 2021 to better complement the city manager’s contract cycle. Meece has a two-year contract, and commissioners will need to declare whether they need to renew his contract around July 2022.

Meece’s contract requires him to also give quarterly updates to commissioners regarding his progress.

The list of goals and priorities established during the work session will be presented during the Commission’s regular meeting on Tuesday for formal approval.