Okay, I'm gonna call um the Judiciary Committee meeting to order for Wednesday September 23rd.

Um there's a couple things on tonight's agenda.

Start with number one, communication number 2025-310.

Matt Enrith, Pizza Robot County Attorney requesting Council of Commissioners authorization for the county attorney's office to draft a new ordinance regulating the sale and distribution of medical and recreational marijuana in Beats of Reboat.

County attorney Enru.

Yes, uh brief update.

Uh Sean Peterson and I sat down with uh Director Crane.

Uh we went through what her uh what the zoning ordinances are gonna state with regards to uh medical and um recreational marijuana distribution shops.

Uh we came to the conclusion based off of the population in Butte, Montana, and we kind of looked at you know how they do with liquor licenses and things like that, that we are going to cap it at 10.

Um we think 10 is an appropriate number, so that will be presented to you in the draft at the next judiciary meeting, along with inside that draft is gonna be all the language that corresponds with what uh director crane was doing with the zoning ordinance, and then there will be a grandfathering clause for shops that are currently in place.

Uh however, once a shop closes, tries to move, or um tries to be sold, a license has to be available for that shop to do that.

So if there's already 10, if they choose to move, they no longer have a business license here in Vontana.

Uh that's one of the ways that we're gonna be able to prevent them from continuing to grow, and it's gonna try and knock them down to that 10.

So Sean and I have started working together on that final draft, which we do believe will be ready for next uh judiciary in two weeks.

Thank you, County Attorney Enru.

Um so if everybody's good at that, we'll continue to hold that in abeyance.

If you guys want to make a motion um to do so.

Uh Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you.

Uh I've heard a lot of chatter about the new shop there on Utah Street.

Um being that close to the school.

Can you give us a little insight on what's going on there?

Or is it too close?

Is it far enough, or is it not too close currently?

Oh, excuse me.

Uh County Attorney Enrique.

Yes.

Uh Commissioners.

So currently uh the state law allows for uh medical and recreational marijuana uh dispensaries to be located within a certain amount, uh a certain amount of feet from a school school entrance.

The there is no specific state law, there is an administrative rule that then correlates with a larger state law.

The administrative rule specifically states that it has to be within 500 feet on the same street.

Is not the same as that dispensary.

That dispensary is the reason we are doing this.

Now, just so everybody is aware, there is a two-year moratorium from the state on any new licenses or any new shops coming up.

So we will have time to go back in and do those.

We looked into that a lot.

We went through everything, we tried everything we could, but they were in compliance per the state law.

Commissioner Callahan.

Is there any chance we can add some language to our ordinance to correct that problem?

Commit or county attorney Ann Ruth.

Uh Chairman.

Yeah, Commissioner Callahan.

That's exactly what we did.

Yep, we corrected that.

So it's no longer the same street or anything like that.

It is a, I believe, 500 foot radius from schools, churches, all the same, pretty basically the same language as bars and things like that.

School car.

Yep.

Um, we've even included uh Sean and I were talking about it, um, certain parks and things like that as well, uh, uh to try and work in the language.

Um so it's not too overbroad, but then can specifically limit it to a lot of our parks, particularly like Father Sheen or Staden, where we have lots of children all the time.

I mean, we obviously have certain parks in this in the county that are parks, but they're not used constantly.

What we were looking at were those ones that are um primarily occupied a good portion of the time that you know you're available you're able to be in parks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Calhan and County Attorney Enru.

Um so with that, I will entertain a motion to hold in the bands.

Somebody's got a I will motion we hold this in abeyance until two weeks.

That'll be ready in two weeks.

Okay.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded.

Is there anything on the question?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Um against motion passes.

Number two, communication number 2025-374.

Trudy Healy Commissioner District 8 requesting council of commissioners to look into concerns regarding urban camping on public streets and refer this matter to the Judiciary Committee and County Attorney Enro to develop an ordinance to address this matter.

Commissioner Healy.

County Attorney Anru.

Uh Commissioner Healy.

Yes, I would recommend that the judiciary make a motion to uh place on file communication 2025 374 so that you and I can have our meeting, which I believe is currently set for the 29th, and look at addressing certain ordinances that we already have on the books and either amending them or adding to them to address the concerns that were brought to you by the citizens.

Commissioner Healy.

I have two citizens here today who would like to speak.

Okay.

Um Denise, please.

Uh please state your name and record for the um and your name and address for the record.

Okay.

My name's Denise Kelly.

My address is 1341 Harrison Avenue.

That's my business address.

I'm the owner of REMAX, and we are having a huge problem with our homeless and our business.

Um I've owned it for three years, and it's getting significantly worse.

I had um this summer I had a group of about five people sleeping in my bushes, and I could not get rid of them.

The police would come down, they would go away, and then I would come back, and they would come back and they would be sleeping in our bushes with all their stuff and leave all their junk.

They're defecating in my in my um bushes, and so my solution to that was to tear out all the bushes to the tune of 2500.

And um now I still have the homeless, they're still putting up tents, they're sleeping in um just chairs.

Right now there's a homeless person right behind my building on the walking trail with a tent, and he literally sleeps there every night, then goes and panhandles where all my customers have to come in my business, and he panhandles, and then they come around and they can get aggressive with us.

One of my um my office manager went out to get into her car, and one of them came up and just started pounding on the windows.

We then found out he has over a hundred convictions, including sexual assaults.

And that's that's not who we need around our building.

It's hurting our business.

We have three businesses in my building right now, and we have a lot of people that come into our business and they're outside yelling at us or yelling to try to come into the business, and it's not what we want.

And now, just this week, I have pictures of just what's happened this week.

We have all kinds of graffiti on the back of our building and our on our garbage cans, and now I have to address that.

I spent a ton of money on this building.

It's the old poor Roth and Robinson building for those that don't know.

And it's it's not fair that I mean they'll go and they'll go and camp at the civic center, and that's all good and fine because public works can come down and clean it up.

I don't get any help.

I'm out there cleaning up their poop.

I don't want to be doing that.

They're garbage.

It's not right.

Um then they're they're all strung out and they're dancing around and God knows what they're gonna do.

And when I hear that it's discrimination to get them off the street, it infuriates me.

In my business, being homeless is not a protected class.

It's not.

Matt, I don't know if it is a protected class.

It's not.

We don't have to give them more privileges than they give me.

I'm a taxpayer, and it's very, very frustrating.

Um I think that's all I have.

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to address them.

I have pictures if anybody wants to see just the last week of what's been going on around here.

Um thank you, Ms.

Kelly.

Commissioner Callan, it sounds like you have a question.

I just want to thank you for coming and explaining the situation.

You know, we've been working on this for a couple months.

And you know, we've got people to come and say, you know, these people are harmless and this and that.

They're not.

The people we're dealing with are problems.

And asking them to leave isn't fixing the problem.

You know that yourself.

You spent money to do things to fix the problem for you, and it isn't working either, and you shouldn't have had to.

If they're on your property, they're trespassing.

They need to be cited for it.

They get cited enough times, it's time to have the courts do something with these people.

So we appreciate you coming.

And it's not easy to come and do.

No, you know.

You you you get up and speak saying, you know, we got to do something with these people, and all of a sudden you got negative against you because people think that you're heartless.

That isn't the fact.

You you've been through hell because of these people.

Yeah.

And we're not addressing the problem.

And that's what we're trying to do here.

So we certainly appreciate you, Ellen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dan.

Commit did you have some?

Are you good?

Okay.

Um, Jeff.

Um, and then if you could just please state your name and address for the record.

We don't have to hold that down.

So this is my first time talking.

My mine's a little bit different than some of the oh, okay.

I'm sorry, Jeff Beckett, and I'm living at or we live at 1201 Town Street.

I mean But Montana here.

But the thing that I saw was uh like this poor lady there, you know.

I was I'll make it real quick for you, but I'll explain where it's at and what I was doing.

I like to exercise a lot, so I ride my mountain bike on the trails because you don't have to worry about getting hit.

So I'll get on the trails at George Street.

I'll come over to Montana, go up Montana, out Centennial.

That way I can jump the trails out there.

So you start coming to Centennial or going down Centennial, you come by the bridge, you can take a left.

There's a meat plant down there where you can go over the bridge and take the other part.

Both roads come out at uh rocker there.

But I go to the upper one and then you go halfway down and you can cut up and go to the tunnel that goes under the inner state.

So it's an uphill ride all the way, and it's great.

So I ride that all the time in the summer, and uh it was probably around August or something.

I'm going up and I notice this, it's a blue uh Chevy S10, it's silver on the side, and that has a blue topper.

I could identify it for you in a heartbeat.

So I didn't pay no attention to it.

I thought uh great, you know, I have no problem with the guy, you know, sitting there doing whatever he's doing.

So this I try and go three or four times a week.

So about three weeks later, I'm going up to uh behind Walkerville on that, going up the same way I just explained to you, and I'm going up and I glance over, and Jesus, the before he got there, that place was completely spotless.

I mean, it looked nice.

And then when he left, there's a mattress, there's a seat out of a car or a truck, and there's garbage just strewed all over the place.

It looked like a complete pig sty.

So then I thought, geez, you know, it's it was a real pretty little spot.

So then he's gone.

And where I saw his vehicle again was down off Montana Street, where the Montana Power has their substation.

If you go down George East, just like a little bit, the county dumps their snow in there in the winter time.

Well, he's parked in there.

So I thought, oh now he's gonna trash that place.

So uh is this thing still on?

And uh so I thought, well, at least he ain't up, you know.

So then now he's back.

You know, he just switches every week.

So I thought, you know, I don't have a problem with the homeless.

We donate to the homeless shelter, we give them food in that last year when they ran out.

We spent like 400 bucks and took food out.

But my problem is they don't have to, he can drive in there.

The dump is like say three miles from that place.

He's got a topper on his truck, he doesn't have to cover his load.

He could pull into the dump, and uh no problem.

So today I went up again because it was a nice day.

I thought, ooh, a couple more bike rides before the snow.

And he drug the mattress down, it must have got wet in the rain or something, and it's leaning up to the left against the fence, but it's still, you know.

I thought if I went camping and I left a mess like that in the campground, I'd have four service or fishing game knocking on my door saying, whoa, you know, here's a ticket or something.

And this guy, like I said, I have nothing against him, but he goes up there and destroys the area, and then like poor county guys, but silver bow, or well, probably most of the people won't even see it because you have to go up that way to see it.

But uh you just get tired of this, or it's a very nice, pretty spot up there, and everybody some people use it as a dump.

Now there's a out of state motor home from with Oregon place, and they're got a few tires lined up there, but nothing too drastic.

But like I said, I don't have a problem with homeless or anybody, but I do have a problem with going up to a spot that has no garbage and just trashing the thing and then just leaving and expect somebody to pick up your garbage and your mess.

So that's about all I I just wanted to let people know about that.

So thank you, Mr.

Beckett.

Um Commissioner Callahan Thank you.

I appreciate you coming too.

You know, the more and more we hear these stories, the more and more it gives people incentive to get behind us to help do something about it.

Um the tunnel you're talking about.

We've had multiple complaints of them limiting in that tunnel.

Numerous people won't walk that trail no more, go into the rocker because they're scared to death to go through that tunnel because they don't know what they're gonna meet in that tunnel.

Right outside the tunnel, they had a little camp down below that you know they were going up there and go in the bathroom.

And uh I went to the a week ago Tuesday, I went to the uh the uh study commission's meeting out at Ramsey, and probably half the meeting that was complaints about the homeless and all the the ravines and everything up there and the trash and going to the bathroom outside.

So it's a serious problem that we got to address.

You know, we've got people, we've had people come here and say, you know, don't criminalize these people.

We're not criminalizing anybody, they're criminalizing themselves.

It's not that hard to go by the law, like you said, pick up your own trash.

If you got a vehicle, put it back in your vehicle and haul it to the dump, you're not even that far from it.

So these kind of things, we're not we're not criminalizing anybody for being homeless.

We're just trying to make them we're trying to find places for them to live.

And most of these people have had places to live.

The system has tried to help these people.

They have been in Silverball homes, they have been in our homeless shelter.

And I was just talking to a guy north of Walkerville just on Monday.

He's been kicked out of every one of those places.

So to try to turn this thing around and say that the people trying to fix it or criminalizing it is wrong.

I mean, we have to address the problem.

And until you address the problem, you're never gonna fix it.

So thank you for coming and telling us that.

And the more and more people that come and get behind us, the better traction we have to try to fix this.

So this camp where he's at, it is just before you go in to that tunnel.

Yes, you know, and they've never bothered me or anything like that, but that's fine.

You know, I'm up for a good one.

But uh shoot, I forgot what I was gonna say there.

But oh, if you need me, I I can identify I know that vehicle very well, and I'll point it out to anybody that wants to see it.

I you just kind of see him going all over the place.

But uh like I said, all they have to do is clean up their mess, but they just won't do it.

So thank you.

Thank you again, Mr.

Beckett.

Thank you.

Um, you know, we've heard a couple things tonight.

Commissioner Healy, you had a question for County Attorney Henry.

Do you have a plan for what you want to see with this going forward tonight?

So uh listening to people and knowing there's more who want to speak about their stories.

If I um put this on file while we work on it, I'd rather put it on suspension.

So if someone wants to speak, a citizen wants to speak, they can still speak, can't they?

If it's suspended versus on file.

Commissioner Healy, uh, anybody can make a public comment on anything not on the agenda any time they want.

Just during that that portion of the the meeting.

No, not in judiciary, it would be at the regular meeting.

Yes.

And then on that, Commissioner Healy, if you do put it in the suspense file, they can't just come comment on it because it's in suspense because it isn't necessarily on the agenda, just so you know.

Commissioner Callahan.

Well, and if they come up on uh during the beginning of the meeting or after the meeting, we can't respond back either.

So we don't want to do that.

But as long as it's in suspense, we can pull it up when we want people to come up and speak.

So my suggestion would be that we put it in suspense until further notice.

Commissioner Anderson.

Thank you.

Uh if you did have a lot more people who did wish to speak uh on this before we put it in the suspense file, what you could do is request a public hearing.

If you wanted to go that route, then it would be advertised and then everybody could come up at once.

We could hold it in suspense after that, and then we'd have more information while we were working on things, what some of the problems are we could address those and take them off the list as we were working towards that goal if we did do it that way.

Thank you, Commissioner Kellant.

The pleasure is yours, Commissioner Healy.

I'm gonna make a motion to hold this in suspension while I'm in meetings with County Attorney Enruth for now, just in case people do want to come and speak in judiciary regarding their experiences, because I think that's important.

That they have their I'm encouraging people to use their voice to make a difference, and so for me to encourage them and then all of a sudden cut them off.

I don't feel right about that.

I'll second.

Motion, yes.

I'll second.

Um I guess County Attorney Energy, could you help me out on this?

Is there a timeline typically when we put something in the suspense?

We say for one month, three months, six months.

I would put a timeline on it, yes.

Okay, so um if you wouldn't mind that, Commissioner Healy.

Did you want to say something?

Oh.

Commissioner Anderson, you're on this committee, so I'm not sure I get I mean I guess I would wish that you'd be sitting down here if you're gonna make comments tonight.

I uh yes, Chairwell.

I I would suggest two months.

Make an am I like to make an amended motion to hold this in uh suspension for two months.

A motion's been made and seconded to hold communication number 2025-374 in suspense for two months.

Um is there anything on the question?

Uh all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Against motion passes.

Um we're moving on to council bill number 2025-03, ordinance number 2025-03, an ordinance amending chapter 2.62 of the Butserbo Municipal Code, BSBMC entitled Advisory Committee for Americans with Disabilities Act, specifically amending sections 2.62.040 and providing for an effective date herein.

I did have a question for Chairman Morgan, so I think he's gonna be able to answer that.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So it's been brought to my attention that this council bill and ordinance was introduced to this body on September 3rd, and then it should have went to Judiciary Committee on September 10th.

And it looks like it was inadvertently left off of the September 10th agenda, but then on September 17th, we did move it to second reading at that time, so it kind of went against the process, if you will.

Um and so I would look at County Attorney Enruth, but uh to me I would think the proper venue to to move this would probably if the if the committee was okay with it to go through the formal process of moving it to second reading and then have it on second reading next week.

Or the other option is is being that the full body already adopted it to second reading without any questions last week.

You could move it to final reading as well.

County attorney Enrith.

Uh Chairwoman um that your uh Commissioner Morgan.

Um yes, either way I believe is fine when we looked at this prior to this, so it will be up to the pleasure of the council.

Uh there were no objections to it at the last uh committee meeting.

Or excuse me, commission meeting.

So I do believe if the judiciary wanted to move it to final reading tonight, they could.

Thank you, County Attorney Anne Ruth.

Are you good with that, Chairman?

Uh Morgan?

Okay.

Um so if everybody else is okay with that, I would entertain a motion.

I will motion that we you move uh council bill number two zero two five-zero three to final reading.

Motion's been made and seconded.

Is there anything on the question?

All those in favor?

Aye, against motion passes.

Moving on to resolution number 2025-58.

Resolution authorizing the city and county of Buttes Verbo to apply for land and water conservation fund financial assistance from the National Park Service through Montana's Fish Wildlife and Parks Department for replacement of playground equipment at Clark's Park.

Clark Park, excuse me.

Um this one would go to final reading if somebody wouldn't mind making that motion if there are no questions.

I will motion that we do resolution number 2025-58 to motion to final reading.

Motion's been made and seconded to move resolution number 2025-58 to final reading.

Um is there anything on the question?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Against motion passes.

That does it for tonight's judiciary agenda.

Um I dent or motion.