City reaffirms contract with Missoula Economic Partnership

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) The City of Missoula on Monday reaffirmed its contract with the Missoula Economic Partnership, which has served as the city's economic arm for more than a decade.

The City Council on an 8-2 vote approved $100,000 in annual funding to ensure MEP continues to carry out the city's economic development goals for another year. Missoula County also contracts MEP in the same amount.

“MEP has been a crucial partner for the city as we have created a much more diverse economic base in our city compared to decades ago, when it was not diverse and recessions could hit the city very hard,” said council member Gwen Jones.

The funding represents the city and county's annual commitment to MEP's work to provide core programs and foster economic development through public-private partnerships. Most recently, MEP helped spearhead the transition of the shuttered Roseberg plant into a film and television studio with Story House Montana.

In recent years, the organization also has worked on behalf of the city to recruit and vet developers with like-minded goals around housing and development, including an affordable housing project on Scott Street and a separate project planned at Midtown Commons.

MEP also helped bring additional flights to Missoula Montana Airport, helped grow the Missoula Infrastructure Coalition, supported the Missoula Collaborative, and played a fundamental role in growing the Missoula Housing Impact Fund to more than $8 million.

“If that was left completely to the public sector without these relationships between the private and public sector, I don't know if things like that would happen,” Jones said of the Housing Fund. “You have to have thoughtful people in the right positions to get things done.”

While MEP has a proven track record in pursuing the city's economic goals and growing the job base, some remain critical of the organization. Council members Kristen Jordan and Bob Campbell both opposed funding MEP despite its success.

Campbell said MEP works in too much secrecy in its collaboration with the city.

“There are elements of transparency that don't exist in the process when the process takes place between the city, the Mayor's Office and MEP,” Campbell said. “We have no idea how the process is done”

Campbell suggested a perception lingers that Missoula has a poor business climate. He attributed that to rising taxes, fees placed on downtown businesses, the city's land-banking efforts and other issues that add costs to businesses.

Mayor Andrea Davis pushed back on that claim and said MEP plays a crucial role in enhancing the city's economic development goals. While the city could spend more by creating a full-blown economic development office and hiring the talent to staff it, many cities chose a partnership with the private sector.

“The added value of having a robust regional perspective on economic development is certainly something that strengthens our community, helps small businesses both median and large continue to grow here, and addresses some of our most intrinsic and fundamental issues that have been identified by employers across the spectrum, which is housing and childcare,” Davis said.

“I'm glad we have partners like MEP in the private sector that can do things differently than government.”