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By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer

HELENA – With mounting financial concern from Helena residents, the Helena City Council passed updated TAG grant policies and discussed passing a resolution to update their financial policy at a regularly scheduled city council meeting on Monday, Aug. 12.

At the beginning of the work session before the council meeting, Council President Alice Lobell addressed the audience and informed those gathered that the city would not be hearing any input from the public at the time.

“This is our work session,” Lobell said. “This is not a public hearing. You’re welcome to be here. We’re happy for you to be here, but we will not entertain any questions or comments from the audience during our work session.”

Lobell explained that members of the public could formally address the council in the future by contacting City Clerk Amanda Traywick and requesting to be added to the work session or council agenda.

In the discussion of the TAG team grants during the work session, Lobell announced that the council received requests from citizens to change the wording of the policy during the TAG grant public hearing on Monday, Aug. 6.

“One thing that seems to stand out to all of us was the use of the word instructional,” Lobell said. “I believe that we have changed that.”

The updated wording expands the usage of the TAG grant funds from solely instructional purposes to include classroom items.

In addition, Councilmember Hewy Woodman requested that the TAG grant policies be further amended to only include public schools within the city limits of Helena.

Currently, the policy states that any schools that have more than 50 Helena residents in attendance can apply for TAG grant funding, including schools in Jefferson County. The citizen advisory board would then do their best to divide the TAG funds equitability based on the number of students attending these schools.

Woodman wanted to amend the TAG grant policy to only allow money to be granted to public schools in the city limits of Helena, a move that invited applause from the audience.

Attorney Brian Hayes offered legal insight into the decision to include Jefferson County Schools.

“This was written in a way where it’s nondiscriminatory,” Hayes said. “You’re treating every child that goes to a public school and is a resident the same, whether it’s Jefferson or Shelby County. It protects looking at every resident the same by not being discriminatory to one group over the other and it minimizes liability in my opinion.”

According to Hayes, the idea of including schools attended by Helena residents outside of Shelby County would be to avoid discrimination against some residents. The citizen advisory board for the TAG grants would then be responsible for trying to ensure that the money is distributed equitably based on maximum impact for Helena students.

The city council elected to keep the new TAG grant policy the same and continue to allow money to go to all public schools with over 50 Helena residents in attendance. The ordinance for the new TAG Team grant program passed unanimously.

“There is no clear cut and easy solution,” Councilmember Laura Joseph said. “We have wrestled for months and months and months. It’s not perfect, but we tried to get it to be as fair as possible to every student who lives in the city limits of Helena.”

In addition to the discussion of the TAG team grant program, the city council also reviewed a proposed bond timeline and discussed updating the city’s financial policy. This discussion included Resolutions 08122024D, E and F.

Resolution 08122024D referred to the compiled updates of financial policies that may have been made in recent years.

“Based on my reading and interpretation of the documents, it seems to me that we are reaffirming what we agreed to in 2022 and then it is making a statement by resolution of our policy surrounding financial practices,” Councilmember Chris VanCleave said.

According to the bond representative present at the meeting, Resolution 08124024E on the agenda is a reimbursement resolution that would be passed before the city issues a bond and would allow the city to reimburse itself for any out of pocket costs incurred up to 60 days before the adoption of the resolution.

The final resolution discussed was Resolution 08122024F which would amend the city’s agreement with US Steel to increase the amount of land for the new Helena Sports complex to 104 acres.

Joseph requested that the council delay voting on these resolutions until the next city council meeting because she did not feel that she had enough time to review the 80 pages of documents relating to these resolutions.

“I would like to have some more time. I spent a significant amount of time Saturday and Sunday going through it, but I also felt like I was rushed,” Joseph said. “I did as good a job as I thought I could, but I really would like to have some extra time to make sure there wasn’t anything that I missed.”

In response, the city council agreed to postpone voting on Resolution 08122024D in order to have time to find the current financial policy document and be able to compare and contrast with the new proposed policy.

The Council did not agree to table the other two resolutions in question, with Resolution 08122024E and F passing with a 3-0 majority as both Joseph and Woodman abstained from voting.

“I don’t feel like I’ve got a good handle on it. I don’t feel like I can vote on this issue until I feel like I understand it like I should,” Joseph said. “Until I understand it so (well) that if someone asks me a question in the grocery store and I can explain it to them and feel confident in that answer, I don’t feel confident voting on this.”

In addition, the discussion and vote on the new lease agreement for the Helena Utility Board was tabled during the utility board meeting prior to the city council meeting.

The lease agreement was based on a 32-year lease at the new city hall with $200,000 for the first 2-3 years, $360,000 for years 4-30 and $400,000 for years 31-32. 

Ultimately, the Utility Board decided to table voting on the lease until they had more information. The utilities board is located at the current city hall, and this lease would move the department to the new city hall. 

The board includes Mayor Brian Puckett, Brian Hinds, Rhonda Lewis, Chris VanCleave, Charlie Roberts, Dennis Wilson, Teresa Amos and Jeffrey Nelson.

At the city council meeting, the city of Helena also:

-Discussed their efforts to compile and digitized Helena’s municipal code

-Announced that the garbage service rate will increase by $1.17 per month

-Recognized the achievements of Madison Randall

-Remembered the late Charles Mack, a longtime employee of the city

-Approved the 2025 holiday schedule

-Contracted Gillespie Construction for nine storm inlets on Bowron Road

-Approved an ABC license for Smoke House Grill