Missoula staff outline website overhaul, engagement tools and neighborhood grant program

Missoula communications and engagement staff told attendees at a Local Government Academy session that the city is planning a website redesign and leaning on a mix of online and in-person tools to reach residents.

"We are undertaking this year a website redesign," said Jenny, the city communications director, explaining that an accumulation of material over time has made information hard to find. She walked attendees through the homepage, the "Notify me" subscription service and the online forms used to report potholes, sidewalk hazards and other service needs.

The session also covered Engage Missoula, the city’s project-based public engagement platform. Ashley Brittner Wells, community experience specialist in Parks and Recreation, said the platform is organized by projects and that residents can use a project’s "stay informed" option to receive email notices when a project goes live. She described how the city uses the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum to match outreach tactics to decision space — from "inform" to "empower" — and urged residents to check the badges on individual project pages to see how they can participate.

"You can subscribe if that function has been added," Ashley said, describing that some projects allow direct questions and others are set to provide information only because of staffing or legal constraints.

Staff also described neighborhood-level engagement. A neighborhoods office presenter explained the neighborhood council system — 20 defined neighborhoods with 18 currently active leadership teams — and the Energizer neighborhood grant program. She said the program this year has about $35,000 to award and that applicants may request up to $6,000; applications typically open in September, a workshop happens in October and the application deadline falls in late November or early December, with awards made the following month.

Neighborhood leadership teams, the presenters said, are elected groups of five to seven residents who host publicly noticed meetings, gather feedback for city processes and may provide letters or motions of support for neighborhood grant applications.

Panelists outlined several tactics aimed at lowering barriers to participation: holding events in familiar community spaces (libraries, parks, schools), offering multiple session times, providing food and child care when possible, and using low‑tech outreach for people who do not use the internet. Staff pointed to past tactics such as water-bill inserts and door hangers, and noted partnerships with Missoula Aging Services and community groups to reach older adults and other underserved populations.

On public comment and council process, presenters reiterated procedural limits. Council members explained that public comment on non-agenda items is limited to three minutes and that for quasi-judicial land-use hearings councilors do not publicly discuss their deliberations until the record closes to avoid legal risk.

The session included a discussion of the city’s media partnerships (MCAT archives and Town Square radio segments), emergency alerts (Smart911), and examples of neighborhood projects funded by grants, such as murals and pedestrian safety improvements. Presenters encouraged attendees to use neighborhood leadership teams as a route to work with staff on specific problems and to sign up for the specific project pages on Engage Missoula to receive targeted updates.

City staff closed by inviting attendees to the final Local Government Academy session on the budget, scheduled for the next week at 6 p.m.; background materials will be emailed in advance.