MAYOR of Missoula, Montana, Jordan Hess, has said that young people, immigrants and refugees form a core part of his focus in governance as he discharges his duties as mayor.

He made this known when The Guardian, alongside 13 other journalists, paid a visit to him at his office in Missoula, as part of activities during the Foreign Press Centre (FPC) International Reporting Tour.

Speaking on different aspects of governance in the city, how it operates and impacts the people, he said they intend to support young residents with some city-led programmes, especially youths who are not very educatedand often struggle with employment.

Admitting that one of the major problems young people face is housing as the cost of rent and owning a home has skyrocketed since the pandemic, he said they try to provide job opportunities and support with housing vouchers, where recipients don’t have to pay more than 30 per cent of the full amount. He however noted that because of rapidly rising inflation, the housing vouchers are losing value and recipients are having to pay more.

“Very recently, we were selected to participate in a programme with the U.S Department of Labour, where we will create a workforce development specifically for single mums below the poverty line. The jobs will be targeted towards transitioning to the clean energy economy. As we transit from fossil fuels, there would be more demand for people in this sector and we want to prepare for that. We also know that this is a typically male-dominated trade and we want to balance this out significantly.”

Speaking on his plans to resettle refugees, Hess said often, refugees struggle to find employment in their area of skill and his government has tried to create employment pipelines where they connect refugees to city employment. “It is a new programme that has just started but the goal is to provide employment and a better life for them generally. Our biggest challenge preventing us from receiving more refugees is the cost of housing and we struggle to meet demand regarding housing. However, people here are very supportive and welcoming of refugees and we know it enriches our community. We are supportive of refugee resettlement and hopefully, this doesn’t change.

Hess who said he has been living in Missoula for almost two decades, said he moved from Helena to attend the University of Monatana, and promptly fell in love with the community and decided to stay.“I studied Geography with transportation and land use planning as my primary area of focus and I became interested in our local government based off transport issues, housing, and land use development issues we face here. I first ran for city councilor in 2013 and served for nine years and stood for election for city council three times. I have not been elected Mayor yet and am running for elections, which is holding in November.”

Speaking further on the town’s system of governance and how it operates, Hess said there are three arms of government, executive, legislative and judicial arms. “We have the executive branch and all the city employees report to my office including the police, fire, water, parks and recreation, public works and so on. I oversee about 900 employees.The legislative branch is made up of a 12-person city council who enact and oversee the laws that govern the city.”

“They set the rules which the executive branch must carry out. We are however still nested under the state of Montana and the federal government and are subject to both state and federal laws.”

He said the legislative wok part-time and are taken from six districts, two members per district. On how citizens engage with government, he said if a resident has a complaint or suggestion, they call up their city council member and relay their concern who in turn pass it on to the executives.”

The judicial branch he said, handles minor infractions and is made up of three municipal judges who hear small cases like traffic violations and property offences.
Missoula is the second largest city in the state and is home to about 80, 000 residents.