Coalition for Local Government Study (Missoula, Mont.) Records, 1962-1983

The majority of the correspondence in the series is from the coalition's chairman of the board, Tom Gorczynski. The correspondence consists of thank-you letters to donors and coalition members, letters to other public officials, such as County Commissioner Barbara Evans, and letters confirming participation in local events. Also in the series is a few newsletters that Gorczynski sent to the members of the coalition. The series contains a memorandum of agreement between the Missoula Board of County Commissions and the Coalition for Local Government Study for the need of financial assistance to purchase county and city research materials.

This series contains materials that the policy, public information, steering, and transition plan committees used in their discussions about the effect of combining the city and county government. The materials consist of national and Montana county research. The county research centers on addresses of public officials in the state and county, community profiles, and legislative issues.

This series consists of materials that the general membership of the coalition came into contact, which include questionnaires, newsletters, press releases, a membership list, a slide show presentation, public speaking handouts, and an outline for the final board recommendation. Also in the series is a copy of an injunction from the Missoula County Freeholders, a property owners association, had against the coalition. The injunction, made by two members of the coalition, asked for bylaws to be adopted and to limit membership to only those members who had paid their ten-dollar dues. A copy of the Home Rule Charter is also in the series.

The series contains meeting minutes, research information that the board used as a basis for their recommendations, and questionnaires about local taxation. Much of the research information are key issues, including mill levies, budgets, and voting information. The questionnaires are filled out by local constituents and include comments about city and county taxation.

The series consists of meeting minutes that contain reports on committees within the coalition, voting information, and discussions within the coalition. Absentee voting registers are also included within the meeting minutes.

This series contains meeting minutes of the different committees within the coalition, including the policy, public information, steering, and transition plan committees. The public information committee dealt with the public's perception of the coalition. Different research information about Missoula city and county profiles were used in determining the best public relations stand points. The steering committee discussed information about how the coalition should be managed, including financial matters, meeting attendance, and general policies of the coalition. The transition committee decided the effective date of the transition from city and county governments to the combined government, the length of transition, which boards and authorities to maintain, and personnel. A copy of the pamphlet "Local Governments in Transition," by James J. Lopach, is also included in the transition committee minutes.

This series contains meeting minutes and research materials that the study's task forces used in deciding which methods they would support for the combined city and county government. The task forces consisted of the general coalition membership. The task forces were developed to encourage public involvement to represent a cross section of community interest. The goals of the local government task force was to study alternative forms of government and select forms to study, to identify concerns of current forms of city and county government, and to make recommendations of alternative forms of government for the Missoula area. The representation task force discussed issues of population districts and how representative they are, review maps for various service and special districts within the Missoula area, and review voter statistics. The services task force dealt with the direction with services of the two governments as it formed into one group. The group categorized the services into public works and administrative services. They also identified what the current services provided and where the desired level of those services should be, and the problem areas that the services were to handle. The services task force was divided into several sub-committees including fire and law enforcement. The taxation task force dealt with issues involving mill levies, a decrease in tax dollars, taxation imbalances, city retirement fund, policy for federally funded programs, future trends, and alternative sources of revenue. Several reports are filed within the taxation task force research.