During the October 25 City Council meeting the Council will be asked to adopt a resolution of intention to partner with Yellowstone County and the State of Montana to invest funds locally to combat increases in violent crime in our community. The work session this evening will provide City Council with an update on the potential program and the desired outcomes of this partnership.

Attorney General Knudsen and former Budget Director Kurt Alme's offices recently met with representatives from the City and County to positively impact the surge in violent crime in Billings.  This goal will be accomplished by freeing up space in the jail to house criminals and to fight violent crimes tied to drugs and domestic violence.  The idea is to have each of the three entities commit to increasing resources to accomplish these priorities.  We have discussed a partnership investing a total of $4,000,000 to assist victims and hold criminals accountable to reduce violent crime in Billings over the next three years. Yellowstone County and the City will each commit $1,000,000 of investment to match $2,000,000 from the State over the next three years. This program is being implemented with one-time money, and the commitment is expected to end after three years.  The State will be making their request to a legislative sub-committee in late October.  We believe it is beneficial to make our local commitment prior to the October 27 hearing.  

The City is coordinating with the Attorney General and Governor's offices, Yellowstone County Attorney Twito, Sheriff Linder and the County Commissioners to prioritize freeing up jail space and preventing and prosecuting violent crimes connected to drug and domestic violence with these one-time additional resources.  We plan to create teams of city, county and state personnel to collaboratively address these two key areas of violent crime.  The City can accomplish its commitment by adding one (1) major case agent, one (1) prosecutor and one (1) victim witness specialist for an estimated cost of approx. $1.14M over three years.  In addition to the areas identified above, the State will increase its capacity to provide public defenders so that criminal cases can be adjudicated through the criminal justice system.  This last step is critical to freeing up space at the jail.

The City's resolution of intention, as well as support from the County will be presented along with the State's funding request to the legislative ARPA Commission on 10/27/2021. If approved by the commission and the Governor, the State, County, and City will begin implementing investments to reduce violent crime in our community as soon as possible.

Council may:

• Approve a resolution of intention to support this investment of funds;
• or Disapprove.

The anticipated costs to the City of Billings over the next 3 years is approximately $1.14M. If voters approve the 2021 Public Safety Mill Levy, much of the additional resources identified in that levy will be used to kickstart this program and no new funding will be needed, as the goals are identical.

If the levy is not approved, City staff will ask City Council to use either ARPA funds or cash reserves to fund this program for 3 years.