Butte-Silver Bow community enrichment director outlines enforcement focus and gaps on homelessness, parking and weeds

Dave, the Community Enrichment director for Butte-Silver Bow County, told the study commission that his department organizes and enforces local property and public-rights-of-way rules, runs a weed-control program and manages parking enforcement and the county parking garage. "I plan to organize, direct, supervise, and coordinate the operations of the community enrichment department," he said, describing the department—s three divisions: community decay, weeds and parking.

The director said community decay enforces ordinances on blight, overgrown vegetation, abandoned vehicles, sidewalk snow removal and garbage. The weeds division handles control and enforcement of noxious weeds on municipal property, lending equipment to landowners and managing right-of-way weed control in coordination with the Department of Transportation. The parking division manages the county parking garage, handicap enforcement, two-hour uptown parking and abandoned or junk vehicles.

Why it matters: the department—s enforcement role touches daily life uptown and in neighborhoods and feeds into larger policy questions the study commission is reviewing, from how enforcement is organized to how the county responds to homelessness.

On homelessness and outreach, the director told commissioners the county is seeing a growing visible population living in vehicles, trailers and on sidewalks. "I don't know if this is the case or it just feels that way to me," he said, adding that the work is "way bigger than community enrichment to solve." He said the department relies on complaint-driven enforcement and that citations (up to $500) rarely resolve the underlying problem: "I don't at this moment, I don't have a solution to that problem."

Parking and enforcement are a major workload. The director said the county recently began using automated cameras ("safety sticks") to enforce safety zones at intersections, taking photos and starting a ticketing process when a vehicle remains in a safety zone. He said the devices monitor parking and safety zones, not moving traffic, and that Montana law prohibits cameras attached to traffic-control devices used for moving-violation enforcement. He described parking as a resource-intensive duty that overlaps with community decay when vehicles become abandoned or are left in violation.

On weeds and rural outreach, the director said he has not yet completed a full weed season (he has been in the job three months) but noted the weed board is primarily composed of ranch owners and that most serious noxious-weed problems are rural.

Staffing and public engagement: the director said he has not seen pushback from the chief executive's office and works with planning, public works and other departments, but that public perception of the department is polarized: some residents are angry the department is not doing enough; others are angry that the department enforces ordinances. He proposed neighborhood cleanups and more community outreach to change that dynamic.

Commissioners pressed him about whether parking enforcement belongs in his department or under sheriff traffic units; he said the department historically coordinates parking and community-decay work and that a transfer would raise trade-offs in responsiveness. He also noted tow-lot capacity has expanded (from about 20 to about 30 vehicles at peak) but can still constrain operations.

Ending: the director urged cross-departmental approaches to housing and homelessness, said the planning department's housing committee is being reconvened and welcomed a multiagency task force to study long-term solutions. He repeatedly told commissioners the problems are complex and that he lacked simple ordinance fixes: "We have ordinances in place," he said, "but the ordinances are, you know, giving a ticket up to $500. And that doesn't really fix the problem."