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Missoula County outlines Lands & Communities reorganization, four departments and program priorities
Summary
County staff presented a history of organizational changes leading to the current Lands & Communities umbrella, which now includes four departments — Lands, Culture and Recreation; Ecology and Extension; Planning, Development and Sustainability; and Grants and Community Resources — and named directors for each.
Chet (full name not specified), the county’s chief lands and communities officer, gave a historical overview of organizational changes that led to the current Lands & Communities structure and presented an organizational chart showing four departments and their program areas.
He described the evolution from a 1996 interlocal consolidated Office of Planning and Grants through later reorganizations (including an Office of Rural Initiatives, CAPS — Community and Planning Services — and subsequent changes) to the present Lands & Communities umbrella. “We formed Lands and Communities in 2022… and completed that in 2024 where we added the second two departments, Land, Culture and Recreation and Grants and Community Resources,” Chet said.
Under the Lands & Communities umbrella, Chet said, the county now has four departments: Lands, Culture and Recreation (including Larchmont Golf Course, Fairgrounds, Marshall Mountain, and Parks, Trails and Open Lands); Ecology and Extension (Healthy Acres, Healthy Communities Foundation, aquatic invasive species district, Lolo mosquito and extension programs); Planning, Development and Sustainability (long-range planning, current planning and permitting, climate action); and Grants and Community Resources (federal/state grants, county funds and community resources).
Chet named department directors and staff roles: Randy Arnold (director, Lands, Culture and Recreation), Bryce Christians (director, Ecology and Extension), Karen Hughes (director, Planning, Development and Sustainability) and Melissa Gordon (director, Grants and Community Resources). He said each department has a director and program teams beneath it and emphasized values staff identified — connection, stewardship, sustainability and meaningful engagement — as guiding principles.
Chet told councils the county will provide more detailed org charts and an annual report in coming months and invited questions and follow-up. No formal board action or vote was proposed; the presentation was informational about administrative structure and public-service roles.
Questions from council members focused on how to share the presentation and whether the county could provide the org-chart content and materials in a shareable format for community councils to review later.
