I had a friend move a trailer house onto a plot of land that he owned, it was there for about two days.A lady from the court house showed up and said he had to move it, and couldn't live on his property in that mobile home. I know it is zoned for a potential flood, but so is the state of Louisiana and Florida and they invite new housing ownership.However this is a whole other issue.



I thought we did not have an enforcement officer, and if she is not a sworn officer of the law which has passed the MTLEC exams, then how can she go around telling people what they can and can't do with the threat of consequence?

Now the lady was very forward in saying that she gets her authority from FEMA not from the city, which means very little to me.

FEMA ha ha! ha!

I suggest your friend go to City Hall and become educated on the subject.

help me and he out, GURU.

What was her name? Did she show you a card showing you who she did work for? I'd go to the courthouse and ask to see her.

Sam Malenovsky is the flood enforcement officer for MILES CITY. She works in the city engineer's office. And, no, you can't just haul in a mobile home and stick it somewhere without making sure it is zoned mobile, it is OUT OF THE FLOODWAY, and meets all sanitary and building codes.

Miles City has LEGALLY BINDING ordinances preventing new construction in a FLOODWAY. I'll bet that's where your friend tried to stick his mobile home without, apparently, making ANY effort to find out if it was legal. Even if you are in the 'mitten' that is out of the city limits, the floodway ordinance applies.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Never has been.

Go upstairs in City Hall and find out what should have been learned in the first place.

ETA: I spent 10 years on the zoning commission, two as chair, and that included the time when the floodway ordinances were passed. Very boring but very important stuff.

[This message has been edited by Amorette Allison (6/18/2014)]

I've been thinking this over and I'm wrong. There may be a county flood enforcement officer now. When I was in planning and zoning, the county behaved as if those were the signs of apocalypse and ceded all control to the city. Now, however, I know Bill Ellis is the county planner and I think there may be a certified flood enforcement officer. I don't know her name, however.

Oh, and civil and criminal law are different. To enforce CIVIL infractions, you don't have to carry a gun and be a police/sheriff's "officer." Words are the same but meanings are different. However, civil officers do have the power to call upon criminal officers if needed.

Again, find out before you do things like move houses. Knowledge never hurts.

Sounds like another well-intended but secondhand partial truth to get folks stirred up.

Wanna back up Amorette in that law enforcement credentials are not required for every type of enforcement. Code compliance, animal control, zoning enforcement, etc., are typically done by non gun-toting folks.

OK, Dick Wad; as former Senior Planner for the city of Huntington Park California, I feel that I can speak with some authority on this little piece of Miles City ephemera. I use the term ephemera because I am sure this issue will be transitory, inconsequential and have no impact beyond lip service and inane postings.

In my instance I had the same authority as a police captain on the civil side. My duties included whether or not a citizen request was legal on the civic side and make recommendations to the planning commission based on the municipal code. Code enforcement fell under my authority and the municipal code dictated the legality of issues as enforced by the officers. We did not carry weapons but had the right to citation. I was a sworn officer and had a badge but it mostly kept me from getting traffic tickets.

NO! you can't just build something or move something and and just expect that it will be just fine. On the other hand, the city can't deny your right to do something that is allowed by the municipal code. You do have to find out if it is OK before hand.

Here is an example.

Joe Blow wants to build a fence so he goes to the planning department and learns that a fence is permitted but it must have an unobstructed view and be no taller than 5'. If a permit is required he pulls a permit and builds a fence, to code.

OOPS! Joe wants a 6' privacy fence. That is cool. He can request a variance. He fills an application and turns it in to planning. Planning, engineering and fire department look it over for approval or state why it should be denied. The planner makes his recommendations and a hearing is held with the planning commission. The variance will be approved or denied. An unsatisfactory decision can be appealed to the City Council.

That being said, while helping a friend that wanted to do a subdivision when I first moved to MC, it took the then City Clerk thirty minutes to find the only copy of the municipal code in City Hall. I asked to buy a copy and learned they were not available for sale. No one there that day could tell me what version of the sub division map act they used. I hope there is more professional staff now but I doubt it. The council would rather roll on with the good old boy method as opposed to what is good for the city or in fact even legal.

Bottom line is Civil matters should be handled by the cop shop. Civic matters across the desk. Operative word is "should."

NOTE: I don't always use the term Dick Wad but when I do it curls the corner of my mouth into a smug grin and I feel superior as I condescend. I try to be a better person but fail from time to time.

That's because you're an admitted unarmed agent of the state, which is, as we all know, proof of your jackbooted thuggishness.

Of course, if code-enforcement officers DID carry weapons, Mr. Allen's Wife would be the first to start in with 'help help, I'm being oppressed'

I bet we never hear how this turned out unless the trailer goes downstream in a flash flood.

Bridgier, Amorette, Cheers from Denver.

Mr. Allen's Wife won't be laughing when FEMA comes to send her to a re-education camp, I can promise you that.

I never said that code enforcement officers shouldn't have guns, this has nothing to do with a firearm. We can all carry a gun
I said they should be required to pass the same law enforcement exam as the rest of the state certified officers' if they are to be an officer in this state. the MTLECexam.
And I would just become a cop if I felt too oppressed, not cry about it.

CIVIL law. CRIMINAL law. Two different things.

Wow, Tucker, I bow to thee. This started out as a partial, secondhand, story. And one that has still not been corroborated.

I was a commissioned part and full-time law enforcement officer from 1986 to 2007. That includes time in MC when I helped MCPD (mostly as a volunteer) during a period of significant employee turnover. And while employed by the US Department of Justice, my last (thankfully) assignment was the Rule of Law Chief of Staff for the nation of Iraq.

So you going trying to be condescending over an issue for which no truth has yet been verified is boorish.

There is no spoon.

Listen former CA authoritarian. Folks like you, little men and women, unable or too lazy to compete effectively in a free market business climate, find your way to positions of power and behave in a condescending arbitrary and rude manner to citizens. Folks like you are exactly why we voted down zoning for the town of Terry last month in an overwhelming victory for individual liberty and private property rights.

THAT’S RIGHT. WE HAVE NO ZONING WHATS SO EVER IN THE TOWN OF TERRY AND HAVE BEEN DOING JUST FINE HERE FOR OVER 100 YEARS. Please stay back at least 38 miles. You wouldn’t be happy here.

Actually Sam, my dear boy, I do it just because it is fun. I sometimes get bored, take a few minutes to poke at twats like you.

I trust that you are surrounded and safely wrapped in the second amendment, free from the hoards of illegal aliens and people of color, coming to Terry. You know.....to live the American dream, like you.

[This message has been edited by Tucker Bolton (7/6/2014)]

Tucker Bolton chirps:

"I trust that you are surrounded and safely wrapped in the second amendment, free from the hoards of illegal aliens and people of color, coming to Terry."

Excuse me while I whip out the old racist/bigot/gun-nut card....

DOWNTOWN TERRY, MONTANA

Downtown Terry, Montana by dave_mcmt, on Flickr

DOWNTOWN HUNTINGTON PARK, CALIFORNIA

Pacific Boulevard and Clarendon Avenue by Jmiles92, on Wikimedia Commons

Everybody hates zoning until the rendering plant goes in next door. . .

Until Planned Parenthood opens a clinic across the street from the Catholic Church. Until someone opens an adult bookstore and peepshow emporium next to the preschool. Until your next door neighbor opens a 24-hour truck stop and casino. Etc.

Terry...too close to Glendive.

Mr. CA former authoritarian,

Ah… no attempt to refute my assertion that you are a little man, unable or too lazy to compete effectively in a free market business climate? I’ll accept that you can live with the realization. Thank you for your honesty.

Actually you’d be surprised. We have “people of color” right here in Terry and everybody seems to get along just fine. We are short on liberals though so like I said you wouldn’t be happy here.

David Schott,

An adult book store would go broke in Terry in a month because everybody knows everybody and what you’re up to, same reason a Planned Parenthood clinic would fail here. A truck stop would fail unless it was near the freeway.

The town told us we’d have whore houses and man camps on every corner in Terry unless we gave in to their authoritarian power grab and accepted zoning. I’ll let you know when the first one shows up.

Amorette, David,

Sammy boy, refute what?

and.....What the H E double hockey sticks is a man camp. Promise Keepers, hunters, homo(lordy-lord!)sexuals, smoke jumpers and without zoning, who would sell them a permit and tell them where to have their man camp? How big a man camp is permitted and how many men can be in the camp? Is clothing required and how long can they stay? Zoning would answer all of these questions.

Back in the day we called that "Anarchy", mister.

OH! I forgot the big question. Would the man camp be permitted to set up within one hundred yards of the whore house?

Terry is headed down a slippery slope. Whats next a topless shoeshine parlor, street evangelists, nuns on roller skates?

[This message has been edited by Tucker Bolton (7/7/2014)]

Or somebody builds a fertilizer plant on main street and proceeds to tell OSHA to pound sand whenever they ask for a manifest of materials on site.

But really, it's Terry. They drink MC's pee.

Bridgier, that was just mean. You know that they don't drink Miles City, pee-pee. But I think that is Sam's point. They could, if they wanted and they could do it without bureaucratic interference.

They do save money on fertilizer as they are able to irrigate with Custer County run off.

Sam, is that correct?......Sam? Don't leave me hanging. Oh! also, I would appreciate your not calling me a liberal. I am a socialist and a god fearing, atheist.