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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-30-21 Public Comment - A. Shchemelinin - Equity IndicatorsFrom:Dani Hess To:Anna Shchemelinin Cc:Agenda Subject:FW: Equity Indicators Community Forum Date:Wednesday, June 30, 2021 11:56:02 AM Hi Anna, your message has been submitted as public comment. Thank you, Dani Hess | Neighborhoods Program Coordinator she/her | City of Bozeman | 406.595.6585 From: Anna Shchemelinin <anna@bridger3d.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 11:47 AM To: Dani Hess <dhess@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: Re: Equity Indicators Community Forum CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello Dani,Thank you for answering to my questions and reaching out for me regarding submitting myquestions as public comment.However, after I learned that the city paid $75000 taxpayer's money to out-of-state company, as a public comment, or together with my original message, I would like to submit themessage below: "The main reason why socialist economies have 100% failure is that they all are based on theMarxist principle: Take wealth from wealth's producers and redistribute it to bureaucrats whowould waste it. The city of Bozeman took $75000 from taxpayers who built the city and whose childrencannot afford to build families here. They paid this money to the big-name overpaid out-of-state consultants who had no interest in the city's success. The city justified its decision byclaiming that they modelled the project after "many other cities" without mentioning even onecity that can be considered a model of high quality of living for their residents. The city ofBozeman spent $75000 taxpayers' money to find out that the biggest concern of Bozemantaxpayers is that rising cost of living and falling quality of life force middle-class families outof the city. It is possible that the city officials had reasons to suspect that 97% of Bozeman's population(including City Council and Mayor) are influenced by 'unconscious racial and gender bias,' and they truly believed that the Equity Indicators project is needed to make Bozeman to bebetter place to live. However, instead of sending Bozeman taxpayers money out of state, theycould let MSU and high school students run the project. The city would save money, thismoney would stay in the city, Bozeman's students would have a chance to learn useful skills,and they will produce the same results because working Bozeman families know theirproblems and are open to discuss them.$75000, maybe not a lot of money for the Bozeman community. Yet, this money is an example of irresponsible mismanaging, an example of a socialist-style economy when thegovernment takes wealth created by other people and wastes this wealth on progressively- sounded slogans." Thank you again,Anna On Wed, 2021-06-30 at 14:46 +0000, Dani Hess wrote: Good morning Anna, it looks like you’ve submitted a similar message to the Clerk’s office and to the City Manager’s office. Would you like it to be submitted as public comment as well? It will then be seen by all City Commissioners. Let me know and I will submit our correspondence below as such. Dani Hess | Neighborhoods Program Coordinator she/her | City of Bozeman | 406.595.6585 From: Dani Hess Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 6:15 PM To: Anna Shchemelinin <anna@bridger3d.com> Subject: RE: Equity Indicators Community Forum Hi Anna, thanks for your message. You’re right that we are all feeling the housing cost pressure in Bozeman. It’s been the most common theme that has come up in our community engagement efforts for this project. I hope I was able to clarify some of your questions with my responses in blue below. Thank you, Dani Hess | Neighborhoods Program Coordinator she/her | City of Bozeman | 406.595.6585 From: Anna Shchemelinin <anna@bridger3d.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 5:46 PM To: Dani Hess <dhess@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: Equity Indicators Community Forum CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Helo Dani, Last week, Bozeman residents, including our household, received a letter showing asignificant increase in accessed housing values and a significant increase in local taxes. Even without increased taxes, Bozeman, with the cost of living 8% higher and medianhousehold income 13% lower than the national level, is unaffordable for many residents, especially young working families. In current circumstances, it would be natural to considercutting unnecessary expenses and spend city taxes wisely. Recently we learned about Equity Indicators Project that hired Thomas P. Miller andAssociates (TPMA), a big consulting firm from Indianapolis, IN. I have a few questions regarding the project and the TPMA involvement in this project. 1. Why the city of Bozeman decided to start this project and prioritized this project over other ones? This project is a response to a call to action from the community in Spring of 2020 to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in Bozeman. As a result, the City Commission directed staff to conduct a review of what the City is doing to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. This project was one of the recommendations to come from that review and City Commission approved the funding for it in January of 2021. 2. How much tax money the city of Bozeman paid to TPMA to work on this project? $75,000 was allocated from the City’s General Fund to pay for this project. 3. Did the city of Bozeman evaluate the effectiveness of the project? This project establishes baseline data from which we will measure the effectiveness of our programs, policies and practices going forward. It is based on community input on what peoples most pressing needs are, and pulls in data from national and local sources to track our progress in addressing issues like housing cost burden, access to health and mental health care, and education and childcare programs that support low-income and non-english speaking children and families. 4. Where could we find a documented proof that spending tax money on evaluating 'Equity Indicators' are more beneficial for the Bozeman community than spending thismoney on Substance prevention, Family Health programs, or help public school students affected by prolonged lock-downs due to COVID-19 pandemic? Before we direct resources towards addressing these issues, we need to understand what is being done already, what the community thinks is the highest priority, what partner organizations like HRDC, the School District, and healthcare system think are priorities, and what data should drive our collaborative efforts to address root causes of these issues. This project establishes the framework for evaluation and will inform how we prioritize City resources. 5. If the city didn't make this evaluation or cannot prove the benefits of the project and necessity of involving the out-of-state company, who was responsible for authoringthe budget, and how the city plan to compensate taxpayers for wasting their money? This project is modeled after many other cities. Fort Collins, CO; Tulsa, OK, SanAntonio, TX to name a few. TPMA was selected by a panel of interviewers from local organizations. TPMA was chosen because of their expertise in stakeholder engagement,data analysis, and experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts with public agencies and non-profit organizations. The City Commission authorized the budget forthis project. Sincerely, Anna Shchemelinin 1544 Hunters Way,Bozeman, MT 59718 406-551-4405 City of Bozeman emails are subject to the Right to Know provisions of Montana’s Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 9) and may be considered a “public record” pursuant to Title 2, Chpt. 6, Montana Code Annotated. As such, this email, its sender and receiver, and the contents may be available for public disclosure and will be retained pursuant to the City’s record retention policies. Emails that contain confidential information such as information related to individual privacy may be protected from disclosure under law.