HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-22-23 Public Comment - D. Carty - Fw_ UDC public engagement survey posted on Engage Bozeman on Nov 21, 2023From:Daniel Carty
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Fw: UDC public engagement survey posted on Engage Bozeman on Nov 21, 2023
Date:Wednesday, November 22, 2023 9:50:54 AM
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Please place the public comment below in the UDC public comment folder. Thank you.
From: Daniel Carty
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2023 4:37 PM
To: candrus@bozeman.net <candrus@bozeman.net>; Tcunningham@bozeman.net
<Tcunningham@bozeman.net>; Ccoburn@bozeman.net <Ccoburn@bozeman.net>; Jennifer Madgic
<Jmadgic@bozeman.net>
Cc: jmihelich@bozeman.net <jmihelich@bozeman.net>; gsullivan@bozeman.net
<gsullivan@bozeman.net>; dhess@bozeman.net <dhess@bozeman.net>
Subject: UDC public engagement survey posted on Engage Bozeman on Nov 21, 2023
(Please place the following public comment in the UDC public comment folder. Thank you.)
Nov 22, 2023, 9:40am
To: Bozeman City Commission
Subject: UDC public engagement survey posted on Engage Bozeman on Nov 21, 2023
On Nov 21, 2023, during the Thanksgiving holiday week, the City posted a UDC-related
public engagement survey on the Engage Bozeman website. This survey was posted on
Engage Bozeman without any prior public-noticing of Bozeman residents registered on
Engage Bozeman and without any prior public-noticing on local news media outlets or on
the local social media outlet Nextdoor. Not to mention the fact that the entire proposed UDC
update process is supposed to be on hold until 2024!
Although posting this UDC-related survey on Engage Bozeman in such a manner may have
been legal, it was in no way ethical (Footnote 1)—and is simply one more example of the
City trying to pull a fast one (Footnote 2) on Bozeman residents. More than likely, this UDC-
related survey was not critically reviewed by an independent, impartial statistician grounded
in survey-sampling methodology. As such, I have to assume the City designed this survey
to obtain biased responses, i.e., responses the City wants to hear and will then use to push
for adopting the proposed UDC update as currently written. Therefore, I will be boycotting
this survey, and hope many other Bozeman residents will boycott it, too.
In conclusion, I offer the Commissioners a quote from Aldo Leopold, who in 1949 wrote in A
Sand County Almanac:
“Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching—even when doing
the wrong thing is legal.”
This statement is as true in 2023 as it was in 1949. Moreover, in the Bozeman of 2023,
residents are watching—and are watching closely.
Daniel Carty
213 N. Third Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715
dgc12@hotmail.com
406-548-2810
Footnote 1: Briefly, acting legally means that an action is based strictly on what is written
in law and in how laws are interpreted by courts, whereas acting ethically means that an
action is based on human values of right and wrong. Arguably, it is possible (and common)
for an action—or an entire process—to be legal but not ethical.
Footnote 2: To pull a fast one means "to try and gain an unfair advantage."
CC's: Jeff Mihelich, City Manager; Greg Sullivan, City Attorney; and Dani Hess, Community
Engagement Coordinator