HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-19-25 Public Comment - N. ten Broek - RE_Local Government Study Commission Public Comment with staff responseFrom:Bozeman Public Comment
To:Noah ten Broek
Cc:Bozeman Goverment Study Commission; Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:RE: [EXTERNAL]Local Government Study Commission Public Comment
Date:Friday, June 20, 2025 10:21:45 AM
Good morning, Noah,
I will forward this comment to the Study Commission for you. Public comments to the Study
Commission can be directed to govreview@bozeman.net for future items.
To directly answer your question, I will reiterate the clarification that I made during the Study
Commissions public hearing; additional details can be found on the agenda item from June 4,
2024.
State statute dictates that vacancies are filled by appointment, 7-4-4112, MCA, and the City’s
Charter echoes these requirements, City Charter, Sec. 2.06. Such appointments are only for
the remainder of the term; for example, if a Commissioner has 3+ years left on their elected
term when they vacate their office, the appointment will only be until the next general election,
thus requiring an election for the remaining term (2 years).
Thank you for your interest in our Study Process,
Mike Maas, MPA
City of Bozeman | 121 N. Rouse Ave. | Bozeman, MT 59715
406.582.2321
Pronouns: he/him/his
Have Questions? Ask BZN
From: Noah ten Broek <njtenbroek@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2025 9:44 AM
To: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET>
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Local Government Study Commission Public Comment
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Dear Study Commission,
Please find a recent article I posted to Nextdoor which discusses commissioner
appointments.
Best,
Noah ten Broek
Why does our Bozeman City Commission appoint from within instead of letting us, the
voters, choose who fills an unexpected vacant seat on the commission?
Some might point to the cost or timing of holding a special election. But I’d ask: what’s
the cost of putting an unelected official on the dais — someone who reflects the status
quo of a self-selecting circle and owes their seat not to the public, but to the
commissioners who installed a friendly colleague or political ally? And what happens
when that appointee later gets to appoint someone themselves? That’s a double drift
away from the will of the community — a copy of a copy, a quiet consolidation of power
within the Commission itself.
Right now, three out of our five commissioners — Emma Bode, Douglas Fischer, and
Jennifer Madgic — didn’t win their seats at the ballot box. They were placed there by their
fellow commissioners through a process that sidesteps a public vote called an
“appointment process.” (Madgic eventually ran and won in 2023, but only after first
being appointed).
Incumbents have a huge advantage — about 90 to 95% win re-election*. They get the
visibility, the platform, and a built-in sense of credibility. Once they’re in, no matter how
they got there, most people just assume they belong. It’s the easiest way to stack the
deck and call it democracy.
This troubling pattern of appointments in our city reflects the broader sense of
disenfranchisement many in our community feel toward the commission — and
Bozeman’s political culture in general.
We saw it clearly during Emma Bode’s appointment, when the commission used open
sequential voting instead of ranked-choice or anonymous balloting.
The process was far from neutral. Each member of the commission announced their
pick out loud, one after another. It led to bandwagoning, where later voters adjusted
their choices based on who was gaining momentum.
It opened the door to strategic behavior: commissioners teamed up, blocked popular
contenders like Emily Talago and Alison Sweeney, and rode the coattails of a frontrunner
to steer the outcome.
It wasn’t anonymous. It wasn’t ranked-choice. And it certainly wasn’t immune to
backroom politics.
In the end, it felt like a carefully orchestrated pick by Mayor Terry Cunningham and
Deputy Mayor Joey Morrison to install a political ally.
Therefore, as our Local Government Study Commission continues its diligent review of
city processes, I urge them to pay close attention to how future commissioners are
appointed. My recommendations are simple:
An appointed commissioner should serve only the remainder of the term they were
selected to fill and should be ineligible to run for immediate re-election.
A vacancy on the commission should trigger a citizen board, made up of individuals from
existing city boards, to review applicants and recommend candidates for appointment.
As we head into our local election season, I want to share something Karl Popper, the
German philosopher, argued: a true democracy isn’t just about the right to vote people
in — it’s about the power to remove them peacefully. Just look at places like Russia and
Venezuela, where the performance of democracy is ritualized but the outcome is rigged.
We’ve had a deeply entrenched culture on our city commission for over a decade — one
that favors institutionalism, corporatism, and bubble-gum politics over local systems,
holistic community building, and genuine grassroots decision-making. It’s time not just
to vote new people in, but to exercise our most powerful democratic right: the ability to
vote them out.
*
[https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results%2C_2024%3A_Incumbent_win_rates_by_state
?utm]
--
Noah ten Broek