HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-05-25 Public Comment - D. Carty - City Commission, Tue Aug 5, Please move Consent Item G.4_ WARD to Action AdendaFrom:Daniel Carty
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]City Commission, Tue Aug 5, Please move Consent Item G.4: WARD to Action Adenda
Date:Tuesday, August 5, 2025 9:16:15 AM
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Aug 5, 2025; 9:15am
(Please distribute the following public comment to the City Commissioners in time for theTue, Aug 5, City Commission meeting and also place this public comment in the WARD
public comment folder. Thank you.)
I am writing to ask the Bozeman City Commission to move tonight's (Aug 5) Consent ItemG.4 to the Action Item Agenda and then to vote NO on Consent Item G.4, which reads,
"Ratify the Signature of the City Manager for a Professional Services Agreement withStrategies 360 for Ballot Education Communications Services."
In addition to my Aug 1 public comment (emailed to all Commissioners and
comments@bozeman.net), my reasons for making these requests are as follows:
(1) The City issued the original anti-Bozeman Water Adequacy Initiative (aka WARD) RFPfor 50K; the firm selected said they could do the job for 42K, saving the City 8K; but now
the City is proposing to give this firm 70K! That the City would use the consent agenda to
attempt to hide from the public a $28,000-over-budget RFP/PSA on ballot education1 (or
approve any way-over-budget RFP/PSA, for that matter) shows a lack of transparency andcallous disregard for public input that will continue to erode trust between the City and
Bozeman residents.
1 I don't think the term ballot education is even defined in the Montana Code Annotated nor
is it defined in the RFP/PSA for ballot education. Which opens up another area of
discussion for the City Commission meeting on Tue, August 5.
(2) In Consent Item G.4, the City proposes to hand 70K of Bozeman taxpayer money to anout-of-state firm so that that firm can create and distribute anti-WARD messaging products
to Bozeman residents before the Nov 4 general election. Although the City and the firm willclaim that such products will use neutral language, there is no doubt that the content and
intent of these messaging products will be anti-WARD (Otherwise, why would the Citybother?).
(3) Consent item G.4 should be moved to the Action Item Agenda so that each
Commissioner is required to make findings to support their YES or NO vote. Particularly,
Commissioners Emma Bode and Douglas Fischer face ethical concerns2 if they vote YES
to hand 70K of Bozeman taxpayer money to an out-of-state firm so that that firm can createanti-WARD messaging products. Effectively, such YES votes will put Bozeman taxpayer
dollars in the back pockets of Commissioner Bode's and Commissioner Fischer'srespective personal campaigns for this fall's election. And effectively, such YES votes will
communicate to Bozeman voters that both Commissioners are against direct democracyand against local grassroots groups acting via direct democracy for the benefit of the
Bozeman community as a whole.
2 Aldo Leopold said it best, when he wrote, "Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when
no one else is watching, even when doing the wrong thing is legal."
(4) Finally, the City has allocated a total of 100K in Bozeman taxpayer dollars to advocateagainst WARD. Interestingly, the Commission could just have easily—and more usefully
and appropriately and responsibly—allocated this 100K directly to the City's much-neededwater conservation efforts, to the City's affordable housing needs (as has been suggested
by Commissioner Bode to the tune of 50K), or to both. And re-allocating this 100K directlyto water conservation and truly affordable housing is exactly what the Commissioners
should vote to do on Tue, Aug 5.
Daniel Carty
213 N. 3rd Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715