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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-08-25 Pulblic Comment - N. Nakamura - WARD Ballot education presentations to Sustainability & INC boardsFrom:Natsuki Nakamura To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:Re: [EXTERNAL]WARD Ballot education presentations to Sustainability & INC boards Date:Wednesday, October 8, 2025 1:37:52 PM 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. Hi Mike, Thanks for the correction. I guess case in point, we all need some ballot education beyond justabout the WARD initiative! On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM Bozeman Public Comment <comments@bozeman.net> wrote: Hi Natsuki, First, I want to state my appreciation for your continued participation with the City Commissionand with our City Boards. I feel compelled to make one correction to your statement below about the seats up for thiselection cycle. The seats that are occupied by Commissioner Fischer and Commissioner Bode areon this November’s ballot not because they were both appointed pursuant to Montana statute but, because those seats were slated to be up for election in 2025 due to staggered terms. Neitherposition was a midterm appointment. Thank you, 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: Natsuki Nakamura <nenakamura4@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 11:22 AM To: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]WARD Ballot education presentations to Sustainability & INC boards 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. Please share this comment with the Sustainability Board and INC members ahead of their respective meetings. Thank you! Dear Sustainability Board members and INC Neighborhood reps: I am one of the Bozeman residents who helped write and collect signatures for the WaterAdequacy (aka WARD) initiative. You can see my previous comments submitted regarding the City's slideshow here and my questions regarding the City's feasibility study here. Some of my additional comments regarding the City's ballot education: The City has spent nearly 300 staff hours in the last 2 months for "ballot education"about the WARD initiative. This does not include the $50,000 taxpayer dollars that are going towards the Seattle-based consultant helping produce their materials. This does not include money and resources being spent by organizations other thanthe City of Bozeman, including the SWMIBIA-backed Affordable Bozeman Coalition that has spent $160,000 on things including mailers, mass text messages, and paidcanvassers. The City's ballot education has not included anything about what else voters will bevoting on this November, including 3 seats on the Commission, since 2 seats were filled recently with an appointment. Residents submitted a version of this WARD initiative in spring of 2024. If the City and Commission had concerns about the language of the initiative andwanted to work collaboratively to strengthen it, there was ample time to do so before we resubmitted a final version spring of 2025 and started gathering signatures.Recent ballot education presentations to advisory boards seem to be primarily focused on sharing the opinions of City staff, rather than trying to leverage the boards toprovide input and ideas to address community issues such as affordable housing and our finite water supply. The WARD initiative is an invitation to our fellow residents to consider for whom we are building housing and for what we are conserving water. Thank you for your consideration, Natsuki Nakamura 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.