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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-26-26 Public Comment - N. Nakamura - Re_ Your notes from todayFrom:Natsuki Nakamura To:Becky Franks; Bozeman Goverment Study Commission Subject:[EXTERNAL]Re: Your notes from today Date:Thursday, March 26, 2026 9:32:20 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 Becky, Sure! Here are some of my concerns on the wards issue. What problem are we hoping to solve by creating wards? Wards could result in more diversity on the Commission? Bozeman is 87% white, and the non-white population isn't concentrated in particular neighborhoods (like we might see in other cities)Low-income residents also aren't concentrated in particular neighborhoods. If we want more socioeconomic diversity on the Commission, one issue is that mostCommissioners need to be retired or have a job that pays well enough and/or has a lot of flexibility to be able to keep up with the responsibility of being on the Commission(attending meetings, reading through city documents, etc) Having wards, even though each Commissioner would be elected by/represent fewerresidents, does not reduce the amount of work each Commissioners needs to do to understand and make educated decisions on city-wide issues such as the budget, capitalimprovement plan, annexations, etc. Wards could result in better advocates for geographic-specific issues? I have heard the critique that most Commissioners over the years have come from the neighborhoods south of downtown. This was a point of tension when there was urbancamping happening in specific areas in the north part of town. Other areas on the north side are concerned about the rapid increase in high rises going up. How would wards becut or how small would they need to be cut for people to feel "better represented" by their representative?Living in other cities, I have seen there are clear natural geographic boundaries that result in unique issues (e.g. living in Pittsburgh, folks living on the other side of a riversuffer from limited access to regular public transit options compared to those within the main triangle). I fear that creating ward boundaries in Bozeman would be a bit forced(especially without established neighborhood associations throughout the city) Wards could result in more democratic elections? If there is only one candidate for my ward, my vote becomes meaningless because that candidate will get the seat, regardless if people vote for them or not. If nobody steps upto run, will the seat be filled by appointment? Or perhaps someone will file later as a write-in candidate and win with minimal effort/votesMeanwhile, other wards might have a competitive race with 3 or 4 candidates, and the losers in those races might get more votes than the winners in non-competitive races.The MT state legislature solved this issues by letting people outside of a district to run in a race, often resulting in coordination between candidates to strategically choose what district to run in to make sure there is a candidate in every race and not pit strongcandidates against each other. But then this is counter to the feeling that residents want someone who actually lives in and understands their area. As chair Taylor summarized from my comment, your study commission is tasked with figuring out what the problem you are trying to solve (there are certainly many folks that wantsomething different than just status quo), and then if wards (or something else) is the best way to solve it. Thanks to you all for your time and consideration,Natsuki Nakamura On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 5:47 PM Becky Franks <bfranks@bozeman.net> wrote: Hello. Thank you for your comments on the wards issue. Very interesting and I appreciate youtaking time to think about it and provide comment. Any chance you can send me your notes? Even if they are bullet points? Would really appreciate it. Becky Becky Franks, MA Bozeman Study Commissioner Becky Franks | LinkedIn 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.