HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-15-26 Public Comment - Gallatin Valley Sentinel - Public Comment for July 15 MeetingFrom:The Gallatin Valley Sentinel
To:Bozeman Goverment Study Commission
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment for July 15 Meeting
Date:Wednesday, July 15, 2026 4:01:36 AM
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To the Bozeman Study Commission:
We would first like to offer a suggestion for your ballot education discussion. Our
recommendation is for you to record a video explaining the work you've done and presentingit to voters. This video could easily be shared with the connections you have at various
organizations, as well as the general public and pushed through the city's communicationchannels. If you are going to do in-person presentations to verious groups, there should be a
standardized presentation and speech used to ensure that the same message is being presentedeverywhere.
Regarding the charter, we want to start by acknowledging the progress reflected in the current
draft, particularly the changes proposed to the compensation board, the ward boundarycriteria, and the vice mayor role. These are improvements over prior drafts, and we would like
to offer a few suggestions where further clarity and refinement would strengthen the finalcharter language.
Compensation Board
We want to register strong support for the public feedback indicating that sitting
commissioners should not serve on the compensation board. We encourage the StudyCommission to adopt the recommendation to have a fully independent board.
If two sitting city commissioners were to remain on the board, it raises an immediate and
difficult question: who decides which two? Any selection process, whether by seniority,appointment by the mayor, or a vote of the full commission, reintroduces exactly the self-
interest dynamic one could reasonably assume the board is intended to eliminate. Acommissioner who has a say in either their own appointment to the board or their colleague's
undermines the board's independence in both appearance and practice.
We urge you to accept the recommendation we sent in previous public comment that was
supported by the overwhelming majority of public comment received both in writing and atthe public hearing in June. The compensation board can of course consult all commissioners to
obtain a broader perspective on the work required, which will certainly vary fromcommissioner to commissioner based on their work and lived experience.
Allowing the board to be independent will also help build public trust.
Vice Mayor
The latest draft still leaves ambiguity around what happens if the vice mayor is unable orunwilling to serve as mayor. A succession similar to what has been previously stated and
supported in our public comment is recommended.
Wards
It is an improvement to move away from the city commission setting ward boundaries and
changing them at will.
However, we will refer to our previously submitted public comments, also supported by the
majority of other public comments on the subject, and recommend adoption of that languageor something similar.
We see that you did accept the recommendation to look at the legislature's process, and wouldencourage you to consider that language and adopt it to what suits Bozeman at the local level.
It is also worth considering increasing the population disparity threshold to 10%, as previouslyrecommended. With Bozeman's future plans for growth and its zoning, one or two apartment
developments could cause the current 5% threshold to be triggered, thereby creating the needfor ward boundaries to change more frequently than they likely should. Also consider who is
monitoring for those changes in population if the board is being disbanded after theirrecommendationd are adopted.
It is also important that the members of the ward advisory board be appointed by the citycommission via an open public solicitation process and that all five members of the board be
appointed by the commission out of fairness. We also do not see the need to have politicalparty be a criteria since Bozeman's elections are nonpartisan. Also per public comments, it
should be added that existing neighborhood boundaries be honored as much as possible.
Misc.
The transition timeline presented could use some work. Namely, if voters choose to increasethe size of the commission, there is no reason to wait until 2029 to elect them. They could and
should be elected at the next general election in 2027. Further, we recommend considering theopening of candidate filing for the 2027 municipal election and make sure that if wards are
approved by voters, that the ward advisory board has their recommendation to the commissionin ample time for adoption before the filing period opens.
Lastly, we recommend that you meet again next week to allow whatever decisions you maketomorrow to be incorporated into a final draft of the charter, and subsequent final report, so
that the public can see the draft and comment one last time before final adoption on August 6.It may end up being a short meeting, but it would be worth it to have all of the changes
together and not wait until the absolute last minute prior to the August 6 meeting for the publicto be able to review and offer any final tweaks or even proofreading. You could also use this
time to review everyone's responses to Danegeld's homework, whatever that may have been.The document uploaded to your Reference Materials folder that is supposed to be a copy of
their "homework" does not display properly, but whatever that homework was, should be apart of a public discussion.
Sincerely,
Katie AdamsThe Gallatin Valley Sentinel