HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-12-15 Staley, Beautification Board, Public CommentFrom: Ellie Staley Bozeman Resident and member of the Bozeman Beautification Advisory Board To: Mayor Jeff Krauss Commissioner Cynthia Andrus Commissioner Chris Mehl Commissioner Carson Taylor Commissioner I-Ho Pomeroy RE: Commission Memorandum/Commission Agenda Item Subject: Analysis of Community Involvement Processes Dear Mayor and Commissioners: The Bozeman Beautification Advisory Board (BBAB), a group of committed Bozeman citizens, was just notified that this Citizen Advisory Board may be disbanded by recommendation of the City Planning Staff. I would like to recommend not disbanding this specific advisory board this for a variety of reasons listed below. I would also like to portray my dissatisfaction with how this process is getting handled by the city staff that summited this memorandum for commission review. First, unlike the memorandum depicts, the Bozeman Beautification Board is currently comprised of a group of five unbelievably committed community members who have given countless hours to help make Bozeman the beautiful community it has become. All board members have been on this board for a minimum of 4 years while others have given Bozeman their precious free-time for nearly 20 years. During this substantial amount of time, the BBAB has taken some significant Bozeman traditions under their wing including; The Annual Bozeman Beautification Awards and Bozeman Clean-Up Day. The BBAB not only host these great city programs but put many hours into the planning, implementation, marketing and volunteering for these city programs with very little use of staff time (<90 hours total annually including special events, and monthly meetings, agenda setting, etc.).
Some of the jobs of the BBAB board members, beside monthly board meetings, include but are
not limited to; nominating projects for beautification awards through photos and research,
reviewing the nominees and condensing them down to 10-15 annual recipients, interviewing and
presenting 3-4 awards each at the annual award ceremony of over 100 attendees through a
professional power point presentation, organizing the additional details of the awards ceremony
from venue reservations to food preparations, setting a date for the Annual Bozeman Clean-Up
Day, organizing the registration, luncheon and clean-up supplies at the Clean Up Day
registration area at Bogert Park, volunteering for the duration of the Clean-Up Day. It is hard to
believe that less staff time will be used for the duties listed above in order to continue these great
programs without the immense contribution made by the individuals on the BBAB. It is also my
understanding that the Inter-Neighborhood Council was not even approached by the city staff
who mentioned their ability to absorb the Annual Beautification Awards in the memo.
In addition to the general commitment of the BBAB and the amazing community efforts the board implements each and every year, I would also like to explain why I am extremely disappointed with how the city staff handled assembling this memorandum and adding it to the commission agenda. First, it seems there was little to no contact with any of the citizen advisory
board members or city staff liaisons in the development of this memorandum. I feel it is extremely necessary to get the opinions of the individuals that volunteer their time at the boards or city staff that attend each meeting to be involved in the process of reviewing the contributions of each board as well level of importance they bring to the Bozeman Community. It’s hard to believe someone who has never attended a BBAB meeting or even met the volunteers on the BBAB has such a strong stance about the future of this board and the programs it hosts. These are very big recommendations to be making to our city commissioners without direct contact with the people it affects! Also, the BBAB was not even notified that this memorandum had been submitted and was added to the June 15 Commission agenda until our staff liaison brought it to our attention when she was notified the Thursday before Monday’s Commission meeting. I think it is in incredibly poor taste for the city staff to not realized the importance of alerting board members that have given so much of their time to the Bozeman Community regardless of how they feel the importance of the programs they host are. Our board was jaw-dropped and incredible saddened by the lack of communication and utter disrespect for people willing to give their time for the betterment of our community. Finally, I would like to offer some solutions for saving city staff time and condensing some of the city advisory boards. First, in respect to the BBAB specifically, I think 4-6 meetings per year would be reasonable and save even more staff time. Generally, it takes 2-3 consecutive monthly meetings to organize the two important programs we host and would be able to take a couple of months off in between. I also do not see the need for a commission liaison for this specific board as the city staff liaison could easily keep the commission updated on the board’s progress through a simple quarterly or bi-annual memo to the Commission. I would also recommend asking that each current advisory board to submit their annual work-plan for the commission to review on an annual basis in order to differentiate the programs and events hosted by these groups to truly see what each group adds to our community. From there, it may be easier for the commission to analyze the importance of each board based on what they actually do and not the perceived opinion of a city planning staff member preparing a memorandum with no outside involvement. I would also suggest keeping a strong line of communication with the individuals willing to commit to a citizen advisory board regardless of the perceived importance of the board they are a member of by city staff or commissioners. Anyone willing to give their time should be considered an important part of the due-process of any city…especially a prominent and progressive city like Bozeman, Montana. Thank you for reading the opinions outlined in the above letter and I hope they are taken into consideration when deciding to disband or diminish the importance of many of our citizen advisory boards.
Respectfully submitted,
Ellie Staley
Bozeman Resident, Current BBAB Board Member