This week we checked in with two of the City of Bozeman Local Government Study Commissioners, Carson Taylor and Deanna Campbell, to see how the study process is going so far. This past November, Taylor and Campbell, along with Barb Cestero, Becky Franks, and Jan Strout, were elected to serve a two-year term on the City of Bozeman Local Government Study Commission. Taylor, who is also a former mayor of Bozeman, is the chair of the study commission, and City Clerk, Mike Maas, is acting as the ex-officio member on behalf of the city.

Since the Study Commission started meeting in December, the focus has been on learning what is and is not within the purview of the study commission and establishing the groundwork, including setting goals, establishing a budget, and creating a timeline for the study process. Most of these items are mandated by state statute, but the study commission has the flexibility to choose their content.

Last year, voters overwhelmingly decided that they felt that our current form of local government is not working and does not represent the current needs and political climate of the majority of Bozeman’s residents. There is already some contention over what should be focused on in the study commission and whose voices should be sought out during the process. It is important that you stay informed on and engaged with the study commission because their purpose is to examine what areas of the local government’s form and structure could use a makeover to better represent Bozeman’s residents. To get this right, they need to hear from you. We need to encourage our study commissioners to focus on the task of improving our government and not allow personal politics, ideologies, or predetermined outcomes to be inserted into the process. If no one watches, and if the voices of the majority remain silent, the current problems will continue, and the outcome will be more of the same. If that happens, it will be another ten years before we get the opportunity to try again. We encourage you to attend meetings, submit public comments, and give direct input to help remind our fellow neighbors who are now in charge of this very important and once-a-decade opportunity to stay focused on the task at hand and stay out of the weeds of the many issues that plague our current structure that we elected them to identify and change.  

As Study Commissioner Deanna Campbell put it, the city’s charter can be thought of as our local constitution. Campbell wrote a white paper called “Shaping our Future,” which explains this concept and helps to explain the breadth of issues the city’s charter can cover. In it, she cites from the Montana Constitution and Montana Code Annotated and gives examples from other Montana city charters that demonstrate how a city charter can be written to provide a solid framework for local government that truly represents the core values of its residents. The other study commissioners decided that Campbell’s piece would best be stored in the city’s Laserfiche folder for the study commission, but we at The Sentinel believe in sharing this document far and wide so that the public understands how important and far-reaching the decisions that will be made throughout this process truly are. You can read Campbell’s paper here or download it at the end of this blog.

Watch our interview with Campbell and Taylor below, and stay tuned as we will be talking with the Gallatin County Study Commission soon and will be checking in regularly with Bozeman’s study commissioners. The study commission will meet next on March 6 at 4 p.m. at City Hall. If you are unable to attend the meeting in person, you may attend via Zoom by registering here.

Note: Any opinions expressed by Taylor and Campbell are their own and do not represent the opinions of the Study Commission as a whole.