The Bozeman Study Commission met on April 24, 2026, to address a public records request from the Gallatin Valley Sentinel and to commence discussion on proposed charter language regarding neighborhood associations and civic engagement. The meeting included extensive public comment and a vote on the release of survey data.
Coaching in the last public. I think he got asked and then I probably somebody probably said you're gonna kill yourself if you keep going. Two minute warning. Are they gonna be good again? Oh, I think so. Oh yeah, you want that you've got the wrong one. Right or not. Um double shot, double shot. And then we'll get into the agenda. Thank you. First item on the agenda is changes to the agenda. Are there any changes? All right. Next item is our first round of public comment. Please, if you would like, step forward to the podium to give uh up to three minutes of public comment on anything within our jurisdiction. Um you will have an opportunity on it for public comment any time that we take a vote and at the end as well. So whatever suits you. And you can get up on the motions and talk about something and then talk about something else at another time. But you can't talk about the same thing every time. Thank you. My name is Pam Bodie. I'm a resident of Bose. Microphone. There you go. My name is Pam Bodie. I'm a resident of the Cooper Park Neighborhood Association. And as you deliberate today to make potential changes to the association, neighborhood association bylaws, I would urge you to consider that the current bylaws are working fairly well for the folks who are currently involved in the neighborhood associations, and evidently they are not working very well for the people who are not involved in the neighborhood associations. And so as you consider the input from Inc., I would like you to imagine what the input is from those citizens who have not gotten involved in neighborhood associations to date. Thank you. Thank you, Pam, very much. We will take that into account during our discussion. Good morning, Commissioners. Uh hello again. My name is Abby Jones, and I'm a Bozeman resident, and I'm here on behalf of the Gallatin Valley Sentinel to share a message from them. So today you will be making decision on whether or not you will fulfill our public records request from January 1st to share the complete raw data of the surveys you conducted. At first, we were told that you would release the raw data but only in a scrambled format out of concern that we might be able to take the raw data and somehow be able to determine who completed each survey, even though the surveys were anonymous and any personally identifiable information such as names, email addresses, or IP addresses could be redacted. When our requests remained unfulfilled in February, given the time-sensitive nature of interpreting the data and using it to inform the decisions of the study commission. Montana's right to know does not recognize a blanket exemption for survey data based on the possibility that someone might infer identity through cross-referencing. Further, we were told that the city does not have the raw data in its possession, but this does not relieve the city of its obligation to produce records that were used, relied upon, and held by working ventures on the study commission's behalf and paid for with public funds for public purpose. I'm here today to request that you approve the release of this data to us at the Gallatin Valley Sentinel. This leads me to my next point, which is to say that since before you were all elected to serve on the study commission, the Gallatin Valley Sentinel has made an effort to educate the public on this process, having paid Dan Clark from MSU to come and give us a presentation to our candidate forum that we held in September of 2024. Since that time, we have tried to come alongside the study commission to supplement your work where we felt there was an obvious gap in public education and engagement. We are not your adversary in this process. As an organization, we have listened to every city meeting for the past two years, engaged one-on-one with hundreds of Bozan residents, conducted surveys and focus groups, and read every public comment submitted to the Bozeman Study Commission. We have mirrored the engagement of the study commission, received more organic survey responses from Bozman residents that you as the study commission have received. Earlier today, you should have received a copy of the draft charter language that we wrote for you based on all of this feedback. As you may have noticed, the overreaching framework of what we are recommended compared to what was drafted for your meeting today are nearly direct opposites. But the language that we are putting forward is truly the product of listening to the public feedback from a diverse sample of Bozan residents. As you have your discussion day, I encourage you to keep in mind the recommendation of the interneighborhood council and to also to keep in mind that our organization has been deeply involved with our community and local government in recent years. And we are at the forefront of Bozeman's issues and how to solve them.