Good afternoon.

Thanks for joining us.

I will call this meeting of the inner neighborhood council to order.

I'd like to share a few reminders to help you follow along and participate in public comment.

You can attend or watch this meeting and future Inc.

meetings in several ways.

Impu in person here in the city commission room, live streamed on your computer via the meetings video page at Bozeman.net on cable TV channel one nine one nine zero or by joining via via video conference using the link in the meeting calendars event on Bozeman's main web page where ink agendas are posted.

You may also call in using the phone number and access code listed on the agenda.

Please note this option is listen only and does not allow for public comment.

To provide public comment, you may comment in person here in the commission room.

Use the raise hand feature if you're joining by video conference.

When it's your turn, Emily Kiley will call you by name or submit written comments by emailing comments at Bozeman.net.

Written comments received by noon on the day of the meeting will be distributed and read by the Inc.

Now let's start with some introductions.

I maybe neverone isn't new, but some new faces for me since I haven't been here for the last two we uh two meetings.

So if we could start at the end, hi Linda Simonis, I'm subbing for Mark Campanelli for the Bogert Park Neighborhood Association.

Patrick Moore Valley Unit Neighborhood Association, Juliet Osman, Jan Neighborhood.

Beth Boyson, New Highlight View Neighborhood.

Emily Tlego, submitting for uh Michelle Osman, Midtown Neighborhood Association.

Kathy Rich, the University Neighborhood Association.

Ed Boginae Cooper Park.

Dick Parker, B Cann, Bridge and Creek Lands Area of Neighborhoods.

And the Guerra, Valley West of the Lakes Neighborhood Association.

Paul Burns, Marvin Linda, Lily.

Uh substituting for scan for Jim Webster.

Josie McCullough, Kirk Park Neighborhood.

Hi, I'm Takami Clark.

I'm the city's communications and engagement manager.

And I'm here just to say hello and refamiliarize myself with Inc.

I'll be overseeing you guys and helping you guys from the staff perspective while Emily's out on certain media leave.

So nice to see you guys again.

Hi everyone, Emily Kylie, Kaney Engagement Coordinator.

And Douglas is in the audience.

And I'm Douglas Fisher, your city liaison uh city commission liaison.

And I don't mind sitting out here, but I'm I am definitely paying attention.

Are there any disclosures?

I have a disclosure in mirror to a member of the legislature.

His name is Brian Close.

Any changes to the agenda?

Okay, we'll move on to approval of the minutes from the April 9th, 2026 meeting.

I move to approve the rigor meeting minutes as submitted.

I second.

Any opposed?

To show hands.

Yes.

Approved.

Okay, public comments on non-agenda items falling within the purview and jurisdiction of the board.

This is a time to comment on any non-agenda matter falling within the scope of the other neighborhood council.

There will also be time in conjunction with each agenda item for public comment relating to that item, but you can only speak once per topic.

Please note the board cannot take action on any item which does not appear on the agenda.

All persons addressing the board shall speak in a similar and courteous manner, and members of the audience should be respectful of others.

Please state your name and place of residence in an audible tone of voice for the record, and limit your comments to three minutes.

Any public comments?

Okay, moving on to the Bozeman Neighborhood Connection presentation.

Hi everyone.

Do I need to use the microphone?

Okay, I'm pretty loud.

My name's Andre Zollers, and we are actually the Bozeman Neighbor Connection, just for clarification.

And this is Virginia McQueen and Wes Siler.

And we are all on the team along with my husband Jim Klingeman.

And we appreciate your time today.

We appreciate all that you guys do.

We know you have a very full agenda.

So the Bozeman Neighbor Connection is a communications infrastructure that's been designed to develop meaningful connection at the lowest levels in our community.

We believe the only solution to the current discord in our country is creating a system that encourages connection at the lowest level, basically neighbor helping neighbor.

In our growing community, we've seen that cherished Montana value disappear.

In this place, we see resentment, segregation, and an unwillingness to accept growth and outsiders, despite the fact that we are all outsiders.

Virginia is now going to talk to you a little bit further about our concept and the design itself.

Hi everyone.

So our concept is simple and designed to bring people together, not just to socialize, but to create real support systems.

So we believe that in doing so, we offer the greatest opportunity for real connection and conversation.

And as Andre was saying, we act as like an infrastructure of participation, engagement, and resources for localized cross-level support within and across our neighborhoods.

So we uh we printed off a little diagram too for how the communications would would act, but what does this look like?

It looks a lot like a communications infrastructure.

Um we can serve as the controllers, if you will, like air traffic controllers, um BNC would, and then the neighborhood coordinators are the pilots and the neighbors, good neighbors, as we're calling them members of those uh neighborhood coordinators would be the their members or passengers.

So we're identifying our neighborhoods, identifying um neighborhood coordinators, and facilitating creation of a neighborhood group if needed, and uh neighborhood groups will meet and begin to identify their own needs.

So this could look like anything from a neighbor or community garden, local tool sharing, emergency child and pet sitting, um, and this would be um providing support during weather events and distributing timely information, um excuse me, one second, yep.

And then and recreation groups.

Um, this is not just for communication, but also for social community support, so our role where we see where we come into play is when a need is identified and a neighborhood's unable to source that need by itself.

And that request will come up the communication infrastructure to be vetted by the neighborhood leader first and then shared with us.

And it might be for something like a lawnmower, a generator, housing, food assistance, you name it.

Uh, we should mention here we understand the community offers a lot of their own resources, uh, but as we all know, those are definitely overtaxed and they can be difficult up for everyone to access.

We would act as the ASEAN and the coordinator to access those services, and our vital role is basically cross-leveling support across neighborhoods.

And we see this as a win-win for everyone because it creates community and connection at the lowest level.

It also builds a sense of belonging, which we all sorely need, I think, in Bozeman.

Everyone has a place, no matter what, no matter where you stand in the community.

It provides an opportunity for everyone to develop awareness and empathy for their neighbors who may be across town.

Everyone can help and feel good knowing they're doing something.

We believe this is critically important as we're overwhelmed by circumstances.

We see this as a national model that we would like to implement that will encourage communication, resilience, and connection within communities.

The final note the beauty of our communications infrastructure model is we can approach individuals and organizations without a political affiliation.

We're simply a mutual aid organization working with other mutual aid groups to help our neighbors.

And we have two asks for you guys before we leave today, because I'm sure this is a little interesting given your guys' role in your communities.

We would ask you to consider allowing us to be on your website to lend awareness and to give us credibility, and we'd appreciate it if you'd assist us in navigating each of your neighborhoods by identifying individuals or helping us to identify individuals who may be willing to work with us.

I believe I sent an email to everyone a few months ago, Cooper Park responded.

We came and spoke with them, had a great reception with them.

And I've given you some uh handouts there that have a little bit more information, and we're here for questions.

I've got one.

So is there is that a 501c3?

Is there any kind of formal organization behind it?

Uh there's not.

It's just four of us that are community activists.

And so there's no budget, so to speak.

We don't foresee that we need a budget.

So this will be a simple, simple architecture that's just done in your phones where every neighborhood has their own text group that goes just to the neighborhood leader, and then we have a text group that's just with the neighborhood leaders, and then we have our separate text group with organizations that we'll be working with lots of lots of organizations across the Bozeman community that we already have connections with.

Without divulging anybody's name or anything.

Are you getting a response?

And what kind of response are you getting?

Yeah, no, we've had a great response across the community.

We've made ourselves as visible as we can.

We've been kind of waiting to release this here, kind of feeling you guys out.

Um, you can certainly reach us, you know, reach us on the website, or I've got a phone number there at the bottom.

You can text me or call me with further questions.

We'd certainly like your like your input on the concept.

Um, but in general, folks are very, very supportive of it, and you know, it's taking this idea of there's a lot of neighborhood groups in Bozeman, right?

And they do certain social activities and so forth, but this is really drilling it down where you're really connecting between people, and we think that that's just the most important thing.

People can have you know hobby groups, they can have skill sharing groups, they can have tool.

I mean, the concept of the neighborhood groups can be as big or as small as neighborhoods are comfortable with.

A lot of your guys' neighborhoods in here are pretty big.

So we've got big maps of Bozeman that we've broken down into much smaller groups, and I've gone out and I'm soliciting people across the city.

Um, but we've got great response, and we're we're at the point where we're gonna do is we're gonna start facilitating neighborhood gatherings.

So we're gonna provide, you know, hot dogs, hamburgers, and let and start to at least get neighborhood groups started.

And doesn't matter how many, and then some people don't have neighborhoods, so we're also connecting them, you know, to other neighborhoods, letting them sort of be adopted, if you will.

So I'm just curious, so this is all volunteer basically.

Yes, okay.

And when you provide hamburgers and hot dogs, someone that's just on us.

Wow.

Yeah, no, we we very much believe in this, and we think in today's current environment that, you know, I mean, you saw what happened in Minnesota, you saw how that community came together.

And we think that we can like we think that first of all, our country needs it, but we think Bozeman needs it, and I think we all agree we can see, you know, we can see the divisions within Bozeman.

Um, and I'm an old Montanan, and I know how tough old Montanans can be on outsiders, and I think we need as much opportunities for connection as we can develop and support too.

I would just add to that to your question, Kathy, that we're working um with a lot of other organizations, um, some of them organized, and some of them just through activity and people who are lending their time, but with other mutual aid networks.

So we're part of a group that has started a Bozeman Mutual Aid Network.

So it can be a single landing page for people to find mutual aid resources, either when they're joining new into the community or people who've lived here forever and are just curious about where the free market is, where food support can be, trying to create one large network of all of us to really be able to work together.

So I would add that some of the like gatherings and things like that are also going to be supported through the mutual aid network.

I have a couple of questions too.

Something that you said reminded me of.

No, okay.

And are you all related?

No, no, we're not.

I wish I was really Johnny, she's amazing.

You're very okay.

And my husband, my husband's not here, but he's also, and we we met each other.

Uh Wes was actually running for office, and that's how we met Wes, and then we started to talk, and and we're all, you know, involved in the community and came up with this concept.

So I I also heard you say that you um would hope that this would maybe go national.

So are you like working on a platform to see if this platform works, and then you would like sell the platform or something?

Like, no, absolutely not.

No, I mean this, when I talk about that, I just mean in the sense of, you know, once we get this up and running, then we want to come out with it, you know, publicly in the press and announce it and explain what we're doing as a model for Montana communities to start, and then hopefully nationally.

Um I mean, with all the cuts to all the organizations and so many people that are suffering right now, this idea that you know, people can have all kinds of support within their neighborhoods, and then also have an organization like us that's reached out and going, for example, up in I'm up in Arrowleaf Hills, and there's a community over here that has a need for something, and we can cross-level resources, you know, I think is is tremendous.

And if we can continue to do that, and then also have connections between those, you know, different neighborhoods with social gatherings and other types of things, I I mean that's about the best we can do, right?

Is try and work at the community level and build up from there.

So I'm sure you're aware that the city of Bozeman also has a neighborhoods program, and Emily could speak more to that.

How do you see this, your uh grassroots effort um working within the construct of a neighborhoods program with the understanding that you know Bozeman's grown so fast, like you said, um there have been some critiques like the INC only represents 25% of Bozemanites type of thing, and so there's a big push to want to make sure that all of Bozeman's residents become part of a neighborhood association that ideally, and correct me if I'm wrong, Emily, ideally, would you know come um go through the steps to become a formally recognized neighborhood association so that they then can send a representative to be part of this body?

So I I see value in connecting people who are in need, or maybe somebody has extra of something they could share.

And I have a little bit of a concern that if people get involved in this, they might not then see the need to get involved in a Bozeman recognize formally recognized neighborhood.

So, how would you ensure that anyone who was you know benefiting from this would also have uh be informed?

Um, and I, you know, it's that's a personal decision if they feel like they're getting more out of your thing than the Bozeman formally recognized neighborhood, obviously that's for them to decide.

But I would just hate for there to be some sort of um thing that would pull people away from that.

So have you thought much about that and what do you have to say about that?

Thank you.

I'll take that one.

Um, so without mentioning any current events or political affiliations, um, I'm sure we are all involved in a lot of signal chats right now.

And I think we all probably know that those signal chats are very disorganized.

Uh, and why well-meaning, a lot of people are unable to find organization or help within them.

And so by imposing a communications infrastructure on our community, we give ourselves the ability to speak with more signal and less noise within our communications while resourcing genuine, you know, on-the-ground needs in an informal manner.

So we're not at all here to create an organization that's going to replace what you guys do, which is extremely valuable.

We're literally just a communications network that one neighbor can use to ask for help, and other neighbors can use to provide that help.

Yes, ma'am.

Um thank you.

No, I and I appreciate the use of the communication network.

Um we've had conversations up here about you know the fragmentation, if you will.

Oh, yeah, that's favorite next door.

Yeah.

Um so I think there's a lot of potential in this.

And so just some nuts and bolts stuff.

So I did go to the site.

I think it would be really important to have some more information in the about me.

Um, and if you're gonna be soliciting or people are gonna be signing up, make sure you have a privacy policy so people know very clearly where their info is gonna go.

And your form for sign-up, you have to have a Google account right now.

Um that's just a nuance of uh when you're forcing it to collect email addresses.

If you take that setting off, you don't have to have a Google account to sign up, you can just have a um required question asking for email and have it be validated that way.

So, just some feedback.

Thank you.

Thanks, Emily.

Um, I also just wanted to mention that um one thing that we we're really helpful about is actually just joining in to help promote and serve and just be a part of community, not just building communities.

So to Angie's point again, just wanted to say, like, that our hope is that since we would be more grassroots, like we could actually point people to to this and to like talking about we're not gonna be spreading your own talking points, the information you guys share and the work that you guys do would be yours.

If we can point people towards that, great.

Um, so I just want to say like we we hope to be an addition to, not something that replaces or um gets in the way, basically, yeah.

I was just gonna say that we're definitely a compliment to what the city's doing with neighborhoods, like any anybody anywhere in Bozeman that's building neighborhood groups, fantastic.

All we are is the communication structure.

So, for example, if that's what if that's what you guys are working on is expanding the neighborhood groups and so forth, then all we are all we when we talk about bringing them together, that's just because we're trying to help people form neighborhoods because there's a lot of people that don't have them that are that are like, well, I would like to be part of a neighborhood.

So if you guys are doing that, that's fantastic.

We're all we are is the communications part of it.

So we would come in and say, hey, look, who's the leader?

And if Emily's the leader of her neighborhood, then we go ahead and connect with her, and then it's up to her to work within her neighborhood and and create whatever kind of neighborhood she wants, as rich as she wants it to be.

And then her communications all come up and down from us in terms of her needs and then and then the support that we provide across the all the entire network of neighborhoods and the organizations that we go out and look for support from.

If that if that makes sense.

I know it's a little confusing.

If I can provide just a really tangible example here, uh we had a power outage last night in university uh where we live, and you know, it was out for a couple hours, not a big deal, but obviously with you know disasters that could get larger.

You know, if somebody in a neighborhood needs a generator to keep, you know, an essential healthcare item running, they don't have it.

They you know go to the neighborhood communications group, nobody has it there.

The leader of that neighborhood can come up to the other neighborhood leaders and said, Hey, we have a sincere need for a generator over here in university, and then you know, somebody in Arrow Leaf can go, well, hey, my neighbor Bob has an extra one, we'll bring it over.

That's the entire thing.

It's just it's just a communications infrastructure to foster community um community communication.

Yeah, just another kind of concrete example.

I just wanted to play out the movie with you.

And by the way, I I went on and I joined, and I think it's a good idea.

So uh, but um, we're our value unit neighborhood association wants to have a summer get together.

So um and we've been struggling to build email addresses, we have a Facebook page.

Um but so you would help us communicate that this is happening.

This is this picnic is happening.

Yes.

And you would be there with and so you would tell the people who sign up on signal, you know, that this is happening.

And then you would also tell people that if they want to join the Facebook page or hit on our mailing list, you could do that, correct?

Yeah.

If someone if you wanted us to, but we wouldn't be dispensing information that was on of your websites, or if we join, come to like the Cooper Park meeting or any of the others, we're not going to be repeating anything.

We're not an information sharer without permission.

So I just want to put that.

So it would be something where if you wanted us to share that and point people towards that, that's that's kind of the goal.

Yeah, I mean I'm a communications uh professional, so I know that the more the merrier you can't really talk to people, and if they all have a different way of getting information.

Yeah, uh so it's I welcome it because I'm not really that familiar with signal.

So it's like having a signal infrastructure to add to what we're already building.

I that's what I like about it.

Oh, great.

Yeah, we hope so too.

Yeah, we we would take care of all that for you.

You would just join and you'd be part of your neighborhood group and you'd be able to talk to your neighbors, and if your neighborhood needed something, you can go to the rest of the community, and that would be that communication resourcing upwards would be done in such a way that there would be less noise to the whole community.

You know, if we all go on next door right now or Facebook or any of these things, you know, it's just it's craziness, and this would just be a very direct, very streamlined manner of communications.

So you'd be able to segment this so that only people in the Valley Unit Neighborhood Association that are on your signal would get the invitation to the uh to the community picnic, for example.

Correct.

Um, you know, if you guys were talking amongst yourselves about the community picnic, nobody but your neighbor, your neighborhood would see it.

But if you guys needed to say borrow a generator for that picnic, you could come up, you as the community organizer come up to the chat with the rest of the community organizers and say, hey, we need a generator, and we you know that group could help you find one.

Yeah, and I don't I think we could also put in requests for hot dogs right now.

I'm a hell of a I'm a hell of a barbecue chef if you want to want to use that, please go free.

I have one more question.

Um, and I've seen this on next door where people from the neighborhood will all of a sudden start advertising their services, even if it's kids saying, you know, I can lower grass for two.

I how are you gonna handle when people are volunteering not volunteering but offering their services for money?

Well that that's the whole beauty of this structure is this is literally just a communications infrastructure.

So so like let's take this room right here.

Let's say I'm I represent us Bozeman Neighborhood Connection, and Dick represents you, and you guys are a neighborhood.

So you say, hey Dick, I've got some services I would like to offer, and and Dick says depending upon what those services are, if they're vital and there's something that could be used, then Dick has the discretion to whether that's gonna come up to us or not, and he might come up to us and ask us to vet it.

He might say, and we might say, Yeah, no, that's not that's not something that's you know relevant or whatever, uh, but it's all gonna be within the neighborhood text group, and then the neighborhood leader is the person that vets that and then brings that up to us, and then we decide what goes out, but the whole idea is that it's it's not about any of that noise that's out there because it because I see a lot of that too.

Yeah, we're not trying to replace Facebook marketplace for furniture or other things, we're just really trying to focus on more of the bringing together the community of mutual aid networking, um, and and have that have some sort of structure, and I'm sure this will evolve, right?

We've talked about the ways that we're gonna learn things and and hopefully learn things from you guys, learn things from the people who join, and so that's something we're really really hoping for as well as we build this.

And we're also available to assist with any neighborhood group forming and ideas and all that because we've just from talking to people and all the different places we've gone presented, it's amazing the ideas that people have out there, and I think people are really looking for connection right now.

So, I mean, I started a knitting group recently, and you won't believe me, I got 20 women already.

You know, so I mean people are looking, I just think in today's world that people are looking for a way to connect.

And I think Bozeman sorely needs it, and the whole country does, but.

Well, and thank you so much for your time.

Yeah, yeah.

We will not cut you off.

We are limited by the city limits.

Are you limited by the city limits?

No, that's uh part of why we started this.

We really we're not affiliated with anything, um, city level, county level.

We work with we will work with local organizations, nonprofits, other um, you know, volunteers and other groups, um local organizers, but we're we're not um we are that's one of the things we we really wanted was to be a non-affiliated group, so this is not local politics.

Could you go into more detail on what it is you're asking us for?

Really, really what we would like from you guys is is your feedback number one, like your honest feedback, even if you know you leave this meeting and you say I'm not really sure what the heck those people were talking about.

You know, call me up, uh, my phone number's on that sheet, and and talk to me and ask me questions and we'd like your feedback, we'd like your support, we'd love you guys to spread the word.

Well, we would love to potentially be on the website and so forth.

I can visit with whoever's working on the neighborhood groups and so forth, about more about that.

Um, and then also really the key thing is for you to help us identify folks within your neighborhoods, and a lot of your neighborhoods are pretty big.

So we've taken some of your neighborhoods and started to break them down.

I mean, we've got this big war room with all these maps, and we focus on Bozeman to start, but we are gonna grow, you know, as we grow.

Um, so that is really where we would ask for your support.

And it doesn't, you don't necessarily have to identify a neighborhood leader, but if you have someone in your neighborhood that you know is an activist and is interested in doing anything, you know, to contribute right now, we could at least talk to them and talk to them about how we could help them and how we can, you know, create maybe a neighborhood within your neighborhood or have a representative from your neighborhood.

Uh we do have one from Cooper Park so far in term in terms of this group.

Yeah, since you guys are already really amazing liaison and um really active in your neighborhoods that that would be I think our biggest ask is just if there's someone um who's not already in a leadership leadership position within your associations, if there's interest in community work, um, just uh yeah, that would be the introduction we would be hoping for from you guys, and we really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks you guys for.

I'll definitely bring that up at our neighborhood association, and I hope the rest of the reps will do that too at your next regular meeting, but that sounds like a worthy endeavor, the big chunk to bite off.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Okay, on to action items update and bylaws.

Okay, hi everybody.

My two compatriots are not here with me, so I'm feeling like I just want to sit in my cozy little seat here instead of standing up there if that's okay.

Yeah, do you want me to bring up the bylaws?

Um, yes, please.

I get that most recent version.

Yeah.

Um so did everybody have a chance to look at what Emily sent out recently with our updated draft of the bylaws.

Yes, I'm seeing lots of nodding heads.

That's great.

Um, I just wanted to give a little bit of background.

Um, I had it pulled up.

Like a little bit of a recap and a little bit of background.

Um, what I'm looking for, Emily, is that note that I sent you when I sent you the most updated version.

Is that by any chance linked in the agenda?

I believe it is actually.

It was you sent the memo, and then you also sent the updated bylaws.

Yeah, I'm looking for the memo.

Is that on the first page where it goes through the background?

Is here we present to proposed.

Yes.

Thank you.

Sorry for that.

All good.

Okay, so if those of you who were here last month, you recall that there was a discussion about how some people felt like the size of our meeting quorum was not quite big enough for various reasons.

And there was conversation sort of both ways.

Well, we don't want to make it too big to risk not having a meeting, but we don't want to make it too small to risk having a quorum when we don't want one.

And so that uh prompted the subcommittee who's Kath Crumrine, Zara Osmond and myself to meet again and take all of your um considerations uh into consideration, and we did a little bit of digging into the past, and that's how we came up with this updated version of the bylaws that are in front of you today.

And if everybody feels good about them at this point, then we might even take a vote to pass them on for ratification.

But just to go briefly, um, as you can see here, back in the 2013 version of the INC bylaws, at that time, the majority of voting delegates of a recognized neighborhood was considered quorum.

So we follow we figured well, um, it worked for them in the past.

Um also theoretically, we're not supposed to miss more than three meetings in any given year.

So we'd be attending most meetings anyway.

Um, Montana Code annotated also defines quorum as a majority, although specific bylaws may depend it differently.

You know, might we be taken more seriously if we have a higher quorum as well to show that we really are having uh more breadth in our um deliberations and anything that we might put forth as advisory to the city commission.

Can you scroll up, please, Emily?

So that's why in this newly updated version that we're putting before you today, uh, we changed the quorum from one-third to majority.

And so in the case of us now, in this time, there are 15 recognized organizations, formally recognized organizations, and so that would make our meeting quorum eight.

Does anybody have any questions?

I thought I liked it.

Thank you.

And I remember that's what you had said last month, and I was up there, and I was a little confused by it at the time, but once we had a chance to discuss it, I was like, that's exactly what Kath said, Kathy said, sorry.

So uh does anybody have any other questions that anything?

Oh, there was one other thing that Emily Mason had suggested last month.

Uh, that the bylaws at that time uh in that version, it said if the chair's gone, the vice chair could step in, and then she said, Well, what about if the chair and the vice chair are gone?

Could the secretary, Treasurer step in?

And we thought that was a good suggestion.

So we're also recommending that that be added.

But by this point, you you have um all had a chance to see multiple versions of the updated bylaws draft.

I think we feel pretty good about it.

As a reminder, two months ago now, we did have the city attorney's office also look at it and give us their insight.

Certain things have to be in there, and those things we made sure were in there.

Other things had a little bit more latitude, so we played with that a little bit.

So what do you think?

Should we?

Would anybody like to make a motion?

I and Emily, can you pull up that motion language that we have prepared just in case we got to this point?

Very simple, publicly meeting.

Oh, do we want to have public comment first?

Yeah, no, there should be public.

Go ahead.

I move to adopt the amended interneighborhood council box.

So we can do a roll call vote, Emily.

Well, we have some discussion.

Oh, discussion and then some public.

Sorry.

Any more?

Any discussion?

Any comment, any discussion?

I'd like to add a discussion.

What happens when we go from 15, which I think we're already at 16, I thought.

Okay, anyway, we're going to 17.

And yet you have you have hard coded in here at eight.

That's less than a majority.

No, no, no.

Yeah, thanks for claiming.

That was just my memo to you.

Oh.

The what's in the bylaw draft is majority.

Thanks.

Any other questions or comments?

I'll just say that.

I mean, in the years that I've served on the Inc.

Um, we've done this a couple times, and it's been fun to see it evolve.

And, you know, if this isn't fancy, flashy or particularly sexy work to update bylaws, um, but it's important, and I think it does create a nice path for Inc.

moving forward of how it's going to operate.

Um, so kudos to the work on this.

Cheers, guys.

Thank you.

And I also want to add a big thank you because this was, I'm sure, not it's time consuming and yeah, not the most lively discussions.

So we really appreciate all the work you and the committee put in.

Yeah, we I mean, I think we were driven by the desire to have it be very clear, and then we all know what to expect, you know, when the occasion comes to take a vote, or you know, various things, and there are different thresholds that have to be met, and you can look at the bylaws to see what they are.

Um, but thank you.

Thank you.

It was it was uh a pleasure to work with both uh Kath and Zira, and we're happy to be at this point.

On the motion that all those in favor, raise your hand.

Oh, I think we need to have public comment.

Do we have any public call or did you call public comment?

Yeah, okay.

Do you want to do this as a roll call or just the raise the hand?

We can we can raise hands.

Thank you, okay.

Okay, all approved.

Emily is also online.

I just can't get her to be promoted to panelists, but I could text her.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I'm here for listening.

Yes, I'm I'm raising my hand.

Okay.

Okay.

Great.

So, Emily, can you just um lay out for us uh what to expect next?

I know there's a process to getting it in front of the city commission for ratification, but can you just explain that for us and the public?

Yeah, sure.

Um, now that we have this final draft, we'll I'll send it out to city commission, and that will just be going on their um consent as a consent item on the city commission meeting.

So I don't think I can get it on to this next Tuesday, but yeah, I guess I'll just do that ASAP.

Thank you.

Next item.

Hey everybody, we're we did we haven't met since the last meeting, so we're going to meet on Wednesday.

I wrote a little report.

I don't have it with me.

I meant to send it to Emily as an attachment.

I'll file it in the next report.

Next meeting's agenda after we meet.

Anyone have any questions or comments for Beth to take to the meeting?

Is there any kind of direction there we're leading for water conservation and additional water resources?

Very encouraged by how year after year the per capita use in Bozeman of water goes down.

And they're just going to keep setting that goal.

They have five people working in water preservation.

Um this committee, though, is getting quite a bit of attention.

They had like 600 people answer that recent serving more than 600, 643.

So when we meet next week, that's the second meeting meeting of the combined committees, and we have a plan to finish up a recommendation by the end of the year, and then move into the legislative session.

Any comments from the audience?

No.

Thank you, Beth.

Commission liaison update.

Douglas Fisher.

So I just want you know, I want to apologize first.

Um I see my role as your liaison to take kind of my myself, my personal um personal stuff out of out of you know, any reports or work, work that I do with this commission and with the council, and try to relay as best I can the actions of both this uh inner neighborhood council and the actions of the city commission.

So last week you asked um why there had been no action from the city commission on your letter that you had sent requesting an interim uh zoning ordinance, and uh that was difficult.

I was I was uh, you know, because it's because there is nothing, there's no been uh you know, no action from the commission in terms of a um, you know, in terms of of putting that on the agenda, right?

And so it was just um I didn't have a good answer for you.

What we have since I you know, other than having you know personal conversations with commissioners, but that's not I would say that's that's I didn't feel I don't feel comfortable you know relaying personal conversations and so forth.

It's it's um it's not about me.

So um, but since then uh the various the commissioners on the on the 28th of April um during the FYI gave a couple of some of the reasons for why they they are the why the majority of the com of the commission has considered your request and also the historic preservation advisory board's request for an interim zoning ordinance or at least a hearing on that and has decided it doesn't it's not something that we feel is appropriate for a full city commission discussion.

Um part of there's a number of different reasons.

Each of the commissioners gave a different reason, but there fell among some some general themes.

Um there's a general sense that we already made this decision through a legitimate process, and that your city commission has a responsibility to ensure that public processes have integrity, that they um that city government and their and the commission are predictable, and that um vision and policies work citywide, and so um the city the we as a community the city has spent four years um uh discussing the the the unified development code and with extensive public input.

And um that process included questions about downtown density and height and scale, neighborhood scale, neighborhood protection, and the result was a code that reflected those concerns, and that was just adopted, and that government needs to be predictable, or it stops working, and that the commission's responsibility is not to respond to every request.

It's to provide stability and predictability.

And if we pause projects or policies or code as soon as it is implemented or as soon as we we adopt it, we undermine the trust that in that system for residents, for staff, for anyone trying to invest or do something with this community.

We knew when we adopted that UDC in December that we would be updating the neighborhood conservation overlay design guidelines or district guidelines, and that those those would that work was unfinished, but it would be done this year, and it's it's under it's underway right now, as you guys know.

So we're asking that we as a community, we let staff complete that work thoughtfully and not disrupt it with an emergency ordinance or an emergency pause.

Because a pause has real considerations of real consequences.

Is there a threat to the health safety general welfare?

And you can come down a number of different places.

Uh expressed during the 20 and the 28th that they would have a hard time finding that there is a threat to health safety and general welfare that would justify an interim uh zoning ordinance.

And so it's not a legal argument, it's a policy choice, um, and I guess that's where I would I would leave this with um with you guys to just say that we have listened earnestly to this request and to the uh historic preservation advisory board's request.

We've listened to honestly and hard to the public comments on this on all sides, and the city commissions, the majority, uh, conclusion is that is that this um is not the right discussion for us to have as as a community again that we do not want to relitigate this issue, um, and that uh we want to let the process work.

I know it's not what you want to hear, um, and I know that you know that's going to leave you.

I want to recognize that it's going to leave some frustration here.

Um it's uh it's a value question and it's a policy question.

And you know, your city commission, again, the majority is saying that the responsibility is to govern for the entire community and to provide some consistency in how we make decisions.

We have made that decision, and we're we're moving forward with with other decisions and and looking at a number of different priorities.

Go ahead, Emily.

So I have not had a chance to review all of that the beginning of that meeting I actually ended up joining that meeting later so I caught like one person I didn't realize that there was the extent of that.

Is there can there be like a written you know through your consent agenda or something from the commissioners just some sort of reply or some sort of find I mean you know not a formal finding of fact but something like that that we can provide to the neighborhoods like to our mailing lists and the survey takers that says this is the position or lack of a position that's being taken um is that a possibility?

The short answer is no.

But you know that was a question also that was asked and I forget who which neighborhood um that was asked we what do you say to all your neighbors that you asked I mean you we understand you you um uh hustled that survey out to your you're with a sense of urgency that this you know this is a decision that we we we need to get to or opinions we need to get to the city commission and your neighbors what was it uh almost 800 responded right and so uh my uh suggestion I mean it's just my suggestion here and again I'm trying to keep myself out of here is just that thank your your communities for for responding and note that the city commission has has decided not to take this up or is not taking this up yet um there are a couple of things on how um thanks for taking the time to try to explain your position um I I'm a little bit confused and I guess I also want to clarify at least for me as just one person sitting up here um any frustration that I may be feeling um is not directly related to whether or not the commission uh voted to an approve an interim zoning ordinance while of course I would love that that's not where my personal frustration lies as somebody who takes time out of my life to be part of this council that's a city ordained structure within our city government so my gripe has more to do with when this body makes a recommendation to the city commission it would seem to me to be reasonable to think that the city commission would take public time to truly consider it and so I'm hearing you say just both things no we're not considering it and we considered it so that's where the confusion and frustration comes for me so it seems to me that it would be fitting that anytime a recommendation would come from an advisory body or an uh a slightly different kind of body like the Inc.

that the city commission would discuss it publicly state each of your five positions is there alignment yes or no then you make this comment back this is why we chose to do X or Y.

But the fact that you guys didn't even see the value really undermines this notion of public engagement.

So thank you for listening.

Sure I I could offer a little commentary response if that's the will um you know it's I would I would go back to what um you know mayor Morrison spoke to this a little bit that an agenda item is not a lightlift it impacts uh a lot of the uh you know it impacts a lot of the community it impacts staff it creates tension within community, it's it's um again it pulls staff off the decision then and it creates a sense of like what is the commission going to do um you know politicians me are taught from a very young age not to engage in hypotheticals.

But let me uh my own peril um offer a suggestion here, a scenario for a question for you guys.

Let's say our city commission had this debate on an interim zoning ordinance, and in fact, we we put one in, and then we we um worked and had a very robust um uh um public engagement session, public you know, process to come up with neighborhood conservation overlaid uh district guidelines that you know created some um compromise in the community, but that most people felt are pretty robust, right?

And we put those into place, and then a group of people come to us, the city commission, and say, wait a minute, you know, those guidelines really conflict with our ability to kind of provide affordable housing, and you're working on an affordable housing ordinance, and we would like you, and we have we took a we polled you know our our neighbors and we got a robust response back, and it shows overwhelming support for a pause in these and in the guidelines while we work on the affordable housing ordinance, which is one of our priorities as a city commission.

Um we as a commission said, Wow, yes, you're right.

We we need to be transparent, we need to be respectful, we need to have another public debate on whether we pause these guidelines we just approved because we're worried that they may adopt a may impact, or maybe we did we say, Well, we you know, we're pretty sure they don't impact the Affordable Housing Ordinance, but to be transparent, to be respectful, to be public students, you have a constitutional right, we're going to have a public debate.

So, what does that do?

That puts all of you guys who thought you were going back to a mornings where you could just linger in your garden or sip a cup of coffee, you're now hunched over your computers, sending emails to comments at Bozeman MT.gov saying, please wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, we just we just approved this, you just had a process.

How come we are we're debating this again?

And that's where the consequences of putting something on.

I would suggest to you are the are, you know, are not it's not neutral.

It has an impact.

Just one other thing, if I may.

I also heard you say that this is not personal, but you also put out a guest column just signed by yourself on this.

So that really highly personalized it for me, anyway.

Um, and so I guess I just go back to process.

I just think if we're gonna be taking the neighborhoods program seriously, the interneighborhood council seriously, and when we take the time to deliberate, we take the time to survey our neighborhoods, we take the time to do, you know, do a write-up and submit it.

I would request that the city commission um publicly consider it, and then wherever your discussion takes you, I understand it's complicated.

That's yeah, so thank you.

And I I can certainly I can relay that to the commission.

Um I mean, it sounds like you said you were going to relay it to the commission last time, but then you decided not to, and you and you relayed it in the your uh your comments that I watched on the last uh meeting.

I I mean I read your article, read your letter to the editor, I watched that, I've heard this, and I just want to say that I think there's kind of a mischaracterization going on of what we were asking for.

I mean, you make it sound like we want to rescind the whole uniform development code, and really what we were saying is that allowance of a 90 foot uh is is something that we really thought should be put on pause until the uh NCOD guidelines were created.

What if it turns out that the NCOD guidelines say that yes, 90 foot uh allowance is is not in compliance with our with our guidelines, but in the meantime, a building has been allowed to be build 90 feet.

Um, you know, that's what we're trying to stop.

And then I also feel like one of the things you said was that you know, what's an it that to take this up really wasn't that important to a healthy community or economic development.

And I think all of us would say, and here I am representing the western uh, you know, subdivision of the city, we think that historic preservation and neighborhood character are really important parts of a healthy community.

And uh, and not only that, economic development, it's what made Bozeman become an attractive place to come is because of this historic downtown.

And other cities around the country, you know, like uh Deadwood, Sturgis, you know, all these pieces, they they really take this seriously to protect the integrity of a historic district.

And so to not even have, and it's not like we were saying we're gonna ask you to relitigate this.

We wanted to have a discussion.

And and what if the discussion was that that there was no need for an interim ordinance?

Well, fine, but at least it will have been part of the public record.

It will be something that the newspaper could have written a story about, it would be something that people could watch and come to and talk about it and hear from the city attorney and hear from all these city council members what their what their positions were.

That's what we want.

And so I still don't feel like your answers, your letter to the editor, this answer today really addressed you kind of missed the point of what we were trying to do there.

We were saying it doesn't make sense to allow a 90-foot building while the NCOD guidelines are being still developed, and then why don't we just take a pause on that particular uh allowance?

That's what we're asking.

And it feels like you you're trying to characterize like we were trying to throw everything out and slow the city down in all the progress.

It just was logical that if you're going to be rewriting guidelines, and you have this particular provision that could actually destroy the neighborhood character, that you would want to put a pause on that.

So enough said, Ember.

Um I just want to speak as a representative from a neighborhood that has experienced um incredible amounts of change and a lot of demolition, a lot of displacement.

Um it's not all bad, it's not all good.

Um, but one thing that I have learned from being a leader in that area is that the sense of the ticking time bomb, right?

Um, I do not personally believe that we have pressure tested the new UDC.

I have done it personally myself to my own property.

It's a lot and a half.

It's one seven, or one twenty five by seventy-five.

If I was RA, which I'm not, I'm RB, I can now put a series of six townhouses on that parcel.

They can each be two units upstairs, downstairs, and they can each have an ADU.

That will now be 18 units where there was one house before.

That can happen in RA now.

And so, in that sense, that I and I don't take a I actually don't have a problem with that kind of design personally.

Um, but the sense of anxiety and the tension that that creates and the instability that that can create in a neighborhood where you don't know if it's like the claw machine.

Like, am I gonna be next?

Um it is it detracts so much, and I think what people are trying to do is get some clarity about what the vision is, what the future may hold, what is reasonable, what's not reasonable, which will vary from individual to individual.

If it is indeed a lot something is allowed, and it's not for me, then maybe think about me my longevity first particular neighborhood.

This really, the way in which I read it, and what this group it seemed to me was asking for by doing that survey was to be proactive, to try and regain some of that footing and some of that capacity and bandwidth from the tension, from the um, you know, uh uh anxiety, so that we can then pivot and do more fun things like block parties and potlucks and get togethers.

Um I will just leave it at that.

I think it was a proactive move.

I've got a question.

Um, how many buildings in downtown Bozeman are currently over 90 feet or at 90 feet?

I I don't know I know for sure the armory is our tallest building at 110 feet.

And I don't know what the backstore of the Bozeman um hotels are.

What uh when you discussed this, did was there any um input or any outreach to the fire department as far as um equipment and additional equipment that would be needed if you have these high-rise buildings, more um more response required if you had an emergency in one of these buildings?

I mean, the evacuation of a 90-foot building is a pretty entailed process, I would think.

I don't know what uh what kind of discussions you had at the time.

I don't know about specific conversations that have been had.

I do know that the fire department and our building department work together, that uh any large project has the um there's a it's IRC, it's it has a name, um an interdepartment review committee, I believe is the name that that includes fire, includes um engineering includes water in in the building department to kind of look and make sure that that this building can be built safely for this community.

Another question I have and I don't know if you know the answer, but I'm wondering if the doors are getting broken down by developers who want to build these 90 foot buildings.

That again, I'm not fully aware of the what's on the development docket.

I do know these projects are big and long, and you know, we have your uh the commission we've we put on the calendar an August 25th work session to look at the B3 height in particular and to look at transitions between uh residential districts and and our our business districts.

Um, and we are um staff is well uh we don't expect anything um to uh um get through that system get through the city system certainly before that hearing.

And we probably they're even thinking of uh, you know, I I don't think they see anything happening um before October, if that and I and I don't, you know, I'm not gonna say that something suddenly is coming in in October.

I just that's a that's I just haven't there's nothing on the on the near-term radar.

If you're a developer of a 90 foot building, are there any impact fees to emergency services, new hook and ladder trucks, new water trucks, new anything of that sort?

And why would you think that uh people in single family homes or renters would want to pay for these additional fees that uh that these developments are gonna cause to our emergency services?

Well, I can't speculate on uh the there's a lot in that question.

I don't know.

Uh yes, these buildings do pay impact fees.

Um you know, often these big tall commercial buildings have a restaurant on top, you know, that are used by the community.

But um, but they do they do pay impact fees to pay for you know the impact of uh of you know help with the fire department help.

I mean, the impact fees are really weird under state law and what they can go for.

I don't think we can buy, believe it or not, I don't think we can buy a fire truck with impact fees.

Well, that's what concerns me because that's what we heard with the levy when the levy was um was put on the ballot.

Is that the state law can constrain you to not be able to buy the equipment you need?

And then where is it fall back down onto when the when the fire department needs new equipment.

True, but that impact fees, let's say a downtown building would pay would help us buy buy by or to build a fire station number four, which would actually be on the very west end of town, and would likely not serve that building downtown.

I just have a quick question.

Um, you had mentioned the UDC, and I mean it was four years, and I think I was involved in a lot of it throughout four years.

Um but the 90 feet, and I maybe I just missed it, um, but it wasn't it didn't come to my attention until like the last moment.

And looking at it, it was somehow, and I think Joey Morrison said here that oh, yes, because we were saying what else should be we should expect, and he said, Well, there is some uh in the amendments because do you remember that conversation about amendments?

And it was the last ditch effort where all of a sudden someone put in in an like an amendment to the amendment that it was they were gonna take it from 70 to 90 feet, and I think we were all I felt blindsided by it, um, because it wasn't four years worth of discussion, it was like a week.

Um, and I think that's what I'm having a hard time with.

Is that this one thing came up and it it's pretty drastic, and I don't remember it, and maybe it's just my age that I'm like not remembering, but I don't remember any kind of discussion really until the absolute last minute that there was gonna be, you know, in the in the R the downtown area that it was gonna be not 70, it I think it was 60 at one point, they were going to 70, and then all of a sudden it was 90, and there was this huge letter submitted from all the developers and some of the real estate folks, and it was like okay, done, you guys want this.

And that's why I'm like, wait a second.

So, does anyone have any recollection?

Oh, yes.

I was sitting out there, I can't.

I think it was also done in December when you know the biggest Christian holiday of the year, and people are very busy with school performances, and I think that was also felt disingenuous because it was a bad time for the citizenry.

Sorry.

Um, this is Tammy.

Um, so I have a similar experience and recollection.

Um, I was very engaged in the process.

I'm an up I'm a local architect.

I tend to focus on smaller structures because that's what my business is more about single family residential.

Um, but I from a broad brush standpoint, I was paying attention along the way, and I also feel like I was blindsided by the 90 feet, and um I understand what you're saying about predictability.

I mean, I I've used those terms oftentimes about, you know, I think it's very important that the codes be clear and written, and people know what to expect.

And I I do understand your point about um this need for you know, we we think the decision was made, we went through this big process, and now the community needs to move forward, but I also hear Angie's point about you know, what is this body for?

I mean, maybe there needs to be clearer um ask the question about how does this body proceed?

How can we enact change?

Say it's just the 90 feet that we want to readdress that's in the UDC.

Is there a process for specific things like this that this body can engage in?

I mean, if there should be some sort of a process, there's a couple okay.

There's a couple of things, and I want to that's a very important comment you you brought up about the engagement.

There's also this this more um technical or more uh like calendaring question about the the B3 height.

So just if I could offer perspective, the B through the night it was the 90 foot height was in the had been in the draft code all along.

It was in the draft code that was released in September, it was in the previous drafts of that.

It was a change from the current code or that at that point the current code, which was which was more in stories, and it was seven stories or 70 feet, if you right.

And the draft UDC back when it was a draft, um, wanted to reflect that.

And that was released in September.

And in December, in response to some community feedback, we were like, let's just roll it back and keep it at 70 feet.

That's that was kind of at the you know, really the 11th hour.

And that totally caught the development community by surprise.

Now we could argue the development community, we could ignore it, you know, but there are constituents and they, you know.

Um but so, and so then the commission felt like we did that essentially switch at the last minute with no real notice.

It was a total surprise, it was unpredictable.

And so we put it back to 90 feet.

Again, it was in December.

Both these both these votes happened in December, they happened two weeks apart.

It was a super quick shut, and so I could understand there's this sense of whiplash.

Wait, first it was first it was 90, then it was 70, then it was back to 90.

And that's where we decided, wait a minute, we need a larger community discussion.

And let's see, this has been part 90 feet has been called for in various plans that we have had that have had public input and been publicly vetted and have been approved.

We're gonna stick with what has been vetted earlier by the community and have a discussion, which we're going to have in August on how to, you know, is 90 feet appropriate.

You know, and and I would argue that this code, this UDC code is not, it's it's it's not the code that that brought a lot of buildings that you see now and that you you are concerned about.

It the new code has has ways to break up massing, it has um you know tighter um setback rules or tighter you know uh maximum percentages.

I mean it has a number of different um rules that kind of constrain what kind of what's the form of your building is and how it looks and and how it operates in its space.

And then the sorry Tammy, I the process or the engagement question.

So the so the question is okay, how do you how does this board take something that's very important to them?

And I'd argue this is this is this is exactly how this this process works.

You're you are representing neighborhoods, you listen to your neighborhood, you polled your neighborhood, you took uh a concern and got feedback and gave it to us um with data, and and you know, sent uh a strongly worded letter, you know, it was it was it was that got our attention, it it also got the historic preservation board advisory board's attention.

It's got it's got city at city um city staff's attention, and um you were asking us to make a policy decision.

It's ultimately, this is this is I mean, in some ways, this is not this is not about um a legal or this is not a legal argument.

This is not about 90 feet or or um it's not even about the NCT.

It's about how does how does Boseman grow?

Is it about stability versus change?

Is it about belonging, you know, versus access?

Is it about kind of Bozeman's heritage versus kind of momentum?

And you asked us to make a policy change a policy change.

And the city commission listened to you to consider it.

I don't think anybody here was anyone here demanding a change.

Because I certainly wasn't, and my intention was that we would have a discussion, and then people are more accepting of it.

When it comes down like this, they just get mad and they blame us, and they blame you.

And then we're at this place where trust dies, and the way to avoid that is to have the discussion about it.

That's what we were asking for.

Uh unless I'm mistaken.

So I'll just ask everybody who is oh, we're asking for the process.

And so first of all, your letter, your letter to us, the city commission asked us that a formal recommendation to adopt a timely interim zoning ordinance that would temporarily pause the demolition of a new application stuff, right?

So you did ask us for a I mean, but but I respect that you know you were hoping to also have a debate on this, and you know, um your city commission is willing to listen and give these things consideration.

They're not, or we are not willing to endlessly kind of reopen settled discussions, and that's that's the way we we've we had a vote on this.

We want to let this this UDC, which has new restrictions on how buildings are built, we want to let it see it grow.

We've res we understand and we gave honest consideration to your thing.

We didn't do it in front of a public hearing because that creates other ripples and impacts that we feel are going to be distracting and ultimately negative for our city.

We gave a consideration to this and and we decided we're not going, we're not wanting to, we want to let the process work that we have agreed upon, and not re-op reopen this.

Out of curiosity, just for a point of clarification, um, you had referenced there was a recent meeting where each commissioner stated why they didn't want to discuss it, right?

Isn't that what you said?

Was that on the agenda?

That that conversation was gonna take place.

So the public never even had a chance to show up and make public comment.

So I think again, just to hopefully a lesson learned.

I think if we can at least put it on the agenda, and then you guys could have the same exact discussion you had, but then it would be public, and the greater community can know what's happening, and it's not like a retrospective like, oh, this is what they were thinking, and why they didn't want to vote yes on an interim zoning, right?

At least to have the discussion would be I I think the respectful thing to do.

It otherwise it really does beg the question, why even bother saying that we're advisory?

Well, I mean, you are advisory, um, and I'd I that goes both ways.

It is you advise us, you don't uh and no, you know, it's the commission that gets elected that sets the agenda.

It's frankly, elected too.

Well, I wasn't elected.

Certainly, and you know, um the public we have an opportunity at every city commission meeting for people to come and give agenda give a opinion, give public comment on items relevant to the city that concern them, and we hear we've heard you know a fair bit of public comment on this.

So, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, I was gonna share with um my colleagues, but I'll wait until that thing comes up here.

I think the question was how can this board um bring things to the city commission?

Like if if that wasn't the way to do it, is there another process?

No, that I would I would argue that that is the way to do it.

That was the process.

That was the way to do it.

And and in the future, when that process ha happens, after all that effort, you're saying it will not necessarily go on the city commission's agenda.

That is correct.

Tammy, I do think that this body could consider preparing a zone text amendment.

Um, it would be interesting to see what.

I mean, that is that's the process the rest of the community does have to go through when they want to change like that.

Um it's just an idea.

See, going back to Patrick's discussion, it seems disingenuous to me for the for the commission to just disregard the fact you know our letter was written because there is a developing NCOD update, and this directly affects it.

I mean, I don't know how, I don't know how you guys can um justify what you did.

I mean, did you respond to us that the NCOD will not be affected by this or any changes or that you're gonna make or will be made to the NCOD?

I just I don't see where it's a problem to pause it, the height expansion until the NCOD is developed.

I mean, you might come back and say the 90 feet will be exempt, will not be uh applicable in the NCOD.

It's that simple.

It's not like we're asking for a for a wholesale change.

We're asking for a change in the NCOD for that, a pause until the NCOD was updated and adopted.

And on that respect, I don't think you've heard the end from us about our concerns.

So it sounds like this is gonna be a continuing issue, and I thought things might change with Joey Morrison becoming the mayor, but it seems like it's becoming uh status quo.

Sorry to say.

Well, again, with with respect, that is a that is a values and a and essentially a policy statement that that you feel like an that it you know there's one one argument that could be made that that an interim zoning arguments is just it's gonna has little impact.

It it is protective, it has only benefits.

There are other arguments that we hear from, and I think that your commission is saying is that though there are other impacts to that decision that are detrimental in ways that you know, and and that we've also feel like that the UDC that we put into place.

We down zone big big some big neighborhoods.

We we again we put constrictions on what can be built where um and that those that kind of total package is protective for while we and and other factors going on in the city, though those are all protective while we focus on the NCOD update.

We think we don't and that we don't want to pull staff off the NCODs.

We have other priorities that that did we uh put on the back burner while we had this four-year discussion on growth.

We're working on traffic safety, we're working on affordability, we're working on uh you know, public safety, water, all these other things that the community has asked us also to deal with that would come to uh stop in various ways to have this debate that you want to have, and your commission is saying we hear you.

Thank you for taking the effort to you know bring this to our attention to bring your concerns.

We are going to take a different approach, okay.

I have a quick question.

Um, you mentioned that in August, not only the 90-foot but also transitions will be on the discussion agenda.

What exactly is gonna be discussed in the transition section?

I don't know that I just know it's gonna be height and transition.

Yeah, interesting.

Okay, thank you.

Sure.

I have to apologize to my colleague as well.

I have to leave at six, so if I get up and leave, I apologize.

That's right.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Thank you, Douglas.

Thank you, guys.

Hi, everyone.

Um, most of my updates um I included in the packet, but I'll just go over them.

Um, first off, um, the annual report is um gonna be coming to you on June 1st.

I'll send that out.

Um, you have a month to complete that.

Either you or your president, um, you you can decide who needs to fill that out.

Um, and that's due uh June 31st.

It'll most likely be going to Takami because I will be not around on June 31st, hopefully.

And then last month I mentioned that we do officer elections in June.

When I was looking at the bylaws, it's everyone who's on the leadership team right now, they can continue on next year if they want to.

So I guess that really goes to Emily and Dick and Jim.

If you're wanting if you're willing to stay on, then let me know.

Or if you're interested in being part of the leadership or want to nominate someone, let me know that too.

And then I wrote this also in the packet.

Last year we did a social in August, so just curious if you want to do some kind of social event uh after or during Inc.

in July or August.

Maybe just start thinking about that if we want to cancel a meeting or shorten a meeting in the summer.

And then also for the summer.

Um if you're having any kind of neighborhood meeting or um summer block party, uh let me know and I can try to help you get rooms or park reservations, do some printing.

Um I'd like to get that going before I leave if if you know what's going on, if you have something planned so far.

Um, and then engagement world.

We do have a new project, the engagement framework update that's in light of um MLUPA changes, and that's a new project that's now on Engage Bozeman.

Um we have a survey open right now that's open until the June 15th.

So we would love to hear about what you think about our engagement efforts and how um engagement is going in the city.

Um next month, either Takami and I or both of us will be presenting on that project at Inc.

Um, and then we also have um an engagement event this coming Monday for the urban forest management plan.

So that'll be here in this room from noon to one at um yeah, on Monday.

And then sorry.

Last thing, um, Bozeman Creek Vision Plan Open House is June 2nd.

I missed that in the packet, so it's June 2nd from 3 to 7 at Sroptimus Park.

Um, so come on down and uh give your feedback on how you want would like to vision the Bozeman Creek.

And that's it for me.

And hopefully I'll see you next month, but we don't know that.

So we have a great summer if I don't see you.

Neighborhood written updates and follow-up questions.

And just a reminder, um, this was I left some time to talk about it if there was questions based on those written updates.

I do have something that I want to bring up.

Is that okay?

Um, so we received um the most amazing invitation from MSU for the president's reception, and I guess it went out to um the UNA.

Was the adjacent um neighborhoods around um MSU?

So it was Figgins, Jan, and Cooper Park, and um the president is having this reception to um discuss like uh collaboration with um the neighborhoods around the university and what in MSU and he's bringing his cabinet to this meeting.

So this is kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

I mean, I'm just absolutely gobsmacked.

Um, but I just wanted to um touch base with Figgins, Jant, and Cooper Park.

Are you all like working with getting your neighbors um making sure that they know about it and um are invited to this, or how's it going?

If you are.

I am the alternate for Alison Todd, so I will check with her okay.

It's first I've heard of it personally.

Okay, um this is the first time for it as well.

Yeah, this okay.

I was I was uh Emily and Figan.

Oh sorry, go ahead.

Go for it, Emily.

Oh, yeah, I I got the invitation, and I've posted it to our um neighborhood Facebook page and sent it out to our my email listserv, and I've um done a couple of or just done one uh reminder, which I need to do again, send it again as a third reminder.

Um, and I used the opportunity for a graduation night was very rowdy in our neighborhood with lots of fireworks.

Um, so I use that as an opportunity to remind people if they were complaining.

This event would be great to attend to express their concerns.

Uh yeah, it's it's amazing to have the president of MSU reach out to the neighborhood to have this reception at Inspiration Hall and to be able to avail himself to listen to our issues and concerns and showing that MSU wants to work with the neighbors.

So that's why I wanted to bring it up because I think it's just this most amazing opportunity ever.

So is this something just really casual?

Are you gonna prepare something to say, like points you want to make or things you want to or is he really just testing it out right now?

Because I think it's it's great, and hopefully, if you can't present something formal, I hope it can lead to further conversations.

We um so we're the UNA, so we and we have all the fraternities and sororities essentially, or most of them.

Um so Matt Kyrez, who's the Dean of Students, he had asked me, um, did I have any concerns or issues that I want the president to know about?

And I'm like, oh well, I have a few.

So I sent um I checked with the neighbors, my committee, and we sent um some questions and some issues and some things we'd like to see going forward.

And one of the um major parts is is that we don't want to have this to be a one and done.

We want to be able to work with the university on a continual basis um in like how do we do that.

So, but again, for him to invite his whole council, like his um executive council to this.

I don't know if any everyone's gonna show up, but it was it's pretty spectacular.

Um, so yeah, and if you guys, you know, if you have any concerns, um let the president know.

Um it's uh the it's just president at um I think Montana.edu.

Um, if anyone's interested, I can get you the president's um email.

I know items one or two meetings ago here.

Didn't we talk about maybe putting on our agenda having an MSU student on ink?

But are we not pursuing that as a group?

I didn't realize yes, we didn't.

We it came up in passing, and I thought we talked about maybe putting it on the agenda or is it something we know that happened?

Um, and it was something where they were of the ASMSU was gonna have um a representative non-voting on all of the different boards, I think, and advisory boards.

And I don't know whatever happened with that.

Just briefly, we as a city put uh on we don't have control of the membership of this board.

So the city commission put uh uh ASMSU representatives non-voting on all of our major advisory boards, including HPAB.

We did not we stopped short of here because because you guys control the membership of this board, and so it's up to you to make that decision.

Thank you.

Is that something we want to discuss as group?

I mean, I think it may be down the road, like if you get traction with the president and can keep sharing that.

Maybe we as a group can talk about having an MSU representative or not on the board.

I worked at MSU uh for 12 years before we retired at the end of March, and I have a lot of opinions about it.

You want to work with MSU, but having a student is a lot of work and maybe always doesn't produce the results you want.

So if we do have that discussion, I have a lot of feedback and first and experience.

Yeah, we we also, and it's a big um reach.

I don't think this will happen, but we did suggest that maybe um we have a ink representative on the exact non-voting on MSU's executive council.

So wouldn't that be wonderful?

So anyways, we'll see.

We'll see how it goes.

But again, for the surrounding neighborhoods, um, I want to make sure that we have a huge turnout to show that the neighbors are really interested in working with MSU and to collaborate and to put solutions together forward.

So thank you.

Anything else?

Anyone else?

Um, just as an FYI, I I don't think Michelle had a chance to get a report in, but we do have our annual meeting next week.

Um, Ponderosa Soto Club is so kind to host us.

Um, and so yeah, we have a new logo, which is really fun, and we put a QR code for a sign-up form on our mailer that the city sponsors have sent out.

That um we already have eight new members that have signed up.

I don't know if that means they can't join or not, but it was it just shows that that every point of contact, if we have a way for people to sign up, even if they're not prepared to go in that worked well.

Thanks.

And then we have the study commission and the INC charter written update, Jim Webster is not available today, so we have that in uh a written update for you.

Can I chime in?

Yes, um, so I just want to let everybody here know that the study commission is getting very close to its final version of the charter language, and there's Article 7, different section numbers that talk specifically about the neighborhood program and the inter-neighborhood council.

And I would encourage each one of you to look that over and make comments, suggestions to the study commission.

For example, there was one item in there, so so you you can see what I said if you look in the public comment.

I just sent it yesterday, so you can look that up for just some inspiration.

But like one thing that I that really caught me by surprise was there was an addition of having the INC play a role in the development of new neighborhood boundaries, and I'm thinking to myself, gosh, we barely have enough time to do the things we have to do.

Do we really want that to be put on the INC's plate?

So that's just an example of something that I think more eyes of people who are on the INC to take a look at that and to give feedback is very worthwhile.

In light of in that discussion with Mark Campanelli, Zara Osman, Becky Franks, um, and uh and Barb Sostero.

So, just you guys all sent a recommendation.

You had a subcommittee, you sent recommended language to them.

The reason I think that meeting got called is because when the draft started to circulate, there had been um several substantive changes to what the role of Inc.

was the logic of its membership, how it's formed, um and and the deliberation came out that essentially what they were trying to do was if it felt like they were kind of split the baby in some ways, like maybe we don't want to do wars, but then we're gonna like kind of top down with neighborhoods.

So we had a great conversation about how Inc.

functions, um, and try to have that balance of the vision of, like, um, you know, we are very grassroots, we form organically.

I have zero doubt in my mind that if we become uh, you know, 30 reps at some point, we're gonna have to divide that amongst ourselves and and organize that.

I'm totally confident in this organization's ability to do that.

Um, but so then they have, you know, taking all that into consideration because at one point it had said that the city was then going to um define the boundaries, and they were gonna divide the entire city into neighborhood associations, um, which we expressed was kind of a top-down divergence from the language that was submit and how it currently operates.

So um, so then we had that conversation, there were substantive revisions made, um, and so the draft current draft, I guess, is the one that you commented on this past week.

Um, it's on their website, check it out, see what you think.

They want feedback, they want input on these things.

I think they are really trying to be responsive.

Do you know timing and next steps?

I listened to the meeting this week.

Like, are they by their next meeting?

Are they gonna have what they want to present to the community?

And is summer like an education process, or does anyone know about next steps?

Because I'm really I wanna say that they're gonna be uh May 20th is a date that sticks out in my head.

So if you're gonna do it, do it like in the next day or two.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Um there was something else I wanted to say as regards to INC charter, in light of today's discussion about process, perhaps that's a place where we can enshrine more of what the process is for this council to be able to be um, you know, recommendations to be formally considered by the city commission.

I don't know if the charter is the place to do that, but the charter tries to out you might be able to speak to this better, Emily, but you know, the charter tries to you know put out um broad uh uh what's the word I'm looking for?

Like it talks about inclusion, it talks about deliberative process, it talks about you know things like that, and um there's some language in there that gets pretty specific.

So anyway, it's just an idea.

I encourage you guys to look at it, and if there's a spark as to how the charter language can reflect more of what our understanding is of what our function is and potential process, I think this is the time to do it.

And I do think the most recent draft does have some, you know, that's that balance of charter.

What shall you do?

What may you do, right?

What can't you do?

Um, so that kind of balance of where do you get really really prescriptive and where should you not get really prescriptive?

Um, where do you say there must be a process, but you don't define the process other than you got an adopt it by ordinance?

Um, so I think they've been thoughtful about that, and I I was surprised how personally how granular some of their stuff got into for charter language, but I I encourage everybody to check it out and participate, give them your feedback, they really want to hear from the public.

Emily, would it be too much to ask?

Would you be willing to send the most up to date version of the study commission's draft language to all of us?

So everybody make sure they're using the right version because there have been many iterations.

Sure.

And I don't know that the May 13th version from their agenda is still now the latest version or not.

Yeah.

Um I can look into that.

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

And you know, I guess the other thing to remember is that even if it gets into the charter language, we still as a city have to vote on whether to adopt the new charter.

So there's no shoe in there.

But it's just an opportunity.

Any other neighborhood updates or follow up questions or anything, or we will adjourn?

Record time.

Yes.