Butte-Silver Bow Study Commission Meeting on Preliminary Report and Public Outreach – March 23, 2026
Butte-Silver Bow Study Commission Meeting on Preliminary Report and Public Outreach – March 23, 2026
The Butte-Silver Bow Study Commission met on March 23, 2026, to finalize its preliminary report, plan public outreach efforts, and discuss several substantive charter amendment proposals. Key topics included the structure of fire services, the adoption of a city/county manager, and the reduction and restructuring of the council of commissioners. The commission also reviewed a new community survey and scheduled listening sessions.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes from the March 9, 2026 meeting (motion by Shaw, second by Dennehy, unanimous).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were received on non-agenda items.
Discussion Items
- Public Outreach Update: Ms. Adams presented a flyer with confirmed listening session dates, a new digital community survey (live via QR code), and postcard mailer. Discussion included adding contact information (email, phone, mailing address) to the flyer, providing paper surveys at libraries, the courthouse, the chamber, and KDBOW, and ensuring accessibility for older residents less familiar with QR codes. The commission agreed to set a goal of approximately 400 survey responses to match the previous cycle's statistical significance.
- Preliminary Report Work Session: The commission reviewed a draft of the preliminary report, focusing on structure, formatting, and content. Key points included:
- Reorganizing the report to start with a letter to the public, followed by an introduction and the study commission process.
- Ensuring consistent heading styles and generating a table of contents.
- Clarifying the relationship between the mayor and the city/county manager proposals. The commission agreed to link the mayor position as a sub-item (e.g., 3a or 3b) under the city/county manager section rather than under the council of commissioners section.
- Adding a one-page summary handout for listening sessions (volunteered by Commissioner Steppen).
- Fire Services Options: Debate centered on the language for the two fire service options in the report. Option 1: removing volunteer fire departments from the charter. Option 2: revise charter language to clarify a united fire service. Commissioners argued the wording should be neutral and not imply a positive or negative tilt. The commission also discussed adding a section on potential legal outcomes for both options.
- Auditor and Assessor Positions: A commissioner inquired whether removing these elected positions should be reconsidered. The county attorney noted the charter allows the council to remove such positions if state law no longer requires them. The commission decided not to put this on the next meeting agenda, preferring to gauge public feedback from the survey and listening sessions before considering changes.
- Transition Periods: The commission agreed to include a general statement in the report that a transition plan will be developed for any charter changes, with specific language to be refined in the final report.
Key Outcomes
- The commission will meet again on March 30, 2026, to finalize and affirm the preliminary report for release.
- Scheduled listening sessions will begin, with the next regular commission meeting set for April 27, 2026, to prepare for the May 4, 2026 public hearing.
- Commissioner Steppen agreed to develop a one-page summary handout for listening sessions and worked with the county attorney on transition legal options.
- Commissioner Denehy will represent the commission at a local event on Wednesday with Mr. Thielen.
- The meeting was adjourned unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
I'll call our meeting to order, please, if we can have our Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer. Okay, Lori Casey. Cindy Purdue Dolan. Chad Silk is excused. Cindy Shaw. And so we'll skip public comment on anything not in the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the study commission. Can I have approval of the minutes of the meeting held March 9th, 2026? Ms. Shaw. I guess I could turn on Mike. I would move to approve the uh minutes of the meeting that occurred on March 9th of 2026. Is there a second? I second it. I have a motion by Shaw and a second by Dennehy. Is there any conversation about the minutes? Okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Aye. Are there any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. So moving on to correspondence and our study commission update. I didn't have any correspondence in email or otherwise. So we can move straight on to unfinished business. So we have our preliminary work session, preliminary report work session to do tonight. And then also our public outreach update. And I would just move to that we maybe start with public outreach update and then go back to the report if that's okay. And so Ms. Adams, do you want to take a stab at the listening sessions, et cetera? Yes, madam chair, thank you. So I handed out a flyer, which looks like this, which has the confirmed dates. So these um dates have each been confirmed at these locations. We've got the public hearing information on there, as well as the new community survey, which is been converted to digital format and is live if you go to this QR code. I think considering Ms. Shaw's comments earlier, we should probably add the email, the phone number, and the mailing address for the commission on here. But does anybody have any other comments or changes on the flyer? Ms. Dolan. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um Shana, thank you so much. These look these look really great. Um, but I would say, like I said two weeks ago, um, maybe to add something for our older members of the community that are not computer savvy and QR code savvy, and that would be me on the latter part, but um as far as maybe getting where you can get a community survey uh physically and fill it out via like the chamber or other places, maybe to say something of that effect. I don't want to put too much on a you know card or a or a flyer, but something to signal that folks can do it um on paper and not have to do it on a computer if that's possible. Um yeah, I think that's fine. I think um maybe just putting I don't know, maybe one location. We could certainly have them at the chief executive's office. Um we can have some at other locations as well in case people stop by, but maybe just call out that they can get them at the courthouse. Open to other thoughts on that.
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