Commission ensures changes to city charter are vetted

I am an elected Commissioner on the Whitefish Local Government Review Commission. Over the last seven months we have had public meetings every two weeks where we reviewed the Whitefish Charter, which guides our ability to make local laws relevant to the city of Whitefish, as well as our form of government.

We also have had two larger public outreaches — one at the O’Shaunessy, and the other at the City Hall — to hear from the city and county residents who live in our community who care about our growth. We sent out a mailer with all of the city’s water bills to solicit input on what was working and what wasn’t.

We met with the city’s department heads, our city attorney and city manager, and spoke individually with people who have a strong leadership roles in our community.

We are formulating our recommendations in the next month in the form of a ballot measure that will go before the voters in November on recommended changes to the city charter, as well as a list of “really good ideas” to be given to our city council, who may then choose to act on them, or not.

We have been very open-eared about what needs improvement, and have taken copious notes to compile and share with the council and our citizens in our final report.

The commission is the elected entity to study and make recommendations to the voters to change our charter. This process, created by the Montana State Constitution, to ensure that changes to a city’s charter are vetted through a public process, is one of the legal ways for a city to change their charter.

The city council can also recommend changes, but those changes are also required to go before the vote of the public as well.

Citizens can approach both the city council and the Local Government Review Commission with suggested changes, but these entities have the right to formulate what is appropriate to add or delete from the charter.

Our charter review process occurs every 10 years and allows us to update not only our form of government but to also look at our city’s operational processes to suggest improvements.

There may be confusion is our community about how to go about changing the charter. It has never been done through a petition process in our town.

Our city votes to elect study commissioners to do the due diligence to study our government through a public process. We have done this four times now, every decade, since our Montana State Constitution developed this format to ensure self-governance remains current and responsive to our citizens.

We change our charter reluctantly, after great deliberation, to avoid specifics that are relevant to one moment in time, to allow us to function through the next decade of self-governance.

For instance, monetary limits are never mentioned, nor are specific buildings. It is meant to be a broad document, similar to our U.S. Constitution.

You can read the Whitefish city’s charter yourself on the city’s website www.cityofwhitefish.org.

We are still accepting public comments through the first two weeks in August for those who would like us to consider changes to our charter, and also any other “really good ideas” to share with our city council.

To have your comments included in the public record you can reach Vanice Woodbeck, City Clerk, at 863-2400, or email suggestions to vwoodbeck@cityofwhitefish.org.

Thanks to all who care about the integrity of our public process, and the future of Whitefish.

— Rebecca Norton, Whitefish