BOZEMAN — In June of 2024, Gallatin County residents voted in favor of a local government study commission—this means that a year from now, residents will be able to vote on recommended changes to the county’s form of government.
"I was a commissioner in Gallatin County from 2007 through 2018, and for those 12 years I had a lot of opportunities to work with county government," Says Study Commissioner-elect Steve White.
Steve is a Gallatin County resident through and through—his grandfather having come to the area in 1866, and still residing on the land his family has owned since 1899.
And he was elected as one of seven study commissioners to facilitate this local government review.
"So, what that means is for the next 12 months, there’s going to be a lot of public meetings. And I have no agenda. I’m simply going to be a participant in this process with six others on the commission. And we’re going to listen to the public," says White.
The purpose of the commission is to study the form of government, or the foundation of how it’s set up, and then make recommendations based on public comment and findings.
White says, "There’s a lot of things that could be considered—should the offices be non-partisan, should there be six-year terms for commissioners or should it be modified to maybe four, or whatever."
White says that the opportunity to open up the form of the government for public review is a process unique to Montana. And he hopes to lend his nearly 20 years of public service expertise to the matter.
But it's up to residents to have the final say.
"The study commission isn’t going to make a decision on changing the form of government. The study commission is only making a decision on what to give back to voters for them to make the decision," says White.
In addition to Gallatin County’s review, there are two other cities in the county that voted to study their own government—Bozeman and West Yellowstone.
Steve says he hopes residents from across the county will come to the monthly meetings to give input.
"I really am encouraging citizens to come to our meetings. When I was a county commissioner, there were times when there was nobody in the room. You know, these are very important decisions that the county commissioners make and too often there are not too many people who would show up to those meetings," White says.
