Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

Glasgow Council Resurrects Chicken Ordinance

Looks To Remove City Wards For Council Elections

The Glasgow City Council moved one step closer to adding a resolution to the November general election ballot that would allow residents to raise chickens inside the city’s limits. The motion to draft a resolution for both chickens and to eliminate the ward-based city council with an at-large city council, were first discussed and passed last week in a working session on June 10 and were finalized at the June 15 regular city council meeting.

The move will allow the city attorney to go forward with drafting a ballot resolution that would put the chicken decision and issue of wards in front of the city’s residents. Once drafted, the resolution will be presented to the city council at a future date and then will undergo a first, second and—if necessary—third reading before the two resolutions can appear on the ballot in November. The resolution must be approved 85 days prior to election day, Nov. 3.

Mayor Becky Erickson described the resolutions as a decision by the council to place the two issues in front of the people of Glasgow and not just make it a council decision. She expressed optimism that the resolution was the right way to go with the issues at hand.

On June 10, the motion was made by Doug Nistler and seconded by Todd Young to draft the resolutions. Voting in support, in addition to Nistler and Young, were Stan Ozark and Butch Heitman. Rod Karst and Dan Carr opposed moving forward with a draft of either resolution. At the regular city council meeting on June 15, the council approved the resolutions unanimously with Nistler and Carr absent.

For Karst, the decision to resurrect chickens was not one he could support. He told the Courier after the June 15 meeting that in his opinion the city had spoken in 2018 when they appeared before the council in large numbers to urge them not to pass the resolution.

“We dealt with the chicken thing,” said Karst. “People were pretty blatant about it then and that’s the way I voted. You know, like I said then, most of the people I talked to about it not only said ‘no, but hell no’.”

An initial push to pass an ordinance allowing chickens was undertaken in 2018, but failed when the Aug. 20, 2018, city council meeting to decide the matter attracted so many participants that it was moved to the Civic Center gymnasium. The most vocal outcry during that meeting opposed allowing chickens in the city limits on grounds of sanitation and disease and many of the council members reinforced that view saying they had received comments from residents before the meeting opposing the ordinance.

The organizer behind the ordinance, Madelyn House, had argued the benefits of raising chickens were bountiful. For examples she said chickens helped control pests and produced fresh eggs for the community, making them an asset rather than a burden. She also pointed to a number of communities around the state that allow chickens to be raised in city limits, including the city of Bozeman. In addition, House produced documents from those cities’ leaders supporting their ordinances in favor of the farm animals.

Despite her efforts, the measure failed in a vote of four to one with one member absent. The only city council member to vote in favor of the ordinance in 2018 was Stan Ozark. Karst, Carr, Heitman and Nistler all voted against the ordinance in 2018. Former councilwoman Nancy Schoenfelder was absent at the 2018 meeting.

The resolution to put the issue of city wards on the November ballot was also passed on a four-to-two vote during the June 10 meeting. The resolution would eliminate the ward-based representation on the city council and go to at-large elections.

The Mayor described it as a way to improve the make up of the council saying, “There may be more qualified people in one ward.”

At present, the city is divided into three wards each with two representatives. Ward One is on Glasgow’s northwest side and spans from Fifth Street North to the western edge of Glasgow and is represented by Stan Ozark and Todd Young. Ward Two consists of the entire south side from the railroad tracks to the city limits and is represented by Butch Heitman and Doug Nistler. Ward Three spans from Fifth Street North and runs east to the city limits and is represented by Council President Rod Karst and Dan Carr.

According to the June 10 meeting minutes, concerns were raised that the removal of wards would reduce accountability over the council. Presumably any member of the council would only need to qualify for any of the open seats during an election and would not need to outrun or compete with a specific challenger to their seat. The city votes to elect three council members every two years.

Separately, there are concerns that a switch to at-large elections would eliminate representation on the council for each specific neighborhood making it possible for all the council members to be from the same neighborhood or ward.

According to the June 10 meeting minutes, those concerns were countered with the assertion that the council members represent the entire community anyway and that people are often unaware of who their representative is on the council and end up calling the person they know or the person they interact with about the issues important to them.

Neither decision was discussed further at the June 15 meeting. Karst told the Courier that he was unsure where the push to go to at-large elections came from but referring to both resolutions he added, “I haven’t anybody in favor of either one.”

The idea for changing the representative city council to an at-large election came after the 2019 city election, when ballots meant exclusively for Ward One—which was the only contested race for the city’s three seats—were inadvertently sent to the entire community by the Valley County Clerk and Recorder.

At a meeting following the election, Ozark commented that he had heard from people who were upset that they were unable to vote in the race, and he suggested at the time that the city should go to the at-large system of voting.

Voting in favor of drafting a resolution were Stan Ozark, Todd Young, Butch Heitman and Doug Nistler on June 15. Opposing the resolution were both of Ward Three’s council members Rod Karst and Dan Carr.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/17/2024 21:29