Meet Bozeman’s mayoral candidates

Ballots arriving by mail, municipal elections approaching on Nov. 7

By Mira Brody VP MEDIA

With Montana’s first major snow event comes the municipal election for registered voters of Bozeman, Belgrade, Manhattan, West Yellowstone and the Central Valley Fire District. This election is a mail ballot election meaning there will be no polling places open on Election Day; about 48,500 ballots were sent to registered voters on Oct. 20.

Ballots must be received at the Gallatin County Elections Office or a designated place of deposit by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7 by mail or in-person. The county elections office recommends mailing ballots no later than Monday, Oct. 30 to ensure they arrive in time. After that date, voters may deposit ballots at the following locations: 

• Gallatin County Elections office – 311 W. Main St., room 210 in Bozeman 
• Belgrade City Hall – 91 E. Central Ave. 
• Manhattan Town Hall – 207 S. 6th St. 
• West Yellowstone Town Hall – 440 Yellowstone Ave.

All locations are open during regular business hours Monday through Friday until Nov. 6, and then from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. If you still need to register to vote or update your registration visit the Gallatin County Elections office between now and Election Day. Check your voter registration status, or contact the Gallatin County Elections office with any further questions.

On the Bozeman ballot

Bozeman is at the crux of considering new leadership—there are open seats for mayor and a city commission position. Explore Big Sky exchanged emails individually with Bozeman’s mayoral candidates—John Meyer, Joey Morrison and incumbent Cyndy Andrus—about the city’s current issues, and what solutions they hope to enact should they be elected.

Responses have been edited for brevity.

Explore Big Sky: What led you to join the race for mayor? 

John Meyer: I’m running for mayor to make Bozeman the most sustainable town on the planet. My wife and I have twin boys that just turned four years old—we want them to grow up in a good town.

Joey Morrison: I’m running for mayor because Bozeman is in crisis. From housing insecurity and mismanaged growth to high property taxes and climate vulnerability. My background is in community organizing and crisis response work. I’ve had the honor of serving Bozeman in a variety of ways, from working at [the] warming center and Haven, to picking up the phone at the help line. Responding to neighbors in crisis is the work I’ve dedicated myself to. I am running because in this moment of crisis, we need responsive leadership that can bring the community together and work toward solutions.

EBS [To Cyndy Andrus, incumbent]: You started as a city commissioner and then took on the role of mayor two years ago. What drove you to want to continue your public service to our community?

Cyndy Andrus: During my two terms as mayor, I have worked alongside a dedicated team. Together, we have made significant strides toward making Bozeman better during a time of tremendous growth, a pandemic and preemptions of local control by the legislature. The issues facing Bozeman today are complex and require collaboration and partnerships. I have the experience and the relationships to tackle these issues. I understand the time commitment required to do this work and am willing to work hard to achieve results. I love this work and want to continue serving my community!

EBS: Tell me a bit about your experience in local public service:

John Meyer: I have dedicated my entire professional career to public service. I run a nonprofit law firm that is dedicated to protecting the people, forests, water and wildlife of the American West.

Joey Morrison: I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the city’s Economic Vitality Board, a citizen advisory board that oversees issues of affordable housing, public art, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. I’ve been a public servant through my social work background, as a volunteer for many beloved organizations in town like Haven, Big Sky Youth Empowerment, the help center and more. I ran for Bozeman City Commission in 2021 for largely the same reasons as today—that city hall has become out of touch with the daily struggles of everyday Bozemanites.

Cyndy Andrus: I have served on the Bozeman City Commission for 13 years and am currently serving in my second term as mayor. Over the last 13 years, I have been able to get up every day and serve my community. I am proud to be the mayor of Bozeman! The work it entails is some of the most gratifying work I have done.

I have had the opportunity to build relationships with mayors across the state and the country. I currently serve on the Montana League of Cities and Towns board. I am a former National League of Cities board member, presently serving on their advisory board.

I have working relationships with members of our state legislature and have spent hundreds of hours advocating for policies on clean air and water, climate change, housing, local option sales tax and maintaining local control.

I have worked with our federal delegation and was invited to testify at a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing about our challenges with affordable housing. 

My most rewarding experiences, however, have been meeting with the many residents, businesses and non-profits in our community to discuss everything from local issues challenging our community and celebrating new businesses to visiting with visitors about their experiences in Bozeman.

My experience collaborating with others will enable me to continue addressing our challenges, guide our transformative work, leverage our collective expertise and drive positive change in our community.

EBS: What do you think are the most pressing three issues Bozeman is facing right now?

John Meyer: 1. Water availability 2. Overdevelopment 3. Growth

Joey Morrison: Housing insecurity, climate vulnerability and mismanaged growth.

Cyndy Andrus: Growth, climate change and community engagement/collaboration.

EBS: How do you plan to address these, should you become leader of our city?

John Meyer: Have the city commission declare a water availability crisis and place a moratorium on approving unnecessary luxury developments.

Joey Morrison: Housing: As mayor, I will do what the city has failed to: prioritize locals. By prioritizing Bozemanites, we can create the density needed for affordable housing where it makes sense and without sacrificing the character of our neighborhoods. We also need to realize that on top of living costs, skyrocketed property taxes are also forcing people out of their homes. I will make sure the community is bought-in on any tax mills before they are brought to a vote, and that the city gets aggressive in raising its own money before asking Bozemanites to pay up.

Climate: In less than 10 years, Bozeman will run out of water. If elected, I will implement a 5 Point Plan to build a climate resilient Bozeman, which readers can find in detail at  morrisonforbozeman.com. After getting clear on exactly how many people our water supply can sustain, I’ll work to create a full-time staff position to secure available federal funding the city currently doesn’t take advantage of, develop community-partnerships to identify our climate needs, clean up parts of the development code that are working against our climate goals, and break bread without our rural neighbors to create multi-city coalitions to force NorthWestern Energy to the table.

Growth: We have to ask ourselves, “Who is Bozeman growing for?” Growth is good, but mismanaged growth can lead to disaster. The city must prioritize locals and stop catering to luxury developers and wealthy out-of-staters. As mayor, I will work to reverse the trend and make sure we grow sustainably and responsibly to create a fair economy where you can live where you work, young families can put down roots, and Bozeman can remain the beautiful place we call home.

EBS [To Cyndy Andrus, incumbent]:Do you feel you’ve worked to address these in the last two years, and how do you plan to continue to do so if reelected?

Cyndy Andrus: These are all issues I have been working on over the last several years. Bozeman is a community in transition. We are growing and changing. If I am re-elected, I will continue to work hard to protect the things that make Bozeman, Bozeman, including identifying where and how we grow while preserving the land and the beauty surrounding us. 

Maintaining our small town character as we balance density and infill to create more affordable housing in new developments and our historic neighborhoods while protecting their character. 

Keeping our community safe by committing resources to multimodal transportation and safe road design. 

Preserving our clean air and water and providing resources for a healthful environment. 

Sustaining our sense of community. Working together to ensure Bozeman is a place where we all feel welcome regardless of gender, race, identity, or life circumstances.

EBS: Bozeman’s housing prices are currently 22% higher than the national average. What do you think of this number and what’s the first thing we should do to address it?

John Meyer: The working class cannot afford to live in Bozeman. The first thing I would do is declare a housing crisis and stop approving all unaffordable housing developments.

Joey Morrison: That number is unacceptable. I’ve seen seniors forced out of their homes. There is no silver bullet, and the state legislature has tied our hands on a number of options. But Bozeman is not helpless, and there are levers we can pull. We need to get serious in negotiating with land owners to create housing trusts. We can work to establish a Public Housing Authority. Last week, the city passed a ban on all new Type 3 short-term rentals, the result of over a year of organizing that I was deeply involved in.

Cyndy Andrus: We have tried for years to get affordable housing built in our community. The one tool that was beginning to show some real success was inclusionary zoning. In 2021, the legislature took away that tool. Currently, we cannot mandate affordable housing. Our success over the last few years has come from several strategies. If re-elected, I would continue the strategies that have seen the most success, including negotiating individual development agreements to incentivize affordable housing, using Tax Increment Finance dollars to incentivize affordable and missing middle housing, and removing regulatory barriers. I am also interested in exploring the idea of a Public Housing Authority as part of our Affordable Housing Action Plan update.

EBS: What are some decisions previous leadership has made that has disappointed you? What would you do different?

John Meyer: Relying on over-priced, out-of-state consultants for information and advice that should have been prepared by local firms. 

Joey Morrison: The city’s failure to engage the community on the changes to the United Development Code is unacceptable. That’s a conversation that started three years ago, and the community should have been brought in and bought-in on the proposal before it was put up for a vote.

I am dedicated to bringing responsive leadership to city hall, and the proof is my campaign. Our campaign has sent out over 12,000 letters and [sent], over 7,000 hand-written postcards, and has knocked on over 10,000 doors. That’s the kind of engagement you can expect if I’m elected. You’ll never be surprised by the city again because everyone deserves to know what’s going on, and to have their voices heard.

EBS: Montana schools are struggling to fill nearly 60% of open teaching positions. With Bozeman’s growth and cost of living, this is an issue felt in our local schools. Is this something that you plan to address, and with what approach?

John Meyer: I understand cost of living issues—my wife and I both work for nonprofits and we have four-year-old twin boys. We purchased our first home in an affordable housing development less than one year ago. I will work to ensure teachers and other workers have … similar housing opportunities. 

Joey Morrison: The loss of quality educators is a good example of how the housing crisis is not just about housing. If we decisively prioritize locals, that means prioritizing our children and working to ensure that we are a city that attracts and retains quality teachers. The city can be a partner to the school districts as we tackle unaffordability.

Cyndy Andrus: Many employers need help to fill positions, not just schools. The problem is complicated because it involves wages, the cost of housing, etc. The city cannot control how much private employers pay their employees, but we can lead by example. Under my leadership, we increased pay for city employees, which resulted in increased retention and a drop in vacancies from double-digits to single-digits due to this pay compensation. I am committed to working with our community partners (School district, hospital, county, etc.) to encourage them to build workforce housing for their employees and commit to supporting policies and processes that help them achieve this outcome.

EBS: What do you think is special about Bozeman? What is most worth preserving about the community?

John Meyer: Bozeman has some of the smartest people in the world and best access to public lands and water. As a hunter, skier, climber, mountain biker, fisherman and Clean Water Act attorney, I am committed to ensuring Bozeman does not become a playground for the rich. We need to protect the character of Bozeman by stopping unnecessary luxury housing from destroying the social fabric of our community. As Bozeman’s next mayor, I will vote against any revisions to the UDC that facilitate dense high rises and unaffordable housing. 

Joey Morrison: Our people. A community is only as good as the people who compose it. Bozemanites care deeply about creating and participating in the community. If the city is a partner in that effort, then the things that now seem impossible—affordable living, climate resilience, and a Bozeman that grows for locals—can be achieved. I’ll be a mayor dedicated to that partnership because I believe that together, and only together, we can build a better Bozeman. 

Cyndy Andrus: Protect the things that make Bozeman, Bozeman, including identifying where and how we grow while preserving the land and the beauty surrounding us. 

Maintaining our small-town character as we balance density and infill to create more affordable housing in new developments and our historic neighborhoods while protecting their character. 

Preserving our clean air and water and providing resources for a healthful environment. 

Sustaining our sense of community. Working together to ensure Bozeman is a place we all feel welcome regardless of race, gender, or life circumstances.

EBS: What else would you like to tell the Bozeman community—is there anything I didn’t ask you that you think is important to discuss?

John Meyer: Bozeman is facing water shortages in the next ten years. I will not condone continued luxury development that threatens Bozeman residents’ water supply. I will also work to ensure urban campers are limited to staying a maximum of ten days and enforce regulations that protect the health, safety and welfare of our residents and businesses.

Joey Morrison: I am a convener who works to bring people of varying backgrounds and opinions to the table to break bread and work towards solutions. I am honored to have the endorsements of Steve Kirchhoff and Carson Taylor, two former Bozeman mayors, City Commissioner Chris Coburn, Bozeman Representative to the Montana Legislature Rep. Alice Buckley, Bozeman activist Jan Strout, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, and the climate and sustainability organization Gallatin Valley Sunrise. The question I’ve been asking voters is, “Do you like the direction Bozeman is going in?” If your answer is like mine—a resounding No—then I invite you into this work of building a better Bozeman by voting for me on Nov. 7.

Cyndy Andrus: I am ready to continue putting my 13 years of public service to work, leading our community toward an even brighter future.