In the June 2024 primary election, voters approved local citizen study commissions for St. Ignatius, Ronan and Polson governments, and after one year of public meetings, the commissions are all up to something different.  

The local government review commission is a unique aspect of Montana’s Constitution that gives city and county citizens the option to review their form of government every 10 years. St. Ignatius and Ronan have a mayor-council government, while Polson is a chartered city with a mayor-council government and a chief administrative officer.  

Polson review commission  

Chair Larry Ashcraft said they started the study by interviewing the current commissioners, department heads and different people who had served as previous commissioners or mayors. They also plan to interview the new commissioners who started serving this year.   

“It has been enlightening, because through our study and through talking to people and asking questions, it kind of turned over some rocks,” Ashcraft said. “We looked underneath them, and boom, it opened other things, and some of it is outside of our scope.”   

As an example, Ashcraft explained that commissioners previously did not review the preliminary budget from department heads until the city manager “massaged the budget.” He said this raised awareness, and now commissioners are involved in the beginning of the budget process.  

The commission also reviewed the National Civic League's Model City Charter, a booklet that provides guidance on charter language and structure. Ashcraft said their goal this year is to focus on the charter’s structure.   

The charter is 20 years old, and Ashcraft said it needs to be tweaked “a little bit.” Whatever changes the study commission recommends will need to be approved by voters next November. Then, said Ashcraft, Polson residents "will have to live with it" until another opportunity for citizen review arrives in 10 years.  

The review commission held a public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13, to discuss the charter’s language and the changes they would like to propose. To kick off the meeting, the commission presented a rewrite of the charter’s preamble in accordance with the national model.   

The council also clarified terminology in different sections of the charter that referred to the commission chair as both the chair and the deputy mayor. They also discussed adding more powers and duties to the mayor, since the current charter has only one paragraph on the subject.   

The city attorney, Dave Michie, explained that there are further municipal codes that detail the mayor's powers and duties. However, commission member Mark Hubbard argued that the Polson City Commission should not have the power to give the mayor more authority than the charter allows.   

Hubbard also said they should extend the mayor's duties to include preparing the agenda with the city manager.  

It was also discussed whether the city manager's term should be changed from a two-year limit to an indefinite term, but the review commission decided to leave the language as is. The city commission can renew the city manager’s contract as many times as they would like.   

This review commission includes Ashcraft, vice-chair Pete Ridgeway, members Hubbard, Phil Thelen and Dave Rittenhouse, along with non-voting member, Polson commissioner and chair Jake Holley.  

The commission scheduled their next meeting as a workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 3 p.m. in the commission chambers.   

Ashcraft said he hopes to have a document prepared with their proposed changes to the charter completed by early spring, which will then be voted on by the public next November.   

Ronan review commission   

Chuck Holman, the chair of the Ronan commission, said they held their first meeting in the fall of 2025. Holman explained that they plan to hold another public meeting in February and see if anyone has a strong sentiment to alter the structure of Ronan’s city government.   

Commission members include Holman, Noah McDonald, Nico Jackson and Rebecca Galenczi. Councilman Larry Hall is the commission's non-voting representative.   

Mission review commission  

Commission member Ralph Foster explained that the commission has reviewed almost everything and is preparing to finalize its reports. Foster said they had a long period last year when they couldn’t meet due to conflicting schedules, but with two years to evaluate, they have enough time to finalize everything.   

The commission is comprised of Foster, a local mortician; Terri Miller, a member of the local ambulance crew; and Eldena Bear Don’t Walk, an attorney and Chief Justice of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Appellate Court. Councilwoman Janis Heffern is a non-voting representative.   

The commission held a meeting on Monday, Jan. 19 and discussed the next steps and requirements needed for their recommendation. The town’s department heads did not attend the meeting to notify the commission of any issue. Foster noted that he believes that the department would have attended if they saw issues within the government, so the commission decided to move forward.  

“The only thing that I can honestly say is we were a small town that really has to look at the aspect of, should we be one because we don't have adequate funding to provide all the services we need,” Foster said.  

But Foster said that isn’t really the purpose of this process. The commission decided they had no recommendation for Mission to change the structure of the government. Instead, they have notes for the council to watch or look into.  

Foster said the council should watch their population growth because if they reach 2,500 people, they will have to change their government structure from a town to a city. He also noted that the current police department may have too many officers, which may conflict with the town's current code. This could affect the department’s authorized budgetary limits or legal constraints.  

Foster also said he has noticed that it seems most of the council lives within one block of town, but that limits the representation of the council. If they annex any more portions of town, Foster explained that they should add a second district.  

“I'm just saying that because it just doesn't feel right if you ever come to a meeting, you know, there's issues,” Foster said.  

Councilwoman Heffern asked what kinds of issues, and Foster said, “personalities, neighbors aren’t always happy with each other, and that’s where we’ll leave it.”  

The commission will meet at 9 a.m. Feb. 22 to discuss its findings and again March 1 to hold a second vote. If the commission is in agreement, those recommendations would then be shared with the town council.