My name is Roger Blank and I’m running for Bozeman City Commissioner.  I’m an Attorney and have been in practice for 27 years. I’ve practiced in Federal and State courts and am admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. I’m a former prosecutor wherein I prosecuted all variety of violent offenders and was also a special prosecutor in which I prosecuted Public Officials for Corruption and Official Misconduct. Upon leaving public service I started my own law practice. 

I moved to Bozeman five years ago and became involved in city government as a concerned citizen in response to the City's negligent handling of the urban camping debacle. Irrespective of how many emails we sent or public comments my neighbors and I gave at Commission meetings detailing the negative impact the campers had on our community and our quality of life, such as violent threats to my fellow residents, theft of our packages, our vehicles being broken into, their garbage dumped on our streets and black water waste ruining our community's wetlands, the City Commission ignored our pleas to address the problem. That's when I decided to become actively involved in city politics when it became apparent that the City Commission was failing its residents by not handling the urban camping situation appropriately. It subsequently became clear to me from attending City Commission meetings that our city was in trouble; that the Commissioners had their own agenda and it wasn't to represent the interests of me and my community or the greater residents of Bozeman, but their preferred politically aligned special interest groups.

I wanted to do something about the City Commission's malfeasance, so I ran for City Commission in 2023 and am seeking your vote again to serve the interests of all Bozeman residents since the City Commissioners have continued to fail to appropriately govern the city. The current Commission has zero transparency or accountability - and is governed by self-interest. They continue to waste our tax dollars, underfund public safety endangering our community, continue to waste our tax dollars and continue to disregard the will of the public.  

 

I will bring decisiveness and change that the Commission lacks and Bozeman deserves - and I'll bring it on Day One. My campaign is based on bringing proven leadership, emphasizing fiscal responsibility, public safety, responsible neighborhood appropriate development and concentrating City government on its core responsibilities, providing essential services to the benefit of all Bozeman residents and not diverting our tax dollars to favored special interest groups or wasting City Hall resources on issues outside the Commission's jurisdiction as is the practice of the current Commissioners.

 

The Gallatin Valley Sentinel Candidate Scorecards

https://www.thegvsentinel.com/gvs-candidate-scorecards/

 

Position on Fiscal Waste and Public Safety by the City Commission as Published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

Bozeman’s Commissioners are at it again, shirking their obligation to taxpayers while embracing fiscal waste and abuse — all to benefit transient individuals who have little or no tie to or investment in Bozeman’s present or future.

Last October, the City Commission conducted a citywide poll and the results couldn’t be clearer: 87% of Bozeman residents wanted urban camping outlawed outright. Nonetheless, Commissioners dismissed the will of Bozeman’s taxpayers and opted instead to authorize Urban Camping via a dubious permit scheme.

When confronted, hand-wringing commissioners insisted they have a moral obligation to urban campers — but their allegiance is misplaced. And it’s important to note how we arrived here.

Bozeman City Attorney Greg Sullivan was oblivious as to how to interpret the Ninth Circuit Court’s rulings on the City of Boise and Grants Pass (Oregon), nor would he acknowledge that both were inapplicable to Bozeman, as our enforcement code didn’t run afoul of the court’s rulings. I say this as an attorney with 27 years’ experience, including admission to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

As a consequence, the public was repeatedly misled by commission claims Bozeman was constrained in how it could deal with the full-blown urban camping mess. I informed city leadership of this lack of legal understanding in April 2023. Still, this public nuisance was allowed to metastasize until fall 2024.

The plague of urban camping should have vacated our streets last October — and would have if commissioners had respected the public’s command. Instead, the administration of an unwanted urban camping permit program has cost taxpayers dearly — $250,000 in real-time city hall staff salaries, wages and overtime, plus an additional $125,000 in contracted service costs expressly benefitting the urban campers.

The bill to Bozeman taxpayers? Close to $400,000 — and that’s just in seven months, from the November 2024 inception through June 2025. And all unfolded while commissioners were acutely aware of budget restrictions on our already underfunded and overburdened public safety: Police, fire and EMS.

Clearly, commissioners have forgotten that every cent they squandered on this fool’s errand was earned by hard-working Bozeman taxpayers. That’s not representative or fiscally responsible government by any definition.

Compounding this waste of taxpayer funds is the shadow expense — city staffers administering the permit program and distracted from primary city business, code enforcement officers assigned to urban campers and diverted from critical code enforcement, and police mediating urban camper disputes prevented from stopping crime elsewhere.

The city permitted urban camping in multiple designated locations. On Wheat Drive alone, police, fire and EMS responded 2,800 times in 2024 and they’re on track for 3,200 responses in 2025.

In prioritizing services to Urban Campers, commissioners are not only denying Bozeman citizens essential services, they’re hindering critical public safety response when it’s needed most. When public safety resources are unnecessarily encumbered by urban campers, public safety personnel cannot respond to calls for help from actual Bozeman residents — and response times increase.

When every second counts — whether it’s a health emergency, facing down a criminal or saving a home before it burns to the ground — any delay or disruption in response time endangers lives.

You can thank Bozeman’s commissioners for endangering our lives, our families and our property. In rejecting the will of Bozeman voters, commissioners pledged their allegiance to urban campers who have imported crime, congestion and costs — and leave taxpaying Bozeman residents holding the bag.

We need serious, responsible leadership; instead we have commissioners who don’t have the foresight to recognize the consequences of their policies on public safety — or worse — did, but disregarded the negative impact. Bozeman deserves better.

 

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/roger-blank-bozeman-commissioners-prioritization-of-urban-campers-indefensible/article_64f81b62-541f-4191-b6d7-d39bfa3abb16.html

 

Recorded Interview with The Gallatin Valley Sentinel  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBc5lcaBOKc

 

Position statement on Development:

Currently both Developers and the public are subject to the arbitrary whims of the City Commission, that’s no way to run a government. I’ve called for a moratorium on all new development until the new Unified Development Code (“UDC”) and Growth Plan have been finalized and more importantly approved by the public. With our 20% vacancy rate such a pause would not have a negative affect on the market. Developers should have a clear rule book they can follow for approval of their projects and not be subject to the arbitrary whims of the Commission. The same rule book will also provide the public with the information they require on what to expect from development and how it will affect their neighborhoods; and unlike the current Commission, I don’t believe that single family homes and single-family home neighborhoods are the enemy.  

 

Position on the Fowler Avenue Housing Development:

I support cancelling the Fowler Housing Project proposed between the Fowler Avenue extension and Harvest Creek neighborhood.

1- The project scale is inappropriate for the area, dense, multistory housing right next to single family homes is an affront to those who bought into a single family home neighborhood.

 

2- It would divert dangerous levels of traffic onto the

Harvest Creek neighborhood creating a public safety danger to the residents, especially the children of families that live in the area.

 

3- It takes a way a green space currently enjoyed by those in and around the Harvest Creek and neighboring communities.

 

4- The City has attempted to sell this as affordable housing, however, at an expected sale price of $500,000 per 13-foot wide row apartment, it is anything but affordable or even value for dollar.

 

5- Lastly, the development isn't necessary. Currently, the Bozeman vacancy rate is approximately 20% due to all the building of multi-level dense housing now coming on line, such as behind Lowes and Home Depot off 19th; as a result, the market has already seen rents not only dropping for the vacant apartments but also not increasing but remaining steady in those apartments already rented out. In my own development where I rent, I was on a wait list for four months in 2020 until a unit became available; currently due to the increased competition from the new multi-unit developments in town, there are 23 vacant units in my complex and my rent was not increased in 2024 and by a very minimal amount in 2025.  

 

Position Statement on MSU’s impact on affordable housing and housing availability:

The current and past mayors and commissioners have abdicated their responsibility by failing to address the failure of the MSU administration under its prior president to budget for or sufficiently expand dormitory housing for its growing student body population. As a result, students have been driven in substantial numbers into the residential rental housing market, thereby exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing for the non-student community and raising the cost of university attendance for the students. That would be the first conversation I would have as a Commissioner with the new President of MSU. Out of MSU's 18,000 plus students, 52% are from out of state and 18% are from Montana but

not local to the Bozeman area for a non-local population of 70%; that's approximately 12,000 students. MSU housing currently can accommodate approximately 4000 students, leaving 66% of the non-local student body to overflow into the Bozeman housing rental market. That does not even consider the approximately 5000 students from the Bozeman area, many of whom to enjoy the full college experience and minimize commuting during our harsh winters live on or near campus with significant numbers overflowing into the Bozeman residential housing market. MSU's unacceptable failure to provide sufficient housing has resulted in detrimental impacts on the residential housing market driving up rents for both students and the renting public. It is incumbent on MSU to implement a plan to finance and significantly expand their housing for their student body. Additionally, the housing which is the school's obligation to provide as part of their educational mandate must be affordable and not seen by the school administration as an opportunity to further profit off the student body, but to provide a necessary service to achieve the students’ educational goals.

 

Position Statement on Proposed MSU and City Transportation initiative: 

I support and would work with MSU to expand the CatTracks campus shuttle service that is currently limited to campus between 7am -6pm to run on a regular schedule between 7am and midnight from Sunday - Thursday and from 7am - 2am on Friday and Saturday nights between the campus and downtown, so that students who both work and go out for entertainment purposes downtown do not have to drive. This will benefit both businesses and residents of downtown where parking is already in short supply. It would also benefit

the hard-working students who work in our service industries the additional financial burdens associated with commuting, even locally to work. It will also benefit the public at large and especially students from a public safety perspective whom won't have to worry about driving after having consumed alcoholic beverages.

 

Position Statement on Proposed Public Transportation initiative: 

I support the expansion of the Streamline Bus Service. However, for public transportation to be a realistic alternative from self-driving, the service has to be user friendly; currently Streamline is not.  I propose the city work with Streamline Buses to bring their service into the 21st century.   Having all buses all fitted with GPS combined with a smartphone app where residents can immediately see where the next bus is and how long it will take to get to that resident’s stop will make the service both user friendly and useful. No one wants to take the bus when it’s 10 degrees below zero outside and if they don’t know where the next bus is, its expected arrival time to the resident’s nearest stop so the resident can gage their waiting time is and how long they’re going to have to wait for it. Making a public service user friendly is instrumental in making the public want to use that service.