City Council 2023: Beau Mulvaney

I decided to run for City Council because I was born and raised in Billings and I want to give back to the community that raised, educated, trained, and employed me. I have chosen to build a family here and I want to ensure Billings continued success and grow upon it. I also am a teacher here in the Billings Public School District. I have an impact on Billings youth in the classroom, but after 3:30 my students go out and experience this city. I want this city to be a positive place for them and their families. Through my teaching experience I plan on focusing not only on Billings youth, but also toward adults that want to start a family, career oriented folks, and those that served our community and plan on retiring here. In my career, I often overcome obstacles, educate based on each individual and group’s needs, and make critical decisions for my school and each of the students enrolled. As a History teacher, I understand the need to remain as unbiased as possible when working with people of different backgrounds and beliefs. I also am a board member for Friends of Pompey’s Pillar. Through this service, I analyze financials, propose methods to increase membership and engagement, and strive to preserve historic features in our community. I am also a renter here in Billings that desires to purchase land and a house to reside in. I am passionate about affordable housing while also protecting property rights of those who already own property. Finally I am a Certified Tourism Ambassador, which shows my care for this cities facilities, events, and businesses.

As I stated previously, it is my duty to strive to be unbiased in my decision making since Billings represents many different backgrounds and beliefs. I am running for a non-partisan position, however I am aware that remaining completely unbiased is unrealistic. Therefore I encourage the citizens of my ward to hold me accountable to their needs and concerns. I represent them and in reality the whole city. I believe compromise is the best way to create success while working with others. I aim to focus on issues that affect our municipality instead of concerns for other cities across the country.

Retaining experts and skilled workforce: I believe that MT’s most valuable export is our young adults and Billings needs to invest in them, in order for them to stay/come back and invest in us. In order to do this we need incentives such as Parks, Trails, and Rec, community and neighborhood projects. All three of these are important to our youth and important for Billings’ future, however they also need to see other young people in leadership as well in order to buy in. If we plan on future success, we need to create a city that our youth want to stay in or return to.

Public Safety/Crime Prevention: Public Safety is always a concern for our citizens and treating the problem of crime is essential, but let’s work on preventing crimes as well. Currently the Yellowstone County Jail is facing issues with maximum occupancy. This creates an issue compared to “catch and release”. Our police officers are seeing their hard work tarnished and unable to effectively deter crime due to lack of accountability (imprisonment). Therefore we need to invest in crime prevention while the county attempts to resolve this issue. Two large factors in crime are mental health and substance abuse. Health. The City Council needs to work with the professionals in our community such as; Substance Abuse Connect, Continuum of Care, Mental Health Services, and Riverstone Health in order to make evidence based decisions.

Community and Local Development: I aim to oversee events and culture building in various neighborhoods across Billings. I plan to encourage local art and creative design to positively showcase neighborhoods in Billings through projects such as Mobilize Magic City and the Billings Industrial Revitalization District. I also plan on addressing the housing issues in Billings, which leads to people leaving Billings or not come back at all. I want to work with organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, Northern Plains Resource Council, Big Sky Economic Development, and our local labor unions. In order to keep a developed city with an engaged populace we must also encourage the patronage of our local businesses and entrepreneurs. If we build a city that people want to reside in, then our local businesses will keep employment, customers, and support.

I believe that affordable housing is key to stabilizing the issues that arose during Covid and rising inflation. I do not want to see our skilled leaders and workers leaving Billings because housing is too expensive. My wife and I are both teachers and we want to buy a house in the next year or two and that is proving difficult. I would work with Patti Webster and the Billings Housing Authority to come up with options. I have a couple different options I would be willing to try. One would be land trusts in order to designate land for affordable housing. Another would be to work with Housing and Urban Development, but this comes with the cost of federal restrictions and guidelines that would need to be followed. Another option would involve the city selling undeveloped land for cheap/possibly donate, such as certain neighborhood parks that are abandoned, to real estate developers to build affordable housing there. One such park would be Lampman Park off of 30th street west and Monad. This park is just an empty field that is not maintained and is a host of invasive species destroying nearby homes. One solution would be for the city to buy land and lease it to property developers in order to cut the land purchase cost out of the developer’s budget. The final option involves a revolving loan fund, since the city does not currently have money attached/designated toward affordable housing.

TIF districts are areas that utilize a portion of taxes accumulated in Urban Renewal Districts and Targeted Economic Development Districts to fund various projects that support revitalization and business development. We have three TIF districts in Billings, South Billings Urban Renewal Association, East Billings Revitalization District, and Downtown Billings Partnership. I believe that TIF districts such as the EBIRD and SBURA can utilize their funds to create affordable housing and historic preservations in the south and east sides of Billings. Revitalization of our urban and industrial areas provides support for the communities, but also encourages others to engage with businesses and organizations there. Currently my ward is focusing on continual annexation out west. However there are issues circulating about the city funds derived from future property taxes being outweighed by costs of expanding infrastructure further out from the center of the city. I personally support concepts such as “Strong Towns” which creates a united community that builds off each other through transportation, infill, and support for local businesses.

Focus on crime prevention through a focus on substance abuse and mental health. With this in mind, continue CPTED in our public spaces to deter crime. Currently the Yellowstone County Jail is facing issues with maximum occupancy. This creates an issue compared to “catch and release”. Our police officers are seeing their hard work tarnished and unable to effectively deter crime due to lack of accountability (imprisonment). Our criminal justice system throughout Montana is seeing similar issues with lack of employees, judges, and space. Therefore we need to invest in crime prevention while the county attempts to resolve this issue. Two large factors in crime are mental health and substance abuse. In the West End Neighborhood Taskforce from June 20 – July 15th, seventeen suicide threats were called into the city police. This is only in one of our task forces. I plan on consulting with our county and city law enforcement as well as our directors of mental health organizations: Substance Abuse Connect, Continuum of Care, Mental Health Services, and Riverstone Health. The City Council needs to work with the professionals in our community in order to make evidence based decisions.

I support this initiative. I believe that developing parks, trails, and recreation will create public spaces for our citizens to enjoy for coming generations. Unfortunately, the point I hear the most when I ask someone why they want to leave Billings is, “There is nothing to do here”. I usually chime in with various events that occur around town through the DBA, breweries, concerts, and activities, but I know that people want to be around events and excitement. Boredom leads to discontent and danger. I also believe that the rec center will provide our local businesses and hotels with opportunities to gain more money through tourism during events in town that can be hosted at the rec center. AA State Wrestling brings in hundreds of people, whereas AA State Swimming is held in Hardin which provides less benefits to our city and our local economy. The rec center could also grow sports programs that are diminishing in our city such as hockey. The argument that convinced me the most, was the investments I saw proposed by many different organizations in Billings to the rec center’s creation and operation. Private businesses and organizations investing in our city to benefit their employees and customers.

If the citizens of Billings vote for it, I would not take issue with a review of the charter. Just like the state and federal constitutions, they are documents that are intended to change and be amended. However this process may turn into a burdensome and lengthy ordeal involving committees and more elected officials for the review process. This also may lead to elected officials that are interested in furthering their political agendas, instead of benefitting the businesses and citizens of our city. Instead I would prefer City Council place specific questions and sections of the charter on future ballots for the citizens to vote on. This would encourage more direct democracy in our local elections instead of electing representatives in a committee. Personally I do see a future need for elected officials that are able to tackle everyday issues for our growing city. City government should not continue to be operated during weekly committee meetings, and weekly city council meetings with the rise in our population.

I do believe the City of Billings needs a Non-Discrimination Ordinance. It is embarrassing that it has failed multiple times with included compromises and exceptions. Multiple cities in MT have passed similar ordinances to support all citizens of their city. Our Vision Statement is A diverse and welcoming community where people prosper and business succeeds”. Not having a NDO shows that our city government is not aligned to this central statement. We need to be welcoming to all law abiding people. I do understand that there will need to be provisions specific to religion and private non profit organizations such as churches. It should be structured similarly to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This entails all public facilities and public accommodating services (businesses, property, rentals, employment) should not be legally able to discriminate against any legal group/belief/lifestyle. If we want our young people to consider this a home and work on community building, we have to be welcoming of others that do not have the same perspective.

I support the TBID assessment and the Chamber and Visit Billings support for it. I believe that this money is currently used to help engage citizens in events across the city, creates a funding source that is not through individual property taxes, and supports local businesses. I believe that tourism is extremely important to our city and the local economy and the TBID encourages our city government to promote and support tourism. I believe we can use the TBID funds for more public projects. I am excited for its planned use toward the recreation center through daily operation costs! Residents are weary of large public projects due to the strain on property taxes. This provides some relief, and shows residents that other groups are invested, so they should as well!