City Council 2023: Danny Choriki

Despite John F. Kennedy’s call to action, my generation, the Baby Boomers, stopped investing in the future, somewhere along the way. We need to both individually and collectively invest in each other and in the future.

I am a trained environmental social scientist with years of experience in corporate America in how information flows through organizations and how decisions are made. Other than Public Works, The City of Billings is using information tools that fail to take advantage of the advances made in this area over the past twenty years. My experience provides a unique view of how to bring the city into the 21st Century’s information age in terms of both data systems as well as tools to engage the residents of Billings with the City’s structure.

I have been a policy analyst and social researcher. I understand the impact that public policy has upon the built environment, the economy, and our daily lives.

The first two years of my first term has been an educational moment as I learned the organization, the people involved, and the system for bringing about change.

I base my decisions on outcomes and not rhetoric.

No program can ever be perfect, nor will human beings get things right the first time. And even if we did, the situation would change, and the policy or program would need to be adopted to reality.

How one does this is very project specific. There are some standards, do a root cause analysis of the problem, operationally define your goals and outcomes, and collect the data and information to evaluate those goals and outcomes. Then use these tools to see if the project or program did what was expected and did that impact the root cause of the issue.

One step in that direction is the Cost of Services Model that is currently being done for our planning process and procedures.

Improve the information flow within the City of Billings organization and with the residents of the area.  This means better integrated data systems which increase the amount of information collected about and for city services. It is also means increasing the engagement between city services and city residents.

Directly address root causes of violence and specifically the family violence cycle.

Housing. Specifically, for working- and middle-class families.

At base it is a capital problem and not a regulations problem. I’ll get back to former point later.

The recently implemented Re-Code project brought our zoning and building codes in sync with current developer and planner standards. The recent code changes by the Montana Legislature have only barely impacted our codes here in Billings. We had implemented the vast majority of what the legislature wanted to implement across the state. I hope that in the future, the legislature works more closely with the planning community do that these policy decisions are driven by data and results and not dogma and ideology.

As much as some people want to blame regulations, our current codes are in place to ensure quality housing and quality neighborhoods.

There are several initiatives in place on housing. Most important are the funding of planning documents for the edges around Billings to provide a vision for how Highway 3, the north end of the Heights, and the West End of Billings develop. Also, staff is working with the community to develop a housing strategy.

One of the hardest issues is that because of changes in demographics, the climate, and the economy, we are seeing increased pressure on our existing housing stock. We are not creating more land and there are more and more people to house. The only solution to this is density. This flies against our American Dream expectation of a house in the suburbs. This has not been a realistic dream for over a generation. Market driven forces are pulling investment capital into the family housing market. One of the consequences of the crash of the housing market was the creation of large-scale financial institutions focused on housing as a product. We need to find ways to balance that out of state investment with…

I have a working knowledge of how they work from a policy perspective, and I know that The City of Billings, both staff and council, have created policies which make our TIF districts a model for the rest of the state.

TIF districts are designed to encourage infill. Council and the Boards of the various TIF districts have started a conversation on how to focus more on infill projects.

We need a TIF district in the north end of the Heights covering the largely undeveloped area between the new interchange on I-90 and Main Street. This needs to include aging neighborhoods on the east end of the Heights which we developed under county standards and rapidly aging out.

It is important to note that violent crimes and property crimes are trending down from 2021 by around 20%. So it is important to note that the increases in sworn officers on the streets are having an effect. That funding and hiring is being completed in this fiscal year (FY 2024).

That said, domestic and family violence continues to drive our high crime rates.

There is still a lot to be done. Implementing the Family Justice Center and programs like the Nurse/Family Partnership that target the family violence cycle are critical. Building back up the organizations like the Billings Area Family Violence Task Force is an important next step.

The city needs to focus on prevention. We need to work with our partners to provide necessary funds for mental health, homeless, the judicial system, diversion programs, recidivism programs, parole, etc. Putting someone in prison is rarely enough to help someone turn their lives around.

I fully support the initiative and any related initiative that brings badly needed all season recreational facilities to Billings.

I do not think we need a substantive change to the city charter. I would prefer to see specific changes brought up by council and by citizen’s groups and put before the voters. There certainly are changes to the charter that would come from discovered best practices over the past half century. But I would rather see those changes happen incrementally.

Needs an NDO? No. I do not believe that the city can enforce an NDO on housing or employment at our level. Employment is now covered by federal regulations and Montana State Code hampers the city’s ability to regulate the rental housing market.

Needs to embrace diversity and be welcoming to everyone in our area? Absolutely. I would like to see the city become a sponsor to local events and organizations that represent non-mainstream parts of our culture. The city should sponsor the 406 Pride Parade and the Crow Fair. We need to engage with people wherever they are at. That is a Montana value that needs to be nurtured and brought back to the forefront of our daily lives.

I fully support the TBID in it’s current formation and their efforts to support the new recreation center. I am interested to see if this can be a partial solution to the need for a convention center downtown.