Becky, this one's for you...

At the March public meeting Becky Pape asked for specific results of the Chamber of Commerce survey that led their Board to create our committee. According to Chamber staff, 218 respondents (65% of the total) expressed a concern about local governance/incorporation in Big Sky. 118 respondents (35%) did not.    

Comments

[Becky]

My question was "What was the "exact number" of people who "overwhelmingly supported incorporation"(Steve's statement in a local newspaper article) in the 287 surveys"? Marne stated that anyone who mentioned enforcement issues , development regulation or any positive or NEGATIVE comments about incorporation were included in the the 216 people.As you can see you still haven't answered my question.

[Ryan Hamilton]

We tallied the surveys at the Chamber's office and found that only 44%, or 127, of the 287 survey respondents mentioned the words incorporation, governance, self-government, City of Big Sky, town of Big Sky, etc.

This is quite a bit different than the 65% number presented by the Chamber and the C&I Group, which included other information from the survey, such as the lack of zoning enforcement (at that time), the lack of community focus, or the opportunity to provide increased services, etc. Some of these issues have already been addressed since the 2004 survey, such as the County's Zoning Enforcement Agent, among other things.

[Marne Hayes]

As a point of clarification, the Chamber didn't present information that supported incorporation, but rather made a statement about the number of people who responded to the survey that mentioned local governance, incorporation, community control, etc. in some verbiage or another in their comments attached to the survey.
The other respondants referred to in the 216 number reference were counted as those mentioning any other point or issue that was connected to the issues surrounding the reason for the Community and Infrastructure Group being formed in the first place, by the judgement and decision of the whole original Strategic Plan Steering Committee. On this committee were representatives from all different businesses and organizations, including all of the established districts in Big Sky, and there was a collective decision that based on those comments and the survey results, that this group should be formed, and should look into the possibility of incorporation, or some form of self governance, among other things. Some of the members of that original group included Jon Holtzman, David O'Connor (Chair), Bill Simkins, Ryan Hamilton, James Taylor, Jason Revisky, Carol Collins, Meg O'Leary, Taylor Middleton, Tim Ryan, Bob Biggerstaff, Bill Olson, Ron Edwards, the Chamber board of directors at that time, and others.
This was not a group that was advocating for incorporation, but who were merely reacting to the comments and survey results and understanding that the community felt that there were issues that needed to be considered that had to do with community concerns; one of which was incorporation. (As a side note, it is important to remember that this was not the only working solution group that came out of the Strategic Plan; there were five groups formed, the others being Business, Growth & Development, Housing Needs, and Environment).
So the clarification is meant to show that the group involved with the Strategic plan, the Steering Committee - at that time - recognized enough concern with community governance through these surveys, to advise there to be a Community and Infrastructure Solution Group.
While the interpretation of these surveys obviously has some discrepancy based on the viewing source, the one thing that remains true is that at that time - in 2004 - there were enough people who responded to the survey with a concern for issues relating to community, governance, control, regulation, services, disenfranchisement, whatever term you choose to single out, that the research was deemed to be warranted by the Strategic Plan Committee.

[Kay Reeves]

Let me just say that neither Steve, Dick or I not anyone in our original group ever reviewed the surveys individually, except for perhaps, Kate Ketschek, who is now in New Hampshire.

We were charged by the Chamber to explore further what was raised by a significant number of respondents (by Ryan's count, 44%) as an issue. We did. The rest is history.