Meet mayoral candidate John Meyer

On the front porch of his home, John Meyer told the Exponent why he moved to Montana in 1999. “I came for the mountains and stayed for the people,” he said. 

Meyer is running for mayor in Bozeman’s upcoming election. A first-generation college graduate, he holds an undergraduate degree in biology and Spanish from the University of Montana, and a law degree from Vermont Law School. In 2009, Meyer founded the local nonprofit Cottonwood Environmental Law Center (CELC).

Meyer’s nonprofit has crafted several initiatives that have been seen by the City of Bozeman’s legislature, according to him. Among these was a single-use plastic ordinance and an initiative regarding water adequacy, named Montana Clean Rivers, that collected over 6,000 signatures, according to Meyer. 

“I worked with Bozeman residents to write [the Montana Clean Rivers initiative],” he said. “I have worked hard to protect voters' rights and ballot initiatives.”

One of his primary campaign focuses is the water adequacy and residential development (WARD) initiative. This initiative focuses on protecting the water supply and making housing more affordable for locals, according to Meyer.

“Right now, the City of Bozeman is in such deficit for affordable housing,” he said. “More than 50 percent of every development that is approved in Bozeman needs to be affordable if we're going to hit our affordable housing target.”

Under Montana law, inclusionary zoning is illegal, meaning cities cannot require developers to build affordable housing, Meyer said. According to him, the WARD initiative seeks to solve this by requiring developers to build affordable housing to obtain water rights.

Bozeman is in a closed basin, meaning water supply is limited, according to the City. Developers must pay the city for water usage, a policy called cash-in-lieu of water rights, according to Meyer.

“If that's what we want — affordable housing — we have to make it a priority. The way to do that is to tell the developers, ‘If you want to use our water, make affordable housing a priority.’ And so that's how the WARD initiative came to be,” he said. 

Additionally, Meyer mentioned homelessness in Bozeman. He said that he has empathy for people struggling with homelessness, reflecting on his own experience as a law student living out of his truck for a semester. 

“I do not think it's fair and I do not think it is right that people have to live out of their car when they're working in Bozeman. If you actually work here, you go to school here, you should be able to live here,” he said.

If he becomes mayor and voters pass the WARD initiative, Meyer said he plans on taking steps to ensure its effectiveness. “When this initiative passes, it's going to pump the brakes on luxury housing. Bozeman is the only city of its size in the state of Montana that does not have a public housing authority, so I'll create a public housing authority,” he said.

Public housing authorities manage and provide affordable housing for city residents, and Meyer said establishing one could help issue a housing revenue bond. 

A revenue bond would allow the City of Bozeman to construct its own housing and control prices, according to Meyer. “You don't need voters to vote for it, because it doesn't cost taxpayers anything,” he said. “The city starts to own and rent out places, and students pay rent every month, and then that pays for the bond. That's just paid off, and the city owns the housing.”

Beyond housing and water concerns, Meyer also has local first responders in mind. “[First responders] provide a necessary, vital service,” he said. “Some of the first responders [in Bozeman] are actually contracted from third parties. I've been told that they don't always get paid very well,” he said. “It's a problem for me when the people who are saving the lives of our residents are not being taken care of. ”

“It's necessary for the health, safety and welfare of Bozeman residents that we have an adequate ambulance service, first responder service,” Meyer said. “And so if we can't require new developments to pay for their fair share of that, maybe we should challenge that report. If we're going to build luxury housing that nobody really wants or needs, maybe we should make them pay to subsidize the first responders.”

Above all, Meyer said he seeks to inspire the next generation of citizens to use their voices. 

“Don't lead with your head, lead with your heart,” he said. “If you overthink things, it's just not gonna work out. You have to be passionate. You have to tell the truth.”