GREAT FALLS — As a Cascade County resident, Melissa Smith was interested in what transpired during the most recent legislative session.
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Smith said, “We have so many questions about what's happening with our taxes, with Medicaid and Medicare and a lot of social service programs. And I think people here in Cascade County are struggling.”
This led to the creation of “Citizens 4 Government Transparency”, an ad hoc committee which held a town hall with five Cascade County legislatures on Wednesday evening.
Smith said, “We wanted to make sure that the representatives would understand that we really just wanted to understand what they did at the legislature.”
At the town hall were Senator Wendy McKamey, Senator Jeremy Trebas, Repesentative Eric Tilleman, Representative Steve Fitzpatrick, and Representative Jane Weber.
Multiple questions were asked during the meeting, ranging from Medicaid expansion and taxes to climate change.
Cascade County resident Brittney Morris has been paying attention to local politics and decided to attend the meeting.
Morris said, “I just felt like it was time to be involved and be informed and voice my opinion.”
Morris felt good about the event, and hopes it inspires more people to get involved with local politics.
Morris said, “It was really going to take more members of our community becoming engaged, raising up their voices and really engaging in our democratic processes.”
Pamela Carroll was also in attendance, and loved to see the community involvement.
Carroll said, “To see the amount of people on a beautiful evening come out to hear, our democracy in action is great.”
She believed the meeting went well, and felt that it was time well spent.
Carroll said, “I think the legislators, pretty much answered the questions. And people were seemed to be very responsive, and most everybody was very respectful.”
Citizens 4 Government Transparency hope that this meeting is only the first of many between legislatures and the people they represent.
Smith said, “Democracy is not a spectator sport. So I really hope that more Cascade County residents get involved in our government.”
You can contact Citizens 4 Government Transparency by emailing mls3ster@gmail.com.
