Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
I know the best spot in my ward for …
Historical visits with my kids would be Fort Missoula.
If loving this is wrong, I don’t want to be right
I gotta say, the chicken sandwich at Wally & Buck.
This year, I really want to achieve …
Distributing the 80 tribal scholarships for the state from the Tribal Office of Tourism for our film production assistant course, because I believe in workforce development and in film as an industry.
What I order for the table
Like, ten million different sides. Every appetizer you can order. My husband is a professional chef, so food is our favorite.
Never have I ever …
Left under 20 percent tips.
How can we alleviate tax pressure on homeowners and renters?
I’m from Whitefish and, in 1996, the city council there went to state legislators and got the tourism tax, and I think that with a coordinated effort, Missoula City Council could try to do the same. Now Whitefish is using 10 percent of that for affordable housing, too, and has raised over $45 million. So for me it’s a lot of alternative ways besides property taxes that already exist.
Change my mind about …
Change my mind that Montana is not the absolute best place to live, raise kids and play in.
I wind down by …
Oh, I’m just going to say it: I love TikTok. I wind down by watching TikTok videos. I’ve got a good algorithm for, like, middle-aged moms who like to think about things. My TikTok is very good. It’s, like, the most relaxing TikTok.
What’s a specific approach or policy that a community elsewhere in the country has employed to reduce homelessness that you think might also work in Missoula?
Finland has reduced homelessness to zero through the concept of people having a safe place to live within three months. And if you give them that place with a rent, even if it starts at zero and moves up, the success rate is close to 100 percent. If you can actually alleviate that, then people can succeed.
And then the other is a program where you can connect a bank with a nonprofit that deals with homelessness, and you use a debit card that people opt into and for every transaction, a percentage of that goes to actually pay homelessness.
I geek out on …
I mean, to be honest, I geek out on cinematic shots and films.
My best dad joke
Why don’t we be honest and just say that all my jokes are inappropriate for print.
Three infrastructure priorities?
I’m supportive of many different things as long as they’re grant-funded. I think when it comes to levies or property taxes, we have to hold off. I’m loving the big infrastructure grants that we’ve been getting. I like the idea of Marshall Mountain. I like the idea of public space. And for me, it all comes down to the budget and alternative ways to pay for that. So, first, it would be police officers, fire departments, safety issues.
My cry in the car song
I mean, there’s so many. I love women singers so much. This is not so much a cry, but it does make me–I freaking love it. “Angel from Montgomery” by Bonnie Raitt and John Prine.
That fire levy though …
I have friends who are in the fire department and they’re in need of that in a major way. And we, as a community, need it. So one of the things I’m gonna look at right away is, are there some grants? Like, can we even leverage potentially the Inflation Reduction Act and figure out ways to use that for our police officers and our fire department?
Unusual skills
I used to be a competitive snowboarder.
Together, we could …
Build the vision of where Missoula is going. It’s really important right now to decide how we want Missoula to grow and how we want it to be sustainable for those of us who have lived here for a really long time. And how we want to make sure that those who are looking for housing, that are from here, actually get that opportunity.
