City Council 2023: Mary Hernandez - Billings Chamber of Commerce

Why do you want to be a Billings City Council member and what expertise will you bring to City Council that will help you make good policy decisions?

I have been actively involved in our Billings community for 43 years and a Chamber member for over 20 years. I have worked hard for the privilege of representing others in my community work. I have come to learn and respect the perspectives of others and I believe representing them will lead to a healthier and more desirable City of Billings. I want Billings to be the most desirable and respected city in Montana and our region. As our city grows, we can do much more to keep Billings as a most desirable, accepting, thriving and innovative place to safely reside and evolve. I moved from private healthcare to help build efficient and impactful nonprofits that provide crucial services–often unfunded mandates–for our communities. This requires me to have a multi-faceted ability to connect, crossover, and transcend systems to help us get things done. I have trained established and emerging leaders in common and unique governance structures. Additionally, I have served boards, and advocated for local, state, and national organizations with small budgets and those with billion plus dollars. The most common factor of my work is that it is done in concert with others from all walks of life. I connect people and value the perspectives and expertise of others.

Local government issues sometimes blur conventional party lines. How do you anticipate representing your constituents and basing your policy decisions?

I am a proud member of the nonprofit community, one that requires most often requires practice in non-partisanship to be successful. Most of life’s issues are non-partisan yet often highly political. The political area speaks to the power hierarchy of any organization or structure. I am known for having an eclectic group of friends, one that transcends party lines. When called upon to make good policy decisions I ask the following of myself and others:

Who’s missing from this conversation whose perspective may provide important information, either positive, negative, or neutral?
Have we done all we can to inform or hear from community members?
Of the proposed options, who will be most detrimentally impacted by the decision? What do they have to say and what is our response? Conversely, of those with most to gain, what are their perspective of the detrimental effect(s) on our community members and their proposed solutions? What are the undesired consequences of the decision(s) to be made?

I believe these are at the heart of the request for transparency from many. Many desire to see that their perspective(s) were fairly considered, consequences seriously discussed, and the injuries to their lives addressed respectfully. I see it as my responsibility to clearly articulate these answers. Doing so also helps all of us in understanding the concerns, fears, and needs of others who contribute and sacrifice for our community’s success. In addition, respectfully acknowledging others’ losses retains a healthier and growing community with less overall discord.

What are your top three policy priorities and why?

Identify goals for having Montanans recognize Billings as our model city. One that respects all, and is a place to be, connect, and grow.
Changing the narrative on Billings being a high-crime city is a priority. I am not one to shy away from acknowledging crime. I am concerned that violent crimes are often conflated with our more vulnerable homeless population as it does a disservice to our community and most especially to our homeless. We have an independent report on our Police and City Justice Department that states how these services can be improved. The City Council must provide its oversight responsibility in ensuring that our City Administrator holds our department leaders accountable for continued improvement. Violent crimes include domestic violence, guns/weapons, and drug trafficking; we must advocate for greater methods in successfully reducing these occurrences in our community. We acknowledge where things are going well and ask what is needed to address the gaps for better results, and check for reduction in violent crimes.
Alleviating our lack of affordable housing in order to build a thriving community with healthy families.

What policy measures would you support to make housing more affordable and why?

I support the principles of community land grants (CLG) in building affordable housing. These principles combined with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design ones would continue to help in alleviating the desperate need for affordable housing in Billings. CLGs also offer lower income individuals/families with opportunity for home ownership and its benefits. I see Billings as a stronger community with this option. There are other options worth further research occurring across the nation. Housing takes ongoing research and review to add options for our conundrum of building adequate affordable housing to fulfill the thousands of units currently needed. As a City Councilor, I see a great responsibility that our policy decisions do not exacerbate the growing at-risk of homelessness of working families. We can work to obtain and understand the obstacles faced by at-risk families identified by our School District to inform solutions. Many smart individuals have worked and continue to work on this issue; I support exploring and testing ways to alleviate homelessness and the looming risk of lost housing in our community. This issue is decades old and I’d like to see Billings have the courage to be innovative and solution driven in this area. The benefits include having a greater workforce for our growing community as well as averting what larger cities across our nation are experiencing to a much greater degree.

What do you know about Billings’s Tax Increment Finance (TIF) districts? How should TIF districts be used to encourage infill development?

Encouraging infill development is a way to reestablish TIF districts into sustainable, safe, and attractive areas. In addition, infill helps to maintain and modernize costly infrastructure. I challenge the notion that building anew outside a TIF or Billings city limits is the most cost-effective way in all cases. Annexation creates long-term costs that our limited tax base can ill afford so diligent consideration is necessary. TIF districts come with benefits that help our community. It is incumbent for City Councilors to help identify incentives and overall successful projects for all.

Public Safety remains the City Council’s number one stated priority. What do you believe Billings should do to improve public safety and why?

I repeat my previous response:

Changing the narrative on Billings being a high-crime city is a priority. I am not one to shy away from acknowledging crime. I am concerned that violent crimes are often conflated with our more vulnerable homeless population as it does a disservice to our community and most especially to our homeless. We have an independent report on our Police and City Justice Department that states how these services can be improved. The City Council must provide its oversight responsibility in ensuring continued improvement. Violent crimes include domestic violence, guns/weapons, and drug trafficking; we must advocate for greater methods in successfully reducing these occurrences. We acknowledge where things are going well and ask what is needed to address the gaps for better results, and check for reduction in violent crimes. In my conversations with voters and community members, I am asking how they views on public safety and what they believe it would take to feel safer. I will use these perspectives to inform future conversations on what needs to be done to improve public safety.

City Council voted to send voters a $143 million parks and recreation bond that, if approved, would fund the construction of a Sports & Recreation Center, development of Castle Rock Park, Poly Vista Park, and many other projects. Do you support this initiative? Why or why not?

I support this initiative and our current City Council’s decision to put it before the voters. Why, let our voters decide as they will be incurring costs through the years and will determine whether or not this is the time they can afford to invest in our community’s future in this area.

The Montana Constitution requires local governments to ask voters whether they wish to review local government’s structure every 10 years; Billings voters will be asked during the 2024 election whether they wish to appoint a study commission to review the Billings City Charter. What changes to the Charter, if any, would you support and why?

I believe it is the City Council’s responsibility to ensure that our governing documents are effectively serving our community. As I believe the Billings voters have the right to approve an appointment of a study commission to review our City’s Charter, I believe it is premature for me to suggest changes currently. I believe in a healthy overall review process and will gladly share what I learn as I speak to voters, community members, and conduct my research on points determined in need of review.

Do you believe that the City of Billings needs a Non-Discrimination Ordinance? Why or why not? If so, are there any specific provisions or exceptions that you would want to see in the ordinance language?

I believe in Non-Crimination Ordinances. They provide a message to all that people are respected. I need not agree with others to respect their rights to live and thrive in our community as long as they respect others rights.

Do you support the current Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) assessment and its use as supported by the Chamber and Visit Billings? Why or why not? (The Billings lodging industry imposes a fee on each night in an occupied room in Billings. Those fees are used to promote, market and sell the community and are managed by a 7-member board of hoteliers as required by statute. Annually, City Council adopts the budget presented by the TBID board.)

I support the current TBID assessment and its use. I make no secret that I oversee a program that is utilizing these funds to encourage a destination event for Billings this year. TBID funds replace public funds usually collected in other states via sales taxes or a local option tax. This fee places a burden on hoteliers and those collecting these fees, and increases the costs of hotel beds for customers including Montanans traveling for medical care or other services not available in their rural towns.