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Great Falls' Newest Leaders Discuss the Future

Great Falls' Newest Leaders Discuss the Future

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Nov 4, 2009 at 5:34 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 4, 2009 at 5:57 PM MST

The voters in Great Falls have spoken, and they've chosen three political newcomers to help lead the city. Michael Winters won the mayoral race by more than 2,500 votes. Both candidates elected to the City Commission each brought in more than 7,000 votes. Today, we spoke to all the winners about the future of Great Falls.

"I do think the people of Great Falls want a change,” said Mayor-elect Michael Winters. “They want to see new faces, they want to see new ideas, they'd like to see new vision and they'd like to see some solutions to the existing problems."

"It was very apparent that they wanted change and that was reflected by the number of votes and the disparity in the number of votes," City Commissioner-elect Robert Jones added.

"People are tired of the status quo,” said City Commissioner-elect Fred Burrow. “And maybe we'd better pay more attention to what's going on and get some new faces in there and some new ideas."

And these newly-elected officials are anxious to get started. But, with the other mayoral candidate still sitting on the commission, and an incumbent losing his seat, will there be any hard feelings at their first meeting together?

"I think we're going to make it work well... And I don't think there's going to be any awkwardness,” said Jones. “We'll all work together. We all have a goal, and that's to do the best for our community and the city of Great Falls."

"I'm absolutely sure that in the coming commission that there won't always be smooth sailing,” Winters said. “There are certainly differences of personality and that's going to be a factor. But with strong leadership, and the leadership I'm going to provide, I will bring all of those differences together and we'll all sit down and find the solutions."

One solution already on Burrow’s mind is the way city government solicits public input.

"I would like to see some way to get the public into the picture at the beginning,” he explained. “And maybe Neighborhood Council would be a good way because it's already established. And if we could get more involvement from the public, then we could say 'ok we're working on this or are going to work on this, and we would like to get some input.'"

Despite their calls for change, all three of the Electric City's new leaders agree that previous commissioners and other community leaders do deserve credit for their service to Great Falls.

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