BDC Members and Affiliates,

Please find below an introduction and a “Ten Questions” interview with Terry Cunningham, candidate for Bozeman Mayor.

JP

Terry Cunningham is a small business owner, non-profit Executive Director, Bozeman Deputy Mayor, author and songwriter:
After a career in New York advertising agencies and executive marketing positions with Nabisco and Turner Broadcasting, Terry and his wife Laura moved to Bozeman in 1999 and started Cottonwood Enterprises, Inc, a sales promotion agency. His clients include Murdoch’s Home & Ranch Supply as well as major national brands such as Comet, AAA, NASCAR, Southwest Airlines and Levi Strauss.
Terry serves as Executive Director of Run Dog Run, a non-profit that builds off-leash dog parks in city and county parks including Anderson Dog Park at the Gallatin Regional Park, and Lewis & Bark Dog Park at Bozeman Pond.
Within the last year, he has published a novel Red Mountain Pass and recorded a country music song Speaker of the House.
He has served on the Bozeman City Commission since 2018 and was named Deputy Mayor in 2020.He is currently running for Mayor.

10 Questions with Deputy Mayor Terry Cunningham

JP: What is something interesting about yourself most people don’t know?

TC:

• I wrote, produced and recorded the official Mr. Potato Head 50th Birthday song (featuring Eric Funk on vocals) for Hasbro, one of my company’s clients.

JP: What keeps you up at night right now?

TC: Knowing that Bozeman is losing its workforce and young families due to a housing shortage. When your workforce is forced to move to other communities, they often find jobs closer to home as opposed to commuting. When you lose young families, your town is hollowed out in the middle. We need to stop the exodus.

JP: Tell me about the most important accomplishments you have had as a City Commissioner.

TC:

• I personally negotiated with Lowe’s Corporation to remove obstacles that were blocking Bozeman’s most significant affordable housing / community resources project to date - 232 affordable housing units for families and seniors at Arrowleaf Park & Perennial Park.
• I facilitated a $1.5 million bridge loan from a philanthropic organization that allowed HRDC to purchase the Boulevard Apartments – preserving 40 low-income housing units for Bozeman’s most vulnerable residents.
• I testified before the Montana Legislature to create a $15 million loan fund for affordable housing projects in Montana. The bill was approved and has been used to generate hundreds of affordable housing units.
• When the Bogert Pavilion collapsed under the weight of record snowfall, Bozeman taxpayers were on the hook for expensive repairs. I facilitated a philanthropic donation from Marcia Anderson to cover the repairs, saving taxpayers $350,000.
• I created the property tax relief bill proposal that became Senate Bill 313 which would have given Bozeman citizens the ability to vote to lower their property taxes by using tourism tax funds.
• I am leading the effort to conduct a comprehensive, multi-agency Sensitive Lands & Conservation effort throughout the Gallatin County, which will be the most ambitious effort ever conducted to identify & protect wildlife habitat & corridors, riparian areas, wetlands and streams.
• I helped create the Big Sky Energy Collaborative, a working group along with elected officials from Missoula City, Missoula County and City of Helena to increase NorthWestern Energy’s commitment to renewal energy sources.
• I led the effort to upgrade the sustainability level of the Public Safety Center, which will have the largest public rooftop solar array in the state of Montana.
• I helped create a unique partnership between Simms Fishing Products and Bozeman Health to provide PPE - re-usable gowns – to frontline health workers that raised over $100,000 in philanthropic funds to pay for the program.
• I have helped foster a more open, respectful and collaborative relationship with Gallatin County.

More can be found at www.terryforbozeman.com

JP: Tell me about a moment that could be described as “a fork in the road” for you?

TC: My wife spent part of her childhood in Helena, MT and she and her family retained deep ties to Montana. We visited Montana several times in the early 1990s while we were dating. We were living in Atlanta and were frustrated with the corporate rat race and big-city pace. I had developed Crohn’s Disease, a stress-triggered immune system disease that was impacting my health.

After one particularly stressful day in Atlanta, I called Laura and asked, “How would you feel about moving to Montana?” Less than 3 months later, we moved to Bozeman, where we didn’t know a single person; we started a new small business; we got engaged and we planned a wedding. I truly believe that move saved my life.

JP: What do you see as your toughest challenge, thus far, in Bozeman?

TC: Helping to manage the balancing act between: A) creating a sufficient variety of housing units to even out the supply & demand equation, thus stemming the exodus of our workforce and young families from Bozeman and B) managing growth in a manner that doesn’t fundamentally change who we are as a community.

JP: How do you feel about “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”?

TC: I believe in the concept of servant leadership and I truly believe that we are all called to make our world a better place. When I look back on how I met most of my closest friends in Bozeman, it’s usually through volunteer programs and area non-profits. My greatest joys are being able to help non-profits meet their goals and achieve their mission, whether that’s through leading a fundraising campaign for a new Intensive Care Unit, emceeing the animal shelter’s annual fundraising event, or using the proceeds from my book sales to help Friends of Hyalite plow the road up Hyalite Canyon.

JP: What can be done about lack of “missing middle” housing:

TC: Given the cost of land, labor and lumber, it is impractical to think that any builder or developer can bring a single household detached house out of the ground for less than 150% of area median income (AMI). As a result, we need to refocus on cottage homes, townhomes, condos, duplexes and triplexes to meet the needs of entry level home buyers.

Our current cottage housing ordinance is in need of a re-write; it doesn’t currently work. We need to re-visit – as we are currently doing – our development and engineering codes and our PUD process to foster more compact neighborhoods and reward creative land use planning. We need to use our Community Housing Fund as a revolving loan fund to provide low-interest or non-interest loans for offsite improvements or land purchase in exchange for missing middle housing. And we need to incorporate community land trusts into our ownership mix.

JP: What is one of your favorite quotes?

TC: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.” In 20 years; I hope we look back and say that we made the right decisions for the future of Bozeman when we had the opportunity.

JP: What is the key point you would like readers to take away from this interview?

TC: As Bozeman continues to grow, there are two keys to our future success: collaboration and regional planning. I believe that all major area institutions – MSU Bozeman School District, Bozeman Health, Billings Clinic, Gallatin County, the Chamber, etc., are all struggling with the same issues, but we’re operating in silos. By collaborating on key initiatives like housing, childcare, facility planning, water conservation & wastewater treatment, etc., we can gain efficiencies and have novel breakthroughs. Some examples of collaborative thinking can be found at my virtual think tank – www.bozemantogether.com. .

We need to start planning as a region as opposed to disconnected fiefdoms. Transportation planning, housing planning, conservation efforts, economic development, and a host of other big issues must be tackled on a macro basis. Our boundaries are blurring and bumping up against one another. We need to think less about jurisdiction and more about innovation.

JP: How would you like citizens to get to know you?

TC: I want citizens to know how I am working for them--I am the only city commissioner who keeps a public calendar of all of their city-related meetings and calls. Person to person meetings work best for me. I connect best when I’m taking a hike with someone, having a beverage (hot or cold) with them or sharing a meal. Too much gets lost in emails, texts and phone calls. I believe in-person meetings are much more productive and valuable.

JP: Thanks for taking time out of your busy campaign to engage with the Bozeman Development Consortium