Greeley neighborhood group asks Butte‑Silver Bow to formalize community councils in charter

R. Everett Banerov, representing the Greeley Neighborhood Community Development Corporation, asked the Butte‑Silver Bow Charter Review Study Commission to add a charter procedure to authorize community councils and to create a process for formally recognizing neighborhood alliances through a memorandum of understanding.

Banerov told commissioners the Greeley Area Plan was completed in 2011 and included in the Butte‑Silver Bow master plan in 2012. He said the plan called for a neighborhood alliance organized with bylaws and official recognition by local government and that the group had sought recognition for years without a formal procedure. "This clause was included in the Butte‑Silver Bow City‑County Charter in 1977, but has never been implemented," Banerov said.

The Greeley group submitted a petition and communications to the council in 2014 and later collected signatures again in 2015–2016, Banerov said. He reported that organizers contacted about 500 voting‑age residents and that 447 signed the petition — a figure he described as an 89…