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Chamber asks Lander council to study voting access for nonresident business owners
Summary
The Lander Chamber requested the council place an item on a future agenda to study whether property‑owning, tax‑paying business owners who live just outside city limits should have a path to municipal representation; chamber staff said their preliminary review identified about 40 clearly affected accounts and as many as 125 possible cases.
Brian Fabel, executive director of the Lander Chamber of Commerce, told the mayor and council the chamber has been hearing from multiple business owners who pay taxes and own property inside the city but live just outside city limits and therefore lack a municipal vote. "Should business owners who own property in Lander, operate a business here, pay taxes here, and are directly affected by city decisions have some path to representation in municipal elections, even if they live just outside city limits?" Fabel asked.
Fabel said the chamber has identified and confirmed about 40 individuals who meet the preliminary criteria, roughly 25 more possibly qualify, and that their work suggests there may be as many as 125 such business‑owners. He asked council to place the topic on a future agenda to study eligibility criteria and administrative processes, and emphasized the request was for review and not for immediate ordinance language.
Council members thanked Fabel for bringing the issue forward and said they would pursue further information. Councilmember Cassidy said the council had already discussed the matter and wanted to continue the conversation; Stubbs encouraged formal review. The mayor noted the chamber had discussed the topic earlier with Councilmember Cox and that staff would work to schedule a study session or agenda item.
The request came during the public comment portion of the meeting; Jesse Grosinger, business manager for the Fremont County Association of Governments, also used public comment to push back on a characterization he'd heard that regional cooperation was "out of control," saying that FCAG exists to help local governments collaborate and that advisory committees only provide recommendations and do not impose taxes.
Next steps: Council did not adopt any ordinance at the meeting but agreed to accept the request for formal review and asked staff to place a study or agenda item on a future meeting so council can consider options and receive more detailed information.
