Letter to the Editor - Can't beat city on urban chickens

I guess the old adage is true: “You can’t fight city hall.” At least not in Havre.

The council held an ordinance meeting on June 20th to discuss a backyard hens. Except they didn’t. They apparently just counted heads. One supporter for it and six against it. That was good enough for them to not vote. How convenient.

What wasn’t counted were the hundreds of Havre residents who signed a petition of support for the initiative. That list was provided to each of the city councilors weeks ago and they know that those are actual Havre residents. But apparently, they don’t count because they didn’t show up on June 20.

The fact of the matter is that several council members, themselves, are against chickens and they have no interest whatsoever in seeing such an ordinance move forward. They killed it in 2015 and they killed it again in 2023. Their discussion of putting it on the ballot was merely an exercise in not having to decide themselves. Except that they never really had any intention to put it on the ballot because it might actually pass.

I was pretty impressed with the Montana Legislature this year. In four short months, they considered thousands of bills and whittled them down to more than 800 that went to the governor’s desk. Nearly all of them were controversial.

But in Havre, dealing with a chicken ordinance is just too heavy a lift for representative government. It can’t be done. It’s a bridge too far. They can’t pullet off.

Al Garver

Havre