Two Boulder residents, separated by decades in age but sharing a strong desire to represent and serve their neighbors, are running to represent the west side of Boulder on the City Council for the next four years.
Pat Lewis, 68, and Stacie St. Clair, 41, are vying to win election to a ward-two council seat currently held by Sherry Lepley, who is not seeking reelection. Ward two covers the half of Boulder on the west side of Main Street. Drew Dawson is running unopposed to retain his council seat representing ward one.
Lewis and St. Clair are both native Montanans. St. Clair, who has lived in Boulder for 11 years, was born and raised in Lewiston and lived in East Helena before moving to Boulder. Lewis moved to Boulder with her family when she was in middle school, and she graduated from Jefferson High School in 1971. She moved to Seattle upon graduation and returned to Boulder in 1994.
St. Clair works as a business analyst for the state Department of Revenue, in the property assessment division, she said.
Lewis currently works part-time as the officer manager for The Monitor. Previously, she owned and operated the Mine Motel in Boulder from 2001–2021, and she owned and operated the Free Enterprise Health Mine near Boulder from 1994–2014. Lewis’ grandfather founded the mine. In Seattle, she worked as an administrative assistant at Lep Profit International from 1990–1993. Before that, she owned and operated a diner in Seattle for five years, from 1985–1990. She opened the diner after years spent working “odd jobs,” including a job in the production department of a local newspaper company. When she first arrived in Seattle, she said, she worked “detailing Cadillacs for $5 a car.”
Lewis said she’d contemplated running for City Council while she owned the mine and the motel, but, “being self-employed, it was not something that I felt I had the time for.” She began “seriously” considering a run for office this spring, when she was in the process of selling the motel.
“I felt like I had time,” she said. “Getting involved in community things like [the Jefferson Local Development Corporation] and the school board and those things, I feel like it evolved, like a steppingstone, and educated me, and I felt like it might be something I’d like to do. Boulder is important. I want to see things get done.”
St. Clair said she decided to run for City Council through speaking to people around Boulder and “just trying to get an idea of what people are looking for. And it just seemed like a good idea for me to try to be an advocate for some fellow Boulderites.” St. Clair said she doesn’t have prior experience serving on public bodies, “but being a state employee for 14 years, I’ve got a good understanding of what people are looking for or what they’d like to see done.”
The most important issue right now, she said, is child care, and she lauded the city’s effort thus far to facilitate child care in a building the city recently purchased and plans to move to Boulder from north of Helena.
“I want to make it affordable to everyone,” St. Clair said. “I also want to make sure we can keep moving in the direction it has been going to make [Boulder] a good place to call home.”
Lewis previously served two terms on the JLDC board, two terms on the JHS school board, and multiple terms on the Boulder Chamber of Commerce board, including as the board president. She is currently in her second term on the county’s Tax Increment Industrial District Advisory Board and is the board’s chair. She is the secretary of Boulder’s Cemetery Advisory Committee and also works as an “administrative assistant” for the Chamber of Commerce.
Lewis pegged housing as “absolutely” Boulder’s top issue right now, adding that “adjusting to the growth with the new Montana Highway Patrol [headquarters, and] child care, daycare, is absolutely right up there.” She said that communication—between the city and the public, and within the city government, is another top issue. Communication, she said, will continue to be a challenge going forward.
“Communicating with the public—yes, people say, ‘go to the meetings.’ I don’t think it’s that simple,” Lewis said. “I think they need to get that website developed. Just some communication and maybe an update of how they communicate with the public.”
Lewis also believed that code enforcement, and the growing pains that may come from development and stricter enforcement of city code, will be issues for Boulder going forward, but could represent positive change.
“The big thing over the years was, ‘We don’t want to see Boulder change,'” Lewis said. “We have to change, and if that change can be something good for the community—we’re not asking to bring a Walmart into Boulder.”
St. Clair said that economic development would be the most important issue for Boulder in upcoming years.
“I feel like trying to boost the economy in Boulder is really important,” she said. “It is a great place right now, but I know there is always room for improvement.”
The City Council, St. Clair said, is “working really hard at the projects they have going on” and not letting much go unaddressed. “There’s really only up to go from here.” The city is “moving in the right direction” on child care, St. Clair said—progress she’d like to help continue. She said she doesn’t believe the City Council has gotten anything wrong lately.
Lewis said the City Council could do more to address communication, but “I don’t know how to go about that without getting on the [council] and seeing how they’re getting things done. I may go to the meetings, but I don’t see everything.” Like St. Clair, Lewis said the current City Council is doing a good job right now, and that this council is “in general getting things done” compared to what she viewed as “lax” councils in previous years.
“We’ve got people thinking about community differently. It seems like we have made progress over the years, in general. I’d like to see that continue. I think they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got to work with, and you can’t please everybody,” Lewis said, adding, “I don’t want it to be political. We don’t run on a political platform.”
If elected, Lewis said, she would work well with other council members and Mayor Rusty Giulio, who is set to be reelected to a second four-year term after running unopposed this year.
“I have no problem working with any of them. But I am vocal, and that might not work for some people,” Lewis said. “I think I could work very well with everybody that’s on the council. I think it’s important to ask for advice. You know, you’re new coming on a board—Bear [Taylor] is in my ward—and it’s, ‘What can I do? What can we coordinate?’”
St. Clair said that she too would work well with Giulio if elected. “I would make sure there’s generally responsibility in the projects that are coming his way. I do have a relationship with Rusty, as far as speaking to him about property tax issues.”
One major upcoming project that could affect Boulder in years to come is a county-led initiative to explore development options for the South Campus of the former Montana Developmental Center and lands around the fairground, which sit just south of Boulder.
St. Clair said that potential development there, which is currently only a general concept, is “definitely something that can move in the right direction. I feel like it’s definitely important to clean that up a bit … and make it a place where families can find affordable rentals.”
Lewis said that “I understand that it’s conceptual, but it needs to be investigated. And anything that’s workable that fits well within the community, by all means. Boulder is limited in space. We’ve got to grow somewhere. I think we should pursue every option whether it comes to fruition or not.”
Lewis said she’s “all in support of development in Boulder. But I don’t want to put the cart before the horse.”
“If you don’t have the amenities, why are you putting all your energy into trying to get people to spend time in Boulder?” she said. “I believe if you have housing and daycare, that will attract people—our schools are good—people will come. And they will do the development.”
St. Clair said that development in Boulder is “really important.”
“It would be wonderful to bring some jobs to Boulder. I feel like there’s a lot of people who work out of town—development would be really important to help people who could possibly have job opportunities closer to home,” she said. “Boulder has a lot of potential and is a great place to live and work. Development is an important potential to bring some job opportunities closer to home.”
But any development will need water, and repairing Boulder’s flagging water system was recently estimated to cost up to $2 million.
Addressing the system, St. Clair said, “that’s a tricky one. I know they put in the meters a few years ago. It’s definitely important to conserve and make sure everybody’s using the water responsibly.”
Lewis said she understands that certain improvements to the system are mandated by law, and “that’s not something you can get around. I think we need to do whatever it takes. I’d hate to see the water wasted. It’d be nice if we could find the budget to staff our public works—and there again, bring in the taxpayers.”
One Boulder department is no longer staffed at all: This summer the city moved to contract with the county Sheriff’s Office for police services in Boulder, rather than staffing its own department, which had been plagued by staff turnover. Contracting with the Sheriff’s Office costs about the same as staffing the Boulder Police Department, budget documents show, and Giulio has said the county will provide the same or better coverage than the city was able to.
Lewis said the shift to contracting with the county was “long overdue. I think it should’ve been done a long time ago—first of all, the expense of keeping employees, and the fact that we have such high turnover. And it’s not carved in stone.”
St. Clair said that “it is unfortunate that there’s going to be some locals that may not have a job opportunity, but it’s important to keep everyone safe, and if they have to staff in a different way to do so, I feel like that’s a good thing.”
Whether it’s keeping people safe, addressing the water system, guiding development or working with others in city government to navigate Boulder’s next four years, St. Clair said she would do well as a councilmember, in part because of her age and her connections with fellow residents.
“I feel like I am the best candidate for the position because I’m younger and I do enjoy speaking with people,” St. Clair said, “and I would love the opportunity to be an advocate for fellow Boulder residents.”
Lewis said her decades of experience and civic involvement in Boulder—and her drive to get things done—make her well suited to be on the City Council.
“I’m running because I want to get something done, and I feel like I have the time to do it. If I have something to contribute and people see that—I hope so,” she said. “I think the fact that I have been involved for 20 years, I think that’s maybe a reason that people should vote for me. I’ve been involved, I do what I can in the community.”
Editor’s Note: Pat Lewis is a part-time employee of The Monitor. The Monitor asked Lewis and St. Clair the same questions in the same order and with the same wording. Neither candidate had access to questions before their interview.
