HELENA — Shawn White Wolf believes the city of Helena has been taking the same approaches to issues for years, without seeing improvements. He wants to rethink the way leaders tackle some of those challenges.
“If we don't prioritize the problems that we have in Helena first – and right now – we're not going to make any progress, and it’s going to be the same thing that we've been dealing with,” he told MTN.
White Wolf, 52, has lived in Helena since 1995. He describes himself as “semi-retired,” working in the warehousing business. He previously worked with the nonprofit Montana United Indian Association, and as a reporter.
(Watch MTN's full interview with White Wolf.)
White Wolf has been a frequent candidate for office. He previously ran for city commission in 2015. He campaigned for Montana House as a Democrat in 2010, attempted a run for U.S. House as an independent in 2013 and ran for Lewis and Clark County justice of the peace in 2022. He also served on the Helena Citizens’ Council until 2016.
He says his top priority is to reprioritize money to increase the number of law enforcement officers and firefighters in Helena.
“It's the same thing that I ran ten years ago, and so I’ve just kind of continued the idea – my hopes in increasing our law enforcement,” said White Wolf. “The reason I want to do that is because it makes all the rest of our community safer, so that we can build more and expand more and have more commerce in the downtown area and such.”
White Wolf believes the city has essentially reached the limit of what it can do directly to support housing, and he wants to see leaders working with organizations like churches and nonprofits to support their efforts. He says he’s concerned that a large share of local resources for homelessness is only serving a small share of the population.
“I believe that we are not doing justice to homeless people right now by taking the actions that we're doing right now, which is basically leading to the same things that have been done ten years ago and 20 years ago and 30 years ago, and we haven't gotten anywhere further,” he said. “So that is really heavy on my mind.”
White Wolf says the city needs to do a better job of providing transparency in the budget process, so the public can get a clearer understanding of what’s happening.
During this race, White Wolf says he hasn’t invested in things like campaign signs, instead trying to connect with voters other ways, including social media.
“I don't raise money, and I never have in any of my campaigns,” he said. “So a lot of it's just going to people's barbecues and meeting them on the streets and talking to them in grocery stores and things like that.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last of four profiles on the candidates running for Helena City Commission. You can find interviews with the other three candidates on this website.
Ballots will be mailed out to Helena voters on Friday. Each voter can choose two out of four candidates, and the top two vote-getters will win seats on the commission. You must return your ballot by Nov. 4.
On Friday, we will bring you our final story on the Helena municipal election, highlighting the mayoral race between Andy Shirtliff and Emily Dean.
