HELENA — Emily Dean says, since she announced she was running for mayor of Helena, there’s been no shortage of voters wanting to approach her with ideas or concerns.
“It’s been really nice to connect,” she told an attendee at a recent campaign event. “I mean, I always love when I get to start talking to people about the issues.”
(Watch the video to hear from mayoral candidate Emily Dean.)
She believes, while serving as a Helena city commissioner, she’s already been doing the kind of work Helena’s next mayor needs to do to be successful.
“I think it's really important that our next mayor care about the details, and care about bringing folks from a variety of different perspectives together to get real results,” she told MTN. “I've been doing that for the past five years, and I'm excited to bring a new generation of leadership to the seat of mayor moving forward.”
Dean, 33, grew up in Helena. She is a former teacher and currently works as director of engagement for the Montana School Boards Association. Of the five candidates for mayor, she’s spent the most time in city government. She was elected to the city commission in 2019 and reelected without opposition in 2023. Currently, she serves as mayor pro tem, presiding over commission meetings when the mayor is unavailable.
Dean has the endorsement of Helena’s current mayor, Wilmot Collins, who chose not to run for a third term. She’s also supported by fellow Commissioner Sean Logan.
Dean says the city is in better shape than it was when she joined the commission. She says leaders have been able to fill staffing vacancies, shore up Helena’ financial situation and put together a budget that better reflects the community’s priorities. However, she says the city can still do a better job of explaining issues to the public and getting their input.
“I would like to implement another forum that is not a regular commission meeting where we're taking votes, but a place where we can collect feedback from the community and really answer questions in real time,” she said.
She says she wants to focus on promoting “community vitality,” ensuring solid city services and getting ahead of Helena’s infrastructure needs.
“We are at a point where the next five years of decisions are going to have a pretty significant impact on the next 25 years of development – and really the culture of Helena,” she said.
Dean supports Helena Public Schools’ proposed $283 million bonds, which voters will be considering on the same ballot as the mayoral primary. She believes the state government overstepped on local authority by seeking to limit which flags cities can fly, including pride flags. She said the way federal authorities are handling immigration enforcement hasn’t always been in the best interest of local communities, but that cities like Helena will need to find a way to balance those concerns with the other ways they interact with the federal government on a regular basis.
Dean says the city needs to be partnering with stakeholders to find solutions on issues like parking and homelessness. She says, at a key moment for Helena, the next mayor needs to be someone who can build relationships to get results for the community – and she believes she’s the candidate with the history of doing that.
“As mayor, I'm going to do the same thing: build coalitions, problem solve and really ensure that there are a variety of perspectives at the table,” she said.
(Watch MTN's full interview with Emily Dean.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of our five profiles on the candidates running for Helena mayor. The profiles are being published in alphabetical order based on the candidates’ last names. On Tuesday, you’ll be able to see our second profile, on candidate Sonda Gaub.
Ballots will be mailed out to Helena voters on Friday. They must be returned by Sept. 9.
