HELENA — The new commissioners projected to win the two open seats on the Helena City Commission are Melinda Reed and Ben Rigby.
Melinda Reed is the only incumbent, and this is her second term on the Helena City Commission.
She is currently the director of an international human rights organization and was previously the executive director of Helena’s Friendship Center.
In 2020, she spent several months as the interim city manager.
Reed says she hopes to finish what she started, making Helena more accessibility-friendly and affordable to live.
“I have been hearing from the community for the past four years about affordable housing and the need to improve that, and we have made some progress, but there is stuff I want to finish,” Reed said.
Ben Rigby serves as the executive director of Montana Rural Water System and was previously the City of Helena water treatment superintendent.
He says his decade working for the city gave him a better understanding of how government works and hopes to take it back to the basics with infrastructure and housing affordability.
“I am a basics guy,” Rigby said. “So, bringing back the basics to the city, I think, is one of the main things for a commissioner to really focus on what makes the city go around, and that’s what I would like to bring to Helena.”
The other two candidates that were vying for the open seats were Haley McKnight and Shawn White Wolf.
Haley McKnight is the retail manager of a Helena business.
This was McKnight's first time running for office, and she was the youngest of the four candidates.
She has come under scrutiny for highly charged comments she made this summer to U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy.
McKnight told MTN Monday that she regretted some of the language she used but stood by her assertion that his policies were harmful to Montanans.
She declined speaking with MTN on Tuesday, saying she had received threats over the incident.
Shawn White Wolf previously ran for the city commission in 2015.
He also 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.
The two commission seats that were up for election this year are currently held by Melinda Reed and Helena mayoral candidate Andy Shirtliff.
