The Butte-Silver Bow Study Commission received a fresh batch of survey responses this past weekend but its first public hearing on potentially big changes to the local government didn’t draw a big crowd.

Several of the 15 or so people who did show spoke in favor of a city-manager model of government outright or suggested support for one, and a few touched on neighborhood councils and the divisive issue of fire services in Butte-Silver Bow.

One man, Larry Winstel, said neighborhood councils are needed but he mostly scoffed at things, saying local officials are breaking laws, the chief executive is a dictator position, commissioners “rubber stamp everything” and won’t listen to him, city services aren’t coordinated and the public works director won’t return his calls.

Winstel even directe

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