Two seats are open this year on the City Commission and so far, only two have filed to run in this year’s election.

Neither of them are the incumbents.

Tyson Habein and Mary Sheehy Moe have filed for the seats currently filled by Bob Jones and Fred Burow.

Jones said he’s still deciding whether he’ll run again, weighing some family medical issues.

Burow has not yet responded to The Electric’s call, but his wife said he was still deciding whether to run again this year.

Jones and Burow were both elected to the commission in 2010.

The filing deadline is June 19. More information on candidate requirements can be found here.

Moe was elected to the Montana Legislature in 2014 and resigned in January to help care for her triplet grandchildren in Florida.

“It’s a neat time in Great Falls,” she said on Friday.

Moe said she enjoys working with people to get things done and the city commission is a good place to do that.

Things she’s watching are the proposed base realignment and closure, or BRAC, round slated for 2020, as well as economic development opportunities for the city.

Moe retired as Montana’s deputy commissioner for two-year education in 2010 and served as the dean/CEO of Great Falls College – MSU from 2001-2008. Moe has also served on numerous boards for Great Falls area organizations and was elected as a trustee for the Great Falls Public Schools in 2011, chairing the board in 2014.

Moe said that experience has allowed her to see creative solutions to problems and one idea she had regarding the recent controversy over the city’s CDBG allocations would be to throw out the high and low scores or use the median scores. That would, Moe said, throw out the outliers.

She added that she thought city staff handled the situation well and that in a town the size of Great Falls, conflicts of interest are bound to come up, but the key is to disclose those conflicts and for commissioners or other city board members to recuse themselves when necessary.

Habein works at Electric City Coffee and runs an event planning business with his wife.

He said he’s been talking about running for commission since moving to Great Falls 6-7 years ago, but always had a lot going on in his life.

“I still do,” he said, “but I felt like I needed to put my efforts where my mouth is.”

He said he’d like to focus on downtown revitalization and promoting the city to residents to help change their perception of Great Falls.

“It’s a really cool little town,” he said.

We’ll have extended profiles of the candidates coming soon. Have a question of the candidates? Send it to jenn@theelectricgf.com.