Billings County Commission - Regular Meeting

Let's call the meeting to order. It's one o'clock. Ready? Are we going to stand?

You can't, everybody would stand. Yeah, let's just do the play. So we usually do this.

I was ready.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, thank you all for coming. This is a special meeting with one item on the agenda only. The Board of County Commissioners has been taxed with having to redistrict because of the recent election results. They were just canvassed this morning and so it is official. And so we're going to go from three to five commissioners. So we have some state statute rules and regulations we have to follow to do this procedure. So we're going to let Jarrett start, I think. Is that all right?

Sure. So the votes cast on the ballot measure did require the county to increase the number of commissioners. That requires the county commission three members to, within 10 days of canvassing, which took place today, within the next 10 days, The county commissioners need to divide the current three districts into five. The districts would then be numbered one to five. The goal is to keep each of the five districts approximately the same size, if at all possible, with an eye on compactness and contiguousness of the district. The bigger issue is keeping the average number of citizens in In line plus or minus 10%, we have to use the last official census data for those purposes. The population of the county has inevitably changed or increased since 2020. The last redistricting was completed in 2021 at the very end. So the number of county commissioners based upon an average is approximately 190, 189 to be exact, but the decimal point would round up to about 190. In looking at the five district possibilities, there is gonna be some difficulty in getting that done, but the commissioners do have the first 10 days after today to attempt to redistrict with an eye on getting as nearly equal population as possible in each of those five. If that cannot be done satisfactorily, Then the Commission will need to pass a resolution to call the redistricting board together in the interim That would consist of numerous individuals to be nominated and appointed and then Do a deeper dive into redistricting the county on the whole there are Rather than go through each of the possible scenarios, I can address any questions the commissioners have. There is under statute an allowance for the combination of districts. If a redistricting plan by the redistricting board cannot come up with a satisfactory redistricting where the townships are where it follows township lines, where it's regular and compact in form and substantially equal in population, if that simply cannot be done, then the board could, the redistricting board can look to combine districts to in effect do, whether it be a north and south, east or west type of a thing. But the redistricting, the Board of County Commissioners would then have the option to combine two or more districts by resolution to basically combine districts where a commissioner would not be residing if there's no eligible or interested commissioner at one of the newly created districts. It's very complicated. It very well can be done. It's just going to take time because the way it looks, at least in my opinion, it's going to be very difficult to meet all of the requirements of not only the statute that changed the membership of the board recently, but then also to have it comply with other statutes that require – we can't just – willy-nilly pick five districts without regard to population and the rest. So I can field any questions to kind of clarify that because it's very complicated. having some teleconferences and some emails with the Attorney General's office trying to get certain questions answered. The one thing I did not touch on is by statute, according to the recent change for the increase, there is a provision for the commissioners to appoint. Once the five districts are created, the commissioners would be authorized to appoint two individuals to fill those vacancies in four and five. However, if the districts are not created in time, we cannot, when I say we, the commission cannot appoint two individuals after July 31st. That would be the deadline for appointing because further statutes require, cannot appoint to a vacancy 95 days prior to the general election in November. So that cutoff would be July 31st. So in order to comply with CHAPTER 11-12, WHICH IS THE CHANGING NUMBER OF COMMISSIONER STATUTE. THE COUNTY WOULD NEED TO, THE COMMISSIONERS WOULD NEED TO create five districts if they comply with other requirements the three-member commission could appoint the two new individuals if there are qualified interested individuals that would accept such a nomination but if not the county could continue to run through the general election through the end of december with the three-member board because there would be a quorum at three So it's, while they have the authority to appoint, it's not mandatory if it cannot be done in conjunction with other timeline requirements. Then we can go into other, how people get on the ballot and the rest in a little bit if needed. But that's kind of a lot and it probably didn't make much sense, so we'll break it down and address it individually.

do you have like documentation or paper that i can take home and read and understand or have for reference sure when people ask and even for myself oh this is going to go on at this point this is the next step but yeah if you could just provide us sure the information you basically yeah went through and it's it's not as simple as

When this first came on the radar through the petition, it doesn't just involve one chapter of the Century Code. It involves the election chapter under Chapter 16, which Marcia has better grasp on that chapter than pretty much anyone else. But there's also issues with vacancies and how to fill those vacancies under Chapter 44. So quite a bit, but for what we're dealing with today, it's... Chapter 11, and that's fairly straightforward. Where we go after that is to the number of signatures that would be required to get on the general ballot for the two new commissioners. That's additional stuff we can provide.

Yeah, whether you guys work together and put up a document or something. Sure. There's a lot of speculation out there, and it would just be great to have...

One one thing that is certain if the two new commissioners for districts four and five if they are not appointed prior to july 31st which would be probably difficult at this stage to get done in order for an individual's name to be on the ballot in november they would need to get a signature petition signed and circulated they would need 195 signatures that's more than i guess i was thinking it needed to be um but that that is by statute what would be required so it would seem that if 195 signature threshold is not met by august 31st which is the 64th day prior to the general election um it would essentially be a write-in campaign you know for the the most popular individuals in the districts four and five to be created

Okay, thank you for that. Mostly, as Jarrett and I discussed, and we've been on a lot of conversations also, and it's going to be the 10 days, and is that July? Is it 10 days including Saturday and Sunday? Is that correct? No, those are counted days, yes. So it would be July 2nd. We'd have to have a... board would have to make our decision if we're going to make one if we can't come to consensus of one then there would be a special meeting to appoint the redistricting committee so I'm envisioning talking to everyone that we're this is just the starting meeting there's going to be a public input maybe later or later this week or we're going to have to get some more. We got some scenarios. I got some in my book and there's different scenarios out there. I think the commissioners are going to have to get these things sent to us individually because we can't meet unless we have a meeting and come up with ideas.

can we go through it right now or is that a problem too no no we can we can do it now we're at least i budgeted time for a lengthy discussion amongst the commissioners that we would have to to limit it just to the commissioners discussing it um i don't think we can take public input um not to a public hearing yeah so or the next commission i should have said that yeah which for for that purposes it would be after the fourth of july on the seventh is the next the next county commission meeting scheduled. So yeah, any discussion to be had today and work session can be done here right now to at least get discussion amongst the commissioners, because they do have the first 10 days to work something out as close to the ideal population as possible. Variances can be had and justified, but that only comes through the redistricting board. So I would suggest that the commissioners tried to identify five districts At least as a starting point for the redistricting board Townships can be Split if that makes sense, but there has to be justification for any townships to be split And they may need to be some additional data or information about how the individual townships are split. It looks like from some information I received this morning that Stacy had taken some information to split township, I guess, 99 and 96 in half, which does help with, I'm sorry, 98 and 99 are what the two are 141.99, 141.98, based upon verified information.

Is it Franks Creek? Is that what it's called? Franks Creek on one side and 27th on the other.

Yeah. But anyways, with that said, that's something that the redistricting board then could work through. as long as there's a justification for it. We can't eliminate drawing lines without rhyme or reason. There has to be some justification for doing it. And if townships look to be split to make the the required data fit the parameters, then we would just need to work on getting more up to date information about any proposed splits in those townships. I will, just for a point of discussion or edification, I guess there has been some questions regarding the township that constitutes medora you know currently as the last official census has 177 people in the medora based township um i don't find anything that would prohibit that township from being its own district but that's going to be a question for the commissioners to weigh in on if there's any public input later and then the redistricting board but although it would be one small township it does have the population which by all accounts in more recent estimates which again are all speculative because we don't have official data madora's township over 200 by by all estimates and that that would have a population justifying its own but I'm not suggesting that I'm just saying that that has been a point of discussion Because we're dealing with five districts in a population of less than 1,000, by the last official reports, it would be difficult to make Medora inclusive of a whole lot of other possible townships to try to stay within that plus or minus 10%. we can go over that. If there's any deviation from the average, it would just have to be justified through an explanation of the process as to why the township lines wouldn't be followed and and keep them as regular and compacted form as practical but just any variance in the population average just has to be justified in a statement that would be filed you know by the redistricting board at some point because the ultimate goal is to assure that each voter you know has adequate representation, basically one person theory or phenomenon to try to keep them as equal as possible in population.

Is there any, we discussed, is there any question just to make members at large leave the district the same and have two at large did you got an answer for that under the there there is a there is a fallback provision

it could go at large if redistricting continues to fail um but that is not that's not the goal of the statute and to to keep the the three districts as they are and then simply you know add an at-large uh position you know to say any of the two whether it be the north south three or one um i don't think that's allowed for under the statute the statute

is to change the county commissioners to five and there has to be five districts then mr chair yes so to clarify though um if if they drew their five districts here and then it went to the redistricting board they could combine the north district and combine the south district and have two from north two from south I just want to clarify that that's a possibility.

That would be a possibility if there are no eligible commissioner candidates in the two new districts that are drawn or however they are redrawn, then there would be a combination with the number of districts combined totaling the number of eligible commissioners from that combined district, yes. So,

So is it our best interest to create five districts and let it go through the process is what we're going to do, right?

Correct. Yep. To try to get it, if at all possible, if it simply cannot be done, and the current board membership, commission membership rather, CAN'T DO IT TO SATISFACTION, YOU CAN PASS A RESOLUTION TO CALL THE REDISTRICTING BOARD TOGETHER TO DIG INTO THIS FURTHER, WHICH WOULD BE A TIME-CONSUMING PROCESS AND EFFECTIVELY WAVES THAT RIGHT TO A POINT PRIOR TO JULY 31ST. BUT AGAIN, IT'S NOT ILLEGAL TO DO THAT AND JUST CONTINUE RUNNING THE COUNTY WITH A FULL QUORUM THROUGH THE GENERAL ELECTION. BUT IN ANY EVENT, two new commissioners must be on the ballot for November regardless.

So this shit you handed out, are these the ones you drew up as options or what?

Nope, that particular one was calculated with Stacy's assistance and I'm not sure who else weighed in on it, but other previous ones that were just drawn up to see if it could be possible did not split any of the townships. just because without extra information, we can't just split it in half and just say that it's equal population. But that sheet that you're holding there with the extra colors on it does at least break up those two townships into north and south for purposes of identifying where the population constituting the numbers exist.

And I think what she was trying to do is show the difference between what was in the north and what was in the south. There's 389 in the north and 379 in the south. So I mean, just trying to figure out where that line is for population equality. Separating Medora out because Medora is 177.

And that would have to be one thing we have to come up with pluses and minuses. If the Medora township, let's just call it that, is 177, do we leave that as one district?

You have the option of doing that and it does it does fall within the parameters of the plus or minus 10% which would be between 171 and 207 Some of the the numbers that exist You know do slightly deviate above that you know on that colorful map Would have one of the districts at 210 we don't have the luxury of being able to move over you know a few blocks you know like just for example or reference I looked at what Stark County does and they have a heavy population in Dickinson and three of the five commissioners you know basically cover Dickinson And to get their population within the 10% range, they can easily move over a few blocks to incorporate. Here we just don't have that luxury, so we're going to be looking more at splitting townships by population as opposed to trying to split Medora, for example. I just don't know if that would be feasible or of interest to the board or the redistricting board. i guess one other consideration that i will note this would be a little bit easier if there was not a contested race for what's currently district number two for purposes of keeping existing district number two mostly together the district that, or the two townships that constitute the incumbent or the challenger, it would make the most sense to try to keep those together. there's a lot of difficulty in trying to split up, you know, who the people have voted for to represent district number two, you know, and we're not presupposing or making any assumptions about the election in November. But with that said, it makes it, get another layer of difficulty because we can't just go splitting up district number two and taking the incumbent and the challenging uh individual and splitting goes up necessarily because that that creates its own problems after November so well so since you brought that up let's say we are split up so then does one of us drop off the ballot and then just get signatures or what That would be a possibility by a voluntary, I guess, resignation or renunciation of being on the ballot. That would have to be known, and Marcia can correct me, but I think we talked about it this morning. Anybody who is currently, because of the primary results, anybody who would be on already for November would have to let Marcia know effectively by August 31st if they do not want to be on the general election ballot. There is some language about commissioners changing their place of residence within the county after an election from a particular district. That commissioner would be allowed to complete the remainder of that term in office. But again, cross that bridge and see if that plays into it depending on how things go. Okay.

Well, you've got some more scenarios drawn out. Do we want to share them here or not? What should we do?

If you've got more, let's see it. Work through it.

I mean, that's what we've got to do. The only... As far as equal or equivalent population goes, And Dean Rodney has seen this one already, but this doesn't allow for that 171 to 207. Unfortunately, it splits current district two. As you'll see, I don't have enough copies, I guess, for everybody on that, but you can pass it on or Marsha can make a couple copies if you guys want each one of those. And it's simply input for the commission to look at. I just wanted to see if it could be done, but I didn't take into account where the existing commissioners live. But that's one other important component is, can't write current commissioners out of their districts, so they need to try to keep as much as possible.

These are two different ones?

Jared, you just said you can't, whatever, work commissioners out of their districts. Well, all the numbers are going to change. All the districts are going to change. So, I don't know, explain that. Why wouldn't we all be changed?

what I mean by that a little more specifically is the districts four and five are the newly created district because of the Way in which they'll be elected so the the commissioner for newly created district number four would be Elected for a term of two years and then the commissioner for the fifth district would be for a term of four years It's difficult to basically divide up the current districts to write you know where the current commissioners are into into the new four and five is guess what I was kind of getting at keeping them keeping where they are in which districts they represent trying to keep those as intact as possible why is one for two years and one is for four years that's by statute

and it just has four coming up oh okay gotcha one next year gotcha okay yeah

Stacy had an appointment today, so if there's any questions of different numbers within a township, you'll have to wait and have another meeting when she's...

not that this is germane to what we need to do in the next six months but you know the districts could very well change again you know after the 2030 census depending on where the population falls at that point so redistricting is a likelihood you know in five years which the numbers from the census aren't known for at least a year that seems to have played out last time the final redistricting did not occur until the end of december in 2021 but we need to worry about that right now we have to look at the numbers that that exist

So the door is by itself circled. If it isn't by itself, that's gonna change these lines, isn't it? I mean, the sheets all show the door at 177, so let's just say that doesn't happen. That's gonna change.

And that's that whole township, not just the city, just in nature.

Yeah, there was a lot of different scenarios. You know, Medora could go north instead of going south, but there's nowhere to go up there because of the park mostly, but you don't get into populations, so it can't change it much.

Okay. Thank you.

So nobody can speak at this, right?

Well, that's up to chair, but I think this is supposed to be. We don't have a public meeting. I mean, I guess I don't know that anyone could.

So it says in the policy that if somebody has something that's specific to the chairman, can at his discretion or the board can at their discretion request for public comment. Three minutes or less.

Well, we're not going to make a decision today. But I mean, if we did allow for some public, I guess that's up to us to decide. If you guys think we want to do that, that's fine. I think we need to have a meeting later on this week after we've had time to study this stuff and make up some more or come up with some more scenarios, I guess you'd call it.

Is there one that sticks out at all, you guys, that are in favor more so? I mean, out of these, there's four or five options already?

There's five options, yeah. I mean, there could be more.

I'm not saying there's not. There's one that sticks out to any of you.

I do kind of like this one over here with the 165. And if Stacy was here, she'd be able to give us some more numbers. Because we'd have to get a little bit more. We're only off by five from the 10% off. And we're off by six on this one. And if we could make it somehow work, then that would keep our district number one where it is. It would keep number two where it is. and three where it is mostly and then four and five would be the add-ons and like we're supposed to do according to the the rules let me ask this is there anyone in the public here today wants to say anything I guess I don't think anybody's gonna oppose because you guys don't have these numbers but I think after the meeting this is public information so everybody can see these later or whatever but and then come up with another meeting later on in the week or

Yeah Because by next week the elephant in the room is a week from today We're not going to be able to do much. I do much. It's going to be a busy week So I guess my suggestion is Wednesday is difficult this week because association or counties will be meeting here in the afternoon. There's other conflicts with timing of such, but Thursday afternoon would work. I don't want to obligate anybody on a Friday, but Thursday afternoon, prospectively, you know, may work for another special meeting and then that would give everyone a good 48 hours to look at to look at these variants or various maps to to see if any of them make sense um and then because so let's just say that the one with 165 being district four um if that one were selected by the commissioners that is a fair starting point but because the population is outside of that 10 range the redistricting board would have to be called that's one of the triggers to get the redistricting board together is to try to fine-tune it but again that would be done at the board's discretion with a passing of the resolution which again that could be done as early as Thursday there just won't be a lot of time after this week to get any official business down you know between the 29th and the 4th or the second to be the 10-day threshold so there is a possibility that redistricting board wouldn't be authorized wouldn't be pushed or called upon if there was some version of this that met all of the requirements of the redistricting chapter in terms of all of them are uniform all of them are equal population you know plus or minus 10% all those things it would be my opinion that the redistricting board could be avoided but no version of any of these maps hit all the requirements okay so to to comply with statute and then to allow for public input and the rest um it would be best to at that point you know then to see if any other configuration could could meet that that 10 variable um and then if it can't at least then there would be enough public input to just say yes we're we're fine with these as drawn so it is possible to avoid the redistricting board but it would have to comply with all the other requirements which would be very difficult to do

So I'm kind of confused, in a way, of Medora. That's why I asked if there was anybody who believed somebody could speak in here coming from Medora, if they thought it was a good deal or a bad deal on having Medora by themselves. Because if it isn't, we have to really look at that in light. And if it is, well. But we don't have the lines. We don't have the lines. We don't have the what? The lines. I don't know if you need the lines, do you? You've just got to decide if you want a commissioner coming out of Medora by itself or not. It would be one township. One township by itself? That's it.

I can make copies of these maps for everybody in the room if they're interested, if they want to come back.

So with the below township, the 37, the total of 214 or whatever, that's... You could essentially cut that in half or something to make that one work and add it to this one, right, and still be within. And this one you just have to grab something from somewhere to make... this one five more or ten more, you know. It basically would have to come out here.

Six miles got so much population.

So it would be doable. If we make the lines, go ahead and keep at it. Oh, no, go ahead. You're not, I didn't mean to interrupt you. but if we drew the line or had Stacy or someone give us could we draw the as a board rather than go to the redistricting board it's possible but again timing is the issue it needs to be done and submitted in the 10-day period

Also, splitting up townships makes it difficult because then that requires more input than I think the board can unilaterally decide. The commission could just select one of these regardless of population if it makes the most sense. But in any event, the redistricting board would still need to get together to try to get as close to that 10% as possible. reading all the statutes in harmony with one another, that just seems to be the least likely for a challenge if you will you know where it allows for the redistricting board and then public input and then it's it's more legally sound to do it that way because if the commissioners individually you know if you start splitting up townships you'd have to get you know agreeable uh official data you know of how that county or how that particular township rather would be populated um and again we're just Timing is just an issue because that would have to be done likely by Friday only. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week are just not going to allow for public meetings in my opinion.

Well, I'm sure the governor will grant us some variance on that so I'm sure we don't have to rush it.

and it does allow for more because anything that the redistricting board does you know does come back to the commission um you know for a vote uh in order for it to pass then it would have to be a unanimous vote with the three so that makes it another level of difficulty but then if they don't pass it then it goes all at large correct it would go all at large until a proper redistricting plan is put into place because it can't stay at large where all commissioner districts are abolished that's a separate statute in and of itself to abolish the the district's That would be another petition with a 60% pass rate to abolish the districts and go at large across the entire county.

If you guys did Medora as one would it be easier to divide up the others? Would that make it easier? It's still pretty hard, I think.

Whenever they drew up this one, Stacy, I mean... I can kind of see that you did put one, two, three, four, five, but...

It's kind of hard to see.

It's kind of hard to see that, yeah. And that did leave Medora on its own.

I know there's quite a bit of support in Medora for having their own district.

But it would go down like... from Medora, two miles south, you know, and it would go into the park a ways too. That's the township that it would include. And then we put it as the one right east too, because there isn't very much Adida ground, but then the part of the park is in there too. Because it says in there, I think we were reading too, you need to have area included with population to make it look more

feasible as a district even though nobody lives there in the park so i look at this is that if you had to me at a whole when you pick out these districts do you have to select out of that district your representative for that district then okay so as a whole You could have Medora as its own township and district. You have it already set up with two here and two there for the other districts, so you have five. Because at the end of the day, you're all working for one count of Billings Count. So what is said in Medora, what bearing would that have different than what it is today?

Anybody could. Right now, Medora is District 3. So somebody could, I'm in District 3, so anybody in the city could have ran. Or when I'm up again, yeah. But now it's going to be 5, yeah.

Right. But what I'm saying at the end of the day... They're all going to the same... It's all going into the same pot, so to speak. Your difficulty is trying to pick something that fits the scenario that makes it legal for the Attorney General, correct? It's not true. You're 10% here, give or take. But in essence, it's all going to come back to one thing.

Yeah, it comes down to one thing. Golden Valley County has their one member out of each. Right. He lives in each. Yeah.

What's the scenario and there's one district that nobody runs one year?

In that district?

Yeah.

what do you mean just say district five nobody wants to run then you oh yeah and it's a write-in isn't it you write somebody up and if they don't take it then and then you appoint somebody i think is the next step right i haven't looked into that but that would be the filling vacancies chapter under 44. um is that what you're asking but yes at that point then i would assume that would likely create a redistricting board being called together again, looking to combine a district where nobody wants to run with the next one, and then two can come out by covering, as far as where somebody lives. A commissioner would need to live in that district. If there's nobody in that district, you could combine those two and have two from the higher population district. One would just be appointed to fill where nobody's running.

Mr. Chair. So if a commissioner represents the 190, why can't you again go back to that, let Medora be their own, split the other two and have two in say district one and two in district two, they still represent that amount of people. They would have two votes versus one. why would that not be feasible? And that would alleviate the problem if someone didn't want to run in that district.

Ultimately, I think that's, I guess the question was directed to you, but if I understand it correctly, looking at combining four and five into others, as we've discussed kind of right off the bat, is that what you're asking?

basically end up with three districts again sure one being represented by medora with 190 people or approximately 177 or 177 and the other two with double that because you have two commissioners that represent that amount of people sure and and along them lines if i was to guess and you went back to the attorney general's office and asked i don't think the statute the way it's done if you went look at other counties or other throughout the state i'll bet there's variances in everything that they got going on in some of them other counties too beyond the 10 is what you're saying maybe beyond the 10 or beyond however they're throwing up in five districts versus three or what have you sure well a lot of other counties though um

you know they they already have that large voting where it's at large and they don't serve in districts billings county is set up currently to have districts so that that's the requirement for keeping the five districts and having representation for each of those districts

But if we were to do it the way Greg wants to, because I kind of think I see what he's saying, and then we would have to have a resolution out there or something else to make it happen the way he's saying? Yes.

So there's three steps in the redistricting board process. The first one is for the redistricting board to... make the districts contiguous following the township lines where practical and as substantially equal in population as possible. If that is not feasible, then all these other scenarios come into play with splitting up townships further or bringing it to the board of county commissioners to combine two or more districts by resolution to allow for essentially what has been suggested.

Does that answer your question?

I guess I look at it because you would have four people representing the rural communities and one representing basically the city. which it was on a seat at the table which i suppose they really had if they chose to ram but in the other scenario would have been one against one on here you got four to one and yet they stood their guaranteed a seat at the table

I think we still have to split up that we'd have to draw the lines because the petition that was passed was converting it to five and I think we'd have to split up them 389 and 379 into something correct because that's what the county

voted to do they asked for five commissioners asked for five districts so that would be a see that's why this thing is very complicated right could it be done i i would say yes um but going off of the measure that was passed you know there's there's a requirement that the commissioner shall redistrict into five districts that whether that holds up ultimately you know is to be determined but that's that's the goal and and I've already had meetings with the two of the assistant attorney generals for the political subdivision and the Secretary of State and that was their suggestion is to try to do the five districts if that if that can't be done then we'll go back to the drawing board and look at other options that are legally

So does it work out if you left Medora at 177 and you took the other four districts, one, two, three, four, I'll use the interstate to split it, would that equalize out to be that 10% qualification by chance?

Well, this one that we got handed today goes one township. Does it make any sense to put it more north of interstate?

This one.

Well, I'm sorry, Dean, but that kind of makes sense because of the population and the size of the colony, the way it's laid out. I mean, I'm guessing. I'm not 100% sure. But I was going more off of what he said by population, if it's number of people, so that would be equal enough to be in that 10% range. if you split it.

If you go solely by the interstate, no.

The interstate is not the right one, no. According to this rate, because Weber had a lease on it.

I just gave Marcia mine so she could shoot something up so people can see what we're talking about.

I was just using that as a scenario. I'm not saying that's where it would be. to try to make those other four, our one and two and three and four equal. Where would the line happen? What would you do is set it up. Did you go out and make some copies?

No, I just put it so I could put it on the board.

Oh, I see. Okay, good. Since we're good in talking about it. Yeah, I am.

Okay, then they can see it.

So basically Frank's Creek is the cutoff for Top Park except for part of it.

It cuts into here.

Yeah, is that Ash Cooley there or what is that township? I don't know. Is this the other one you were talking about we should show?

Yeah, I think so. That's the one that kind of keeps the districts intact.

I'm not sure if that'll work. I don't know why we're doing that.

I'll have to make copies of them for everybody because it's not allowing me to share the big PDF.

It seems like there are two scenarios.

Yeah. Thank you.

Dude, did you figure out where this line is? I'm not pretty good at using these.

I don't use them enough.

141, 100. Right here. and then you can see there they are which one 141 100 right here so 42 and 43. oh yeah yeah it'd be pretty much south ash cool south ash cool yeah on that one yeah

You know, we're both like this.

Thank you. Everybody's studying it. What day should we have a meeting? It's an afternoon on Thursday at 1 o'clock. 1 o'clock Thursday? Everybody's looking. Is that right? Yep, Thursday afternoon. Whatever.

What's your map? Did they get both? All right. Amen.

This is the map we were supposed to follow. Do we still have to have a redistricting committee?

We do. When did you make copies of it? Did I give them back? Hold on a second.

Sorry. I'm trying to figure out what I have. But couldn't you come up with some ?

cut this one here to cut off a portion of it and move it over here to make this above 170 because there's room in that district down here you just cut off the bottom of the 37 and move it down here to make that 30 or something So can we do that without redistricting board and then we can get it done and move on?

And I don't care if it's . Yeah, it's possible. if they fell in line with the the average population and they were they made sense as far as splitting into townships um the next step then would just be to identify if there's commissioners in those new districts you know that could either be appointed by july 31st or are interested in running in august depending

Well, if we didn't get the appointing done, they could still have time to get their stuff together by the 31st and then run.

Yes. But if it gets to be too long, then there won't be. Chairman. Go ahead.

So if you picked one of these scenarios out of conversation, if you picked one of these scenarios, would your districts change?

Not the one with the green on it.

No, would your district, like your District 3, your District 1, your District 2, you guys would stay in those districts?

and four and five would be the new ones.

And that's what we're supposed to do. I mean, it wouldn't be switched around because of the election. It would stay the same.

Correct. And the one map that has the five broken down where it says one is 210, The premise is correct, we just would have to renumber those to fit, because we can't turn what's currently District 1 into District 4, so we would just have to modify those numbers, but the populations are...

I didn't think I made a copy of that one.

There was a bunch of them sitting here.

No, I understand. Just for ease and understanding of the election to come for District 2, I would say we cannot change what's currently one, two, and three. We can resize them, but not change it so that chairman would be in district four and all of a sudden he gets another two-year term or vice versa.

Thank you.

Well, this is Unless there's more you do you want to see some work on because you guys said at the same time, you know, I think Oh Yeah Here's my suggestion I guess that we're gonna we've kind of decided we're gonna have a meeting on the 4 or 24 that was that the day 25th Thursday at 1 o'clock to see if the commissioners can come up with a scenario that will work and then after that we're going to have to if it doesn't happen we're going to have to go to the redistricting board are we going to do that that day at the end of the day or are we going to have another meeting because the 10-day limit has to be following that i would say although it's not

A whole lot of time until Thursday afternoon, if the decision is to call the board together, you could do it that day.

Then they could get started, that board, the redistricting board.

Well. We'd have to publish notice of the redistricting board.

Yeah, because then the core of the board would get together and then nominate our fifth individual. So they wouldn't start that day, no.

And I guess a little bit of a suggestion to maybe help us decide or something. There's a blank sheet here. There was a better blank sheet. I have extra copies of those. So then if people wanted to look at it themselves and draw some lines and get it in to Marsha, then she could get it to us to look at before Thursday. That's just, is that all right, do you guys? I mean, is that?

Well, as long as they understand the plus and minus of the population. I mean, I don't care. Suggestions, yeah.

Suggestions are open to whatever.

I'm a little hesitant on that only because that's public input, which is kind of reserved for the redistricting board. I guess that, as chairman, you can invite you know public input if you wish i you know more individually or each commissioner can speak to their to their constituents if there's any ideas you know to bring back to the board but i don't i don't know if it would be proper to have others submitted necessarily but you certainly can take it under advisement just

Being cautious on that That's understandable I had one of the question just give If they are to follow the whole you know the redistricting with continuity and all that do they need to do that 30-day Publication once they draw a map for final adoption If the commissioners decide great

I can ask about that and check on that. My understanding is that is only required for public input purposes for the Hal Hallstein, redistricting board. Hal Hallstein, not clear enough that would have to be published. Hal Hallstein, If only the Commission decides that so i'm i'm leaning towards if the Commission comes up with something that meets all the parameters. Hal Hallstein, It would not be published for the 30 day notice will reserve the right to change that i'll have to check. because that that's under a parameter of the redistricting board when it brings its results back and then like happened in 2021 there was two public meetings you know for input and then at that time for others to bring in their own suggestions for for changes and I think I was only asking just because you had said that they have to meet what the same correct and in terms of size regularity population if all that can be done within that 10 days it should withhold you know any any scrutiny as far as that is concerned but just getting it getting it redrawn is likely going to be very difficult so But could it could it be done if it if it does meet the required parameters that that's what is contemplated by you know 1112, which is the statute in question to change the number of Commissioners. the board of county commissioners within 10 days after the votes have been canvassed shall divide the county into five commissioners districts number them one to five and then appoint if that is possible if there are eligible individuals to be appointed if if there's no interest then it would go to an open open election um in november but there would have to be Even if they are appointed, that's another thing to be brought up. Even if they are appointed, hypothetically, it would still have to run in November. So it's not an automatic, you're appointed for two years or four years.

So if you're appointed, do you need to get a signature to get on the ballot, or are you on the ballot?

You have to get your signatures.

Okay.

Because even if you're rerunning, you have to get signatures to be on the ballot.

Oh, true. Correct, yeah. But just the 10 or the 190? 195.

Good. I pitched that trying to make it easier, but no, that was not accepted. It would be 195, which is 30% of the eligible voters from the last governor's race. so it's going to be a very difficult number for any one individual to get over a short period of time that's a requirement just for new positions so it's a whole separate century code but to that extent any individual that wanted to run a write-in campaign and they get the most votes they they're yet

So if we, any one of these districts, if we split a township in half, does that then meet the requirement for a redistricting board?

If the townships are split and it falls within the 10%, hypothetically the redistricting board could be avoided. If it can't be done within the 10% parameters, that is one of the triggers to have the redistricting board.

Okay, I just want to clarify, if we split one, if that fell out of the parameters to where you have to have redistricting or not?

Again, hypothetically, if one of the townships is split and then all five districts are within the 10% parameters without any variances beyond that, technically that should qualify as appropriate districts.

Can you then, what if you, again, go back to that one scenario, what if you did one and two, three, four and five, and if you did one and two with undefined lines in one and two and undefined lines in three and four and five? You'd still have your five districts with undefined lines. and then one and two would be alone, four and five would be alone with undefined lines.

Based upon the statutes, it says it has to be in districts. These are districts.

I think you'd have to have a line somewhere, but like what you're saying, you're saying you don't want a line between 1 and 2 and 4 and 5, is that what you're saying?

It alleviates all your other problems that you have. If someone doesn't want a runner, where you divide them, but you've still got the representation there.

But how do you know if you don't have a line if you're in 4 and you're in 5?

I think you go off of some of this, you're Frank Creek or something, you're half of the population type deal.

That's one and two is what he's saying, that's right, and then four and five down here, but...

So four and five would go up into...

It's combining, that's the, if you get to that point, but you're not to that point.

You're not to that point.

No.

So that's an option down the road.

i would agree with that yeah but it'd be a redistricting board though now and they would have to bring that to the commission to vote on to combine the districts okay who's on the redistricting board if they're called uh it'll be a representative from the city with the largest population so one person from medora one individual appointed by the county commission themselves the chairman of the county commissioners myself um and then once that once those five are together sorry once those four are together the board itself then nominates a fifth citizen in the request I didn't say that.

Oh, I'm sorry. I was canvassing this morning.

Yeah. But the county auditor is also on the redistricting board, not as a voting member, but only to advise the board on other election districts and precinct boundaries and stuff. So to that extent, there's six people total. four get called together to nominate the fifth and then Marcia is also on it as an advising member for districting and election districts and precinct boundaries. So it would be a five person vote.

And then it would still come, they would recommend to come to the board and we would have to adopt it.

Anonymous. All three would have. All three. Correct.

Okay.

Well, I think that answers all our questions. If someone else has got something, we'll... We'll go to adjournment then, and our next meeting is the... June 25th at 1 p.m. Is there anything else that we want to discuss at that meeting? Because we'd have to announce it now.

But you can do that after the meeting if you decide that there's something else then we can...

I guess the only two things that have come up, one, commissioners may need to discuss on Thursday about, and this will help, I believe we're having, has it been set, the department had a meeting, are we doing it Wednesday morning?

Wednesday morning, I'm just gonna send it in the middle of the session. Okay.

We'll make that official, but I think the commissioners need to discuss whether the courthouse itself will be open to the general public the 29th through the 3rd. Actually, the 2nd. I think the 3rd is closed regardless. if there's a determination it will still be open for business but keeping it closed to the public the commission has that ability to to do that just for safety um and so the general general population is not using the bathrooms and such here um and there was a collateral question that had come up that i that seems to resolve itself this morning so

So I can add that to the agenda. Okay. So it'll be the same agenda topic as today, just with the addition of that. Okay.

So I'm going to make a motion to adjourn. So moved to adjourn. Second. I'll second it. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for coming.

Thank you, guys. Thank you.

And if anybody wants a blank map, that's not fit for Anna.

I think I have one.

Okay.

Thank you guys.