By Michael Howell
At a meeting on March 14, the Ravalli County Local Government Study Commission amended its Final Report and changed the ballot language following a last minute exchange of emails and memos between attorneys for the County, Montana Association of Counties (MACo) and attorney George Corn who serves on the Study Commission.
The Study Commission issued a Final Report in November of 2015 identifying four issues that should be placed on the June 7, 2016 ballot. They included changing the number of commissioners, changing term lengths, changing representation from at-large to districts, and partisan/nonpartisan questions.
In that proposed Final Report, the Study Commission recommended that Ravalli County should continue under the Commission form of government. Associated recommendations of amendments included a three-member Board of County Commissioners; a majority recommendation of terms of office of 6 years each with one commissioner elected every two years; elections at-large; and that voters should decide whether offices are partisan or non-partisan. The majority recommended that the Commissioner elections should remain partisan, but the other offices should be partisan or non-partisan.
On the proposed ballot the offices were all listed separately with an option for the voters to choose partisan or non-partisan.
The changes would become effective in the 2018 election cycle.
The proposed Final Report and ballot language were sent to the Local Government Study Center in Bozeman and ended up at the Secretary of State’s office as well as at MACo for comment.
It was MACo’s Executive Director Harold Blattie’s response that set off a train of emails between attorneys. He expressed concern with placing more than three items on the ballot due to his interpretation of state law. According to Blattie, his real concern was with submitting each individual office as a separate partisan/non-partisan question, rather than all offices being either partisan or non-partisan.
“Were it not for how that question was structured, I probably wouldn’t have even thought twice about putting Questions 1-4 on the ballot if Question #4 had been worded so that partisan/non-partisan applied uniformly to all elected offices,” Blattie stated in an email.
Deputy County Attorney Howard Recht submitted a memo arguing that more than three questions could be placed on the ballot and Study Commission member and attorney George Corn agreed.
Blattie responded, stating, “MACo consistently takes the more conservative interpretation and will leave it to county attorney offices to arrive at more liberal interpretations. I forwarded your response to Brian Hopkins, MACo General Counsel, and he responded to me that he believes your interpretation may be correct. So now I get to debate with both of you!!!!”
Blattie was also strongly supportive of a six-year term if the commission is reduced to three members.
“From my observations four year terms can work with five commissioners. Four year terms with three commissioners is a wreck,” stated Blattie and he referred to the problems in Park County as an example.
In her own email response, Study Commission member Sharon Schroeder expressed concern about potential litigation. She suggested dropping the partisan/non-partisan questions. And then added, “I seriously do not want to see the main thrust of our work cast aside and have to wait 10 more years to ask voters if they want 3 or 5 Commissioners. Perhaps that should be our only question.”
At the meeting, Study Commission member Scott Boulanger made a motion to place only two issues on the ballot, limiting it to the number of commissioners and the term lengths, but that motion was voted down. Schroeder supported Boulanger’s motion but Corn, Marilee Shockley and Alan Thompson voted against it.
The Study Commission then voted to combine all the offices into a single question about whether elections in Ravalli County should be partisan or non-partisan. That motion was approved on a 3 to 2 vote with Thompson, Shockley and Corn voting in favor and Boulanger and Schroeder dissenting.
With only four issues on the ballot the Study Commission then voted to delete the issue about choosing between districts and at-large elections for the Commissioners. Corn, who had supported district elections, said that he saw it as a compromise to ensure that the partisan/non-partisan issue would get on the ballot.
The final ballot language was adopted on a 3 to 2 vote. The Final Ballot contains three issues:
- For the adoption of three total seats on the Ravalli County Board of Commissioners, as recommended by the Local Government Study Commission; or retain the existing five total seats on the Ravalli County Board of Commissioners.
- For the adoption of six-year terms as recommended by the Study Commission; or retain the existing four-year terms.
- For the non-partisan election of all county offices; or for the partisan election of all county offices.