District Court Judge Brenda Gilbert called a hearing on June 1 in the library board’s lawsuit against Sandra Merchant, Cascade County clerk and recorder, over their upcoming levy election.

Gilbert said she had scheduled the hearing due to an objection filed on May 31 by the county’s attorney regarding an email sent by the library board’s attorneys on guidance to the court appointed election monitor’s reports.

Gilbert said so far, she had received four reports from the monitor.

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On May 18, Gilbert said she was appointing Lynn Deroche, former county elections employee, as the election monitor.

On May 22, she signed that order and Deroche filed reports on May 23, 26, 30 and June 1.

Gilbert said that in her order, she made those reports publicly filed with the court to provide transparency regarding an elected official and had left flexibility for the monitor to communicate with the attorneys for both parties to discuss and address any issues raised.

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Ben Graybill, an attorney for the library board, said that they didn’t send instructions to the monitor on her reports, but sent an email regarding their format and stating that the reports should emphasize any legal issues she observed.

Graybill said that they sent a draft of the email to Elizabeth Lund, the county’s attorney, for feedback. Graybill said that she still objected to the monitor and didn’t want any communication with the monitor.

Graybill said they copied Lund on the email to Deroche.

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Ben Graybill said that they sought the appointment of the monitor based on issues observed during the May 2 elections and believe that the monitor’s presence is helping prevent some problems.

He said they don’t want to end up with an election that will be challenged.

Lund said that the monitor’s reports had “ticky tacky” details on issues that could have been done better but would not invalidate an election.

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GIlbert said that in terms of the email the library board’s attorneys sent to Deroche, “I don’t find that to have violated the court’s order.”

She said she didn’t view the email as directing the monitor on the substance of her reports.

Gilbert said she thought the reports had improved in terms of sticking to the legal issues and that the tenor of interactions appeared to have improved a bit.

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Lund asked if Merchant could filed responses to the monitor’s with the court if she wanted and Gilber said that was fine.

Raph Graybll, for the library board, said “our concerns are serious and continue.”

He said that if Merchant were to respond and provide more information, that would be helpful.

Susie McIntye, director of the Great Falls Public Library, said that as of June 1, the library had not yet received a cost estimate from Merchant for the June 6 election.