County officials continuing discussion on moving election duties
County Commissioners are set to meet again on Dec. 22 to continue their discussion on assuming election duties.
They met Dec. 15 and decided they didn’t have enough information to make decisions and said they had homework to do over the weekend.
They set another meeting for Dec. 19 and didn’t appear to have prepared over the weekend or have the information they wanted to make any decisions. They also said Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant had to leave town and wasn’t able to attend the meeting in person or electronically.
They set a meeting for Dec. 21 so that Merchant could attend but moved it to Dec. 22 at 11 a.m.
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During the Dec. 19 meeting, Commissioner Joe Briggs asked the county attorney’s office for an update on their conversations with the Montana Secretary of State’s office.
County Attorney Josh Racki said that his staff spoke with the SOS staff who were concerned about county staff getting voter information entered into the state system, but that the existing county elections staff was able to do that.
He said that since the existing staff is able to handle the tasks in the interim that the SOS staff wasn’t too concerned about not having an interim election administrator named yet.
During the Dec. 15 meeting, commissioners said they wanted time to develop the job description.
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Commissioner Jim Larson said they’d received the draft job description on Dec. 15 and that he’d only read through it once by Dec. 20. He said he started reviewing it again Dec. 20 but was interrupted too much to get through it and hoped to spend more time reviewing it on Dec. 21 since the meeting had been moved to Friday.
During the Dec. 19 meeting, Commissioner Rae Grulkowski said, “I don’t think we should move forward without [Merchant’s] input in solidifying a job description.”
She said that unless they needed the job description for the interim, they should move back to discussion on selecting an interim and “I’m unclear on the process of choosing that interim.”
Commissioner Joe Briggs, who introduced the resolution to strip election duties from the clerk and recorder’s office earlier this month, said that he had explained the options during the Dec. 15 meeting, which are essentially having an existing county employee take on those duties or choose and external person and that it’s up to commissioners to decide.
Briggs said they could decide during the Dec. 19 meeting whether they wanted an internal or external candidate.
Grulkowski asked if it was by nomination from commissioners.
Briggs said yes.
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They didn’t make a decision on whether to select an internal or external interim administrator during the Dec. 19 meeting.
Briggs told Grulkowski it was okay if she needed more time to review the job description that might be more complex than she was used to in the private sector.
Grulkowski said that when she was looking over a job description for another position, there were redundancies and technical issues.
She asked where the funding for the interim would come from and Briggs repeated what he’d said during the Dec. 15 meeting that the county had adequate funds in the budget for the position.
He said it will be up to the commission to decide the salary and how to fund it.
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Carey Ann Haight, chief deputy county attorney for the civil division, said that county policy is a 15 percent increase on an existing county employee’s salary for taking on additional duties.
If the commission appoints someone outside of the county they’ll have to decide the pay and have that conversation for the salary for the permanent position, Haight said.
Briggs said he believes they need to make decisions in the meantime to prepare for the 2024 election cycle. He said that the print shop has 150,000 blank sheets of ballot stock, which is generally a volume used during the primary election, so they need to order more soon. He said there have been supply issues in the past and it’s been tough to get enough ballot stock.
He said they’ll need at least another 150,000 sheets of ballot stock in case of the school election and primary elections.
Merchant responds to GFPS letter asking that elections duties be removed from her office
The Great Falls Public Schools district has a seat up for election in May and has not yet decided whether to pursue a levy.
Both the city and the county have to do the government review question on the primary ballot, as required by state law every 10 years.
Grulkowski said she wasn’t sure they should do anything operational before their next meeting.
Racki, county attorney, said that he spoke with GFPS Superintendent Tom Moore about their election and county officials will schedule a meeting with GFPS officials.
GFPS asks county to remove election duties from clerk and recorder’s office
Commissioner Jim Larson reminded officials that the county signed a two-year contract with GFPS and this would be the second year of that contract.
Filing in the GFPS election opened Dec. 14.
Brian Patrick, GFPS’ business operations manager, said that candidates can file with him until the county gets an election administrator in place.
During their Dec. 20 work session, Grulkowski said she wanted to bring forward a resolution rescinding the one commissioners approved 2-1 on Dec. 12, moving election duties from the clerk and restoring them to her office.
Briggs and Larson said they wouldn’t entertain the motion so it didn’t move forward.
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A number of citizens spoke during both meetings expressing their opposition to removing election duties from the clerk’s office and criticizing Briggs and Larson for doing so.
Lola Sheldon Galloway, a state lawmaker from Great Falls, said that at the state level they’ve looked at elections since there’s not enough checks and balances in the system and “I can kinda see your frustration when things are going awry.” I think we understand what you’re trying to do, you just did it the wrong way.”
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Several speakers said they didn’t want anyone who worked in the elections office under former clerk Rina Moore.
Commissioners have not publicly mentioned any names for who they’d consider appointing to the interim position.
Julie Bass said she also didn’t want them to consider Bret Rutherford, who was the elections administrator in Yellowstone County until October 2022 and commissioners hired to oversee the clerk and recorders race here in November 2022. She said he shouldn’t be considered because he had served on the local leadership council for the U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner in the same year as Moore.
The council includes seats for two elections officials from each state.
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Rutherford told The Electric that he had not been contacted about the newly created elections administrator position in Cascade County nor would he consider accepting the position.
He said professionals in their fields should be talking to each other to make the process better.
Many of those opposed to the resolution removing election duties from the clerk’s office have said they would sue the county. As of 5 p.m. Dec. 21, no lawsuits had been filed over the resolution in district court.
