Lincoln County commissioners pass Resolution 988

Thanks, praise, relief and applause met the Lincoln County commissioners Wednesday when they unanimously voted to pass Resolution 988, restoring partisan local elections to the county as required by Montana law.

As the resolution notes, residents voted in 1996 and 2009 to allow non-partisan local elections in Lincoln County. However, they did not concurrently vote to change the county’s form of government — an elected county official form of government — to a form allowing such elections.

“This is a unique situation,” said Commissioner Mark Peck. “It hurts that we’re put into this position to where we have to overturn a vote of the people, but I don’t see any other recourse. I’m not going to question why things were done. (But the) bottom line is we are clearly outside the Montana code.”

Peck and commissioners Jerry Bennett and Mike Cole, in expressing their support of Resolution 988, praised State Representative Mike Cuffe of Eureka for championing the necessary legislation allowing them to craft the resolution in the first place.

That legislation, HB 282, was signed April 3 by Gov. Steve Bullock. Without it the commissioners would not have had the authority to overturn the people’s vote.

“Before this legislation was passed we didn’t have the authority to write a resolution and move forward with that,” Bennett said. “I believe this is the most expedient way to reconcile this situation.”

Some of the handful of people who attended Wednesday’s discussion and vote on the resolution expressed gratitude to everyone who made it happen.

“Always, if you operate out of the rules or outside of the law there are consequences,” said Bonnie Larson, president of Larson Lumber in Troy and member of the Lincoln County Local Government Review Board that discovered the error in 2016. “I commend you all for doing this properly and for bringing us back into compliance with the law.”

The mistake stemmed from the original form of government implemented after Montana adopted its new constitution in the 1970s. Counties were given a mandate to form review commissions in the first year, 1976, and those commissions were ordered to present at least one option for change to county electors. Lincoln County’s voters decided not to change the form of government during that election, and in two other elections since, voters have also chosen to maintain the default form of government.

The Montana Constitution created the elected county official form of government as the default form of government. Lincoln County, along with several other counties, operates like a commission form of government, even though they never officially adopted that slightly different form.

Peck said if necessary they were poised to deal with the situation in court.

“I’m really grateful for what Mike (Cuffe) did through legislation because that’s the cleanest fix,” he said. “My regret is that we had to go through it in the first place. But that’s what we’re here for.”