It's okay.

It's fine.

All right.

Call this meeting in order.

Legislative of the United States of America.

And to republic one individual.

Let's leverage all.

Thanks for all coming tonight.

Please take attendance.

All council members are present, Mr.

Mayor.

All right.

Item three, the approval of the agenda.

Energy in a motion to approve the agenda.

Second.

Please call the city rule.

Please call the role.

Avery.

E Minor.

Specker.

Hi.

Tillner.

Linda.

Aye.

All right.

Now item four open forum.

In order to provide equal access to all during the open forum and public comment portions of the meeting, each individual offering comments shall not exceed the allotted three minute period.

The podium might turn green to yellow where there is one minute remaining.

Your time for comment is expired when the podium may turn red.

Is there any member of the public who wishes to address the council on an item that's not listed on tonight's agenda?

Okay.

Move on.

Item five presentation, South Dakota Open Meetings Laws Review.

We'll present this item.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Mayor and Council members, this is required with the new Senate Bill 74 that was passed in the past legislative session.

So this is a review of the South Dakota Open Meeting Laws, and this has been corrected so it pertains to you as a board member, a member of a governing body.

This brochure, I do have copies if you would like to take a paper one with you.

But this presentation is based off of this.

This is a brochure that the South Dakota Attorney General's office has devised and updated this year.

It is also focusing off of state law chapter one-25.

So what are South Dakota Open Meeting Laws?

These are basically laws intended to encourage public participation in government.

Official meetings of public bodies are to be public in advance notice of such meetings are to be given.

An official meeting, as stated here, is defined as any meeting is a quorum of a public body where official business or public policy is discussed or decided.

So you'll see under official meetings definition is the word quorum.

A quorum is more than one half of the seated board members.

A vacancy is not included in that quorum count.

So for city council, your quorum is four.

So a teleconference is meeting or uh communication via any electronic medium.

So that's your email, your social media accounts, your texting Zooms, or conference calls.

So as a board member, I would highly encourage you to be aware who's how many people are in here.

Group text.

If you're sending an email or you're having a conference call, how many people are on that call?

We have to be aware of those things.

Because that would have the perception of a unpublicized meeting where the media was excluded as well as the public.

So just kind of an awareness as you're sitting on a governing body.

That's that blind carbon copy line on your email headers.

What happens is if so if you do that for any number of people, if you a person either responds to one or responds to all, the message will only go to the center.

It will not go to anybody else listed on that BCC line.

So just some of those things that we do have workarounds.

Um little safety net, as you per se.

Attending a press conference is not considered a public meeting.

Attending events hosted by other other governmental entities, non-governmental entities.

So an example of this would be like if you were attending a social gathering or a service group club meeting.

And then notice of quorum.

I think as council members, you're aware that when you get an invite that you're all attended to, we automatically post a norms of quorum.

What that is a states at a quorum of the city council may be present at this event from this date at this time at this location, but then we disclose that there's gonna be no action taken by the board members at this event.

Let me just take questions.

That second one events hosted by a non-governmental entity quite frequently when we were at different events.

We'll still put the thing in the paper that we might be more than four of us there.

We do for city council, we catch those.

Yep.

According to that, it's all at the ribbon cutting for the Ivy Center.

So that's uh it's not a requirement, but we do try to catch those in the sake of transparency for the public.

Um, so they can't say, hey, you didn't do this, but now we can say, well, state law says we don't need to, but that is our habit now, so we will continue to do those things as long as we're made aware that they're happening.

Is that new?

Yes, the fact that it is not considered, that is new.

Okay.

Meeting notifications.

As a board member, you really don't have to worry about that because you have amazing city staff that takes care of meeting those posting deadlines and root meeting room availabilities.

Um the thing that I want to let you know, because it comes up all the time.

If we have a schedule uh special or a unscheduled meeting, um, one that just pops up on our calendars because there's an issue at hand, we will do our best to try to get that posted and meet open meeting law requirements.

Um, but we really could post it really short if we needed to.

It provides us those abilities.

And it's always good to know as a council member, people are like, can I get a copy of this handout or this support document that was in your packet?

Yes, once we post those agendas that support documentation is a public document, and the public can ask for those and we will provide those.

Now, news media, state law says that media sources are supposed to tell us that they want to receive things.

Well, in Brickings, I'm proud to say that we go one step further and we just provide it to all of the news media sources that we have available to our citizens.

So right now we're doing the collegian, we're doing Brookings Radio, we're doing Brookings Register, and we're still reaching out to the Volga Tribune with those items.

Every now and then I do get a question about well, why wasn't this board's agenda published in the paper?

Please know that agendas are not paid legals, and the newspapers fit them in if they have space.

So that's why you will see some, but maybe not all.

Um, if that is something that the council is near and dear, we can certainly have a future conversation surrounding those and turn those into paid legals, but that would be your decision.

Proposed agendas are what's posted where we meet that 24-hour deadline as stated in state law.

So what that means is the agenda as it's proposed is a fluid document.

That fluid document can be amended, items can be removed, agenda items can be modified up until the mayor or the board chair calls that meeting to order and the board takes action to approve the agenda declaring it final.

Um we don't have a problem doing this.

We will have a problem if it becomes a regularly occurring occurrence.

Public comment period.

This is required for all regularly scheduled meetings.

So, like with the city council, we put out a calendar which has all of your meetings for the entire year on it.

We consider those meetings on that calendar regularly scheduled, and every one of those meetings will have an open comment or public comment period on those agendas.

The only time that we would not be required to have that is if it's a special meeting, um those things of nature, whether it's an inauguration, a meeting just for executive session, a presentation or an annual report, swearing in of elected officials, um, those sorts of things.

Recording meetings, this has become a really heavy topic that's been discussed a lot recently.

Um, a member of the public can sit in the room, turn their phone on, record the meeting.

They don't have to tell you that they're doing it, but we do ask the public if they are that they are reasonable about it, they're obvious, and they're not disruptive.

If you're gonna do it, just be out there doing it, hold your phone up, just that's just fine.

Hold your phone up, just that's just fine.

The only time that they would not be able to, of course, is if a meeting is a closed meeting where we go into executive session.

Those are not recordable.

And Bobby, is it just to allow recording, or are we required to record audio or visual of our meetings ourselves?

We, as first class cities, if available, should have an audio recording.

Video is optional, but most first class cities have we have these wonderful systems that we use these agenda management systems.

Um, so we have both audio and video available.

I do like that we go above and beyond what we're mandated to.

I was just wanting to confirm that.

You're welcome.

The only time, of course, we don't record meetings is if we're in closed meetings or we have executive session, and of course, state law outlines six reasons why we can go into those closed meetings or executive sessions, but there is actually one additional one, which is located in chapter nine, and this is for economic development matters.

Um, just wanted to bring your attention that we have several options, and of course, every time we think about going into an executive session or closed meeting, we will consult the city attorney to make sure that they support that as well.

So this concludes my presentation.

There is way more to South Dakota open meeting laws, but it doesn't overly pertain to you as a board member because a lot of those requirements are covered by your staff.

So and with that, I will conclude and take any questions you may have.

Council questions, comments.

Councilmember Chiltenford.

Um I would just say uh obviously this meeting of needing to discuss it at one of our meetings uh is is new, but um, our awareness of a lot of these statutes is not.

Um I just want to commend the staff for making sure that all of us are well educated on open meeting laws because I think you know, as we do communicate offline, um, we are always making sure that there's not more than three of us in a text message thread or an email thread or meeting to discuss anything, and so just um want to thank our staff for making sure we've always been aware of all of these.

I think this is great to cover in in public sessions like this, so the public can be more aware as well.

Um, but for us, I think aside from the new things, a lot of this will just be business as usual.

Okay, move on to the next item.

Uh discussion on House Bill 11:30, permissible permissible election dates for municipalities.

I thought you were also around this one.

Mayor and council members, um, we do have two school board members, uh, Deborah Debates and Leslie Cheddar, and we do have County Commissioner Dave Miller attending as well.

We wanted to be able to have an environment where we could have some discussion back and forth between the elected bodies if you so choose.

Um with that, we'll begin.

So the first slide here is what we're familiar with.

Our council members serve three-year terms.

We're on a three, two, two election rotation.

Our elections have been held annually in April of every year, and our elections have also been combined annually with the BRICKING school board.

House Bill 1130, which is do you want to just maybe explain what three, two, two means?

I think.

Oh, sure.

So three two two means we will have two council members come up every year.

The third one in those in the one-year rotation there is the mayor's seat.

So the first three is the mayor and two council members, then we'll have two council members the succeeding year and two council members of the year after that.

So House Bill 1130 is effective January 1st, 2026, and the city council is tasked with identifying what the new election date is going to be by January 14th of 2026.

The council does have two options as stated in state law for this election date.

It'll be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June, or the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Um, this so the dates, if you're want to look at calendars, those dates would be either June 2nd or November 3rd.

So now municipalities are not obligated to match their date with other local entities such as school boards or counties.

The only legal requirement is to choose a date that the city council wishes to hold their elections on.

So at this time, what we know is that the Brookings County Finance Office has a preference for the city to select the November election date, and that the Brookings School District at one point in time this earlier this year had a preference to select the June as their election date, and that was purely because it coincides really well with their July 1st term start dates.

Now that's not tying into any sort of thing here.

I'm just sharing of information that I knew at one point in time.

First class cities in the state of South Dakota, there were nine of us that had April election dates.

What I know at this time is three of them have chosen an election date.

So we have the city of Sioux Falls and the City of Madison, which have selected June, and then we have the City of Yangton, which has chosen November.

There are three cities that do not have 2026 elections because they have four-year terms.

So 26 is their off year.

And then there are three, well, four if you include us that have not yet selected a date for 2026.

State statute added a new section with this House bill, section 913-41, and that extends the current elected officials' terms until the new election date.

And that where an office holder or a candidate has been duly elected and qualified.

So for city council members, state code identifies that elected officials are to be sworn in at the first meeting of the month following the election.

So what that means, if you were to select June 2nd, your council would be then appointed that first meeting in July.

If you chose November, council would be sworn in that first meeting in December.

Council members up for re-election in 2026 are Lisa Hager and Brianna Dorn.

Can you remind me in our charter?

Does it state when our terms start?

And I guess what I'm getting at is with this state law change, are we going to need to update our city charter?

No, the charter only states that the council has three year terms.

It does not identify that where they start on this date.

So our charter was really good about that.

And are we just operating because our terms will go longer than that no matter the outcome of the election?

Are we just going to say that will be a flex year kind of since we won't be at exactly three years?

We will go over no matter what.

We will go over no matter what.

Yep.

So then if you go with the June 2026 election, everybody's term is gonna shift, and then it'll be June the next year.

Um, so we're just gonna have to make those exceptions.

Either it's gonna be a little bit longer or a lot longer.

Yeah, we have to address that in any way, so technically that is different from our city charter.

Is it is it just administratively we understand that?

It's administratively understood by that state statute that gives us that power to make that flex.

Great question.

What we don't know, of course, is a lot of the administrative protocols around our elections.

Um, House Bill 1130 states several things, but it doesn't tell us other things that we desire to know, such as you know, vacancy notices, when do we publish them, how long do they stay published for, petition carrying deadlines.

It gave us some guidelines, but there's some things that have to be interpreted.

We still don't have a clarification on you know when do we absentee vote?

When does that start?

When does that stop?

Because when you think about state and federal elections, they have a 45-day window for early absentee voting.

Municipalities and schools in our chapter, we only have 15 days, so we don't know what that's gonna look like.

So there's a lot of the administrative side of elections that is yet to be decided and determined what that intent is.

And there's also verbiage buried in this House bill, and it says in conjunction with we need to decipher what that means.

So I know, like the Secretary of State's office, South Dakota Municipal League, and then the state associations for both the county commissions as well as the school boards are meeting, and they're talking about this.

Their next meeting is going to be early October.

Uh their first meeting was yesterday, and we haven't learned a whole lot from that meeting yet, but as that information is available, we will certainly share it with you.

Looking at some election data, I think it's important to know how our elections have looked in the past.

On average, for a city election, we had around 2,500 voters.

Um, and that came from a voter registration of around 12,000, give our take.

Um, election costs for a combined election was right around 21,000.

If it was a city owned election, it was maybe $2,000 less.

And that was just because we would operate with three vote centers instead of four if it was a city only election.

So with potentially combining the city elections onto a state and federal election date, we're gonna have to work through a partnership with the Brickings County Finance Office.

And we hope that you know the school board, we hope that we would be able to continue that mutual agreement between the three entities the city, the school district, and the county.

We do know that the county has identified their 2026 budget for elections as 215,000 400.

Um, but what percentage of that is the cities or the schools, we do not know.

Um we know that would cover two elections, but we do not know how that covers the other school districts in the county and the other smaller communities in the county.

So as we know, Mark.

Is it similar at the elections in June or November?

Are the numbers still the same or similar?

Oh, let's see.

Next slide I can show you some of that.

Okay.

So yeah.

So when you look at this is data from Brookings County Finance Office, uh, the top box shows you the June elections in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024, and the bottom box shows you those same years for the November election.

So you'll see the number of ballots cast, the number of registered voters at that time, and the percentage voter turnout.

So it's obvious to see that June has a smaller turnout than what November does.

That's interesting.

It's good data to look at.

Yes.

Bonnie, is it accurate to say though that sometimes in the June election cycle, not all voters are even eligible to vote?

Correct.

June, in if you're thinking partisan, yes.

Um Republicans are normally the ones that vote in June.

And independents and Democrats normally don't have any items on the June ballot.

Um, so those individuals are not knowledgeable about June voting.

So, you know, if a June election date was to be selected, we would have to do an election campaigning from the city, um, potentially for with the school board with the school as well, do some press releases, let people know what we're doing, what this means, um, those sorts of things.

Is there demographic data of the voter turnout?

Like I think of in June, we have a lot of college students that go home and maybe don't vote versus November.

Have you noticed that there is a significant change in demographics?

Uh I do not have that data with me.

I'm sorry.

I think I can get back to you though.

Sure, we can find that.

Bonnie.

Why are the registered voter numbers different on each one?

2018, shouldn't they be the same vote?

Well, they should be.

I do not know why they're not this data would have come from the county finance.

They took that count, maybe there's more people that registered to vote before November.

There's a chance that November has an uptick in voter registration numbers.

Yeah.

So I think they're all greater than the June votes.

Yes, I would take that that would be what it is.

Um there's a Tuesday in January, which all the so we pull voter number counts, voter registration counts, and we use that number for the purpose of like petition signatures.

So if somebody wants to refer an item, they have to get 5% of the registered voters as of this Tuesday in January.

Those numbers would be the same for the county, and we would pull them the same for the city or the school board as well on that date, but they will have some fluctuation as a year goes through.

Bonnie, as a follow-up to my earlier question, the voter turnout.

Is that voter turnout of all voters or of eligible voters?

Huh?

It would be all voters.

All voters.

Okay.

So you would take all registered.

All registered voters, I'm sorry, yes, correct.

All registered voters.

So while those numbers are quite low, it's many of them just simply are not eligible to vote.

And then we think about both election dates, we have to think about some pros and cons, right?

With what's what we know.

Um, so these two lists, I have one for June and I have one for November, has been compiled through conversations with other municipalities that are making these same decisions.

Um, so we all agree that in June, potentially a shorter ballot.

Local candidates may be more prominent on that ballot.

But we also understand that there could be an increase in the number of ballot styles.

If you looked at your materials in your packet, there was a slide that said number of ballot styles for those last four years of federal elections.

And you'll see that there's one year that stands out with like 15 ballot styles in June.

That was because in 2020 we did that census.

In 2021, was all the legislative districts redistricting.

So there was a lot of people on that ballot.

And that therefore, depending on what your voter registration has you as, would tell you that you need this ballot.

And they had all of these different ballot styles.

So it was really challenging for the workers that year.

Voter confusion has been a topic, you know, as far as when we talk about our independence and Democrats not being typically voting in June.

Candidate forums, if they're held, they would be in May.

May can be a different kind of year, whether it's graduations, memorial days, end of the school year, those sorts of things.

And then just a reminder then that uh newly elected officials would be sworn in that first meeting in July.

Bonnie, how long is early voting prior to election day?

For the city, it has been 15 days.

So that wouldn't get the students.

That would not get the students in June.

But if we are told that we have to do the 45 days as a federal and state, we would have that opportunity to grab some SDSU voters.

But that needs to be determined.

So then when we look at November, potentially a longer ballot, potentially more items on that ballot.

Um the election date, very well known by members of the public.

Obviously, has often had the highest voter turnout, but we will also have fewer ballot styles than what we would see in June.

The local candidate costs for those candidates could be significantly higher as everybody's competing for the same ad space and the same airtime.

And a local candidate may be challenged in getting their name out there, recognized a little bit better, or those sorts of things because we all know that we see state federal candidates and ballot question advertising really early.

SDSU students, of course, in November would be in town.

Candidate forums would be in October, so that's ahead of the holiday season, and then newly elected officials will be sworn in that first meeting in December.

Bonnie, both of these slides here have talked about the length of the ballot.

Do we have any data or indication of the number of individuals who follow through and vote on a longer ballot all the way through versus stopping maybe after the first few items?

Is there any data on that?

I have seen some data, and then they talk about voter fatigue.

And I think it's a 30% of voters may never flip the ballot over and get to the back side.

They get through three columns on the front, and it's race after race after race, and they're like, well, I'm done.

Um it's right around that 30% of all voters, may not.

And is there any kind of process or identification of when or where on the ballot certain items would fall?

I know typically, like in presidential elections, it's usually president office first and then.

It's usually federal, state, and then local.

So if with the local election, we do have concerns, so we would be on the back side and at the very bottom.

Um you ever had it where we have more than just two sides and we have a third sheet?

No, but we had one ballot year that it was a 19-inch ballot instead of the standard 17.

So rather than having an extra ballot, they make the ballots longer.

And it was usually covered no matter what length of the ballot.

Correct.

The tabulator machine with the programming, they program it for the ballot length.

Do you know when they decide to do better said like what is the criteria to decide?

I don't know that that would be a great question for the county finance office team.

Your vote, your voter turnout was the was county, right?

Was Brookings County.

Yeah.

Yep.

So the city turnout might be different for the city election.

Overlap, but not townly encompassing.

And then the school district has another overlap, and that is it includes aurora, but not anything else.

But it does extend into Moody County.

Correct.

So we have some really overlapping jurisdictions that uh each of these three entities don't uh necessarily coincide in terms of the uh whatever.

Correct.

So like I remember for the like the last election, I think we had a hundred moody county voters that voted within Brookings City for the school board election.

Right.

Yeah.

And they and they're and their the voting uh location was in Brookings.

Yes.

They would either have to come here to this building and vote early, or they would go to one of the vote centers on election day.

That's how I remember what I want to make sure, yeah.

Yep.

That I think that may have changed in the last number of years, where there was a precinct voting down in in Moody County, or was that that way?

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay.

Um but that when we bring in the school district, the Brookings County Finance Office coordinates that with the auditor's office in Moody County.

So I'm not involved in those decisions on how that's run, so I don't know that I understand the whole picture when it comes to the school board votes that come out of Moody County.

If you look at voter turnout within the city, the June percentages are less than half of what November is for the city for the city, but not for a county.

Correct.

These are county numbers, correct?

Which is also with that that concludes my presentation.

And so, like I said earlier, we brought forward um you know, bringing you all to the same table so you can have some dialogue this evening.

If you have any additional questions that you have of each other, um, or uh any additional questions you want us to research for you.

Let us know what you're thinking and what your needs are for information to make sure that you make the best decision for you and for the city of Brick Games.

Thanks, Bonnie.

Is there any questions, comments from the public?

Council questions, comments.

Council member Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a couple of questions.

One, just tying back to slide six about the cost.

You said to expect increase in costs.

I was just wondering if you could give on a few more specifics about what what does an increase in cost entail?

Well, my only not knowing what portion of the city or school is the county's 2026 budget of 215,000.

I really don't know what percentage costs that would increase because I do not know the data that went into creating that dollar.

But is it like because we'd have more ballots to count, or like I'm wondering kind of what factors would play into that?

You know, or maybe that's the city answer.

It could be ballot styles, um, because that cost would come back to us if we have more than one or two ballot styles.

We don't only have two for a combined city school election.

Um, so it could be ballot styles, it could also be staff time for county staff.

Um, but beyond that, there wouldn't be much, maybe some tabulator programming costs just because we would have some additional ballot styles.

Sure.

Um, and then another question that's probably ties back to state guidance.

Um I was wondering since the state decided the legislature decided to change the timing uh for all of our towns to be either on the June or the November election.

Have they provided any guidance or was there any consideration that you're aware of of them also providing assistance or support around voter education or turnout efforts?

Does that seem to be a big component of passing this bill, or even guidance around public awareness that would be given to locals?

How we talked about that we would need to increase our public awareness for voter confusion.

I'm wondering if the state was involved in that conversation on if they passed anything along to locals.

They have not passed anything along to municipalities.

Um whether the state association for school boards or counties have, I do not know that either.

Council member Tiltenburg.

Um, I just wanted to maybe point out that the data we looked at in terms of voter turnout is for even number years because that is when elections tend to take place during those time frames.

Our elections happen every year, correct?

And so there will be years when we have our elections on odd number years when other federal elections are not taking place.

Um, and so I would imagine we can expect an impact to that voter turnout in those years when there's not a federal election also taking place.

Correct.

Yep.

Those would be run by you then right, or we can enter in an agreement again for the sake of the voters, so it's the same process, whether it's an even numbered year or an odd numbered year, we could enter into an agreement and have the Brookings County Finance Office run the city and school board elections in those odd numbered years because school board also has elections every year every year.

Correct.

Council member.

It would be just making sure they get the correct ballot style given their profile.

Correct, and that's because in Berkings County and the city of Brickins, we use vote centers.

So our our voters can vote anywhere.

So every ballot style would be available at every vote center.

Now, if we were at precincts, that would be a little bit different.

Um hopefully not having to go back to precincts.

We really enjoy the convenience for the voters with vote centers.

Um, as a follow-up to that, I I have heard scenarios where it might be that you walk into a single vote center, but you go to maybe this table for your federal election ballot, and you go to this table for your local election ballot.

Is that what we're anticipating will be the case?

Well, that's what we're anticipating, hoping to get a better determination of that term in conjunction with that would give us that option to run a city and/or school board election at a table at a same location that you had the federal and state election over here.

But we're not anticipating that would that all would just be on a single ballot.

We're not not at this time, not making any assumptions as to what that means until we can get that language identified.

How big of an issue do you think bringing a council member on right after the budget for the following year has been adopted versus before the budget process?

How big of an issue do you think that is or anyone?

So I think as if you are a first-time council member, I'm not sure how much you understand what's going on during that budget process, the first year anyway.

So it's already been decided, so when you get done with your term or you run another term, every time somebody gets newly elected, they're gonna have that experience.

But when they're done with the term, they've already had the experience to go through a whole budget process, and so they're able to make a better decision.

I know there was a comment earlier today uh by one of the uh school board members is like you know, we get voted in in April, and our first meeting we're we're voting for some large items that we've had no input or discussion with, so I could see where November would be more advantageous for the school board.

I think I think November's in my personal opinion.

I think November is a better better time to do this.

There's better voter turnout.

Um I I really truly believe that November is a better deal.

So that's my personal opinion.

Councilmember Hager.

Um so just a piggyback off of that.

I would agree that I think November is the best time to do this, especially given the fact that one of the major reasons for this bill was to increase voter turnout, and when everybody that we're talking about is holding nonpartisan office, we want to make sure that as many people as possible from all parties and independents can be voting, and considering that these are local entities, we want to make sure that our SDSU students will be able to participate as well.

And I know we had a question about absentee voting period, but you know that would require some education to the students about you know, before you leave, of course, in when it's very busy, you know, make sure you get your absentee, you know, valid in.

I think November just makes it easier for everyone to be conditioned to vote and whatnot.

So, you know, I think that was kind of like my main point here.

As far as one of the questions I had, or things I would like to know is more about the petition deadlines, the petition carrying, because obviously reading through legislation is completely up my alley given my day job.

I was seeing a variety of different windows in here, and they overlap with the deadline to a certain extent, potentially of us having to pick when our elections are so it creates confusion as to you know, does the clock kind of start once the election date is chosen?

It's just not clear.

So I would really be interested in that that information because it's just not clear like it's so on that question, you know.

I hope that you know the tradition that we've had both school board and in uh city elections that we can keep it nonpartisan.

There's no requirement of putting party name or party affiliations if we go to either June or November.

So that's that's one of the questions that we want clarified in the entities in Pier, is as we are traditionally nonpartisan bodies.

How is that gonna look on partisan ballots?

Other than it will be on both partisan ballots, will we have to have those letters on there?

That is a question that has to be determined by the governing bodies in peer.

I would think that would be our choice.

I don't know why we would be able to have someone's identity tell us how we want to do our own election.

So they're able to do this here.

With that clarification, are you wondering just how we appear on the ballot or also changing nonpartisanship of this position as well?

Well, right now with a school board and city, we are nonpartisan elections.

So what that's gonna look like if we are on a federal ballot, doesn't we need to have some guidance on?

What is that gonna look like?

Um I had a couple questions, and one of them I don't know that we know the answer to yet, but it's just something I'm thinking.

It seems to me that this bill does need some cleanup, and likely there will be some legislation that might come in the coming session that will address some of these issues.

The unfortunate thing for municipalities that select a June date is that even cleanup legislation that could come in the next session won't take effect until July 1st.

And so I'm curious where these answers will come from for municipalities that pick a June election date, but cleanup won't take effect yet for them.

So I am kind of curious about that.

That's probably not our legislation.

So it wouldn't, you know, it could be effective upon passage or upon signage.

So there are some options that the legislators could take to enact that legislation prior to those joint elections.

Do we have a sense of whether or not legislators understand the list of issues that these organizations are discussing right now, or that they've been I'm not aware of any.

Um I haven't had any conversations.

I did extend invitations to all three of ours, um, but uh they were unable to be here tonight.

Another question I had, which I don't want to put Devin West on the spot, but but right now, if I remember correctly, your terms start July 1, correct?

And is that written into your documents or require a change?

Our terms are the first meeting after meeting after the canvas.

So the question is what's the statutory requirement when a canvas needs to take place?

Because the canvas data is is really the the the uh in which all this driven off of and for a school board, we have to have our our uh effective date or sworn in, so to speak on the first regular meeting after the canvas date.

And the canvas date I don't know off the top of my head, but it's reasonable to expect it we have to be within 10 days or whatever.

Uh you know, this just comes up again again with state constitutional amendments of when uh when the canvas date is the statewide election things just take take a that answer your question, uh Nick.

I was kind of curious if you all would contemplate whether or not it would require any changes to your existing document.

Well, we're having it have to think what's what is statutory in terms of canvas ends up in the first meeting after the campus page, which now is a July meeting for me to that.

I'm not sure I'm right.

Uh we what we have our term uh we have an election in April.

And you have uh you you you you would get your term right away.

With the school board waits until July, and I I'm I'm not sure why why that is.

Yeah.

For municipalities, our campus must be held within seven days.

So we have an election on Tuesday, we hold our campus the following Tuesday.

So I I that's a good question, Nick, and I and I can't answer it.

Why it's July uh first meeting to the following, you know.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

It's been done that way, right?

That's the answer.

Can I just add to that?

So I had a conversation with another school board member who couldn't come here tonight, and she had mentioned something around a state.

It I can't remember the name, so I apologize, but it's it was like education authority or state authority of something that dictated that across the state, all school boards had to be in July.

That's what she had believed.

So I didn't know if you guys were aware of that or could explain.

Not more, not that I'm aware of.

Um, you know, I think part of the reason July works well for us is when you look at the academic year.

School starts in September, you know, so that board member comes on in July, we get things ready for school start for approve the budget for that year, so on.

Um, and so from that perspective, I think the July one day makes sense for us, and so a June election would be better for us.

However, um, today in conversation with the superintendent, she said it's possible that it would work for us to do it in November too.

It's just an uncomfortable time for someone to come in in the middle of an academic school year.

Um I mean, voter turnout would be greater.

One of the things we are concerned about is the c increased cost, because we've already budgeted what we would spend on elections.

Um it wouldn't cover the amount that you were referring to, Ronnie.

Our share of that.

Weren't you kind of saying how coming in later kind of gets people off to speed because they're what do you wouldn't that also fit with the school board?

The coming in at the beginning of the year in January, it's kind of like really busy in the beginning of the academic year, right?

So you you bring on someone new in January and then they can see that process before they have to start or is everything when is still.

When do you guys do your budget process through the school?

In the in the before school starts, yeah, in July and August.

One of the things that would have that I see as a you know a concern from my perspective, the first year I came on the board in August is when we have our associated school boards meeting, and they have training sessions for all the new board members.

So that's where you really got the education as to what your role is going to be and how you're gonna do things.

So that would I don't know if the associated school boards has even thought about that.

If the elections are held in November and a new board member comes on, how are they gonna?

I mean, they would have to reconsider how they do that training for new board members because I found that very beneficial.

I know that our new board members did as well, because they review the things like the uh open meetings law and all those kinds of things.

So when uh Deb and I we we basically ended up going on the board for various cycles.

I I had a one-year appointment as I filled on the uh term that hadn't expired.

And our first meeting, we were we were voting on a um bond issue and improvements for uh Mickelson Middle School, 18 million dollars.

And uh I've always thought, you know, what was that supposed to do?

Oh no.

I didn't know I I hadn't gotten into it, hadn't been part of the process.

Uh meanwhile, for our for our budget process, we start our budget process months and months in advance.

We have two presentations by uh the finance officer, business manager, with a vote then in at the November, but uh we have to have a vote to set the levy by by September.

But typically we have it in August.

See, that just to me sounds like it would make more sense to start later.

Because you go in there, you don't know what you're voting on.

You haven't been involved in any of that with the budget.

Yeah, that's very true.

It's all a matter of opinion, conjecture, what is what it's all about.

Most candidates kind of watch what's going on early on, they will come in with the in my case.

I uh I was appointed, you know, the meeting before, and then my first meeting was in August.

About I got torn in about two minutes before she didn't remember what I'm gonna get a little seniority order.

Um you also may not know the answer to this body, but when you were looking at other first class cities in South Dakota that are contemplating new dates, I noticed that Yangton set November, Madison and Sioux Falls have set June.

Do you know whether or not their school districts were engaged in that conversation or their school districts have also set the same dates in those cities?

No, I don't, but I will tell you in all my conversations with all of the first class cities, we have all talked about wanting to continue to partner with our school districts.

So what that looks like obviously is individual.

And that's that is the custom in all these cities currently, they're running their municipal and their school district elections together.

I'm not a hundred percent certain of that.

Um, but I know that they have all expressed concerns wanting to continue partnerships.

Um I would absolutely agree with.

I hope we can do that here.

Maybe even Steve Mill, whether or not Sioux Falls, Madison or Yangton, their school districts set those things.

I don't have to ask.

We can certainly find out though, and I can send that information to you.

And Dr.

Schultz said to us today that she didn't know what the other school districts were doing yet at this point.

She didn't know how many had made a decision.

Yeah.

Councilmember Tiltonburn.

Um the the city's knowledge that the dates that have been considered as county in November school board in June.

Um are the feelings amongst your bodies pretty uh set on those dates.

Do you think that there's um still time for contemplation on which are selected?

Um do you think that the uh decision that the city makes on when ours would take place, would that impact the decision process for county or school?

I think we still want to have cooperate with the city and have our or have our elections at the same time.

I think that's primary probably the number one thing that we want to do.

I think right now most are leaning toward doing the June, but it doesn't, I don't think they're closed-minded about it.

I think they're open to discussion and open to thinking through some of the things.

Um, one of the things as Bonnie went through, like the pros and cons, you know, I it is the fear that local elections will sort of get lost in the uh if there's a federal election, a state election, those get a lot of attention.

And will those local elections then get lost in the shuffle?

That's one of the concerns I have.

Um, but we haven't really spent a lot of time discussing this issue.

Uh tonight was our opportunity to visit with you about it, and then we'll go back to our board members too.

Um, and I think Dr.

Schultz was also trying to find uh data on what other districts were doing.

Um, and then West did voice our concern about Modi County.

Um, you know, because we do have voters in Rudi County that we have to consider as well.

And county's actually already in November, right?

Did I misspeak there?

Yeah, it's more just the partnership on how we run the elections than we have to do.

It has not been picked yet, but there's been discussion about that, and it would yeah, but certainly like to work with the city on that.

There has again there hasn't been a lot of um conversation about that.

This is a starting point of what that looks like.

Okay, councilmember when you know, I'm also thinking through after Councillor Tiltonburn mentioned the odd number of years, and this isn't necessarily germane to us just setting a June versus November date.

This is probably a topic for the council to consider after we do that.

But you know, I have a lot of concerns about just the shape of the electorate who's electing a couple of counselors whose terms happen to fall in an odd number election year versus counselors whose terms fall in an even number election year.

You're talking about like thousands of different numbers of voters participating in those elections.

I mean, we can do all we can attempt to do to get as many folks to the polls in odd number of years as possible, but I do think we have to contemplate what that does to those terms.

If we right now it's pretty equitable, we kind of have a similar turnout every year.

It's but man, if we're thinking about some folks running in November of an even numbered presidential election year, and then the following year, you've got the other two seats open in a November of an odd number year.

Man, that's a very different-sized electorate picking equitable positions on your council.

Council member hanger.

Going off of that, this gets back to some of what Nick said earlier in a comment.

But section 12 of the bill appears to discuss the possibility that municipalities would sometimes hold elections in June, sometimes hold them in November.

I may be misreading this, and I wouldn't honestly recommend that anybody does that, because I think that just creates more voter confusion.

It causes a lot of problems with terms.

But I do think for some of these municipalities who choose June, there's the potential to change, although there would obviously be repercussions.

But this walks through from my reading of what would happen in those situations for folks with terms starting based on different elections.

That is one more clarification.

Right.

Like yeah.

And then the other thing I was going to add about the budget for the PowerPoint slide where it's talking about November and how newly elected officials for council would then be seated after the budget has been adopted.

I think again that allows you to get up to speed on everything prior to the next budget cycle.

But also realistically, if you're interested in running for a city council seat, you should likely be attending meetings ahead of time, participating in public comment and whatnot.

Hopefully, other educated voters are also participating in that.

So hopefully, when folks are getting on council if they're new, they were participating in that process.

So Dave, I have a question.

Every two years.

I don't know that'll nobody on that side.

That would be a question for Lori.

Just curious.

Councilmember Dirk.

Mayor, I just have a couple questions.

Tying back to voter education.

I mean, Councilmember Wendell brought up a really good point, but I think in general of just increasing the voter education from these entities would be important.

I was wondering if I could hear from all entities.

What efforts do you currently do for that we have an election coming up?

What is on the ballot?

Um, and just trying to increase the voter education, and maybe if you have any ideas moving forward to, whether in general you had it before or especially with this change.

Anyone, all three if you answered, that would be great.

So for municipal elections, we always put out a press release.

We say, like, here's the election date, here's a sample ballot, here's where the vote centers are located, here's the hours of the polls, all sorts of those things.

We do run that twice, sometimes three times.

If we feel that there's been a lot of chatter on social media, we'll throw it out there again to hopefully that the media will catch it and re-publicize it.

Um, we meet state requirements, but then we always try to go one better, right?

Because we want our voters to be educated, we want them to know.

Um when early absentee voting is going on, you might notice that this building, since this is where that takes place for all these elections, you know, we put different signage out on the building, we've got different things trying to grab the attention of those that are driving by.

Um, the city's PIO staff does a great job making posts on Facebook and Twitter and you know, all of those locations.

Um, so we've really amped our game up with some of these things, having additional staff to carry those votes.

And in the past, we've been a part of that, so that's the media presentations that we had too.

Um, other than our you know, our candidates have always taken part in the forum, open forum that's held, and then the newspaper has always interviewed each candidate individually, and that's been posted now with the paper not being published on a daily basis that maybe for another too.

But that's been a way another way for voters to become educated.

A very similar process would come.

I was just wondering, just having a discussion about what is the burden of the candidate versus just that blanket voter education that there's an election coming up to try to turn out voter voter turnout from the entities themselves.

Um I also had a another question that I was just thinking through.

My hope is that these positions and elections do stay nonpartisan.

Uh so I hope that this next question isn't mute after the first election.

But when a position is nonpartisan, even if we stay nonpartisan and we go on a partisan ballot, I think of partisan funding or involvement or marketing.

Bonnie, could you overview kind of what the guidelines are for candidates of like partisan funding and involvement, and do you know is that would that be potentially part of the conversation with a partisan position, or has any other discussion around just finance laws or involvement happened as well?

So all of that would fall under South Dakota's campaign finance laws.

Um so some of that has yet to be interpreted.

You know, when it comes to PACs, those political action committees and stuff, there are guidelines of you know how much can be contributed, whether it's by an organization or an individual.

There are some triple downs that go into the local elections, but I do not and I have not looked at that to be well versed to answer that question tonight, but I can certainly get back to you on that.

Sure.

Yeah, I just I think it's potentially worth a a larger conversation as well because regardless, I think there is a very real impact of more partisan funding or involvement, and that can change the makeup of local elections and and how decisions in our community are made.

And so I would want to know what our local guardrails are and potentially authority around that and a little bit more discussion with the state too, because I've this body needs to be in charge of taking care of our community, it should not get involved in partisan politics and and being involved in a larger platform.

It needs to be focused on workings.

Okay.

Any other comments, questions?

Do we have a I'm sorry button that's within the slide?

Do we have a deadline for when we need to make a decision?

January 14th is the last day that we need that we have available to us to make that election decision.

It has to be on our agenda by then or something.

So that's meeting in January.

If we haven't done it before, then um that's our last, that's our last thing.

We need to do that, and then we will be out of compliance with state law if we do not meet that deadline.

Um please know that we can have more of these study sessions to have all governing bodies at the same table for these discussions.

So if you are interested in scheduling another one, please reach out to city manager Paul Merzino, myself, Mayor Niemier.

Um, and we will certainly work with scheduling and get another one of these scheduled.

We have a lot of questions.

There's gonna be a hopefully early act early mid-October.

We'll get some more of these things uh details provided from those legislative bodies and peer, um, so we can continue to to make the best decision for workings.

I I would appreciate maybe having another one of these sessions, especially joint like this.

I know that for tonight we had as you mentioned, Bonnie, we had invited the um local elected officials that are uh at the state level of government that sort of set uh this bill um into motion, and then we also invited some of the um staff from the county to participate in order to help clarify some of those budget numbers that they weren't able to make it tonight if we're able to have them attend.

I think it would help provide a little more insight to some of the questions that we had, and maybe even if the public has any questions that that could be helpful as well.

So if we have that opportunity to host another one of these, especially maybe you know, a few weeks down the line once all of us have kind of sat with this information for a while and maybe uh invite those members to to participate next time.

I think that could be helpful.

So maybe a study session date in October or the last meeting of October, maybe what might be a good fit.

Um I'll start those conversations and see if we can find the date and time.

All right.

Wesh you have a comment or question?

Yeah, could you send the this the slide out to uh Dr.

Schultz and then she'll share with other board members?

I should have some things I took to note, but all that is uh um I just had one other thing, but I I agree with um Councilmember Tolkien Burn on having a joint session.

I know that we all have meetings at different times too, and so I just would want it to be a consideration to have the all people available to come, especially from the other entities.

It's okay if it's not just added on to a city council meeting, but if we have a separate time date and location that can work for the majority because I I do find value in that comprehensive discussion.

Um and I just want to thank you and your staff for working through this change, um, especially with little guidance that you have received.

I I know that can be really challenging and frustrating, so I appreciate you navigating and already having public discussions about this.

You're welcome.

I also think that's your it's enlightening for us, and obviously we've created more questions and we don't have all the answers anyway, but uh it's a good first round.

So um we are having a regular meeting next week on the uh 23rd.

Some of the items on there is uh temporary alcohol and uh consent agenda.

We've got student appreciation um association report.

Uh we also have presentation of food scrap recycling, and then uh we have one mid award to do for second phase and shared use pass on uh 20th.

Obviously, uh we have a couple of second meetings and then uh public hearing on uh alcohol transfer.

Uh another one flower shop, new med owners for medical cannabis.

Yes, we have a transfer on that.

And then uh with that being said, is uh is there any other items that uh council would like to have for future agenda items?

Second those in favor say aye.

Aye meeting adjourned.

I see they didn't got gas,