Check in.

Can Commissioners please check in?

I think we have everybody.

I'd like to call the Butte Silver Bowl Council Commissioners special meeting for Friday, March thirteenth, twenty twenty-six to order.

Clerk, could we please have a roll call?

Ten present, two absent.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, not mine, because I'm sorry, Commissioner Mankins here.

Commissioner O'Neill, Commissioner Walker, and yeah.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Thatcher, could you lead us in the prayer on the pledge?

Almighty God, we implore you.

Look upon us and guide us this night as we make decisions which so greatly affect our community of Beauty Silverboat.

Director Thoughts, words, and deeds, so that we please you and best serve our fellow citizens.

Amen.

Um because the next item was supposed to be public comment on any item on the agenda, but both items have been pulled from the agenda tonight, so there's no items on tonight's agenda, and I'm going to explain that in the chief executives report.

So why we're here tonight is that there was a uh resolution to take all of the local elections and remove them from the ballot that was submitted by clerk and recorder, Cindy Sherman.

She has rescinded that tonight.

Um the second resolution that was on there, then we pulled that back off because then the then the council members don't have to take action to try to put the the language back on the ballot as well.

So I just kind of want to give you some history on that.

Um clerk and recorder Sherman, she was going through what Montana saw um state law allowed her to do, but um she she was working with other clerk and recorders that said, you know, if you only have two people that are on a ballot issue, um they're gonna go forward anyhow, so there's no need for them to to have a a primary election.

But as we know, and um and I want to say that nobody in this group here had any making of that decision, and and it wasn't that she did it out of ill intent, but didn't talk to us about whether we should have the primary or not.

And so as it came to light on Wednesday, that's when we knew that we had to deal with the issue of are we going to have the local election or not, to let people vote just whether the the two if they're unopposed or if they have two in that election are moving forward.

So it wasn't that the clerk and recorder was trying to do anything that was out of line, but I think that she didn't understand you know the necessity and what the what the public wanted to do, and I think what this body wanted to do as well.

Um I think people want to go and they want to vote for their representation in local government, and I think it's important that way.

And so since then we've advised the clerk and recorder of that, but um her by her putting the resolution, she wasn't doing it to try to cause controversy within the within the county.

It's her first major election that she really had, and so she was getting some advice from other clerk and recorders around the state that there was no need to do that.

So I wanted to let everyone know that what what happened was there, but both of the resolutions have been pulled.

So we don't have any action to take on tonight's special meeting.

And so when I call for this special meeting, although it says JP Gallagher, Chief Executive is calling for a special meeting in the But Council Commissioners Friday 13th at 5 p.m.

for the council in the council chambers, room 312 to require the election administration to hold the local primary election.

All of that is off the table.

So what I will say, so we've called for the meeting, the resolutions are gone, so now what we will allow is public comment on any items not on the agenda.

So if public would like to come forward and talk and just say their piece about that, we have a lot of people in here, so I am gonna ask ask to limit it to three minutes so that the public can speak to us about their feelings about what happened.

That that's totally appropriate and fine.

We'll allow that to happen, but the election is going to go on.

The uh local elections will be on the primary election, everybody will be on the ballot.

So just so you know that will happen.

But if you'd like to come forward and speak on items not on the agenda because those have been pulled off, now is the time for you to do that.

Just to clarify one more time, this is items not on the agenda.

Perfect.

Ready for Oz 2000 Roberts Avenue.

Shilly Shindig is Monday night at six, right across the street.

I hope to see everyone there.

It's gonna be super fun.

All the candidates are bringing their own chilles.

It's gonna be sweet.

We're gonna have so much fun.

Pinatas.

So uh hope to see y'all there.

And thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Frost.

Welcome.

There's a hey, just a brief comment.

Thank you.

Uh to the good will from the uh council and just the um uh what's what is the term?

The the the clarification that this is not being done in bad faith.

That is a great reassurance to myself and I believe a lot of us here.

I think that's why we have so many people here because of the energy of this election cycle, right?

It's a lot of people paying a lot of attention and on an uh council meeting where there was very short notice.

Uh look how many people showed up.

So we're watching and we appreciate your efforts in good faith.

Could I get your name and address, please?

Sorry, there you go.

Yeah, my name is Eric Olberg.

My address is 223 Locust Street in Anaconda, Montana.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Denise Kelly, 107 Candidate Creek Drive.

And I I have an issue.

Two weeks ago I called Cindy Sherman, and for one, she didn't call me back, so I called her again, and she told me I wanted something on the ballot in June, and she said, I can't do that.

First of all, you need 3,500 signatures.

I said that won't be a problem because this is about the data center who I adamant what I adamantly oppose.

And then she told me, well, I have my ballot done, and I can't get it.

I you can't add it now.

And I want to know if that's true.

We can't answer questions.

This is only public comment.

Well, I want to know if someone could call me back.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chief.

Um yeah, my name is Pat Mundy, 723 West Daly Street in Walkerville.

And I just would like to uh put in a plug for how important primaries are.

So even if it's an uncontested primary for a local or a state race, it plays to letting us all as voters take some time to make the best decision.

It achieves voter education by letting that involvement stretch out over more time.

And it emphasizes the role of our responsibility as voters.

So thank you all very much, and and thanks, Chief, for calling the meeting.

Thank you, Mr.

Monday.

Hi.

One more.

Hit it again.

I don't think it went.

There you go.

There you go.

There we go.

Okay.

My name is Jess Leducer, 1946 Elm here in Butte.

As someone who works for a statewide election, I work for Russell Cleveland.

Having the primary like local candidates taken out of Butte will deter people to go vote for state elections.

So I appreciate you all for still opening that up and giving the people a reason to go out and vote.

Because every vote matters.

Thank you, Ms.

Leducer.

Sorry.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

My name is Connie Thompson.

I live at 53 Kenyan Street in District 4.

I'm very grateful that this has apparently already been settled.

Because even though it was true that there are not a lot of candidates running in the non-pipartisan races at this time, and some are even uncontested.

Canceling an election would eliminate the option for voters to write in a candidate of their choice.

And the voting and election processes are not intuitive to everyone.

And even regular consistent voters can be thrown off by a change.

And I am absolutely certain that some voters would have heard the prior local primaries are canceled and interpreted that as the primaries are canceled locally.

And they would have either stayed home on June 2nd or ignored the ballot sent to them in the mail.

Democracy's roots are in these local elections.

It's so important.

And at this point in history, canceling an election at any point is a bad call.

I moderate a private Facebook group of concerned citizens, and I posted about this yesterday as soon as I found out.

And within 24 hours, 38 individuals had commented or reacted, voicing their concern.

So the people of Butte Silverbow are watching and are grateful.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hi, my name's Diane Lane Snyder, and I work or I live at 612 Hobson.

I want to thank you for holding this meeting.

I'm glad that the resolutions are gone.

I've been kind of a barren hibernation.

And I have not posted anything on Facebook, and this brought me out of hibernation.

So I'm glad to hear it's done and over with.

And it sounds like all of you guys were against it, so I appreciate that.

We have the SAVE Act that just got passed, right?

So people are going to be wondering how to vote.

This election in June is going to be kind of a trial run for people.

Do I have to go buy a passport that's gonna cost me $150 because the name on my marriage license is different, and my driver's license is different than what's on my birth certificate?

So I don't have a passport.

We got to know these things, and this is gonna be a trial run.

And my other comment is if Denise Kelly had called two weeks ago to ask about putting an initiative on the ballot for the SABE Center and was told no, the ballots were done.

How in God's name were we gonna have time then to take the local elections off of the ballot?

That seems a little bit wishwashy to me.

So um I'm fired up, haven't been fired up for a bit, or I've kept it quiet, but the bear is out of hibernation.

Um I do want to tell you all thank you for opening it up, and I'm grateful that this is off the ballot.

Thank you.

On the ballot.

Hi, my name is AJ Brown.

I'm with District 9.

We came and talked about a task force three weeks ago.

We have emailed you all.

We haven't gotten a response back specifically, JP.

We'd love to work with you.

We want to work with you, we want to collaborate with you guys.

This is an opportunity that we are trying as citizens.

Everybody in Butte Strong, stand up.

Please answer our emails.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Shay 900 and uh North Browns Gulch Road, uh chief executive, members of the council.

I appreciate you meeting here today.

I also appreciate you calling this order of the meeting.

Um, because had you not, we probably wouldn't never have known that this was going to happen.

My only concern is going forward, if this was to happen again, it sets a precedent for what could happen, say this time next year.

Um, so I hope that this gets revisited at some point in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Lisa Farino, 434 Cowpoke Trail Ramsey.

I just wanted to uh clarify one thing that was mentioned earlier.

The Save America Act did not pass.

Uh it passed in the House, and it is up in the Senate, but it has not passed yet.

It's just important for people to realize that.

Uh we are uh many of us oppose it uh very vigorously, but uh what I wanted to say is that um this year voting is just so much on our minds that we wake up every day and think about the elections.

That's how much it is on some of our minds.

November 5th is the most important day of the year this year for me, and so June 2nd is the second most important day of the year.

So that's that's pretty much all I wanted to say.

Thank you so much for supporting this election.

Thanks.

Thank you.

My name is Julie Crowley.

I live on two nine zero one Harvard Avenue, and I too just want to extend my great gratitude for removing these resolutions.

I couldn't wait to vote when I turned 18.

I have never missed an election since.

That includes the school board elections, every one of them.

I know what the women did for my right to vote, and it is very important to me.

So I just want to thank you and remind you this is our 250 year anniversary.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Seeing that there's no other public comment, I I do want to thank the participation, and I understand you know, people's concerns when this came up came about.

As I said earlier, I I want to make sure that that people understand that I I do not think the clerk and recorder had any ill intent as she canceled this.

I think she was ill advised from other maybe smaller communities that when they run elections they haven't had this and understand the importance of of what local elections mean.

And on Wednesday, as we got together, it was immediately addressed that we were going to call this meeting to overturn and it and not to, you know, we we want to work together with our elected officials and how they they operate their officers, and it's not to oversee her.

And I don't think her intent as we talked to that was what was happening here.

And so I don't want people to to go out and say that our clerk and recorder is against the people here.

On other issues that were brought up, I think uh I will have a conversation with her about about some things that they're going on.

But um I want you to know that the integrity of elections is is utmost of importance to us and the bit everybody's ability to get out and vote and know that their vote counts.

And as we know that local elections drive people showing up, right?

They they they care about because we are the closest.

These elections are the closest to the people.

So we understand that.

So I want to uh I want you to know your voices have been heard.

Uh nobody nobody here is here to repress the vote, and so it we took action immediately, and that's why we had this meeting tonight.

So thank you all for being here tonight.

And so with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

So move.