Evidently the Pony Express isn’t fast enough for special county commission meetings anymore. District 28B Representative Sam Marty, who lives a fair walk from civilization in Prairie “City”, proposes House Bill 1052, which would amend statute to allow the county auditor or commission chair (and LRC takes a moment here to strike “-man” from that term in statute, earning Marty a #MeToo point) to call or e-mail or text or FaceTime commissioners to get their fannies to the courthouse for a special meeting. HB 1052’s telecommunicational notice would not replace written notice; the auditor or commission chair would still have to put notice in the mail at least three days before the special meeting.
HB 1052 doesn’t appear to do any harm… but I wonder: (1) is it necessary? and (2) if it is, does it go far enough?
First, have any county commissioners missed a special meeting because their three-day notice took too long to reach them? The statute it revises (SDCL 7-8-14) already includes an emergency clause allowing the county to send commissioners one day’s notice by telephone. An “emergency” meeting arises from “an unforeseen occurrence or combination of circumstances that calls for immediate action or remedy,” and that could be applied to pretty much anything that would prompt commissioners to come to town ahead of schedule. Conservative Rep. Marty should know that if there’s a way to achieve our goals without passing laws, we shouldn’t pass laws.
Calling or e-mailing an instant notice beats having to print a letter, lick a stamp, and toss five envelopes in the mail. But note that HB 1052 doesn’t obviate that expense; the HB 1052 call/e-mail/SnapChat is only “in addition to,” not “in place of,” the required letter. Conservative Rep. Marty is missing a chance to save counties money by making the mailing requirement optional or striking it completely. He’s also missing a chance to modernize the emergency meeting notice: HB 1052 has the good sense to allow telephonic or electronic communications for regular special sessions, but an emergency meeting notice still has to be by telephone. Why not amend that clause as well to allow texts or e-mails? No one picks up the phone anymore; if we have to have HB 1052, amend it to make clear that all those notices can be sent by whatever telecommunicative tools the auditor or chair has available.
“a fair walk from civilization” – outstanding emotional word picture
Rep. Marty does live on a ranch in the beautiful boonies of the Slim Buttes and most of the folks out there regularly use wifi to communicate. I think it’s a good idea. Population density out there is “square miles per person.”
The question of why not replace the USPS mail requirement is a good one. Sam and neighbors don’t get mail delivery daily. I think it’s 3 days per week. They can email everyone possible, call the others by phone and print a hard copy of the email for the physical record if necessary.
Anybody else think the whole statute needs a lot of re-thinking. I’d rather have county commissions meet once per month, rather than deal with “emergency sessions.” That way every citizen is clear about when these meetings are and “emergency meetings” aren’t available for hiding business from citizens. The need for an “emergency meeting” only happens because the statute is horse and buggyish in terms of meeting dates. Envisioning 4 meetings per year seems quaint and antiquated. If a county commission doesn’t have enough business to do in these 12 meetings, how about consolidating the counties, or, alternatively, they can just cancel the meeting with 3 days notice.
I wondered about the regularity of mail service there, Debbo. It is beautiful country, but I’m not sure I’d want to have to cover it six days a week in a mail truck.
Donald, I’m willing to allow emergency sessions of any governing body. Stuff does happen. Consider Marshall County: when the sheriff gets decertified by the state, the county probably needs to meet right away and establish who’s in charge… although now that I think about it, don’t they have a succession protocol putting a chief deputy in charge?
I suppose we could obviate the need for any emergency meeting by having a county manager, akin to the city manager.