Chair’s Column

• The AG had nothing to offer.
  • He is short staffed.  The Department of Justice has no entity it can send to assume the law enforcement task.
  • The Highway Patrol has legal restrictions that stop them from taking on the job unless the Legislature alters those restrictions.
  • All of the agencies including the Highway Patrol are extremely short on personnel.  
    • Even if granted funding and permission, it would take years to get up to speed with specialized training and personnel. 
    • As with the entire State, it isn’t just the money–it is finding housing and paying a salary that will entice people to stay once trained.
    • DCI handles the most horrible crimes across the State (murder, sexual abuse of a child, etc,.).  They have only 5 attorneys.  (Staff, staff, staff….)
• The AG said the County should continue to carry the weight of the State and the Feds burden and, in the next legislative session, the Legislature should propose funding and the Governor “would sign it.”
  
  • Faith in the governor’s signing given his veto of the Bill in the last session smacked of relying on “hope” and was, understandably, not well received.  
  • “Hope” is not a plan, of course, but it sums up the entirety of all the AG could offer (through no fault of his own). 

CONCLUSION/SUMMARY:  Everyone thanked AG Knudsen for showing up in person with his staff.  After years of unresponsiveness from Helena, his attendance was gratefully appreciated by everyone.

• From the State, it is clear that those who could help won’t, and those that would (AG Knudsen) can’t.
• After the Bill in the last legislature was vetoed, the notion that Gianforte would approve the next one seems either wishful thinking or a bad joke. 
  • Perhaps the Governor was politically embarrassed by his veto; perhaps he met his promise to unspecified constituencies.  Not knowing means his actions the next time around are equally difficult to predict, and claiming otherwise is, again, wishful thinking.  
  • In the interim, Lake County is left paying for an obligation identified by a judge and agreed to by the AG as a State responsibility.
• The possibility of a special session of the Legislature to discuss this issue and a few others was held out by Representative Read as well as the AG. 
  • Again we’re talking ‘maybes,’ ‘ifs‘ and ‘perhaps‘; nothing solid.
• One approach mentioned by the Commissioners in a previous meeting was to withdraw but put forth a decree/resolution/statement that says they will continue, under duress and to protect the citizens of Lake County, to operate as if they haven’t withdrawn.  Lake County would then bill the State for expenses incurred.
  • The Legislature would then meet in 2025 and devise a Bill to address the issue of funding, retroactively refund the County, and put yet another Bill on the desk of the Governor to establish long term funding.  (And then “hope” he signs it.)   
• No credible way forward was determined during this meeting; no innovative ideas or concepts came forth.
  • It appears the inertia right now is to remain stationary, fear monger about how awful things will be if we abandon PL 280, and to suggest there are really no significant costs to Lake County taxpayers after all.  
• As of today, 29 April 2024, Lake County is on its own.  Status quo.  

   Here is the report authored by Bruce Cartwright, Chair of the Legislative Committee, that we discussed at the TIGER TEAM meeting today.  I forward this to you to get you thinking about our committee for this next session and lessons learned.  This is not a front burner issue right now, but we had some good ideas pop up today on how to do this better once the time comes.  

   We will re-attack this topic a bit further down the road.  

 

Thanks,

Tracy

April 24, 2024