Joint Corporations Minutes

Draft Only

Approval Pending

of SUMMARY

P ROCEEDINGS J OINT CORPORATIONS, ELECTIONS & POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE

COMM ITTEE M EETING I NFORMATION July 12, 2011

Worland Community Center Worland, Wyoming 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

COMM ITTEE M EM BERS PRESENT Senator Cale Case, Cochairman Senator John Hines Senator Wayne Johnson Senator Charlie Scott Representative Gregg Blikre Representative James Byrd Representative Kendell Kroeker Representative John Patton Representative Tim Stubson

COMM ITTEE M EMBERS NOT PRESENT Representative Pete Illoway, Cochairman Senator Marty Martin Representative Allen Jaggi Representative Jim Roscoe Representative Lisa Shepperson

LEGISLATIVE SERVICE OFFICE STAFF Matt Obrecht, Staff Attorney Matt Sackett, Research Manager

The Committee Meeting Summary of Proceedings (meeting minutes) is prepared by the Legislative Service Office (LSO) and is the official record of the proceedings of a legislative committee meeting. This document does not represent a transcript of the meeting; it is a digest of the meeting and provides a record of official actions taken by the Committee. All meeting materials and handouts provided to the Committee by the Legislative Service Office, public officials, lobbyists, and the public are on file at the Legislative Service Office and are part of the official record of the meeting. An index of these materials is provided at the end of this document and these materials are on file at the Legislative Service Office. For more information or to review meeting materials, please contact the Legislative Service Office at (307) 777-7881 or by e-mail at [email protected]. The Summary of Proceedings for each legislative committee meeting can be found on the Wyoming Legislature’s website at http://legisweb.state.wy.us. PAGE 2 OF 6

OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT AT M EETING Senator Gerald Geis Representative Lorraine Quarberg Representative Elaine Harvey Representative Mike Greear Representative Rita Campbell Representative Mike Madden

Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Subcommittee Sign-in Sheet for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.

JOINT CORPORATIONS, ELECTIONS, & POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE Summary of Proceedings

WYOMING LEGISLATIVE SERVICE OFFICE • 213 State Capitol • Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002 TELEPHONE (307) 777-7881 • FAX 307-777-5466 • E-MAIL [email protected] • WEB SITE http://legisweb.state.wy.us PAGE 3 OF 6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The committee met in Worland to hear testimony regarding redistricting based on the 2010 census.

CALL TO ORDER Co-Chairman Cale Case called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic.

REDISTRICTING

Matt Obrecht and Matt Sackett, LSO staff, provided a presentation on the principals of redistricting. The basic principle of redistricting is one person one vote. To achieve that goal, legislative districts should fall within a standard deviation of no more than 10%. Mr. Obrecht explained the concepts of communities of interest and the requirements of the Voting Rights Act. He noted that political gerrymandering is when one party draws districts that do not meet redistricting principals in order to keep that party in office. Mr. Obrecht explained the legal constructs of redistricting and the following dominant redistricting principals. Districts should be contiguous, compact and should follow recognized geographic boundaries. Census blocks are the smallest geographic entity and cannot be split in a redistricting plan. Voting districts are a collection of census blocks put together by the Census Bureau with the input of the county clerks. The Wyoming constitutional requirement that each county be a separate district has been held null and void in violation of the one man one vote concept. Nested districts are house districts which fall completely within one senate district. Multimember districts are districts where more than one legislator is elected at large in a particular area. While this is not per se unconstitutional, it is very suspect under previous court analysis.

LSO staff explained the following principles previously adopted by the committee:

1. Election districts should be contiguous, compact and reflect a community of interest; 2. Population of election districts should be substantially equal, with the range of deviation not to exceed 10% ; 3. To the greatest extent possible, in establishing election districts: a. County boundaries should be followed; b. The majority of the population of each county should be in one district; c. Census blocks should be followed; 4. The plan should avoid diluting voting power of minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act; 5. The house shall have 60 seats and the senate shall have 30 seats; 6. Consideration should be given to two contiguous house districts in each senate district; and 7. Significant geographical features should be considered in establishing districts.

Mr. Sackett gave a presentation on how to navigate the link on the legislative website for private citizens to see the proposed plans and comment on them.

Chairman Case outlined the challenges the Committee was faced with as it under took the redistricting task. Chairman Case began with a statewide recap of certain redistricting issues and how to conform the new districts to the mandates of the courts and the adopted redistricting principles, and narrowed his focus to specific issues arising from redistricting in the Bighorn Basin. Chairman Case stated that the Bighorn Basin did not experience sufficient population growth to maintain three senate districts and six house

JOINT CORPORATIONS, ELECTIONS, & POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE Summary of Proceedings

districts wholly within the Basin. The Bighorn Basin would have to go outside of its boundaries to retrieve additional population to satisfy the "one man, one vote" principle.

Senator Scott noted that the Bighorn Basin must gain at least 329 people from an area of the state outside of the Basin to meet the bare minimum of population necessary to be within five percent below the ideal house and senate district size. Senator Scott stated that given the mountainous terrain southwest and east of the Basin, and with Montana to the north, and Yellowstone National Park to the west, the only logical place to receive that population was to the southeast in northeast Fremont County, specifically the Shoshoni area. However, Senator Scott stated that his desire would be to allow Fremont County the final determination on what area to allow the Bighorn Basin to represent.

COMMENTS ON REDISTRICTING

Rep. Greear stated that enhanced oil recovery would have a significant beneficial impact for the Bighorn Basin. Rep. Greear also discussed the possibility that an additional 8,000 to 10,000 acres may be irrigated in Washakie County, which may lead to population growth in that county. Rep. Greear is the only Bighorn Basin Legislator who currently represents a whole county, however, he realized this wasn't likely to remain the case given population trends. Rep. Greear stated his belief that the Manderson and Hyattville areas would work well in a House District with Washakie County.

Rep. Quarberg stated that the Bighorn Basin representatives' preferred redistricting plan would be to allow the Basin districts to exceed the five percent deviation threshold and to create districts with up to seven percent deviations below the ideal thereby allowing the Basin to remain intact. However, Rep. Quarberg stated she realized this was not likely to be the course taken by the Committee, so she discussed the possible areas where the Bighorn Basin may be able to gain additional population. Teton County and northwest Fremont County would not work because of a lack of access during the winter. Rep. Quarberg stated that she's had meetings with both Rep. Mike Madden in Johnson County and Rep. Rita Campbell in northeast Fremont County about the need for the Bighorn Basin to gain additional population. She stated that these conversations had been very polite and open. Rep. Quarberg stated that it made the most sense to get the needed population from northeast Fremont County.

Rep. Quarberg gave the Committee a handout of the current Bighorn Basin legislative districts and the population deviations of each district.

Rep. Rita Campbell expressed her concern that Fremont County was being fragmented into multiple legislative district which would not provide adequate representation to Fremont County. Chairman Case provided the Committee with some of the unique characteristics of Fremont County, which makes the task of redistricting Fremont County possibly more challenging than the remainder of the state.

Rep. Mike Madden discussed communities of interest in the Johnson/Sheridan Counties region. Rep. Madden expressed his belief that communities of interest would be better represented if Storey was moved into House District 30.

Former Representative Debbie Hammons stated that rural Wyoming counties were aware that they were losing population due to the consolidation of agricultural properties. This loss of population makes it even more imperative that the Committee carefully craft legislative districts in rural parts of the State to maximize the representation of those citizens of Wyoming. Ms. Hammons expressed her belief that given the agricultural nature of Shoshoni and the surrounding area, that area would fit better with a Bighorn Basin legislative district than other areas under consideration.

JOINT CORPORATIONS, ELECTIONS, & POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE Summary of Proceedings

Dan Neal, Equality State Policy Center, expressed his concern that certain members of the Committee expressed their belief that the only reason a legislative plan which deviates from the "one person, one vote" principle would be challenged in court was so that the State was forced to pay the prevailing parties attorneys' fees. Mr. Neal believes this statement casts greed as the true motivation of groups who challenge redistricting plans, rather than a true concern for the equal representation of Wyoming residents. Mr. Neal stated this is simply not the case.

Aaron Anderson, Washakie County Commissioner, discussed the communities of interest within the Bighorn Basin. Among those communities of interest was the development of a regional landfill. Commissioner Anderson discussed the unique characteristic of the Bighorn Basin and the possibility of an oil boom in the Basin given the enhanced oil recovery potential in the Basin.

Rep. Harvey asked the Committee to leave the Basin intact. She stated that she helps people who live in the Basin, but don't live within her district. She noted that even though the town of Burlington is not in her district, she receives many calls from people who live there because the majority of that school district is in her legislative district. Rep. Harvey stated that each of the Bighorn Basin Legislators has their own unique area of expertise and she will refer constituents with a certain problem or concern to another legislator within the Basin. Rep. Harvey asked the Committee to consider an exception from the minus five percent population deviation for the Basin.

MEETING ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Co-Chairman Cale Case adjourned the meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cale Case, Co-Chairman

JOINT CORPORATIONS, ELECTIONS, & POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE Summary of Proceedings

Committee Meeting

Materials Index

Appendix Appendix Item Appendix Description Appendix Provider

1 Committee Sign-In Sheet Lists meeting attendees Legislative Service Office

JOINT CORPORATIONS, ELECTIONS, & POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE Summary of Proceedings