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Montana bill would let county commissioners seek court orders to force special-district boards to follow meeting and rate rules
Summary
Representative Steve Gist told the Senate Local Government Committee HB68 pairs training requirements with a new enforcement tool — a writ of mandamus and recall pathway — to compel publicly funded special-district boards that ignore open-meeting, notice or rate-change duties to comply.
Representative Steve Gist, sponsor of House Bill 68, told the Senate Local Government Committee that the bill pairs earlier training and transparency efforts with a new enforcement mechanism for publicly funded special-district boards. "Definition of written mandamus is a court order that compels a government official or entity to perform a legal duty or refrain from doing an illegal action," Gist said, explaining the remedy the bill would make available to county commissioners.
The bill is framed as the "stick" to complement House Bill 32's "carrot" of training…
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