Study commission to ask Secretary of State whether proposed fire ballot structure is allowable

The Butte-Silver Bow Study Commission voted unanimously May 11 to send its draft ballot language on fire services to the Montana Secretary of State for review, after the county attorney warned that state law limits how volunteer fire departments can be removed from a charter.

County attorney Matt Enruth told commissioners that a statute governing form-of-government ballot questions requires a primary adoption-or-retain question and that, under the firefighters section, "we cannot have option 1 and option 2. We have to have a for adoption option or for retaining the existing form option," a point he said Dan Clark of the MSU Law Center confirmed during a call earlier that day.

Commissioners spent more than an hour debating options that had been developed by a fire subcommittee: a proposal to remove volunteer fire departments and let them operate independently under state law, a proposal to consolidate all fire protection under a unified BSB fire department, and the option to retain the current charter language. Multiple commissioners expressed frustration that the legal constraints narrowed choices they had thought possible after 18 months of outreach.

The motion to forward a structural question to the Secretary of State was made by Commissioner Ben Thelen and seconded by Commissioner Chad Silk; the board approved the motion by roll call (Miss McCormack, Miss Shaw, Commissioner Silk, Commissioner Dennehy, Commissioner Stepin, Commissioner Thielen, Miss Casey and the chair voted aye). The vote sends the commission's proposed three-option structure (adopt a specified change, retain existing charter language, or the detailed consolidation wording) to the Secretary of Statefor a determination whether it meets state law and ballot-format requirements.

Supporters said getting the Secretary of State's guidance quickly was necessary to meet timing deadlines and to avoid wasted work if the office later rejected the format. Commissioner Cindy Purdue Dolan said she wanted the commission to solicit additional input from career and volunteer fire stakeholders before finalizing the exact ballot wording, but agreed that a Secretary of State review of the structure would inform that process.

Enruth said more detailed provisions (for example, whether a volunteer coordinator or specific budget procedures should be spelled out) could be added later if the structural question was cleared. "Any ambiguity won't work" when asking to remove volunteers from the charter, Enruth said, noting the statute's protections for volunteer departments.

The commission asked Enruth to contact the Secretary of State's office immediately and said it will reconvene May 18 to review the office's guidance and to finish drafting language if needed.