Hot Tempers At School Board Redistricting Meeting

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  May 6 2015. Tempers flared Wednesday, May 6, at a public hearing on school district reapportionment as some county residents realized the Utah State Law for school boards gave them no options but to follow the law as written.

The law requires districts with total population under 10,000 people to have 5 school board members from equally sized districts based on population as determined by the last federal census (2010).  This redistricting must be done at least every ten years.  Rich County has not been redistricted in over 16 years and thus is in violation of Utah law.  The Attorney General and the Lt. Governor both have instructed the county to move quickly to correct this violation or the state would do it.

The county formed a 15 member committee who were tasked to create 5 districts of approximately 453 people (the ideal equal size, based on county population).  There were 2264 people in Rich County in the 2010 census.  In small apportionments, courts have sometimes allowed as much as a 10% variation from the ideal size (as opposed to a 1% variation in a congressional district), but this variation size is not law.  Variations that exceed the 10% figure are generally challenged in court and are seldom approved.   Census blocks cannot be dissected. The districts should be contiguous if possible.  

Because the current population distribution in Rich County is so different than that currently being used, the changes this time will be dramatic.  Reapportionment will almost certainly add another school board member from the Garden City region and take away one from the Randolph area.  As the Utah Code describes the change process, during the transition the school board will add members for new, unrepresented districts but allow elected members of old consolidated districts to finish their terms, some of whom will be “At-Large” members. 

Rick Larsen, Principal of Rich High School, asked, “Are there really 824 people in the Garden City area?   Are they cooking the books?  If there are that many then we have to do it.”   (Editor’s note:  It is a federal crime to falsify the U.S. Census and the last date to challenge the 2010 census data was June, 2013)

By law, for this reapportionment census population numbers are the only way to divide, not student numbers and not geography. “Bottom line, we didn’t do our job of redistricting in 2000,” said Commissioner Bill Cox.  He said he had even gone to the legislature to see if the law could be changed, but they were not interested.

Pete Cornia, current school board president, said, “If you want to change the law you can’t do it after the census is done.”

Larsen again said, “I don’t believe the census numbers”, but produced no evidence for his assertion.

Cox said, “I don’t care if you like them or not, we have to follow the law.”

Burdette Weston said, “This would put our school board in turmoil by putting three members in the same district. We would lose two these individuals with the reapportionment described.  The legislators don’t listen to us unless they trust us, so new members won’t have the same relationship that the old members have.   We don’t have the same people who know the people.”

“What are we doing to the kids?” said Lori Frandson.  “Would we be doing it if someone from Garden City hadn’t brought this up?   We are going to have to make a change in four years anyway.”

Denny Rex suggested that the county leave it as it is for four years or fix it so that same board members could stay.   He continued, “It is not a population board it is a school board!”

Rick Larsen asked if the county could file a law suit.  “What can we do if people lied on the census?”  It was pointed out by Sheriff Stacey that it is a federal crime to falsify information on the census.

Eric Wamsley asked, “in four years will it be a race to see which community fills out the most census forms?”

Cox said, “ours is a difficult population to count because of so many secondary homes.   There were also 10% who refused to fill out the census because they don’t like the infringement of their privacy.”

Tammy Calder, a member of the redistricting committee, said, “we have worked every scenario possible and this is the best we could come up with.”

Andy Stokes said that if he ran for school board even though he is from Garden City he would represent everyone and feels everyone else would too.

“Why doesn’t the law allow for four districts and one at-large person?” asked Dale Lamborn, Rich County School superintendent. 

Cox replied, “That was our first choice as a committee, the problem is that the law does not allow it.”  Cox said he argued with the law with the attorney general’s office, the Lt. Governor, and the legislature but none wanted to address it.

Burdette Weston said, “we learned a lesson from the census.  In four years this will change again and we lose board continuity.”

Some people suggested changes that would keep existing board members in their seats.  That is not possible, given the law, but the Utah Code would allow elected board members to stay on the board until their term ends, regardless of reapportionment.  It would create a temporary increase in board size.

Superintendent  Dale Lamborn thinks that it must be a difference of 10%  of the whole total rather than a 10% difference  from the ideal  district population of 453.  Several people questioned the math.  Editor’s note:  Superintendent Lamborn is wrong.  The 10% variance from ideal is not law, but has been allowed by the courts in some instance, as a maximum.  However, the possible variance is based on the ideal district size, not the total size of Rich County.

Lamborn wants Meadowville and Round Valley to be in the Laketown area not the Garden City area.  Someone called out, “yes! Don’t give Garden City anything!  If this is decided why are we having this meeting”?  Cox said, “it is a hoop we have to jump through., having a public meeting.”

Another person said, “Well then, we can say that the census is really wrong.  There is no way the Garden City area has over 850 people in it.  The biggest problem is the inaccuracy of the census.   How can it be amended?”

At this point former Garden City Mayor Ken Hansen stood up.  “Five years ago Garden City was providing services to over 850 people, 550 in Garden City proper and over 300 in the out area.  The two LDS Wards have over 650 people right now, and there are other indicators that the census numbers are correct”.

“Garden City currently has 38% of school children. The census says 37% so it was spot on children in the census,” said Andy Stokes. 

Finally, tempers cooled and the crowd of about 30 people thanked Commissioner Cox and the members of the redistricting committee for their work.

The redistricting information can be found at  http://www.richcountyut.org/