Date: 08/17/2016
Location: HCR 0112

Votes: View-->	Action Taken:
Senator Holbert moved to request a bill draft to r	PASS

09:56 AM -- 5c. Repeal of obsolete reapportionment laws

09:57 AM -- Kate Meyer shared that during the OLLS publications process, in preparing title 2 for publications, she encountered pages and pages of outdated census tracts. Until the mid-1970s, it was the duty of the General Assembly to draw district boundaries for the state's house and senate districts. There was a citizen initiative on the ballot in 1974 that divested the General Assembly of this duty and placed it with the Reapportionment Commission, which is where the power resides today. The Commission meets decennially to draw the districts. What's in law right now, pertaining to reapportionment, are districts that existed following the 1970 census. There have been many censuses conducted since then and the statutes laying out these districts are woefully out of date and are really clogging up the statutes. If the Committee were to approve a draft bill repealing this obsolete statute, there are some general provisions that would also be repealed.

Ms. Meyer suggested that it would be appropriate to do wholesale repeal of parts 1 and 2 of title 2, C.R.S., to remove the obsolete district boundaries from statute.

Senator Steadman asked whether the repealed provisions should be replaced with a placeholder, for instance a reference to the Reapportionment Commission.

Ms. Meyer noted that because the duty to reapportion the districts is found in the Colorado Constitution, in article V, and it would be unnecessary to have a provision in the statutes. She suggested that OLLS staff could add an editor's note in the C.R.S. that directs readers looking for information about districts to article V of the Colorado constitution.

Senator Steadman approved of the idea of inserting an editor's note and noted that it was a tool the Committee could use in the future as well.

Jennifer Gilroy, Revisor of Statutes, was asked to comment on the publications process. She agreed that the addition of explanatory editor's notes would be useful and explained that editor's notes are an editorial part, not an official part, of the statutes to help reader's better understand the law. She explained that if the Committee recommended editor's notes that the Publication team would follow through with that request.

Senator Steadman added that he would not want to see the Committee adopting motions requiring editor's notes--that it would be better for the Committee to discuss the inclusion of editor's notes and then trust the OLLS staff to know how exactly to see it through.

Vice-Chairperson Dore then asked Ms. Gilroy about the location of editor's notes. Ms. Gilroy explained that they typically follow at the end of the statute, though they are sometimes placed strategically in the middle of a statute. Vice-Chairperson Dore added that while he agreed with Senator Steadman about not dictating the wording of editor's notes to OLLS staff, that it would be useful to have the notes explain in a clear way how the statute was changed.

Chairperson Moreno asked Ms. Meyer about the state house districts in the statute, since they closely track how the district looks today. He added that the Reapportionment Commission may use historic districts when making decisions about district boundaries and asked where the information existed outside of statute and whether repealing the obsolete districts could potentially be taking away a resource of the Commission.

Ms. Meyer explained that this information could be found in the records of the Colorado Supreme Court, where the Reapportionment Commission files its plans after adoption. She also said that she believes copies are also held at the secretary of state's office.

Chairperson Moreno added that he thought the editor's notes would be helpful--especially in this case, where the editor's note could reassure the public that the Committee hadn't removed from the General Assembly the power to make districts.

Senator Kerr asked if most of the Colorado Constitution was reiterated in statute--or whether this particular issue was an exception.

Ms. Meyer responded that, as far she knew, most of the constitution was not repeated in statute. She suggested that the overlap, in this particular case, existed because the General Assembly did, at one time, have the power to draw those districts.

BILL:	5c. Repeal of obsolete reapportionment laws
TIME:	09:59:02 AM
MOVED:	Holbert
MOTION:	Senator Holbert moved to request a bill draft to repeal obsolete laws pertaining to state senatorial and representative districts, parts 1 and 2 of title 2. The motion passed on a vote of 8-0.
SECONDED:	Arndt
		VOTE
	Arndt	Yes
	Dore	Yes
	Holbert	Yes
	Kerr	Yes
	Steadman	Yes
	Tate	Yes
	Thurlow	Yes
	(None), (None)
	Moreno	Yes
FINAL YES: 8 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS