Park County’s new assessor was formally sworn into office last week, but the debate over how he came to be selected appears far from over.

Local Republicans pointed fingers at one another during an occasionally chippy Thursday night meeting, while Wyoming lawmakers are now considering a revamp of the way that vacant elected offices are filled.

When a county official leaves their position mid-term, state law tasks their local party with forwarding three potential replacements to the county commissioners. So when Republican Assessor Pat Meyer retired at the end of December, the Park County Republican Party issued an open call for applicants and then voted on their top three picks. However, after Party Chairman Martin Kimmet informed the commissioners that the party had made multiple errors, they decided to take no action and effectively turn the decision over to a judge.

District Judge Dawnessa Snyder of Rawlins ultimately passed over the party’s three nominees and picked a longtime staffer in the assessor’s office, Terry Call, who had fared poorly in the GOP voting.

Legislation now pending in the state House would remove judges from the process and instead send the decision back to the party if commissioners fail to act on the nominees.

What went wrong

The Park County Republican Party’s process got off to a bad start when it advertised the wrong email address for applications, nearly causing one candidate to miss out. More problems cropped up when the party began voting on the six applicants. 

In the initial “primary” round, central committee members were required to vote for their top five candidates. Call wound up finishing sixth — coming in one vote behind fifth-place finisher Paul Lanchbury, 56-55 — and was eliminated.

However, the results were wrong: While there should have been 420 votes within the results — 84 ballots times five votes apiece — only 417 were reflected on the tally sheet.

Although precinct committeeman Colin Simpson informally questioned the count, Kimmet misunderstood the concern and Simpson never brought an objection to the body. It was only days later that the error was sorted out, after precinct committeewoman Brandi Nelson requested a recount. She, Kimmet and fellow committeewoman Jodie Thompson ultimately determined that three ballots had been miscounted.

Two ballots contained votes for only four candidates and should have been voided, as the rules required each member to vote for five, Nelson said. However, even after those ballots were excluded from the results, Lanchbury remained one vote ahead of Call, 55 to 54.

The real problem was that a valid vote for Call had simply been missed in the count, Nelson said — meaning the two candidates had actually tied at 54; they should have faced off in a tie-breaker to determine who would advance to the second round. Lanchbury went on to nearly take the third nomination before finishing fourth.

Standing by his decision

After consulting with Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Kimmet decided to present the problems to the commissioners. Citing concerns how the errors might have impacted the process, commissioners voted unanimously to have a judge pick a candidate. Kimmet and the commissioners have since come under fire from some in the party.

At Thursday’s meeting, Kimmet noted the Republican Party has long advocated for hand counting and transparency.

“... I will stand by what I did,” he said of the recount and notifying the commissioners, “because for me, it was what the policy dictated me to do.”

Kimmet added that, “there was 85 people in this room, and it was incumbent on all of us to [say something] if we questioned something with that vote …”

He’s heard comments that the party’s executive board “should have caught that,” but said he would take the blame as “the captain of the ship.”

Later in the meeting, Park County Republican Party State Committeeman Vince Vanata defended himself and the other board members, saying they had “no input” into the process. He said Kimmet didn’t meet with the other officers until an hour-and-a-half before the Jan. 9 meeting.

Vanata, Ferguson and precinct committeeman Troy Bray have all charged that Kimmet lacked the authority to conduct a recount, saying the candidates were settled once the meeting ended without objections.

“If, as a body, we had chosen to play a game of Rock Paper Scissors Lizzard Spock to select them, when we adjourned, those individuals were our selection, and met the legal requirements. Period,” Bray wrote on Facebook last month.

Ferguson said Thursday that any concerns about the vote should have been dealt with by the body.

“I wish somebody had raised a formal objection that night, and we could have actually had a recount. It would have been an appropriate recount,” Ferguson said, “but that’s not what happened.”

Vanata sought to question Kimmet about the authority he had to conduct the recount, but the chairman said they could argue terminology all day.

“Next month, there’s an election,” Kimmet said, referring to the party’s internal officer elections, “and if the people in this room don’t like what I did, then they can choose a different person to run this ship.”

Kimmet later sought to move on to the “positive things” being done in the Legislature, but the body soon returned to the assessor debate.

Fight over the minutes

As they considered the minutes from the Jan. 9 meeting, committeewoman Stephanie Bell moved to insert the vote totals, but that request was rejected on a split vote.

Although the tally sheets were available for anyone to look at, Ferguson said the party’s officers had made a conscious decision to not announce the results at the January meeting, “because we did not want to give the commissioners any order of voting for the three candidates.”

Also during the minute discussion, committeewoman Barb Luthy asserted that three of the executive committee members — Vice Chair Ferguson, State Committeewoman Karen Jones and Treasurer Renee Allphin — shouldn’t have been allowed to vote because they’re not elected precinct committee members. However, Kimmet rejected that argument, saying a parliamentarian had ruled they were eligible.

The discussion got heated at times. At one point, Meyer, the former assessor and a precinct committeeman, rose to say that he wanted to clarify some things.

“It came to my attention that you guys really had no clue what the assessor’s job was. I mean, no clue whatsoever,” said Meyer, who had wanted Call to replace him.

Meyer’s remarks drew some complaints from committee members and Vanata, who was speaking at the time, told Meyer he was out of order. Later, Kimmet asked Vanata to wrap up his remarks.

A legislative change?

This isn’t the first time that a county commission and a county party have gotten crossways over an appointment, and the Wyoming Legislature is considering a change.

HB 176 would remove judges from the process and have the decision revert to the party if commissioners don’t pick from the three nominees.

At a House Appropriations Committee meeting on Thursday, lead sponsor Rep. Laurie Bratten (R-Sheridan) said she’s spoken with several district court judges who’ve all said they don’t like the current process.

“Inserting those judges into a partisan fight between county boards and county parties is very unfair to them,” Bratten said, “and they would rather not be put in this position.”

Secretary Gray is reportedly in full support of the measure, but the Wyoming County Commissioners Association is opposed.

The association’s executive director, Jerimiah Rieman, said commissioners are concerned about the lack of a uniform process among county parties.

“And there’s a building concern that there are a lot of, ‘if you know the secret handshake, then you might get the appointment,’ or at least a recommendation to the board of county commissioners,” Rieman said, “and that troubles them.”

He also noted that the last two county officials who were appointed by judges wound up being elected by voters in the next election, and he predicted that Call will “have a long career” in Park County.

“The process is working as it stands right now and we don’t see that there is a serious need for this legislation to move forward,” Rieman said.

Gail Symons of Sheridan also opposed the bill, arguing in part that parties might not be accountable to the people and would lead to increased partisanship.

Vanata, however, testified in favor of the bill, saying the change would make for an efficient and fair process and remove judges who are supposed to be nonpartisan.

He told the committee that Judge Snyder’s decision to appoint Call was “contrary to what the intent was of the party.”

The Park County Republican Party didn’t take an official position on HB 167 at the meeting, but it appeared that a majority of the central committee supported it, as they voted to consider a resolution Vanata wrote endorsing the legislation. However, a significant chunk of the committee — including the three commissioners who also service as committee people, Dossie Overfield, Scott Steward and Kelly Simone — opposed taking up the resolution, which had not been provided to the body in advance.

Kimmet encouraged party members to do their own research and reach out to lawmakers with their personal thoughts.