(1) The board of county commissioners shall appoint staff as needed to assist the commission. Staff or the advisory committee shall acquire and prepare all necessary resources, including computer hardware, software, and demographic, geographic, and political databases, as far in advance as necessary to enable the commission to begin its work immediately upon convening. (2) The commission shall not vote upon a final plan until at least seventy-two hours after it has been proposed to the commission in a public meeting or at least seventy-two hours after it has been amended by the commission in a public meeting, whichever occurs later. (3) (a) All county residents, including individual members of the commission, may present proposed redistricting plans or written comments, or both, for the commission's consideration. (b) The commission shall provide meaningful and substantial opportunities for county residents to present testimony, either in person or electronically, at hearings. If the hearings are held in person, each hearing must be held in a different third of the county. If the hearings are held electronically, the board of county commissioners shall either solicit feedback from the whole county for each hearing or solicit feedback from a different third of the county for each hearing. The board of county commissioners shall ensure that these hearings are broadly promoted throughout the county. The commission shall not approve a redistricting plan until at least three hearings have been held. No gathering of members of the commission can be considered a hearing for this purpose unless it is attended, in person or electronically, by at least a majority of the members of the commission. The commission shall establish the necessary elements of electronic attendance at a commission hearing. (c) The commission shall maintain a website through which any county resident may submit proposed plans or written comments, or both, without attending a hearing of the commission. The commission shall ensure that the website is easily accessible and contains a record of the commission's activities and proceedings, including the commission's directions to staff or an advisory committee on proposed changes to any plan and the commission's rationale for such changes. (d) The commission shall publish all written comments pertaining to redistricting on its website or comparable means of communicating with the public as well as the name of the county resident submitting such comments. If the commission, advisory committee, or staff have a substantial basis to believe that a person submitting such comments has not truthfully or accurately identified himself or herself, the commission need not consider and need not publish such comments but must notify the commenter in writing of this fact. The commission may withhold comments, in whole or in part, from the website or comparable means of communicating with the public that do not relate to redistricting plans, policies, or communities of interest. (e) The commission shall provide simultaneous access to the hearings by broadcasting them via its website or comparable means of communicating with the public, allowing both electronic and in-person public testimony, and maintaining an archive of such hearings for online public review. (4) (a) Members of the commission are guardians of the public trust and are subject to antibribery and abuse of public office requirements as provided in parts 3 and 4 of article 8 of title 18, as amended, or any successor statute. (b) To ensure transparency in the redistricting process: (I) (A) The commission and the members of the commission are subject to open meetings requirements as provided in part 4 of article 6 of title 24, as amended, or any successor statute. (B) Except as provided in subsections (4)(b)(I)(D) and (4)(b)(I)(F) of this section, a member of the commission shall not communicate with staff or any members of the advisory committee on the mapping of county commissioner districts unless the communication is during a public meeting or hearing of the commission. (C) Except for public input and comment, staff shall not have any communications about the content or development of any plan outside of public hearings with anyone, including any members of the advisory committee, except other staff members. Likewise, except for public input and comment, members of the advisory committee shall not have any communications about the content or development of any plan outside of public hearings with anyone, including staff, except other members of the advisory committee. Communications about the content or development of any plan include communications about how plans will be drawn to satisfy the criteria in section 30-10-306.3, specific parameters related to the interpretation of the criteria in section 30-10-306.3, and requests for the drawing of additional plans. Staff or members of the advisory committee shall report to the commission any attempt by anyone to exert influence over the staff's or advisory committee's role in the drafting of plans. (D) One or more staff may be designated to communicate with members of the commission or advisory committee and, in the case of a commission that is composed of the board of county commissioners, administrative staff of the county, regarding administrative matters, the definition and scope of which shall be determined by the commission. Likewise, one or more members of the advisory committee may be designated to communicate with members of the commission or staff regarding administrative matters, the definition and scope of which shall be determined by the commission. Any communication that occurs outside of a public meeting or hearing of the commission between staff and a member of the advisory committee, beyond those allowed by this subsection (4)(b)(I)(D), must be documented and made a part of the public record. (E) If a member participates in a communication prohibited by this section, the communication and any complaints associated with it must be made part of the public record and documented on the website. (F) Staff may make a completed proposed plan that staff prepared as a result of a request made in a public hearing available to the public on the commission's website. In addition, staff may communicate with a member of the commission or the advisory committee to clarify directions that were given to staff during a public meeting regarding the creation of a proposed plan, so long as staff makes a record of the content of the communication available to the public on the commission's website. (II) The commission, each member of the commission, the advisory committee, each member of the advisory committee, and staff are subject to open records requirements as provided in part 2 of article 72 of title 24, as amended, or any successor statute; except that plans in draft form and not submitted to the commission are not public records subject to disclosure. Work product and communications among staff, members of the advisory committee, and between staff and the advisory committee are subject to disclosure once a plan is adopted by the board of county commissioners. (III) Persons who contract for or receive compensation for advocating to the commission, to one or more members of the commission, to the advisory committee, to one or more members of the advisory committee, or to staff for the adoption or rejection of any plan, amendment to a plan, mapping approach, or manner of compliance with any of the mapping criteria specified in section 30-10-306.3 are lobbyists who must disclose to the secretary of state any compensation contracted for, compensation received, and the person or entity contracting or paying for their lobbying services. Such disclosure must be made no later than seventy-two hours after the earlier of each instance of such lobbying or any payment of such compensation. The secretary of state shall publish on the secretary of state's website or comparable means of communicating with the public the names of such lobbyists, as well as the compensation received and the persons or entities for whom they work within twenty-four hours of receiving such information. The secretary of state shall adopt rules to facilitate the complete and prompt reporting required by this subsection (4)(b)(III) as well as a complaint process to address any lobbyist's failure to report a full and accurate disclosure, which complaint must be heard by an administrative law judge, whose decision may be appealed to the court of appeals.
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