State Senate leaders from both sides of the aisle are teaming up on a bill that seeks to tune up statutory language on redistricting, the process by which political maps are drawn.

Nonpartisan commissions wrapped up their working creating new maps for congressional and legislative seats last year, but there’s still a couple of non-legislative seats on the maps that aren’t yet official and are awaiting candidates. Those include seats on the University of Colorado Board of Regents and the state Board of Education.

The CU board includes nine members, with seats based on congressional districts. Prior to redistricting, that meant there were seven members from the seven congressional districts, plus two at-large members. The state board of education is an eight-member board, currently with one at-large member and seven from the seven congressional districts.

Enter Senate Bill 13, which among other things seeks to reflect the newly created 8th congressional seat on both elected boards.

But it isn’t only just those two boards: the bill affects every board and commission where membership is based on congressional districts, 16 in all. That’s according to Kate Siegel Shimko, the director of the governor’s office of boards and commissions. 

The fix contained in the bill from Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder and Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County, is relatively simple, although the bill takes 165 pages to explain it.

There is no policy change or change in intent in how boards and commissions are appointed, Fenberg told the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee Thursday. The length is due to cleanup of 126 different statutes that applies to the 16 boards and commissions that are also based on congressional districts. 

Holbert explained that 158 pages of the 165-page bill intend to make minor changes that would clean up language that dates back decades. The whole bill has no more than four or five pages of new statute, he said. 

Jeremy Hueth, University counsel for the regents, told the committee that four seats will be up for election on the board in the fall. One at-large, currently held by Heidi Ganahl, who is running for governor instead of for re-election to the board, will be converted to the 8th congressional seat. The 5th Congressional District seat is also up for election in 2022, given the resignation of Chance Hill last November. 

Siegel Shimko, who testified Thursday, told the committee that 10 of 16 boards impacted by SB 13 are appointed by the governor. Two others are elected – the regents and board of education – and the other four have different appointing authorities who are not the governor: the University of Colorado Hospital Authority, Recreational Trails Committee, Alternative Defense Counsel Commission and the Office of the Child’s Representative Board.

As of Jan. 27, no one has filed to run for the 8th Congressional District seat on the CU Board of Regents. One candidate has filed for the 8th CD seat on the state board of education.

The bill also mimics provisions from the congressional and legislative commissions on how to handle incumbents drawn into the district. That occurred during the redistricting process in the state Senate, with Sens. Don Coram and Bob Rankin on the Western Slope and Sens. Pete Lee and Bob Gardner in Colorado Springs. The resolution is to allow the member who was most recently elected to finish out their term. That will send Lee and Coram home from the state Senate after the 2022 terms, even though both were up for re-election this year. Coram is now running for Congress.

To ensure the least amount of fuss possible, both Holbert and Fenberg put themselves on the State Affairs Committee for Thursday’s vote. The bill won a 4-0 vote and now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 13 is only the second bill to get a hearing in the 2022 session because it’s time sensitive, given that caucuses will take place in March. 

The measure from Fenberg and Holbert is not the only bill dealing with changes to boards and commissions in the 2022 session. A Coram-sponsored bill looks to reconfigure the Colorado State Fair Board of Authority, including a change that will require members be appointed from agricultural districts rather than congressional districts.

Other changes contained within Senate Bill 42 are intended to ensure Eastern Plains representation on the state fair board. The Eastern Plains had no representative on the state fair authority board in the first half of 2020, which led to a blow-up on the last day of the 2020 session in the Senate that also drew in the governor. That’s despite the fact that the eight of the state’s top 10 agricultural counties are on all on the Eastern Plains.

SB 42 is slated for a Feb. 1 hearing, also with the Senate State Affairs committee.