Outside counsel may help the Meade County Commission explore proper legal use of maps.

Meade County commissioners voted Wednesday to authorize the County State's Attorney's office to locate and recruit that counsel. An initial appropriation for those legal services will not exceed $10,000.

A document in the county Register of Deeds office is at the center of the action. Tract 37 includes BLM, Fort Meade, Sturgis Brown High School, and city property east of Sturgis.

That land is at the center of the city's current annexation efforts. Meade County Deputy State's Attorney Ken Chleborad said annexation was not necessarily a meeting focus.

Chleborad said his office claimed the document filing was improper. He explained state statute lists the documents the Register of Deeds has the duty to keep. That includes other instruments authorized by law to be recorded, and Chleborad said this document did not have that authorization.

Attorney Roger Tellinghuisen said the main question is if the document constitutes a plat according to state annexation statutes. He represents business owners in that area.

Tellinghuisen said if the document is determined to be a plat, the next question concerns dual recording. If dual recording is done, he continued, the county is out of the equation relative to those properties.

The Meade County State's Attorney's office is not aware of any procedure other than court action to vacate a filing, according to Chleborad.

County Register of Deeds Angela Ross said the document was a recording and not a filing. She added she is required to record the documents if they meet requirements and she cannot find anything false.

Ross explained recordings contain property's legal descriptions, and filings include a filing number. She added she records and files a filing that includes a legal description.

She has served 33 years in this office and filed documents similar to the one in question. Ross said no legal threat or action has ever resulted.

Ross cited document standards as per state law. She said plats, surveys, and government documents are exempt from those provisions.

Sturgis City Attorney Candi Thomsen handled the plat recording. She said this is a federal plat filed with the correct office.

"The fact that it was filed here was really for the purpose of convenience," Thomsen said. She added the city received a county opinion that the plat was not considered to be duly recorded.

"It's already duly recorded where law requires it," Thomsen said. She explained the city received a copy and recorded it with Ross so anyone who wanted to see it could. Thomsen concluded the recording was proper, and this was an extra step.

"I agree it's time to put this in the hands of a judge," Dayle Hammock, one of three commissioners to favor the proposal, said before the vote. "There seems to be consensus that we would like someone to solve it."

Commissioner Doreen Allison-Creed voted against the proposal and believes the answer to proper filing has been answered countless times in the Register of Deeds office.

Allison-Creed favored having specific questions ready. She explained that is so the attorney would know what to research.

Chleborad said an attorney who is instructed to address only specific issues would find their ability to represent in all aspects limited.

Interested parties have hired legal counsel for this, according to Commissioner Alan Aker. He opposed the proposal and questioned why the county's taxpayers should spend money to learn what those parties do.

The document was accepted at the window when Ross was in the office. She said she called the Billings (Mont.) office to make sure the copy was certified. No complaints ever resulted, and Ross was unaware of this until she read she would be on that day's agenda.

Ross explained she takes a completed document before Planning and Zoning. It goes to the commission, auditor, and Ross. She said they sign the document, and it is now a plat.