Latest news with #DrewWrigley
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Dakota Ethics Commissioners to evaluate ‘strained' relationship with Attorney General's Office
Commissioners Murray Sagsveen, left, and Ronald Goodman, right, members of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, listen to a House committee hearing on March 18, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) The North Dakota Ethics Commission is looking into whether strongly worded communications from the state Attorney General's Office have negatively impacted commission staff. The decision follows a July 3 letter addressed to the commission from Attorney General Drew Wrigley that harshly criticized the commission's recent investigation report on ethics violations by Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck. The report said the Attorney General's Office at times did not cooperate with the investigation and did not turn over some requested records — a characterization Wrigley called 'patently false.' Wrigley said his office gave the commission access to all requested records except when pending investigations and court proceedings prevented them from being turned over. North Dakota Ethics Commission makes first finding of violations by public official His letter went on to accuse Ethics Commission Executive Director Rebecca Binstock and her staff of inexperience and poor judgment. 'Ms. Binstock, your report is replete with misleading narratives and omissions, and officials and the public are left having to guess whether your actions are the result of carelessness or the intentional politicization of your office,' Wrigley wrote. Ethics Commissioner Ward Koeser in a prepared statement he read Wednesday said he felt many of the criticisms were 'personal attacks' and out of line, and defended the quality of the report and commission staff. The Attorney General's Office in a statement to the Monitor said the comments were made in good faith. 'Our comments have been strictly substantive and focused on constitution, legal and ethical conduct and communications by publicly accountable staff,' the office said Wednesday. ND Ethics Commission has no authority to punish officials violating ethics laws, state leaders argue The Ethics Commission and the Attorney General's Office have been publicly at odds since the beginning of this year. The Attorney General's Office raised concerns in testimony to lawmakers that the commission would violate the state constitution if it tried to penalize people who violate ethics laws. The Ethics Commission says the constitution grants it this authority. Both sides have openly accused one another of unprofessionalism. 'We have felt for some time that we have had a strained relationship with the Attorney General's Office and we need to find a way to work through that,' Koeser said. Koeser made a motion Wednesday to appoint a commissioner to evaluate how staff have been treated by the Attorney General's Office and decide whether to take additional steps to 'support a respectful, professional and productive working environment for commission staff.' Commissioner Ron Goodman volunteered to take the lead on the matter with help from Commissioner Cynthia Lindquist, who was appointed chair during Wednesday's meeting Lindquist suggested reaching out to human resources personnel within the state government first. 'I think we need some advice or guidance from the state personnel office,' she said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Dakota House defeats ‘truth-in-sentencing' bill promoted by attorney general
Attorney General Drew Wrigley, center, listens March 24, 2025, to testimony on a bill he supports related to criminal sentences. Law enforcement attended the hearing in support of the bill. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor) A divisive prison sentencing bill introduced by Attorney General Drew Wrigley's office failed in the House Thursday after more than 90 minutes of debate by lawmakers. Senate Bill 2128 sought to make sure inmates in the state prison system spend most of their sentence behind bars. This included a requirement that inmates spend at least half of their sentence in prisons before they can be eligible for a transitional center or parole. It also contained provisions that would have established steeper penalties for fleeing and assaulting law enforcement. North Dakota attorney general calls for more prison time; opponents say spend more on police Earlier this week, the House Judiciary Committee voted 9-5 to forward the bill to House Floor with a do-not-pass recommendation. The House on Thursday rejected an amendment proposed by the committee, which included language giving lawmakers the option to study parole and the state corrections during the upcoming interim session. 'This bill is trying to make too many sweeping changes too quickly,' said Rep. Nels Christianson, R-Grand Forks, who carried the bill on the floor. Opponents of the bill, which included the head of the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, have said Wrigley's proposal would further encumber the state's already overcrowded prisons. They also said it would have prevented inmates from accessing programs that reduce recidivism and help them prepare for life outside of prison. 'The Attorney General and Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation fundamentally disagree on the facts and the solutions, and we shouldn't rush to make these sweeping changes to policy with far reaching consequences without having all the facts,' Christianson said. Proponents of the bill said the proposals would best serve the interests of the public, as well as crime victims. 'We're talking about the victim here, and the responsibility of the people in blue and brown,' said Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen. The original bill was estimated to cost the state $22.7 million in the 2025-2027 biennium and another $21.3 million for the 2027-2029 budget cycle. The Senate in February passed the proposal by a 28-18 vote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jamestown awarded a $1.62 million loan for water main replacement
Apr. 3—The city of Jamestown was awarded a $1.62 million loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to replace 14 blocks of cast iron water mains, including valves and hydrants with PVC pipe. The project will help the city save on maintenance costs and improve water service, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality and the North Dakota Public Finance Authority said in a news release. The State Revolving Fund programs are jointly administered by the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality and the North Dakota Public Finance Authority. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides part of the SRF programs' funding, which offers below-market interest rate loans to political subdivisions for financing projects authorized under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. SRF programs operate nationwide to provide funding to maintain and improve infrastructure that protects water resources. Loans are awarded to projects listed on the project priority list based on project eligibility determined by the Department of Environmental Quality and the Public Finance Authority's review of repayment ability. The Public Finance Authority is overseen by the North Dakota Industrial Commission, consisting of Gov. Kelly Armstrong as chairman, Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. For more information on the city of Jamestown's project, contact the Department of Environmental Quality at ndsrf@ .
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Dakota attorney general calls for more prison time; opponents say spend more on police
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley uses a chart March 24, 2025, to show the increase in crime in North Dakota while testifying to a legislative committee. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota's attorney general is backing a bill that will increase the time offenders spend behind bars because he says the state criminal justice system is releasing prisoners too quickly. The head of the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says the bill would deny prisoners access to treatment and education and lead to more repeat offenders. He argued spending more money on law enforcement would be a better use of taxes than locking up prisoners for longer periods of time when the state's jails and prisons are already overcrowded. Attorney General Drew Wrigley is pushing Senate Bill 2128, which he calls the truth-in-sentencing bill, as a way to reduce crime. The Senate passed the bill 28-18 despite a do-not-pass recommendation from the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill has a fiscal note that estimates the bill will cost the state $22.7 million in the 2025-27 biennium and $21.3 million for the following two years. The House Judiciary Committee listened to nearly three hours of testimony on the bill Monday, beginning with Wrigley, who contends that the use of transition centers, or halfway houses, is essentially releasing prisoners long before their sentences are up. The bill lists crimes where offenders would have to spend at least 50% of their sentence behind bars before being eligible for a halfway house. Wrigley said the bill is not about longer sentences. 'It's about the sanctity of a judicial order,' Wrigley said, calling the correction's department's policies 'misleading.' He points to statistics from his office indicating 10 straight years of crimes against people rising across North Dakota. Wrigley said offenders in halfway houses are routinely committing additional offenses and that the bill would not strip the corrections department of its ability to offer treatment and rehabilitation programs. Braun invoked President Donald Trump, who in 2018, signed into law an act to provide more transition programs at the federal level. He said other states are also looking to North Dakota as a model, and reducing access to rehabilitation programs would be a step backward. 'The federal Bureau of Prisons is learning what we have known for years, that incentivizing behavior and programming while supporting people in their return to society increases public safety,' he said. He said a third of the treatment programs completed by prisoners were done in a transition facility, which are private facilities that have a contract with the state to provide housing and services. Braun said the prison system does not have space or staff to absorb all the offenders who would not be eligible for a transition center under Wrigley's bill. The North Dakota State's Attorney's Association has not taken a position on the bill and state's attorneys on both sides testified Monday. Dennis Ingold, a Burleigh County assistant state's attorney, and Ward County State's attorney Rozanna Larson, were in favor of the bill. Ingold says he primarily handles drug trafficking cases and is frustrated by seeing a criminal he prosecuted for a Class A felony back out in society after only about a month into a sentence. Larson said she agreed with previous state policy changes to slow down the number of people going into North Dakota jails and prisons by reducing sentences on low-level crimes. But she said now she doesn't feel like those changes are working. 'It's not helping with the safety of our communities,' she said. She said local governments have made big investments in jail space and the state will need to do so, also. 'Long term, we do have to have more space,' she said. North Dakota prisons to begin using waitlist due to lack of beds Cass County Assistant State's Attorney Robert Vallie used to work with Larson in Ward County but was on the opposite side of the issue Monday. He called Wrigley's plan to fight crime with more prison time 'seductively simplistic.' He told the committee it was an issue worthy of a legislative study, rather than spending money on the attorney general's plan with guarantee of success. Travis Finck, executive director for the North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents, agreed that there is no evidence that longer sentences will work. 'If we're really worried about crime increasing, … our money is better spent is by sending it to the men and women in uniform rather than building more prisons and bigger jails,' Finck said. 'We know that works.' Scott Peyton is the director of government affairs for a Virginia-based organization called Prison Fellowship. He testified that the longer prison sentences mandated nationally during the 1980s and '90s did not have the desired effect. 'The unintended consequences of Senate Bill 2128 risk creating unnecessary barriers to successful reintegration, while failing to meaningfully enhance public safety,' he said. Rep. Daniel Johnston, R-Kathryn, said it didn't appear North Dakota's corrections system was working particularly well and asked Peyton how it could work better. Peyton referred to the attorney general's crime statistics that showed a 43% clearance rate for violent crimes and property crimes. 'It's a flip of the coin, whether you will be caught committing a crime,' Peyton said. 'We know that the chance, the likelihood of being caught, is a greater deterrence than even longer sentences.' Another aspect of the bill includes increasing penalties for people who flee from an officer or assault an officer. There were several uniformed officers attending the hearing. Beulah Chief of Police Frank Senn said fleeing had become an epidemic in the state. Beulah is in Mercer County, where Sheriff's Deputy Paul Martin was killed during a high-speed chase in 2023. The committee did not act on the bill Monday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Members of F-M Diversion dispute board resign
Feb. 15—FARGO — The Diversion Authority and Red River Valley Alliance are searching for new members of a board that recommends solutions to disputes in the Fargo-Moorhead Area Diversion project. In late January, all three members of the Technical Dispute Review Board stepped down. The board was created to help resolve disputes between the Diversion Authority, a North Dakota political subdivision that oversees portions of the flood control project, and the Red River Valley Alliance, the developer in the public-private partnership, or P3, project. The resignations came after an opinion by North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley confirmed the board should have held public, noticed meetings. Diversion Authority Executive Director Jason Benson said members of the Technical Dispute Review Board expected their discussions would be in a private forum. "That was their choice to step down, but now we're moving forward with looking for members, new members of the board that understand from the start that it's an open process," Benson said. The Red River Valley Alliance declined an interview. In an email, Public Information Officer Tara Ekren confirmed the Red River Valley Alliance is interviewing candidates to reestablish the Technical Dispute Review Board. The Fargo Moorhead Area Diversion project is a $3.2 billion, publicly funded flood control project. The project is paid for with a combination of federal funds, state grants and local tax dollars. It is levied against Cass County properties with a property tax assessment that could be activated to pay for some project costs in dire circumstances. Members of the Technical Dispute Review Board did not cite reasons for resigning in notices obtained by The Forum. Additionally, the chair of the Financial Dispute Review Board, a similar board that recommends solutions to financial disputes, resigned with a notice dated Feb. 5. During the Diversion Board Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11, Diversion Authority General Counsel John Shockley said the attorney representing the Technical Dispute Review Board noted its members "did not believe that the Dispute Review Board process could operate in light of the attorney general's opinion." Dispute review boards for the project have three members, each independent of the Diversion Authority and Red River Valley Alliance. One member is appointed by the Diversion Authority, and another is appointed by the Red River Valley Alliance. Then, the two members pick a third member to serve on the board from a list of five proposed members provided by the Diversion Authority. Shockley said members of the legal team have reached out to potential replacements for the Technical Dispute Review Board and have spoken with one. "They indicated that they were not interested in serving on the Technical Dispute Review Board in functioning under the open meetings requirement as they view the Technical Dispute Review Board more like arbitration or mediation, in which the goal is to try to resolve disputes — like a court would have opportunities to meet with the parties in chambers — or to deliberate without having to have those deliberations in the public setting," Shockley said. The Technical Dispute Review Board was set to discuss a contract issue between the Diversion Authority and the Red River Valley Alliance about where contract language requires the use of epoxy-coated rebar in parts of the project. The Technical Dispute Review Board did not meet for months as the North Dakota Attorney General's Office determined whether its meetings should be public. Benson declined to say how waiting for the attorney general's opinion and the resignation of dispute review board members has affected the project. After the rebar dispute surfaced in April 2024, work has continued on the project. Benson said the project has not seen a big slowdown. "It's kind of a parallel process where we're working through to make sure that the Dispute Review Board gets new members and continue with that process while the requirements for the project are still being met," he said. He declined to say whether the requirements as understood by the Diversion Authority are being adhered to. "Therein lies the legal issue that triggered the Dispute Review Board, so I guess that, you know, I'm not going to get into the specifics on that," Benson said. Technical Dispute Review Board minutes released after the attorney general's opinion showed members discussed the possibility of replacing work and structures deemed non-compliant. Benson said it is still to be determined whether parts of the project will have to be replaced. "The demands of the Dispute Review Board are to identify those types of things when it comes to the compliance for the P3," he said.
