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Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Dakota House removes new Ethics Commission position from budget, adds 6-month deadline
Rebecca Binstock, executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, speaks during a committee hearing on Jan. 31, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) The North Dakota House on Monday voted to give the Ethics Commission a six-month deadline to resolve ethics complaints while also removing a new position approved by the Senate. The amended bill, which passed by a 65-29 vote, will head to the Senate for a concurrence vote before it can go to Gov. Kelly Armstrong's desk for a signature. Supporters of the bill say its policy changes would address the Ethics Commission's growing backlog of ethics complaints. The commission has received more than 60 complaints since the beginning of this year. House committee recommends removing new Ethics Commission position, adding deadline Under amendments adopted Monday, Senate Bill 2004 would require the commission to dismiss complaints 180 days after they are filed. Rep. Mike Nathe, who brought the amendments, said that he believes some North Dakotans are 'weaponizing' the Ethics Commission to lodge frivolous complaints against public officials that can drag on indefinitely. The commission has some complaints that are more than two years old. 'It's just a matter of fairness to the accused,' the Bismarck Republican said. 'They shouldn't have to sit there with this hanging over their head for years at a time.' House Minority Leader Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, spoke against the bill. He said a 180-day deadline would prevent the commission from properly probing cases. It may encourage people accused of ethics violations to not cooperate with investigations in an attempt to run out the clock. Ista noted the constitutional amendment that created the commission says the Legislature may not do anything to impede its implementation. 'We're literally tying their hands,' Ista said. If the bill is signed into law, it would take effect immediately. Lawmakers indicated their intent is for the clock to start ticking on all the commission's pending complaints. The Ethics Commission last week called the changes 'a roadblock intended to hamper the commission's work.' The House amendments also removed roughly $250,000 for an additional staff member the Senate previously approved. That employee would have focused on education and communications. The funding would have covered a two-year salary, benefits and other costs. Some House committee members said in hearings they weren't convinced an additional employee is necessary. The commission has three staff members. Ista urged the floor to add the education and communications employee back in. He said an employee dedicated to teaching the public about government ethics would help reduce the commission's caseload by preventing violations from happening in the first place. 'Our Ethics Commission does not want to play 'gotcha' games,' Ista said. 'What they want to do is help us learn to do what's right.' House defeats bill to streamline North Dakota Ethics Commission The budget does include $50,000 for a new case management system that would track filings with the commission, which staff have said will help streamline its workload. Some other amendments were lifted from bills that died earlier in the House, including House Bill 1360 — which the Ethics Commission supported — and House Bill 1505. One new provision gives the board more power to dismiss complaints, for example. Commission staff have said that under current law, the person who submits the complaint wields outsize power over when a complaint may be thrown out, which is partly why some complaints have gone unresolved for extended periods of time. The amendments also allow people accused of violations to discuss complaints against them. Another section would protect lawmakers from being prosecuted with a conflict of interest crime for voting on legislation if they adhere to legislative conflict of interest rules or the informal advice of an Ethics Commission staff member. Additionally, the bill contains a new requirement for the commission to publish an annual report detailing its work. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House defeats bill to streamline North Dakota Ethics Commission
Rebecca Binstock, executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, speaks during a committee hearing on Jan. 31, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) The North Dakota House overwhelmingly defeated a bill that aimed to give the Ethics Commission more freedom over how it investigates potential ethics violations. The Ethics Commission pushed for House Bill 1360 as a way to simplify the rules and laws that govern its work. Commission staff said this would both help reduce the commission's backlog of complaints, as well as make the process easier to navigate for the public. The Attorney General's Office and Gov. Kelly Armstrong's Office testified against the bill. Both agencies said the proposal would give the commission the authority to adopt and enforce its rules without proper checks and balances. Voters created an ethics commission in North Dakota. Then the Legislature limited its power. Referencing that testimony, Rep. Karen Rohr, R-Mandan, said on the floor Monday that House Bill 1360 raises 'significant legal and constitutional concerns for clients, citizens and the state.' 'Although necessary to do their job properly, it is still an example of a system that is ripe for misuse and a broad delegation of this power without guardrails,' Rohr said. House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Austen Schauer, a West Fargo Republican, noted last week it was unusual for the governor's head attorney to lobby so strongly against a bill before a legislative committee. There was no discussion of the bill after Rohr's speech. Lawmakers voted 81-12 against the proposal. Ethics Commission attorney Logan Carpenter in a letter addressed to Schauer last week pushed back on the claims the bill would give the commission too much power. He stated that the bill would bring the commission more in line with what North Dakotans voted for in 2018, when they approved a constitutional amendment to establish the commission. Carpenter also noted the commission is subject to checks and balances from each of the state's executive, judicial and legislative branches. In a statement last week, Executive Director Rebecca Binstock said the bill is necessary in order for the commission to operate effectively. 'Without HB 1360, the complaint process will continue to impair the Commission's ability to do its work as directed by the citizens,' she said. Ethics Commission to seek legislation to bolster transparency, investigative authority Another ethics-related bill, House Bill 1505, also failed on the floor Monday evening. The bill would have protected lawmakers from being prosecuted for a conflict of interest crime for voting on a bill as long as they properly declare the conflict and/or follow guidance from the Ethics Commission. The proposal was sponsored by House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, and Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot. Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson, said lawmakers are already protected from Ethics Commission action if they follow proper conflict disclosure requirements, but that immunity does not extend to criminal prosecution. House Bill 1505 incorporated some elements that were similar to House Bill 1360. For example, it would have allowed the commission to close complaints at any time. It also would have given people under investigation by the commission the freedom to discuss the matter publicly. The Ethics Commission took a neutral stance on House Bill 1505. As with 1360, the commission, Attorney General's Office and Governor's Office had differing views on the proposal, Steiner told lawmakers. 'The GVA committee could not find a path with the contradictory legal advice that we had been given,' she said. The bill failed by a vote of 84-9. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
