This Interim, the Judiciary Committee is taking a look at the
various legal notice and publishing requirements of state agencies and
political subdivisions. They are asking for the costs associated with meeting
these requirements and are looking to identify potential notification
alternatives.
This study came as a result of state leaders encouraging
state agencies to look for budget savings. It has been identified that state
agencies alone spend an estimated $3.7 million each biennium on publishing
legal notices. In a climate where every agency is asked to be more fiscally
responsible, these costs can’t be reduced because they are legally
required.
Counties are impacted by these costs as well. The North
Dakota Association of Counties surveyed counties on their 2018 budget for
publications. We can estimate $450,000 will be spent by counties in 2018 on
meeting publication requirements. Our review of the publication requirements
identified 142 various notices, documents and listings which counties are
required to publish (generally in their official county newspaper) as mandated
by state law. You can find a list of
those requirements by following this link: County
Identified Required Publications.
Requirement to Publish Meeting Minutes and Expenditures
Many auditors singled out the requirement to have minutes of
the commission meeting printed as the most costly. Take Towner County for
example. Of their $10,000 budget for publications, publishing meeting minutes
costs $6,000 a year, or $500 a month. For some, the biggest chunk of the cost
to publish minutes is listing checks and expenditures, essentially “after the
fact.”
A number of North Dakota counties have made expenditure data
available to citizens in an even easier to understand format through the use of
a transparency portal. Five of our counties are using OpenGov or Socrata, which
is essentially an open checkbook for citizens to view expenditures and budget
information via the county’s website.
NDACo urged the Judiciary Committee to review NDCC 11-11-35
and 11-11-37 and consider drafting legislation to remove the listing of
expenditures as part of the minutes or to repeal the requirement to publish
meeting minutes entirely.
Requirement to Publish Notice of Meetings
This may also be an appropriate time to ponder the meeting
notice requirement for local governments. We have witnessed how well the public
meeting notice portal on the North Dakota Secretary of State website is
working. This system is sufficient for state government and other governing
bodies and may be adequate as well for local government. This would not bar
county board meeting dates from being listed in the newspaper’s upcoming
calendar of events.
It is important to note that advertising rates are negotiated
and set every biennium by OMB. Although this mechanism is efficient, local governments
have little direct control of this cost.
Notice of Election for Commodity Groups
Counties are also responsible for advertising the notices of elections
for commodity groups that are paid for by the County Extension fund. We would
argue that it would be more fitting to have the commodity groups pay for these
ads rather than an expense to our county taxpayers -- especially at a time when
counties will be asked to pick up a greater share in the cost of Extension.
NDACo Requests Date Change for Financial Statement
As NDACo looked at these requirements we were made aware of a
minor tweak that will be necessary to NDCC 11-11-11 subsection 4 under the
general duties of the board of county commissioners. Auditors say the date of
March 15th for publishing financial statements should be changed to
a later date such as November 15th.
This is necessary as the State and private auditors do not complete
their fiscal audits until the end of summer, and those are essential to
providing accurate statements.
Many of these requirements are more than a century old. There
are inconsistencies in requirements and in the language. NDACo has worked over
the years to address some of these as we are made aware of issues on case-by-case
basis. We have made recent progress in addressing publications that we have
identified as being unnecessary. The 2017 Legislative Assembly passed two bills
that have reduced county publication costs slightly.
- HB 1231: Repealed the quarterly NDSU Extension advertisement requirement in county newspapers.
- SB 2171: Reduced the number of weeks from three to two that counties had to publish advertisements for the sale of county equipment.
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Many of our counties are not only meeting the state-mandated
publishing requirements; but in addition, they are posting this information on
their websites and Facebook pages – in addition to what those counties with
“transparency portals” are doing.Of the 53 counties, only six do not have websites. A number of counties also have their meetings televised, live streamed or recorded and available online.
Counties most certainly understand the necessity of informing
the public and firmly believe in being transparent. There are many examples of
how counties are going above what is mandated by using other tools and
technology to reach their citizens.
