BISMARCK — The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that would require local political subdivisions to allow public comment at regular meetings.
Senate Bill 2180 has been amended back and forth since its introduction. The most recent version, passed by the House in an 85-4 vote Tuesday and sent back to the Senate for a vote of concurrence, includes amendments provided by the Attorney General’s Office to specify the political subdivisions the bill applies to as the governing body of a city, county, township, school district, park district or water resource district.
The version of the bill passed by the House requires that these governing bodies include an opportunity for public comment at every regular meeting. An amendment to the Senate’s version of the bill only required that political subdivisions provide an opportunity for public comment in at least one-fourth of public meetings.
The bill does specify that these governing bodies may limit public comment by time-per-speaker and by the total time available for public comment. It also specifies that these governing bodies must develop a policy regarding public comment rules for regular meetings.
This policy may specify that public comment must be pertinent to the public entity, may not interfere with the orderly conduct of the meeting and may not be defamatory, abusive, harassing or unlawful.
Rep. Macy Bolinske, R-Minot, the bill's carrier, said on the House floor that the House Political Subdivisions Committee felt the bill allowed the governing bodies flexibility in developing their public comment policies while still ensuring members of the public are provided the opportunity to speak at public meetings.
“Many entities already have their own policies relating to public comment,” Bolinsky said. “And this bill will not change that. It will only affect those governing bodies that have not been using the recommended practice of allowing public comments and ensuring that they allow for citizens to speak when a meeting is held.”
The bill has received pushback from school boards across the state, who say public comment rules should be decided at the local level and there are instances in which public comment can derail school board meetings.
Those opponents emphasize that “public board meetings are not ‘public meetings,’ but rather they are ‘meetings held in public.’”
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“The purpose of open meetings law is to give members of the public access to the meetings of a governing board of a public entity,” General Counsel for the North Dakota School Board Association KrisAnn Norby-Jahner said in written testimony. “But that access does not give members of the public the right to participate or speak at the public meeting.”
Sen. Bob Paulson, R-Minot, the bill’s sponsor, said in his written testimony that the “ability of a citizen to redress their government and be heard is a bedrock principle” of the United States and North Dakota. He said that frustrations currently exist in North Dakota around the inability to do just this, specifically at school board meetings, which is the reason he brought the bill forward.
The bill received recommendations to pass from both the House Political Subdivisions Committee and the Senate State and Local Government Committee, and previously passed the Senate with a 41-6 vote.
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