North Dakota
North Dakota Senate rejects conflict of interest rules while House adopts modified version • North Dakota Monitor
The North Dakota House adopted new conflict of interest rules Wednesday, but the Senate rejected those same rules in a split vote.
Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, said she proposed removing the conflicts of interest section of the Senate rules because she worried about the “erosion” of the Legislature’s authority and she believes the Ethics Commission is overstepping.
“I think we write our own rules,” Myrdal said. “I think we govern our own body.”
The new rules were created through consultation with the Ethics Commission after the Legislative Procedures and Arrangements Committee finished its business during the interim. The rules were designed to promote transparency and provide a clearer path for lawmakers to recuse themselves from votes in which they had a perceived conflict.
North Dakota lawmakers discuss changing conflict of interest rules
“I would ask that we stand as a body and reject this and go back to the drawing table, if need be, but that we don’t allow another fourth branch of government with no guard rails and no oversight come and demand rules upon us that we have the authority ourselves to write,” Myrdal said.
The Senate voted to remove three sections of the conflict of interest rules by a vote of 24-20.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, said she is worried that state senators won’t have the option to abstain from votes containing a perceived conflict, which the new rules would have provided. Instead they will just leave the chamber before the vote occurs, so they don’t have to vote on it. She also lamented the Senate’s general rule that requires all lawmakers on the chamber floor during a vote to cast a vote on a measure.
“They don’t want to be in the position of having to vote when they know they have a conflict and are forced to vote by the rule,” Hogan said. “So, this is a dilemma. We’ll have to reconsider our actions.”
She added she thinks removing the conflicts of interest rules to preserve the Senate’s authority will actually do the opposite and give more power to the Ethics Commission to adjudicate potential conflicts.
Hogan said the Senate can change its rules at any time.
The House of Representatives passed the new conflicts of interest rules with one change. Lawmakers with a personal or private interest on a measure or bill must have a direct, individual and unique benefit over members of the general public to be considered conflicted. Under the version proposed by the Rules Committee, House members would have only needed one of those criteria to have a conflict of interest that would require disclosure to the full chamber.
House Minority Leader Rep. Zachary Ista, R-Grand Forks, member of the House Rules Committee, said the one word change from an “or” to an “and” caused the House to “fumble the ball at the goaline.”
“We were ready to move forward with a rules package that was responsive to the need of better, tighter conflict of interest rules,” Ista said. “The change never came up for discussion in that committee and I’m very frustrated that a last minute floor amendment was put forward without debate, without discussion, without asking ourselves what it means.”
Lawmakers must say something if they believe they stand to benefit from legislation. Their colleagues then decide whether or not to allow them to vote on the legislation.
Previously, this vote had to be decided without debate. The new House rules would allow lawmakers to discuss a conflict disclosure before voting.
The rules also require House members who raise conflicts of interest to provide sufficient detail about their situation so other members can make an informed decision.
Other changes include allowing lawmakers to abstain from voting even if their peers vote to allow them to participate, and creating a grace period for legislators to report conflicts of interest to leadership if they inadvertently fail to report a conflict.
House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, said the rules package was largely in line with the recommendations from the House Rules Committee.
“During the interim, we had conversations with the Ethics Commission to further define what is a conflict and what isn’t a conflict … and it gives the House of Representatives the opportunity to become the neutral reviewer,” Lefor said.
Lefor also said he is planning to propose a bill that would provide criminal immunity to lawmakers who follow the House rules regarding conflicts of interest.
“A legislator should never be criminally charged for voting on a bill,” he said.
Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, was charged with a misdemeanor last December after the Ethics Commission referred a complaint to a prosecutor. A jury found Dockter guilty earlier this year of a conflict of interest crime related to his voting on budget bills for the Attorney General’s Office and Department of Health. Dockter is one of the owners of a building leased to those agencies.
Jury finds Rep. Dockter guilty of misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge
Also Wednesday, the Senate adopted a rule that would exclude members of the public and lobbyists from the Senate floor 30 minutes before the chamber convenes. During that time, only lawmakers, legislative employees, legislative guests and properly identified members of the media will be allowed on the Senate floor prior to the start of the session.
Members of the public would be allowed in the balcony. They also would be allowed in the back of the chamber once the floor session begins.
Sen. Jeffery Magrum, R-Hazelton, said he was targeted by lobbyists during the 2023 legislative session with attempts to scuttle legislation he was proposing. He said he wanted more than 30 minutes to be public and lobbyist-free before the chamber convenes, but was willing to compromise.
The House did not pass any rule on Wednesday restricting the public or lobbyist access to the House chamber.
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FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
On this day in 1943, two North Dakota army officers, Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz and First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson, were killed in separate medium bomber training crashes in Florida and Georgia.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Army Plane Crashes Kill Two N. D. Men
Two North Dakota officers in the army air forces were killed Sunday in bomber crashes during training flights, Associated Press dispatches revealed Monday.
Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz of Harvey (Wells county) was killed with 10 others from the Avon Park, Fla., army bomber base when two medium bombers collided during a routine formation flight. Both planes crashed and there were no survivors.
First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson of Warwick (Benson county) was one of six killed when a medium bomber from MacDill field, Tampa, Fla., crashed near Savannah, Ga. Lieutenant Anderson was co-pilot of the plane.
None of the other victims of either accident was from the Dakotas or Minnesota.
Lieutenant Kuntz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Kuntz of Harvey, was graduated from the army air force navigation school at Hondo, Texas, as a second lieutenant last October, and received his wings as a navigator.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
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