North Dakota
Port: Commerce Department didn't turn over email relevant to film grant controversy
MINOT — After the debacle over former Attorney General
Wayne Stenehjem’s
deleted emails, North Dakotans might be excused if they are feeling something less than confident in the willingness of our state’s leaders to be transparent and forthcoming with public information.
Unfortunately, the state Department of Commerce just gave us another justification for our cynicism.
At issue is a controversy over film grants. The Commerce Department contends that it held a competitive process for a $600,000 film grant that
went to a Bismarck-based company called Canticle Productions.
Dozens of North Dakota filmmakers, some of whom bid for that grant, argue it was not a fair process, that the grant was always intended for Canticle and that the Commerce Department’s competitive process was a sham.
Based on the facts in evidence, the filmmakers have the better case.
The legislative record
makes it clear that at least some lawmakers wanted to steer the grant to Canticle. Additionally, the competitive process around the grant
was
abbreviated,
beginning late on a Friday and encompassing just six business days.
A report
recently issued by Auditor Josh Gallion found that this timeline was far shorter than what the Commerce Department was allowed for other similar grants from the recent past.
Now the filmmakers have more evidence coming in the form of an email that should have been included in the response to a previous open records request.
Bismarck-based businessman Matt Fern, who has been
organizing the response to this situation
on behalf of the filmmakers, had a sit-down with personnel from Gov. Doug Burgum’s administration recently. During that conversation, the officials made reference to an email sent from Daniel Bielinski, the president of Canticle Productions, to Commerce Commissioner Josh Teigen. Fern noticed that he had never received this email in response to his records request.
After the meeting, in an Aug. 22, email, Sara Otte Coleman, director of tourism and marketing for the Commerce Department, acknowledged that this email should have been turned over. She provided Fern with the copied and pasted text from the email exchange, and the contents are remarkable.
In it, Bielinski references the legislation from the 2023 session appropriating the funds for the grant, and offers the presumption that the funds are intended for his company.
“My name is Daniel Bielinski. I am the president of Canticle Productions, to whom a $600K grant was award in a bill from this past legislative session,” he wrote to Teigen in the May 26, 2023, email. “I was wondering if we might connect for a couple minutes regarding some logistics for the payout (which I know doesn’t happen until the new fiscal year). Would you have time for a quick call next week?”
“I don’t believe the legislation stated a recipient, which would require us to follow state procurement laws and post for a competitive RFP process,” Teigen responded, directing Bielinski to work with Coleman, whom he copied on his reply.
In passing Bielinski’s email along to Fern, Coleman wrote that it “didn’t come up on previous searches, as it originated from a different email address and slightly different name. We apologize and have improved our internal process to include boarder and separate search terms for public information requests going forward.”
This is a bombshell.
Let’s consider the timeline.
On May 18, 2023, Gov. Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1018, which was the Commerce Department budget and included the appropriation for the $600,000 grant Bielinski was emailing about.
On May 26, 2023, Bielinski emails Teigen, asking, essentially, how he goes about getting his company’s money. Teigen responds the same day, saying that there will have to be a competitive process for the grant, and that Bielinski should work with Coleman.
On July 21, 2023, a Friday, the Commerce Department makes a late afternoon announcement that it is accepting bids on the grant.
On July 31, 2023, just 10 calendar days, and only six business days, after announcing the availability of the grant, the Commerce Departments
stops accepting bids.
On Aug. 3, 2023, Commerce Department officials scored the bids and awarded the entire grant to Bielinski’s company.
Again, the filmmakers contend that certain lawmakers and Burgum administration officials steered the grant toward Canticle Productions, and that the competitive bidding process was just an exercise in going through the motions. The Commerce Department maintains that the bidding process was fair and open.
At the very least, there is a serious appearance of impropriety here. The legislative record indicates that the grant was to be steered toward Canticle. That company’s president certainly felt that the grant money belonged to him. The Commerce Department held what can fairly be called a perfunctory bidding process for the grant, ultimately awarding it to Canticle.
Can the filmmakers, particularly those who took the time to prepare proposals for the grant, be blamed for feeling like they got the short end of the stick? And now, further undermining our trust in this process, Commerce officials just happen to find an email that bolsters the argument that this process was unfair, but only after it was incidentally referenced in a meeting with the filmmakers?
That stinks, and it’s well past time for Gov. Doug Burgum and legislative leaders to admit it.
Greg Power, fisheries division chief with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, shares information about the new 2026-2028 Fishing Guide and a few new regulations starting April 1, 2026.
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SIOUX FALLS — Ali Stephens had 17 points and 13 rebounds and 8th-seeded Omaha defeated 9th-seeded North Dakota 49-39 in the first round of the Summit League women’s tournament.
The Fighting Hawks had a tough time putting the ball in the hoop all night long, scoring just three points in the first quarter and having only marginally better luck from there.
UND (7-24) shot just 23.5 percent from the floor (12-for-51) and made 1-of-20 shots from outside the arc. Walker Demers and Mackenzie Hughes had 10 points each to lead the Hawks, with Demers adding eight rebounds.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Regan Juenemann had 10 points and five rebounds for the Mavericks while Avril Smith had seven points and 16 rebounds and Sarai Estupinan eight points, five assists and three rebounds. Omaha (6-26) shot the ball slightly better than the Hawks, going 16-of-53 from the field (30 percent) and 8-of-23 (35 percent) on 3-pointers.
With the win, the Mavs earn a date with top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
The Bison won both regular season matchups by more than 50 points.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Oral Roberts 84, Kansas City 62 — Don’t look now but the team that started the conference season 0-10 and at one point lost 15 of 16 games might be the hottest in the Summit League.
Oral Roberts picked up their fourth straight victory on Wednesday night in the conference tournament opener, routing Kansas City at the Premier Center in the 8/9 “play-in” game.
Ty Harper had 22 points to lead the Golden Eagles (10-22), who took a 44-21 lead by halftime and never looked back. ORU shot 50 percent from the floor and made 13-of-27 3-pointers while the Kangaroos shot just 34 percent and made 6-of-24 from deep. Martins Kilups had 17 points for the Eagles and Connor Dow added 14.
Jayson Petty had 14 points to lead the Kagaroos, who finish the season 4-27. It was their final game under coach Marvin Menzies, whom the school announced earlier this season would not return next year.
With the win ORU advances to face top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Golden Eagles lost to NDSU 86-58 in Tulsa on Jan. 24 but they took the Bison to overtime in Fargo on Jan. 3 in a 79-77 loss.
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.
North Dakota
The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor – North Dakota Attorney General
04 Mar The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor
in Opinions
March 4, 2026
Media Contact: Suzie Weigel, 701.328.2210
BISMARCK, ND – It is the opinion that federal law does not prevent the state from auditing P&A and even though P&A possesses confidential records, N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22.1 and 42 C.F.R. § 51.45(c) authorize the state auditor and the employees of the auditor’s office, to review the records without detriment to P &A.
Also, whether Rule 1.6 of the North Dakota Rules of Professional Conduct for licensed attorneys prohibits P&A from disclosing to the State Auditor the contents of a client file for the purpose of conducting a non-financial performance audit under N.D.C.C. ch. 54-10 when the requested file includes information about individuals and businesses in the private sector who chose to contact P &A.
This issue was already addressed in a 1995 opinion of this office regarding P&A. The 1995 opinion highlighted that P&A has authority to contract with private attorneys to represent private individuals. 17 During that performance audit, auditors asked to see billings from the contracted attorneys. 18 P&A redacted the names of the individuals represented by the contract attorneys under the rules for attorney-client privilege or attorney-client confidentiality. 19 The names of individuals seeking services of P&A are protected under N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3. The opinion stated:
Thus, P&A’s records which indicate to whom its services were provided are available to the State Auditor for performance audit purposes. The State Auditor has
been given access by P&A to its records other than the attorney’s billings. Therefore, the State Auditor already has access to the names of the persons to whom P&A
provides services. State law requires that the State Auditor and his employees must keep such information confidential.
Here, P&A has not identified a specific record. Given that, I rely on the past opinions declaring that records made confidential by N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3-10 are available under N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22 to the State Auditor and the Auditor’s employees for audit purposes.
Link to opinion 2026-L-01
###
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