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.