GRAND FORKS -- The Alerus Center commission held a closed-door session with auditors to have a more frank discussion Wednesday morning, except it doesn't appear commissioners were aware of state laws surrounding such sessions.
"All of us want to do the right thing; it's a difficult environment," said commission Chairman Randy Newman when told afterward by a reporter that the law requires a closed session be announced in advance according to section 44-04-20-2 of the North Dakota Century Code.
Commissioner and City Council member Curt Kreun said he didn't know either.
The agenda for Wednesday's meeting made no mention of a closed session.
When asked by a reporter for the Century Code citation, which public officials must announce before closing a meeting, Commissioner Darrell Larson, who made the motion to close the meeting at Newman's request, conceded that he didn't know.
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That's in subsection 44-04-19.2-2-b, which says public officials must announce their legal authority to close the meeting.
The Century Code has two main provisions for when closed meetings are allowed:
* When public officials must consult their attorney about negotiations or lawsuits and an open meeting would threaten the public body's position; that's in 44-04-19.1-9.
* When officials discuss confidential records, such as employee's confidential records; that's in 44-04-19.2-1.
In the Alerus Center commission's case, the reason was simply to have good chat with auditors without the auditors feeling uncomfortable with events center staff present, according to Newman. That's standard corporate practice, he said, and he does the same thing at Alerus Financial, the bank where he's CEO.
Newman conceded though that he's unsure if that's the norm in government.
According to minutes of the commission meeting from March 17, this is the sort of thing commissioners wanted to get into: "Annually the commission will review the open meeting requirements, governance items, bylaws, and committees."
Tu-Uyen Tran is a reporter at the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, which is owned by
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