People’s Press Project Report

By Duke Schempp
Staff Writer

As the People’s Press Project makes a public presence in Cass County Commission and Fargo Board of Education meetings, the community has more access to their representative government at work. Full meetings are viewable on the web and rebroadcasts are aired on TV Fargo 12 twice a week. Other media outlets rarely provide coverage unless there is an earthshaking issue spotted in advance on the agenda provided before the meeting. What we have found is a pattern by these governmental entities to act on newsworthy agenda items at the meeting, rather that giving the public and the press advanced notice.

PPP was the sole media covering the March 21 Cass County Board of Commissioners. The Commission amended their agenda and added three items without informing the public. Among them was an item to forcibly remove people from their homes during the flood. The Commissioners voted unanimously for the power of MANDATORY evacuation.

This lack of advance public notice concerned us as a media justice organization. We contacted the ND Attorney Generals office and filed an inquiry regarding open meeting laws. The ND AG office responded the inquiry request had merit and would be investigated. The main concern, of course, is that Cass County Board of Commissioners failed to give the public advance notice of amended agenda items at the March 21, 2011 meeting. The amended agenda was not provided on-line on the Cass County web site and there was no advance notice of the added items. Also, there were not any members of the community or the press present at the meeting with the exception of the PPP. As a media organization, the PPP is concerned about the failure to give the public access to these amended agenda items that were of interest to the public and that the public should have been provided advance notice of in order to address their County Commission with their concerns, interest or support.

The AG office can take up to 180 day to issue a finding. Meanwhile the Cass County Commission has raised the concern again. On May 16, the Commission slipped in a packet of contracts for flood related road repairs totaling a cost of nearly 1.8 million dollars. Only the Commission was privy to this agenda item and they quickly passed a resolution that their constituents had no knowledge or an opportunity to address. Most significant is the breakdown of how this expenditure will be paid. First, the County will front the $1,779,328.90 from the County general fund. After the work is completed FEMA will reimburse 75% of this expense. Then the state of North Dakota will pay 17.5% of the cost ($311,382.55) and the County will pay the remaining 7.5% which sums up to $133,449.66.

There was some discussion on the County’s share of this expense. This was questioned by Commissioner Ken Pawluk. He asked where the money would come from to pay the County share. Cass County Engineer Berndt stated that the funds are not in the budget and that he was not sure where the money will come from. Shortly after this budget discussion the Commission moved forward and passed the motion unanimously.

One may argue that this is a good deal for North Dakota and Cass County. Completing nearly 1.8 million dollars of needed road work for less than a half of million dollars expense to North Dakota taxpayers. But the real concern is the fact that there from the public to discuss this expense. The community did not have any prior knowledge that the Commission was taking this action because only the Commissioners were notified.

PPP has filed another inquiry with the ND Attorney General on the pattern of the County taking actions on issues that have a public interest without giving advance notice of their agenda. The County has, up to the time of regular coverage by the PPP, enjoyed the comfort of meetings with little or no public scrutiny.

In fact, when PPP first informed the Commissioners about impending media coverage by the PPP, County Administrator Bonnie Johnson, informed PPP that the Commission had voted NOT to have their meetings aired on Cable Access television. Fortunately, media and the public do have a right to attend and report on public governmental meetings. The PPP has been airing the Cass County Commission meetings online since October 2010, and on TV Fargo 12 since May. 

PPP will continue to film the meetings and keep the watchful eye of the community on the actions of our government. 

For TV Fargo 12’s schedule, see: http://tiny.cc/TV12 .
For full meetings on the web, go to: http://tiny.cc/CassCounty .

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