The Democratic Candidate for North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner has asked for an Attorney General’s opinion on whether the state Industrial Commission has violated the state’s open records law.
Ryan Taylor says a campaign volunteer has asked for the minutes of Industrial Commission meetings from 2009 to the present. He says the request went in March 5th – but to date, the only minutes received have been from 2009. Taylor says those should have been turned over faster. He says one of the reasons his campaign has asked for the minutes came from an interim Legislative committee meeting he attended – also attended by a number of landowners from the oil patch.
“I could sense mistrust between those farmers and the Industrial Commission, especially the oil and gas division," Taylor told Bismarck reporters. "In my mind, the only way we clear up mistrust is open communication and clear transparency.”
Taylor says the Industrial Commission should publish the minutes on its Web site – which he says it does not do.
"We will treat this request just like we treat every other request of this type," said Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who is also a member of the Industrial Commission. "It's been assigned to a lawyer in the office.
The Commission is made up of the Agriculture Commissioner, the Attorney General and the Governor.
Taylor says he doesn’t blame the Commission staff – because he believes the staff is overworked.
