A BILL for an Act to amend and reenact section 11-11-37 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to the publication of proceedings of a board of county commissioners.
HB 1380 would amend North Dakota law governing how county boards publish their official proceedings. Under current law, county commissioners must provide a full and complete report of their meetings to the county’s official newspaper, and the newspaper must publish it and file an affidavit of publication. The bill would update that requirement so the report could be supplied either to the official newspaper or posted on the county’s official website, while keeping the existing seven-day deadline after the meeting at which the report is read and approved.
The practical effect is to give counties an alternative digital publication option for meeting proceedings, potentially reducing reliance on print publication and allowing counties to use their own websites for official notice. If a county still chooses newspaper publication, the existing newspaper publication and affidavit requirements would remain in place. The bill would therefore affect county governments, county auditors, and official newspapers by changing the method of public disclosure for county commission proceedings.
HB 1380 would amend Section 11-11-37 of the North Dakota Century Code to authorize county boards of commissioners to publish meeting proceedings on the county’s official website instead of, or in addition to, the county’s official newspaper. It preserves the requirement that a full and complete report be made available within seven days after approval and leaves the newspaper publication process intact for counties that continue to use it. The bill would modernize public notice requirements and could reduce publication costs or administrative burdens for counties that shift to web-based posting.
The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded vote discussion, so there is no direct evidence of debate or stakeholder testimony. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears procedural and administrative rather than controversial, with an apparent policy goal of modernizing publication practices. However, the bill ultimately failed, indicating it did not advance despite its limited scope.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. The likely area of disagreement would have been whether official website posting should be treated as an adequate substitute for newspaper publication, especially for transparency, public access, and the economic interests of official newspapers. Counties seeking flexibility and lower costs would likely support the change, while newspapers or those concerned about access for residents without reliable internet could have reservations.