Ethics Commission tells appropriations panel complaints backlog, staffing and IT gaps hinder timely reviews

Bismarck — The North Dakota Ethics Commission told the Appropriations — Education and Environment Division on Tuesday that a surge in filings, statutory requirements that prioritize informal resolution and a shortage of staff and IT tools have slowed its ability to resolve complaints, and asked lawmakers to fund additional staff and systems.

The commission’s executive director, Rebecca Binstock, told the committee during a hearing on Senate Bill 2004 — a line-item appropriation for the commission — that filings rose sharply and that many cases are delayed by procedures set in Article 14 of the state constitution and existing statute. “The commission is the individual or the entity that dismisses the complaint, not me as executive director,” Binstock said, describing a multi-stage process that must move from initial review to informal resolution before any investigation.

That process, the commission said, creates bottlenecks. The panel heard that the agency received 59 complaints in roughly the first two-and-a-half months of 2025 and that prior to October 2022 nearly every complaint had been summarily dismissed; since late 2022 the office has seen more sustained filings, including serial filers. General Counsel Logan Carpenter said the commission had focused recent months on House Bill 1360, which sought broad statute changes to speed the process but failed in the House; “we're in…