Lawmakers weigh allowing Secretary of State or press-association posting as legal backstop for missed newspaper notices

Supporters of Senate Bill 2069 told the House Political Subdivisions Committee on March 6 that adding an electronic backstop for legally required newspaper public notices would reduce costly delays to projects and administrative proceedings.

Commissioner Sherry Hogan Hufford, Public Service Commission, testified the bill would let state agencies and local political subdivisions "meet its obligation to publish legal notices with the Secretary of State in addition to existing requirements for newspaper publication." She added, "We do not support eliminating publication. It remains a vital tool for us to notify the public." The PSC favors a backstop after multiple incidents in which a single missed newspaper publication forced hearings to be rescheduled, the commission said.

The nut of supporters' argument was that publication errors by private newspapers are rare but can have outsized effects. Victor Shook, director of public utilities for the Public Service Commission, documented several cases tracked by the PSC in which a missed second publication required rescheduling hearings and cost agency staff time and applicant resources. Jonathan Fortner of the Lignite Energy Council, Jean Schaffer of Basin Electric Power Cooperative and representatives of investor-owned utilities said transmission and generation projects operate on tight construction windows and that a missed notice can delay projects by months or a full year.

Opposition centered on preserving the newspaper role and avoiding an expensive, state-run replacement. Cecile Worman, executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, told the committee that newspaper publication failures are "rare" and that the association already maintains a statewide public-notice website that posts legally published notices at ndpublicnotices.com. "SB 20 69 is too broad a solution for what remains a rare problem," she said, and proposed using the association's existing platform as the immediate, no-cost backstop.

Secretary of State Michael Howe testified the Secretary of State could host notices but would need funding to expand its current public-meeting site. "We would need an appropriation of $150,000 to support a new platform," he said; the Senate had included but later removed a similar appropriation. Newspaper association witnesses and several county and municipal representatives suggested a compromise that would designate the association's site as the legal backstop or permit agencies to post directly to an existing press-association website.

Committee members questioned scope and cost. Some members favored limiting any statutory change to state agencies to avoid imposing technical or staffing burdens on smaller political subdivisions; others argued a single statewide backstop should cover all units of government. The committee did not take final action on SB 2069 during the hearing.

Ending: Supporters said the bill preserves newspaper publication while providing a fail-safe to prevent rescheduled hearings and project delays; newspapers and some committee members asked for narrower language or use of the existing ndpublicnotices.com site to avoid new state expenditures.