Governor-backed bill would create task force to review and reduce state boards and commissions; water industry raises concerns

Senate Bill 2308 would create a boards review task force housed in the Governor's Office to assess state boards, commissions, committees, councils and task forces for inefficiency and duplication and recommend streamlining measures to the Legislature. The administration submitted a detailed section‑by‑section breakdown of target changes, including repeals, transfers and consolidations.

Governor Kelly Armstrong testified in support, saying state government has more than 50 boards and roughly 1,500 appointees and that some boards have not met in years. He said the task force is intended to identify which boards can be combined or absorbed by agencies, and noted the bill would dissolve 17 named entities in whole or in part. JC Schaefer, deputy chief of staff, said the list was developed after outreach and review and that the goal is to preserve mission‑critical functions while removing duplicative structures.

The bill would reassign duties in several places: it moves the statewide longitudinal data system (SLEDS) to the North Dakota Information Technology Department (NDIT/ITD) with appropriate privacy safeguards; it moves various early childhood, brain injury and related functions under Department of Human Services; it transfers water‑related licensing duties from boards to the Department of Water Resources and proposes to repeal the Board of Water Well Contractors and the North Dakota Atmospheric Resource Board; it also proposes repeals or transfers for the medical marijuana advisory committee, Devil's Lake Outlet Management Advisory Committee, the Poet Laureate nominating board and other entities.

Supporters argued agency consolidation can reduce overhead and coordinate related functions. Governor Armstrong said many volunteer boards cost staff time and that some have failed to meet regularly, making the government footprint bigger than necessary. He and sponsor Senator Rohrs said agencies and affected boards were notified of the proposed changes.

Opponents focused on licensing, technical and institutional‑knowledge concerns. The On‑Site Wastewater and Water Well sectors provided detailed opposition testimony: Tom Schimmelfenning (on‑site wastewater technical committee chair) argued the committee still has codewriting and licensing work to finish and warned that absorbing board functions into agencies would shift costs to taxpayers because currently boards are funded by fees that pay for enforcement staff. The North Dakota Well Drillers Association vice president, William Schauff, and Water Well Board Chair Lauren Bewitz also testified opposition, saying technical licensing and enforcement work depends on practitioner expertise housed in boards and that losing the board structure could degrade oversight or require larger state budgets. Rhys Haas, director of the Department of Water Resources, supported moving water boards' administrative and licensing functions to the department and said doing so would create synergies and could resolve current negative cash flow for some licensing funds.

Other stakeholders asked the committee to include board representatives on the task force. Pharmacy Board and other licensing stakeholders asked that the task force include board representation or "a representative" knowledgeable about boards' operations; they warned removing board representation could produce misunderstanding of licensing implications. The governor's office and bill proponents said a representative (rather than a current board member) could be appointed and that legislative oversight would follow any recommendations.

The committee received both pro and con testimony and closed the hearing; a committee vote on SB 2308 is not recorded in the transcript. The engrossed bill and sponsor materials list numerous specific statutory transfers and repeals (SLEDS, several advisory committees, the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact, and others) that the task force would review or that the bill would repeal or transfer if enacted as drafted.