Senate panel hears $36,318 reimbursement request for Private Investigator and Security Board tied to pipeline litigation

Sen. Jose Castaneda urged the Senate Industry and Business Committee to approve Senate Bill 22‑266, a one‑time grant of $36,318 from the State Disaster Relief fund to the North Dakota Private Investigator and Security Board to reimburse expenses the board incurred responding to litigation and subsequent open‑records requests tied to Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The board’s executive director and legal staff told the committee the appropriation would cover legal fees and the unusually large staff time required to review and redact records produced during an administrative enforcement action. The request includes a detailed cost breakdown presented to the committee: legal fees of $29,726.87, staff redaction time totaling $6,006.25, a $5.25 filing fee to the Office of Administrative Hearings and $59.99 for an external storage drive, yielding the $36,318.11 total the bill seeks to appropriate.

Why it matters: board licensing and enforcement activity is funded entirely by licensing fees, and the board said that litigation‑related costs have left it with a shortfall ahead of the license renewal season set to conclude Sept. 30, 2025. The board’s witnesses said fee increases already proposed elsewhere in the legislative session will not yield additional revenue until the next renewal cycle, so the grant is presented as a short‑term reimbursement to keep board operations funded while longer‑term fee changes take effect.

Board testimony: John Shorey, identified as the executive director of the North Dakota Private Investigator and Security Board, told the panel the board had to process and redact 61,988 pages of documents after an administrative action related to TigerSwan and that the initial redaction effort required about 440.2 staff hours. Shorey said the redaction work and litigation remain active and that the board does not receive regular state appropriations; it is funded by licensing and certification fees.

Chris Redmond, who described himself as legal counsel to the board, said the figure requested is conservative and that the board historically maintained a reserve but has been drawn down by litigation‑related costs, including staff time and compliance with records obligations. Steve Lundin, a board member and vice chairman, described unlicensed private security activity during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and argued the board’s regulatory work is a public‑safety function.

Committee questions focused on whether other licensing boards had received similar reimbursements from DAPL‑related funds, and whether the board had sought money from existing DAPL reimbursement mechanisms. Witnesses said other boards had pursued that fund in some cases but that the Private Investigator and Security Board had not previously drawn on it and instead relied on reserves until now. Committee members also asked whether the board had used outside counsel; Shorey said legal fees were split between the Attorney General’s Office and outside counsel previously retained by the board.

Outcome and next steps: The committee took testimony and closed the hearing on the bill without a recorded vote. No formal appropriation was enacted during the hearing; committee members signaled they had follow‑up questions about precedent for similar reimbursements and whether the federal government might later reimburse state costs. The bill includes an emergency clause in its text to allow prompt payment if appropriated.

Ending note: Sponsors and board staff said the appropriation is meant to be a one‑time, narrowly targeted reimbursement to preserve licensing and enforcement operations while longer‑term fee legislation is implemented.