North Dakota Code 44-04-20 – Notice of public meetings required – Exceptions – Schedule set by statute, ordinance, or resolution
1. Unless otherwise provided by law, public notice must be given in advance of all meetings of a public entity as defined in section 44-04-17.1, including executive sessions and meetings held remotely. Unless otherwise specified by law, resolution, or ordinance, or as decided by the public entity, notices required by this section need not be published.
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 44-04-20
- Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
- following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute means the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
- year: means twelve consecutive months. See North Dakota Code 1-01-33
2. The notice required in this section must contain the date, time, and location of the meeting and, if practicable, the topics to be considered. However, the lack of an agenda in the notice, or a departure from, or an addition to, the agenda at a meeting, does not affect the validity of the meeting or the actions taken thereat. The notice also must contain the general subject matter of any executive session expected to be held during the meeting. For meetings to be held by electronic means, the location of the meeting is the electronic address and any other information necessary to allow the public to join or view the electronic meeting as required under section 44-04-19.
3. If the governing body holds regularly scheduled meetings, the schedule of these meetings, including the aforementioned notice information, if available, must be filed annually with the secretary of state for state-level bodies or for public entities defined in subdivision c of subsection 13 of section 44-04-17.1, the city auditor or designee of the city for city-level bodies, and the county auditor or designee of the county for all other bodies or the schedule must be posted on the public entity’s website. This schedule must be furnished to anyone who requests the information. When reasonable and practicable, a governing body of a public entity should attempt to set a regular schedule for its meetings by statute, ordinance, or resolution. This subsection does not apply to meetings of the legislative assembly or any committee thereof. Filing a yearly schedule of upcoming meetings does not relieve a public entity from its obligation to post an agenda for each meeting as required in subsections 2 and 4.
4. The notice required in this section must be posted at the principal office of the governing body holding the meeting, if such exists, and at the location of the meeting on the day of the meeting. In addition, unless all the information contained in the notice was previously filed with the appropriate office under subsection 3, the notice must be filed in the office of the secretary of state for state-level bodies or for public entities defined in subdivision c of subsection 13 of section 44-04-17.1, the city auditor or designee of the city for city-level bodies, the county auditor or designee of the county for all other bodies. If the public entity has a website, notice also must be posted on the public entity’s website. This subsection does not apply to meetings of the legislative assembly or any committee thereof.
5. The governing body’s presiding officer has the responsibility of assuring that public notice of a meeting’s date, time, and location, is given at the same time as such governing body’s members are notified, and that this notice is available to anyone requesting such information. As soon as an agenda is prepared for a meeting with the information required in subsection 2 and given to members of the governing body, the agenda must be posted at the locations as required by subsection 4 and given to anyone requesting the information. When a request is made for notice of meetings, the request is effective for one year unless a different time period is specified.
6. In the event of emergency or special meetings of a governing body, the person calling such a meeting shall, in addition to the notices in subsection 4, also notify the public entity’s official newspaper, if any, and any representatives of the news media which have requested to be so notified of such special or emergency meetings, of the time, place, date, and topics to be considered at the same time as such governing body’s members are notified. If the public entity does not have an official newspaper, then it must notify the official newspaper of the county where its principal office or mailing address is located. Topics that may be considered at an emergency or special meeting are limited to those included in the notice.
7. A committee of an institution under the authority of the state board of higher education, in lieu of the notice requirements in this section, may file in the office of the president of the institution the name, address, and telephone number of a person who may be contacted to obtain specific times, dates, and locations of any meetings of that committee or to request specific notification of each meeting of that committee.
8. The attorney general shall prepare general guidelines to assist public entities in following the provisions of this section.
9. This section is violated when a notice is not provided in substantial compliance with this section.