BISMARCK – The Mott-Regent School Board violated North Dakota’s open meetings law by discussing public business through email exchanges, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said in an opinion Tuesday.
Dustin Gawrylow, a conservative political activist, requested the opinion after he made an open records request and received several emails sent and received by the board before the school district’s May 20 special election on a school bond issue.
Stenehjem wrote that while most emails sent between board members didn’t trigger the open meetings law, some went beyond merely providing information or taking care of ministerial matters because they included board members’ “thoughts, opinions, positions and suggested courses of action.”
To remedy the violation, the board must retain copies of its email exchanges since February and provide them free of charge to anyone who requests them.
(BND)
