N.D. measure makes it easier for legislators to get state jobs

By DALE WETZEL, Associated Press
    BISMARCK — When Gov. John Hoeven was mulling appointments for tax commissioner and North Dakota Supreme Court justice three years ago, the state constitution blocked him from considering state lawmakers.


    Next week, North Dakota voters will decide whether they should remove 11 words from the constitution to make it easier for an incumbent legislator to get a Capitol job.


    The amendment is Measure 1, the only statewide measure on North Dakota’s June 10 primary election ballot. It would allow a lawmaker to take an existing state government job even if its pay was increased while he or she was in the Legislature.


    By overwhelming margins, both the House (88-3) and the Senate (40-7) voted last year to put the idea on the ballot. But some lawmakers are having second thoughts, saying they have heard public complaints about the measure.


    ‘‘What I’m hearing is, people aren’t going to support it because they think you’re elected to fill out your job ... rather than having the governor appoint you to something,’’ said Sen. David O’Connell, D-Lansford, the Senate’s minority leader, who was one of the resolution’s sponsors.


    Hoeven is backing the proposal, and the Legislature’s Republican majority leaders — Fargo Rep. Rick Berg and Bismarck Sen. Bob Stenehjem — say it would increase the number of potential appointees should a state position come open. Berg and Stenehjem also were among the resolution’s six sponsors.


    ‘‘If there ever is an opening in a statewide office, we want the pool as large as possible so the governor can select the best candidate to fulfill someone’s term,’’ Berg said.


    The amendment would shorten Article 4, Section 6 of the North Dakota Constitution, which restricts the ability of legislators to accept state jobs.


    The section now reads in part: ‘‘During the term for which elected, no member of the legislative assembly may be appointed to any full-time office which has been created, or to any office for which the compensation has been increased, by the legislative assembly during that term.’’


    The proposed amendment removes the words ‘‘or to any office for which the compensation has been increased’’ from the section. Last year, the North Dakota House defeated a separate proposal to abolish the section entirely.


    The issue arose because of two high-profile resignations three years ago. Supreme Court Justice William Neumann resigned to become director of the state Bar Association and Tax Commissioner Rick Clayburgh quit to take a job as president of the North Dakota Bankers Association.


    The Legislature sets the pay for the tax commissioner and the five North Dakota Supreme Court justices, and the 2005 Legislature had voted a salary increase for both jobs as part of a general pay raise for state workers.


    Hoeven asked Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem whether the pay increase barred him from considering legislators for the two appointments, and Stenehjem, in a May 2005 legal opinion, concluded it did. The fact that the jobs were not singled out for unusual pay increases did not make any difference, Stenehjem concluded.


    ‘‘I do not believe a current legislator could be appointed even if small, across-the-board raises were given,’’ Stenehjem said.


    The amendment’s supporters point out that the change would still bar legislators from being appointed to newly created state positions.


    ‘‘I don’t think anybody wants somebody, while they’re in the Legislature, creating a job, putting a salary to it and then hurry up and get appointed to it themselves,’’ Bob Stenehjem said. ‘‘This wouldn’t allow for that, anyway.’’


    Berg and Stenehjem said they have heard little public discussion of the measure.


    ‘‘It almost appears that it’s not on anybody’s radar screen,’’ Stenehjem said. ‘‘There’s really no opposition to it, and there’s no real support out there pounding for it, either.’’


    The constitutional provision had not previously impeded legislators from taking state jobs. During one stretch from July 1997 until April 1998, four Republican lawmakers resigned their seats to go to work in state government.


    Linton Rep. Tom Freier became a deputy director in the state Department of Transportation; Fargo Rep. Tony Clark went to work as a Tax Department analyst; Bismarck Rep. Bob Martinson became tourism director; and Dickinson Sen. William Goetz became chief of staff to then-Gov. Ed Schafer.