Jill Schramm/MDN Josiah Roise responds to a question at a candidate forum sponsored by the Minot Area Chamber EDC on June 25.

Josiah Roise says he will be a constitutional mayor if elected by voters in the Minot city election Aug. 5.

“It’s much less government enforcement, so it’s a lot more freedom. It’s personal liberties, and personal freedom enhanced greatly,” he said in describing a constitutional mayor. To understand what a constitutional mayor looks like, Roise suggests investigating the more readily available information related to a constitutional sheriff.

“Any and all laws that conflict with the Constitution, with your constitutional rights, won’t be enforced,” he explained. “Tinted windows, seatbelt laws, just nonsense like that. That has nothing to do with harming anybody or anything.”

Roise plans to hold a campaign rally Tuesday and Wednesday, July 29-30, with a guest appearance by Richard Mack, founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Mack will speak at the showing of the documentary “Police State,” by Dinesh D’Souza, Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Oak Park Theater and on Wednesday at 7 p.m at the amphitheater in Oak Park during the 5-9 p.m. rally.

Roise, 33, is one of four candidates seeking the office of Minot mayor. Three council members also will be on the ballot – Paul Pitner, Mark Jantzer and Rob Fuller.

Roise said the biggest reason he is running for mayor, and what causes him to stand out among the candidates, is principle.

“I’ve been fighting corruption for over 16 years. I don’t stand for it when there’s corruption. I call it out, and sometimes that gets you in trouble. Sometimes it gets you into handcuffs when you tell somebody, ‘I know what you’re doing is illegal. I know what you’re doing is wrong.’ I don’t regret any of my arrests for saying and doing what’s right, for standing on principle and saying, ‘No, I’m not going to comply with you violating my constitutional rights,'” he said. “As a mayor, I need to fix that because I know it’s happening to way more than me.”

Roise has two active lawsuits, filed last April, against the City of Minot related to April 2019 incidents involving the Minot Police Department. He said he has asked for investigations of the police department without success and filed the lawsuits as the statute of limitations loomed to be able to continue fighting his case. He noted his cases have been made more difficult by the short time frames in which police are required to keep evidence.

One lawsuit alleges a search of his parents’ home occurred without a warrant, related to an employee of his rain gutter business who had stayed at the home. The employee was arrested in connection with a pipe bomb explosion and fire. A second lawsuit alleges harassment when police entered a business with guns drawn on suspicion of burglary. According to the court filing, Roise, at the business owner’s invitation, had entered the building after hours with the owner, who wanted to pick up an item. Police had recognized his vehicle outside the business, the complaint stated.

“They didn’t think it was suspicious when the cleaning lady showed up five minutes later,” Roise said.

Roise has called for more transparency in the police department, with longer periods of evidence retention and greater access to information by the public.

“None of my charges are danger related,” Roise said. “Every single arrest is obstruction of justice when I just don’t do what they want me to. I don’t comply with unconstitutional demands.”

Other than traffic infractions, in North Dakota, court records show Roise had three misdemeanors from 2017-2018, all for driving with a suspended license and all were dismissed. A charge of fugitive from justice also was dismissed.

Roise said government needs to get back to Common Law.

“Common Law is, if there’s no victim, there’s no crime. If there’s no damage, there’s no crime,” he said.

“If you don’t know that something’s wrong, in a moral sense and a logical sense, it shouldn’t even be enforced,” Roise said. Enforcement comes at a huge cost, and the end result isn’t public protection but control, he said.

He also supports obtaining city law enforcement services through the Ward County Sheriff’s Department. Roise refers to the change as rebranding and changing ownership from the city council members to the voters who elect their sheriff.

It is one of the opportunities he sees to save taxpayer money.

“North Dakota, in general, has the highest ratio of government employees to regular citizens. We have an extreme imbalance of big government and a small population. We need to downsize that,” Roise said.

He said the City of Minot assesses adequate taxes but spends it in the wrong areas, leaving the city behind on road maintenance while holding surpluses that get spent unnecessary on wayfinding signage.

“The role of a constitutional government is security and infrastructure. We don’t have a security problem. We don’t need more security. We do need infrastructure fixed, and we have a tax/spending problem,” he said.

Roise said his focus will not be on how the city should spend its money but how the city plans to let people keep more of their money.

Even on economic development, he said he would adhere to the Constitution.

“It is not the government’s job to boost or support local business. It’s the community’s job,” he said at a candidate forum.

Roise said he is giving voters an honest picture of how he will represent them as mayor.

“As far as the face of Minot goes, I have to continue being myself. I’m not putting up a false front as a candidate. I’m not going to put one up as a sitting mayor,” he said.

The same is true of how he will relate to constituents. The outreach to citizens that occurs during a campaign shouldn’t stop after an election, Roise said.

“Get some feedback from the people and what they’re looking for, not just before you run for office, but after you’re in office,” he said. “I want people to feel like they can talk to me because they’re going to see me on a regular basis.”

Roise also believes he can work with any differing views of council members or the public. Roise said growing up as a middle child taught him early about negotiating to find a mutual path that doesn’t compromise principle.

“Most importantly, find out why the other person wants what they want, so you can understand from their shoes,” he said. “If you eat enough apple, you get to the core. You have to be willing to take the bites. I will never back out of, and I don’t ever back out of, something before coming to the solution. … A point of diplomacy is having the courage to see it through to the end. Diplomacy is perseverance. If you have enough perseverance, you can reach a diplomatic solution.”