State lawmakers questioned the state labor commissioner Monday as to why so many discrimination complaints remain unresolved, and why so many of them have no "probable cause" finding, in which there's not enough evidence to substantiate the allegations.

The House and Senate judiciary committees questioned state Labor Commissioner Mark Bachmeier during a joint session in which he delivered a mandatory report on discrimination complaints received by his department under the state Human Rights Act and Housing Discrimination Act. The Division of Human Rights is a division of the Labor Department.

Last year, 191 discrimination complaints were filed with the state, and 128 of them remain open cases. Sen. Carolyn Nelson, D-Fargo, asked why. Bachmeier said those are pending cases still under investigation, but he said his department has worked hard to close cases, particularly in the past six months. He said by the end of March, the department hopes to have no case more than a year old.

"Human Rights cases very often are cases that take a great deal of time," Bachmeier said.

He said North Dakota's caseload issues pale in comparison to other states, where backlogs are common and cases can age up to seven years.

Rep. Andy Maragos, R-Minot, asked Bachmeier to do some research to compare the number of no probable cause cases in North Dakota to other states.

In an interview later, Bachmeier said he is confident that all discrimination complaints are being investigated thoroughly.

"Sometimes evidence is just hard to come by," Bachmeier said.

He said although he hasn't done a comprehensive exam of other states' statistics, those he has looked at have similar percentages of "no probable cause" dispositions. He said the vast majority of discrimination cases also are filed with a federal agency, and those agencies have given his department "tremendously positive feedback."

But the director of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, Cheryl Bergian, told the panel of lawmakers that discrimination complaints are not being adequately handled, and that a state Human Rights Commission should be created to help address their concerns.

She cited several examples where she said the Division of Human Rights has been slow to respond to requests, suggestions and questions. Specifically, she said the division has never responded to a request that an advisory committee be established, never released the results of a statewide survey to gauge the nature and extent of discrimination in North Dakota (until Monday), and has an poor system for making complaints.

In an interview later, Bergian said the coalition asked in June 2001 that an advisory committee be created, and has received no response "despite repeated requests." She said the coalition repeatedly asked that the results of a December 2001 survey be released to the public. She said Bachmeier has been promising to improve the complaint intake process with a new computer program for a year and a half. And she said he never delivered a promised press release to let Fargo people know that discrimination complaints were being taken in person in Fargo one day per month.

Bachmeier said the Human Rights Division has concentrated on establishing a good case management system for receiving and investigating complaints, and Bergian doesn't seem to recognize how much work is involved in that.

"I think maybe there are times when I don't move as quickly as she would like but certainly it's not an intent to be unresponsive to their concerns," he said. "It has simply been a case of not being able to do everything at one time."

Bachmeier said he thinks things are going "exceedingly well."

"It's clear that people think maybe we should have prioritized some things differently and I don't happen to agree with that," he said. "We certainly recognize the need for us to do some additional work in some areas but we've prioritized things appropriately."

The coalition also is concerned about the number of cases in which no "probable cause" to believe the discrimination occurred. As an example, Bergian described a Minot case in which no "probable cause" was found when a landlord who had made several derogatory statements about blacks raised a black couple's rent and made them get rid of a therapeutic dog. She said if a Human Rights Commission were in place, an appeal would be possible. As it is, the only recourse is going to court.

Bachmeier said he stands behind the outcome of that case, which was one of the first housing discrimination cases his office handled. He said HUD also investigated the case, and came to the same conclusion.

"We have much to do but we certainly have come a very, very long way," Bachmeier said.

(Reach Deena Winter at 223-8482 or deenawinter@ndonline.com.)