City governing boards in Dickinson and South Heart violated North Dakota's sunshine law by meeting with developers of a coal gasification plant without giving public notice, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said.

Stenehjem's legal opinion, made public Friday, followed his conclusion last month that the Stark County Commission also violated the law by neglecting to provide notice of the same meeting with executives of Great Northern Power Development LP.

The company invited a number of local and state officials to a Dec. 14 briefing on the $1.4 billion project, which includes a new lignite mine near South Heart in western Stark County and a factory to convert the coal into synthetic natural gas. It was held at a Dickinson hotel.

Dickinson and South Heart officials said they did not give public notice of their participation because they do not have regulatory jurisdiction over the factory and coal mine, and the meeting didn't relate directly to city business.

However, Stenehjem concluded the project is likely to affect the entire region, and the information officials received could influence their decision-making later.

"It is estimated that 200-plus permanent workers will be needed for the plant," the opinion says. "This alone could have a significant effect on both Dickinson and South Heart, due to the infrastructure needs associated with an increased population, including housing, schools, roads, taxes, landfill needs, and other issues related to the health and safety of the community."

Dennis Johnson, the mayor of Dickinson, said Friday he was not surprised by Stenehjem's conclusions, given his earlier determination that the Stark County Commission should have given public notice of the meeting.

"We get invited to a number of things, some of them social, some information-sharing type meetings," Johnson said.

"What this communicates to me is that any invitation I get as a city commissioner to attend something, I just have to be more vigilant" in finding out whether public notice is needed, Johnson said. "If there is likely to be a majority of the commissioners invited to a function, we'll just have to public-notice it."

Stenehjem said both the Dickinson City Commission and the South Heart City Council would have to re-create minutes of the meeting, and make them available free.

Great Northern Power Development has already held a public meeting to present the information that was given to the state and local officials, and "I will not require GNP to present the same information again," Stenehjem said.