Associated Press Writer

By DALE WETZELBy DALE WETZEL

Two directors of North Dakota's workers compensation agency broke the state's open meetings law by meeting in a restaurant to discuss business without public notice, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said.

Stenehjem, in a legal opinion Monday, said the Workforce Safety and Insurance agency must draft minutes of the illegal meeting and provide a free copy to anyone who asks. Former WSI executive Jim Long, who filed a complaint with Stenehjem about the meeting, must receive a free copy, the opinion says.

Workforce Safety's operations are supervised by an 11-member board of directors. The board also has smaller subcommittees, which report to the full board.

Meetings of the smaller groups and the full board both require public notice under North Dakota's sunshine law, which is triggered if enough committee members show up to allow their respective boards to take votes and make decisions.

Stenehjem said the open meetings law was violated May 21 when Mark Gjovig, the chairman of the full board, and board member Mark Jackson met at a Bismarck restaurant the night before a scheduled meeting of the full board.

Gjovig and Jackson are members of the board's "governance" subcommittee, which has three members. The presence of Gjovig and Jackson was enough to require notice of a public meeting, Stenehjem's opinion says. The third member, Ed Grossbauer, who is a labor advocate on the board, was not invited.

During the restaurant meeting, Gjovig had been discussing new board governing guidelines with Bruce Furness, the agency's director; a consultant, Stacy Sjogren; and Mary Thompson, a WSI information services project manager.

Gjovig subsequently called Jackson and another board member, Michael Gallagher, to invite them to join the group, the opinion says.

"At the point Mr. Jackson arrived and discussed the public business" of the governance subcommittee, "it was necessary to provide public notice consistent with" the state's open meetings law, the opinion says.

"The board must … prepare detailed minutes of the meeting and include a statement in the notice indicating that the public may receive a free copy of such minutes upon request," the opinion says.

Long said he was tipped that the meeting was going on, and went to check for himself. He was dismissed as WSI's chief of support services in March, and has said he plans to sue the agency to challenge his ouster.

Long believes he was sacked because he cooperated with an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing at Workforce Safety and Insurance, an allegation his supervisors deny.