County Board Debates Home Rule Change

Should Ward County amend its Home Rule charter to allow more time to finalize yearly budgets? And...  More »

Should Ward County amend its Home Rule charter to allow more time to finalize yearly budgets? And does the existing Home Rule wording comply with state law? Those were questions debated today at the Ward County Commission meeting in Minot. Voters approved Home Rule for Ward County several years ago - that allows the county to set rules that are more stringent than state law for some things such as tax levels and deadlines for developing annual budgets. The existing Home Rule for Ward County says budgets must be finalized by October First. But the county commission wants to amend that to say the budget must be done in October - meaning the end of the month is the cutoff. Commission Chairman Bruce Christianson said he believed the existing rule does not comply with state law. But former commissioner Jim Lee - who was on the commission when the Home Rule vote passed - testified that it is legal and should not be changed. (Jim Lee, Former County Commissioner) "And the date of October First was what we put in there and we asked the people and they said yes. And up to this year every time by the first of October we were all done and were all done with it." Commissioners decided to have a public hearing in the proposed change next month.  « Less