Three names emerged Friday as front-runners for North Dakota's voter-approved ethics panel, but naming of the new ethics commissioners might not come by a July 1 goal.
Gov. Doug Burgum, Senate Minority Leader Joan Heckaman, D-New Rockford, and Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, met at the state Capitol to begin whittling down 66 applicants by consensus for selection of the five-member Ethics Commission.
From their lists of preferred candidates, they narrowed the names to three tiers of consensus, including three names they all agreed on, 10 names two of them agreed on and 12 names only one preferred.
The three front-runners are Ronald Goodman, of Oakes, a retired North Dakota district court judge; Cankdeska Cikana Community College President Cynthia Lindquist, of Devils Lake; and Jonathan Sickler, chief legal officer for Advanced Engineering and Environmental Solutions in Grand Forks.
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The panel will meet again Wednesday to further discuss the 25 names from initial consideration and any other applicants they might choose to consider. They stressed no finalists have been chosen.
"Just because we agreed on those today doesn't necessarily mean in the end those three are in at this point," Wardner said. "They're not in yet."
Burgum said the panel has a goal of July 1 to select the ethics commissioners, but Wardner and Heckaman said it could be later.
"If we have to take a little extra time to select the final five, we will," Wardner said. "It's that important."
"I think the outline of the implementation of it just says summer of 2019," Heckaman said. "We just started summer today."
Personal knowledge of applicants seemed to guide much of the panel's decision-making and finding consensus on former lawmakers and local public officials as qualified choices.
"I think it's really helpful that the three of us have got broad networks and know who some of these folks are," Burgum said. "This is a challenging, important task, but having that direct experience, that's better than a reference and that's better than reading an application."
Gender and geography were other factors the panel discussed. Wardner said both are good to be aware of in the selection process.
"We still want to get the best people or the most qualified people to serve on this commission," he said.
Friday's meeting came two months after the Legislature passed Republican majority leaders' framework for implementing the Ethics Commission. A related interim study will gather further information on implementing the ethics initiatives in a constitutional measure passed by 54 percent of voters last November.
The Ethics Commission may write its own ethics rules and will be tasked with investigating complaints against elected state officials, candidates for office and lobbyists. Lawmakers budgeted $517,000 and two full-time staff for the commission for the next two years.
Membership of the Ethics Commission excludes public officials, lobbyists, candidates for public office and political party officials.