Letter to the Editor: County responds to Danduran letter

On January 2, 2024, at its regular commission meeting, the Eddy County Commission discussed the recent letter to the editor written by Larry Danduran. The commission voted to issue a response to this letter and to correct misstatements that are being perpetuated from it.

For a background, prior to the commission’s December 5, 2023 meeting, Glenda Collier, county commissioner and spouse of Larry Danduran, approached the Eddy County auditor about having Danduran put on the agenda to discuss his election concerns. Discussion was had between them about Danduran’s concerns and the appropriateness of addressing them at the county level. The auditor ultimately determined to not put Danduran on the agenda. The decision to put an item on the agenda can be made by either the auditor, the chairman, or a majority of the commission; the auditor had the authority to deny this request.

At the December 5, 2023 meeting, Danduran was present, but did not address the commission. Discussion was had by the commission to address Danduran’s request at a later date. Chairman Dave Gehrtz agreed that they could have a special meeting to hear Danduran’s concerns, but stated that he wanted to speak with the Secretary of State before the meeting was set. It should be noted that Commissioner Gehrtz appeared by phone for this meeting and that I was unable to attend due to being out of state for a legal conference.

Later that day, I was informed by phone by Commissioner Collier that the auditor had tendered her resignation at that meeting. That evening, Chairman Gehrtz requested my legal counsel on whether the commission was required to hear Danduran’s concerns, and what the law stated in that regard and to open meetings laws in general.

At some point, Commissioner Collier approached a county employee to send out a special meeting notice to the commissioners and Transcript. The items listed on the agenda were “1) Approve Agenda and 2) District 14: Chairman Bill Kuntz and Committeemen Larry Danduran and Jason Steidl.” On December 6, 2023, I was requested by the chairman to prepare and notice a special meeting to discuss open meetings laws issues, the tendered resignation of the county auditor, and a continuing issue of funding of the airport. In preparing this notice, I was made aware of the notice directed by Commissioner Collier. As special meetings have more stringent specificity requirements than regularly scheduled commission meetings, I issued a legal opinion that the prior notice “does not comply with North Dakota law and is therefore invalid.” My legal advice as the State’s Attorney was not sought in the preparation of the first notice. Since then, several meetings have been held to address concerns related to these issues.

From this initial claim of election security issues, there has been misrepresentation by Danduran that Eddy County is hiding something and that Chairman Gehrtz specifically denied him access to address the commission. First, Danduran himself has never requested to address the commission; the only request made as of issuing this letter came from his wife. Second, the open meetings laws in NDCC § 44-04-19 do not expressly prohibit or allow public participation during an open meeting. The Attorney General has issued several opinions that “the purpose of the open meetings law is to give members of the public access to meetings of the governing board of a public entity, but that access does not give members of the public the right to participate or speak at the public meeting.”

Furthermore, since the initial request to put Danduran on the agenda, the county has been made aware that Danduran not only wished to speak about his election concerns, but that he wanted to access one of the voting machines to demonstrate these concerns and also show a thirty-plus minute video to the commissioners. Again, as the ownership of the machines belongs with the State, these concerns must be addressed at the state level, not with the local county. Further, there is no instance in which the county would allow Danduran, or any other party, access to the voting machines for anything other than official election use. Finally, it is not appropriate for a commission to allow anyone to play a video that they have not previously reviewed and approved for suitability and authenticity. The commission has never allowed any other member of the public the ability to take such actions and was lawful in denying Danduran’s request to do so.

Both Chairman Gehrtz and myself have reached out to the Secretary of State’s Office and the North Dakota Association of Counties about the continued media interest surrounding Danduran’s allegations of election security issues and the auditor’s resignation. As the county has informed Danduran that he needs to address these concerns with the Secretary of State’s office, this issue should have been put to rest weeks ago. However, as Danduran has taken it upon himself to write a letter to the editor entitled “What are they hiding?” and has admittedly been contacting the press to continue to perpetuate his false claims of wrongdoing on Eddy County’s part, the county must now respond.

Eddy County prides itself on transparency and truthfulness. The truth is that any concerns Danduran has about election security need to be addressed to the Secretary of State’s office. To continue to attack Eddy County and the commission is only causing disruption and unrest.

The truth is that our county auditor was one of the best employees Eddy County has ever been privileged to have and it has been an absolute loss to accept her resignation. The truth is that the Eddy County Commission acted appropriately in considering Danduran’s request and directing him to the proper agency.

Our hope is that the public is able to understand that the opinions in Danduran’s letter to the editor are just that, his opinions. Anyone with election questions should be reaching out to the Secretary of State and anyone interested in the political process of Eddy County is more than welcome to attend any meeting of the commission to observe the workings of the county for themselves.

We thank the Eddy County community for its contin