Port: The North Dakota Ethics Commission wants a blank check

MINOT — The creation of North Dakota's Ethics Commission is proof positive that, when lawmakers refuse to make good policy in the Capitol in Bismarck, the voters have a tendency to make bad policy at the ballot box. The ballot-initiated amendment that created the Ethics Commission is poorly written law. It does little to contemplate how the commission fits in with North Dakota's three branches of government, and that's creating major headaches. "North Dakota s Ethics Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to begin its own inquiry into a state-backed business financing program that drew critical audit findings and lawmakers concerns about conflicts of interest and a lack of documentation for millions of dollars in transactions," the North Dakota Monitor reports. The program in question is the North Dakota Development Fund, which has rightly made headlines over lax record-keeping and serious conflict of interest problems. The problem is that the law doesn't grant the comm