Valley City   (VCSU) On Thursday September 20, at 7-p.m., The “What in the World Is Going On?” group will sponsor a discussion on “Initiated Constitutional Measure No. 1: Pertaining to the Transparency of Funding Sources, Lobbyists, Conflicts of Interests, and the Establishment of an Ethics Commission,” which will be on the North Dakota ballot on Nov. 6.

The discussion will be held  in Rhoades Science Center 102 on the VCSU campus.

Moderated by Luis da Vinha, VCSU associate professor of social science, the event will include a presentation by Ellen Chaffee, VCSU president emerita, and Dina Butcher, chair of the committee which sponsored the petition for the measure. Commenters will include area state legislators and Autumn Johnson, VCSU Student Senate president. Opportunity for audience questions and comments will also be included in the program.

The petition uses the following description to describe the measure: “This initiated measure would add a new article to the North Dakota Constitution establishing a North Dakota ethics commission. The commission, using funds provided by the legislature, would be responsible for adopting rules related to corruption, elections, and lobbying for reporting and investigating alleged violations of those rules and related state laws. The measure would provide for prohibitions for lobbyists related to gift giving and delivery of campaign contributions and prohibitions for public officials against lobbying, use of campaign contributions, and conflicts of interest in certain proceedings. The measure would direct the legislative assembly to enact laws that require electronically accessible public disclosure of the source of funds spent (in any medium and in an amount greater than two hundred dollars) to influence statewide and legislative elections and statewide ballot measures or to lobby or otherwise influence state government action.”