Court Opinion

ID: 9514043
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:43:43.573014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:10.407080
License: Public Domain

SANDSTROM, Justice,
concurring specially.
[¶ 19] The agreement apparently providing for the Ward County state’s attorneys and assistant state’s attorneys to provide prosecution services for the City of Minot is not in the record, but its existence is not disputed. The language of the agreement is not irrelevant. The individual statutory provisions cannot be read in a vacuum. For example, the N.D.C.C. § 40-18-15.1 authorization that “[t]he city may contract with the county, state, or any individual or entity for prosecution or defense services” would not permit the City to hire the Minot High School student council for one of those purposes even though it is an “entity.”
[¶ 20] I believe the statutory joint powers provisions would permit an appropriate agreement for prosecution services. See N.D.C.C. § 54-40.3-01. Because the agreement is not in the record, we cannot say its particular terms are impermissible.
[¶ 21] Dale V. Sandstrom