Committee advances several bills to the General Register, lays over social-media and port-authority fixes

The Elections, Finance and Government Operations Committee voted on multiple bills in a packed hearing, moving several to the General Register and referring others to the appropriate committees.

HF 4319: Representative (speaker 4) moved House File 4319 to correct Lake City's port-authority paperwork and to restore certain port-authority board terms. The committee adopted an A1 amendment (which returns Red Wing’s port-authority board terms to six years) and an A2 technical correction after testimony from Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association representative Ken Sewell and Lake City Port Authority executive director Doug Grout. The bill was recommended to the General Register.

HF 3295: Representative Gordon introduced a permissive livestreaming bill to clarify how public bodies may broadcast meetings on social media. Representative Lee offered and the author accepted an A3 amendment intended to protect access for people without social-media accounts and to limit use of participatory comment features; the bill was laid over as amended for further work on a state-agency exclusion.

Election-related measures: The committee took House File 3589 and related election-administration bills off the table with Secretary-of-State-sourced technical amendments to clarify election-judge and ballot-handling language. The committee recommended these bills to the General Register.

HF 4295 ("chicken shift" bill): Representative McDonald presented language allowing counties to adopt ordinances exempting small backyard chicken coops (up to 24 chickens) from feedlot designations. Wright County administrator Greg Kreiser testified in support; the committee referred the bill to the Environment Committee.

HF 3571: A DE1 amendment added towns and watershed management organizations to the list of local entities that may join a self-insurance health plan; Joanie Giese testified that watershed districts support the change. The committee recommended the bill to the General Register.

Each of the bills moved or referred in this hearing is at a different stage; committee actions recorded in the transcript are procedural referrals and recommendations, not final law.