2001 Minnesota Statutes

     16B.52 Misuse of state publications. 

    Subdivision 1.    Permissible publications; pictures.  
 No elected, administrative, or executive state officer, may have 
 printed, nor may the commissioner authorize the printing of, at 
 government expense, official reports and other publications 
 intended for general public circulation except those authorized 
 by law or included in the intent of the appropriation out of 
 which the cost will be defrayed.  Executive officers shall, 
 before presenting their annual reports and other publications to 
 the commissioner, examine them and exclude from them pictures of 
 elected and administrative officials, and any other pictorial 
 device calculated to or tending to attribute the publication to 
 an individual instead of the department of state government from 
 which it emanates.  All other engravings, maps, drawings and 
 illustrations must be excluded from the reports and 
 publications, except those the executive officers certify when 
 they present the reports for printing to be necessary and to 
 relate entirely to the transaction of the state's business, or 
 to be reasonably required to present for clear understanding the 
 substance of the report.  

    Subd. 2.    Attribution of publications.  A report or 
 publication authorized by law and paid for from public funds 
 must carry the imprimatur of the agency under whose authority it 
 is issued, but it may not carry the name of an official in any 
 way that might imply attributing the publication to any person, 
 except where certification of the officer is required for 
 authenticity of the document.  

    Subd. 3.    Distribution.  No report or publication 
 distributed by or from an administrative or executive officer 
 may contain any notice that it is sent with "the compliments" 
 and may not carry letters of personal greeting from an official. 

    Subd. 4.    Exception.  This section does not apply to 
 the legislative manuals provided for in chapter 5.  

    Subd. 5.    Publications by department of administration. 
  Notwithstanding the provisions of this section or any other 
 law relating to the subject matter of this section, the 
 department of administration may continue to publish reports, 
 documents, and related materials of the same manner described in 
 its catalogs of Minnesota state publications.  

    HIST: 1984 c 544 s 57