Suggestions for South Dakota

I’ve mentioned a couple times that I suggested to the South Dakota Attorney General and the Custer County State’s Attorney and Custer County Auditors office, as well as a few state senators and representatives, that they take a lesson from other states which have developed a simple training course for newly elected officers/trustees or directors.

Those training seminars are about an hour and take on one basic set of statutes. The ones I had seen dealt with the Open Meeting Laws or Open Records Laws. They were not super in depth on either topic, nor did they need to be. These were designed to introduce these chapters to people who otherwise would have no idea such laws existed.

Keep in mind that for the most part, the people we elect have no knowledge of government, or laws, or leadership, or even whatever the topics for which they were elected.

For example, the people we have elected to our road district board have no knowledge of roads. For several years now, they have taken their cue from the guy they pay to do the work.

I’m not kidding.

If the contractor says they should build this or improve that or spend money over here, that’s what they do. They pretend they are discussing it, but they are really just nodding to each other, as they haven’t got a clue what they are doing.

This is possibly one reason why they refuse to listen to us about having to have open/public meetings. If the rest of the members saw firsthand how inept these people were, with no understanding about anything they are doing, maybe things would have changed a long time ago. As long as they can keep their meetings out of the public eye, they can sound smart (as long as somebody other than Matt, who doesn’t understand spellcheck, writes it) on the meeting minutes. Assuming they bother with them at all.

Each year, they could offer free seminar, or pre-recorded courses, where they provide the information with a quiz following. This whole thing could be online. But it would also be easy and not cost a lot to provide it in person.

A one hour course/seminar on Open Meeting Laws.

A one hour course/seminar on Open Records Laws.

A one hour course on the whatever their particular district is- for example, Road Districts, where they simply go through that chapter.

The first 2 courses could be done one time fr everybody. Not just new officers, but open to the public. Officers would need to pass a test.

These people are given a great deal of power over our lives. They have taxing authority.

The state could offer a course in the very basics of Title 3 in the SDCL. On the same day, everybody takes their oath. Believe it or not, many people believe these officers do not take the oath. I heard that from the State’s Attorney. Again, not kidding.


They could start with this one seminar, on Title 3 followed by a test. Then a seminar each on Open Meeting Laws and Open Records Laws, and then the people would break up into their particular groups for whatever soy of district they are representing.

I would suggest that they offer this in person for a couple years. It’s important to have the interaction of the audience to see where people are getting stuck and not understanding. Get their questions. Once they have worked out all the bugs and it is as streamlined as possible, post on YouTube and/or the state site, so anybody can refer to it.

Why has South Dakota not done this?

Well, it generally comes down to things when asking why a government won’t do something that is needed.

Either somebody is taking money on the way things are- for example lawyers who take these cases. Or, the state believes they have more liability if they actually do something useful.

Other states have been doing this for quite a while. I’ve seen years of videos from the same state. It’s my belief that this very basic introduction to the laws would alleviate so much activity after the fact for the auditors offices and state’s attorneys.

The Custer County State’s Attorney, Tracy Kelley has stated she unfortunately has had to deal with many road districts struggling to comply with statutory requirements. Then there is clearly a problem. And clearly the state should be doing something about it.

I’d like to see a comparison of other states that do have a seminar provided, and South Dakota, which does not. Which has more lawsuits? Which has auditors offices fielding lots of basic questions and responding with “you should hire an attorney,” but then actually stating nonsense such as “you do not have to have open meetings”?

Custer County has actually published a handbook to start a road district. At first I thought this was a good idea, until I learned more about the law and realized that the auditors office knows nothing about these laws and this handbook is just setting people up for failure.

The publication of a handbook for road district implies that it contains what you need. It does not matter that it attempts to sidestep any further responsibility with a disclaimer on the cover.

This very publication sets up the county for legal action. If the county had simply not published anything, the people would have to go find information for themselves. With any luck, the people would decide to NOT create a Road District and just keep it casual.

Can you imagine?

I wonder if the geniuses that run Custer County have ever put two and two together and figured out that the reason they have such an issue with road districts is because they created a handbook to streamline the incorporation, with no thought to anything else.

On the cover, they have (in bold) “The county is unable to provide legal advice to road districts, its’ board or members!”

Oh, and an exclamation point! Sounds serious. Sounds like they mean it. However, I cannot tell you how much of the legal battle we’ve had to endure is directly related to the auditors office offering erroneous advice to officers.

Attention Auditors Offices- just shut up! You have already acknowledged you don’t know what you are talking about, and we are not arguing. Just shut up.

And Newsflash- unpublished the handbook. It’s causing this mess, along with the state not taking a direct action to help officers not screw over the citizens. Honestly, if the state allows the incorporation of these special districts, they have a responsibility to us concerning them.

If the state physically builds a road and it falls apart and someone is hurt, the state should be accountable. This is no different. The state has written laws where any Tom, Dick or Harry can create a district… and has power over us… and can tax us.

It is utter bullshit that the state thinks it can just shrug and tell us we need to hire an attorney to protect ourselves from the entity the state allowed to be created. Step up, South Dakota!

The state needs to provide a basic foundation of knowledge to any officer elected to any position. The education should be available to all citizens. This would not be a huge investment of money, but in the long run would actually save the state money in wasted man hours fielding questions that should have been provided in a basic education seminar.