By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – Tensions were high during the Tuesday, Aug. 6, Minnehaha County Commission meeting when commissioners confronted county treasurer Pam Nelson about the lack of reconciled bank statements and monthly reports.
generated by her office. (Photo by Dave Baumeister)
A memo from county administrator Carol Muller called Nelson to give the commission an update on the reconciliation of county bank statements.
The memo gave details that the last treasurer’s report which contained a reconciliation of accounts was for June of 2018, and that wasn’t presented until November 2018.
According to South Dakota law (SDCL 7-10-3), it is required that a treasurer’s office gives its county commission monthly verification of accounts.
Nelson’s answer was to say to Heiberger, “Perhaps if you think you can run my office better than I am, then maybe you should run for the job.”
Muller wrote to Nelson, “The commission has expressed concern that bank reconciliations have not been provided for the past 13 months.”
To answer questions, Nelson brought her deputy treasurer along, but Commission chairwoman Jean Bender made it clear that as treasurer and manager of the office, Nelson needed to be able to explain what was going on and answer questions herself.
But at the meeting, Nelson had trouble answering questions about who was trained to do which jobs, referring, instead, to the reduced wait times at the office windows.
The reasons given by Nelson as to why the county “checkbook” had not been “balanced” in over a year seemed to deal with lack of personnel.
“In order to have the wait time down to 15 minutes or less, you have to have 12 windows running at all times,” Nelson said in regard to people coming in off the street to do business at the treasurer’s office. “And in order to do that, you can’t have those people doing the back-office jobs. So, we do what we need to do.”
However, Commissioner Jeff Barth said there was no legal requirements dealing with customer wait times.
He did, though, refer to hour-plus wait times for people calling on the phone.
“Pam, there is more to your job than answering people at the window,” Barth said. “Why isn’t this legal required thing (reconciling bank statements) a priority? Why are you not doing the job that statute requires you to do?”
At that point, Bender jumped in to try and end the discussion saying, “We’ve all made our points, but we need you (Nelson) to start submitting treasurer’s reports you have completed and we would like a timeline for when you think you can continue those.
“And I would agree with Commissioner Barth that this is ultimately the responsibility of the treasurer who’s elected to oversee that office and be responsible for all the activities that take place there.”
However, Nelson didn’t seem to want the tension to end as she said, “If I am President of the United States, it doesn’t mean I am involved in every little detail that’s going on in the U.S. government.”
Although she didn’t refer to the differences between a county treasurer and the leader of the free world, Bender did say, “I know there has been at least one president with a sign on his desk that read, ‘The Buck Stops Here.’ That’s the point we are trying to make.”
After this, Commissioner Cindy Heiberger, who is the current liaison to the treasurer’s office, brought up the idea of making people aware that they can use technology to help them.
“Most of the people (in line) are there to buy stickers for their cars which can be done online and by kiosk,” she said. “So how has your office facilitated people getting to know they can do this or sending (them) that direction?”
Nelson’s answer was to say to Heiberger, “Perhaps if you think you can run my office better than I am, then maybe you should run for the job.”
Bender asked Nelson to become more involved in technology aspects before moving on. But as a last reference to this issue, Commissioner Gerald Beninga did warn that this matter would come up in this year’s legislative audit.
“Unfortunately, now, we’re going to have to report to the public that you (Nelson) are not doing your job the way it needs to be done.”
The Minnehaha County Commission has its regular meetings each Tuesday at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
These meetings are open to the public, and public comment is always encouraged.
