By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS– The Minnehaha Treasurer’s office turned in reconciled bank statements for the past six months to become mostly caught up in an area the county was cited as needing improvement recently in a state audit.
But unlike the previous two meetings where past statements were presented, the amounts of unreconciled funds spiked to a high of $7,139.29 “in the good” for May to a deficit of $5,516.19 in August.
With previous statements, when there were unreconciled amounts, they had all been in the positive column for less than $400.
While commissioners were grateful to see the reconciliation process back on track, they were concerned about the discrepancies.
Minnehaha County Treasurer Pam Nelson was back at this meeting, and she assured commissioners that her office was still looking into the differences. She said she was in contact with Jeff Schaefer from the South Dakota Office of Legislative Audit to get a process in place to avoid these differences.
One problem Nelson mentioned was that funds come into the treasurer’s office from several different county departments, and she believes each of those have different methods for keeping track of any payments.
An area that Nelson said she was looking at was hiring someone who specialized in accounting.
In the past, she said that various office personnel have to do several different jobs, and they may not have received the specific training necessary for some of the tasks they are performing.
Commission chair Jean Bender asked Nelson to come back to the commission soon to keep them aware of how this matter is progressing and being resolved.
In other business, Kevin Hoekman of the Planning and Zoning Department had a first reading of a rezoning item for a Nov. 26 public hearing.
High Prairie Ranch located 2½ miles east of Crooks, near the Big Sioux River, is looking to have some of its land re-zoned from Ag sub-area C to sub area D to use for grazing cattle.
Hoekman explained that currently the land is zoned for recreational use only, and that changing it to sub-area D would allow it to be used for cattle.
The property is owned by Robert Binstock.
Commissioners voted 4-0 (Commissioner Cindy Heiberger was not present) for this to proceed to the second reading and public hearing.
Also, Auditor Bob Litz discussed the land/property auction from Saturday, Oct. 26, which raised $95,000 for the county and its municipalities.
Litz told the commission that more than 20 people attended the sale.
Litz specifically spoke to RDID #65748 which sold for $85,000.
At an October meeting, he mentioned that the owner of this property, which was still occupied, owed the county over $10,500 in back taxes, interest and fees, and also had a federal lien on it of $19,000.
However, Litz reported that the federal lien may have already been settled, as he checked other sites and found no record of it.
But, all in all, the new owners, not the county, have to deal with people still present at the properties and any federal liens.
Litz and Commissioner Gerald Beninga also talked about the joint jurisdiction meeting at Hartford on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
The said that about 100 people and most of the Minnehaha County Commissioners attended, and the rural people present had much to talk about.
Beninga said that the people there were glad the county held off on granting joint jurisdiction so they could have more input.
To continue this process, Litz said that another meeting was planned for January 2020.
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 all, and public comment is always encouraged.
