By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – Minnehaha County Commissioner Dean Karsky took the center seat when he was unanimously voted chairman for the new year at the beginning of this week’s re-organization meeting.
Karsky took over from last year’s chairperson, Commissioner Jean Bender, in the first order of business at the meeting.
Commissioner Gerald Benigna, another veteran on the county board, was elected as vice-chair.
In other 2024 re-organization business, for the fifth year in a row, the commission went beyond what was necessary and named four newspapers as “official publications” for county notices.
Those papers are the Garretson Gazette, the Minnehaha Messenger, the Brandon-Valley Journal and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
State law requires that county governments use all newspapers within a county for legal publications but caps that number at three.
Minnehaha County is one of the few counties in South Dakota with more than three newspapers.
In making the motion to go with the extra publication, Bender said, “I think it is worthwhile to use all four (newspapers)…I think it is the best way to reach the most people in Minnehaha County.”
The vote on selecting the four papers was 5-0.
The final major piece of starting the year called for commissioners to set their own salaries.
This year, commissioners chose a 5% increase in their wages. In doing so, they echoed former commissioner Jeff Barth in saying it is best to go with small raises each year to avoid having to do a major raise for the pay to “catch up.”
With this raise, Minnehaha County Commissioners will go from the 2023 salary of $32,822.40 to $34,465.60. In addition, the commission chairperson receives an extra $1518.40 for performing the extra duties of the chair.
Aside from reorganization, other major agenda items involved finalizing the contract for construction of the county’s new Juvenile Justice Center.
Commissioners set the “guaranteed maximum price” for construction at $42.5 million, with the overall GMP at $50 million.
The overall amount includes necessary items not involved in construction, such as contingence fees, professional fees, fixtures, furniture, etc.
The JJC is set to be completely finished by November of 2026.
County Auditor Leah Anderson also received the go ahead to set the pay for all county elections workers and officials.
She estimated that they will need about 500 poll workers to run the general election in November.
Anderson went into further detail about the make-up of the county’s 81 precincts in 63 different polling places.
Because so many polling places are comprised of more than one precinct, she again talked about her plans to help people navigate any difficulties they may have in casting ballots by using “greeters” in some precincts to direct people when needed.
The county commission meets on the first, third and fourth Tuesdays of each month, which means there will not be a meeting next week.
The next meeting will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, in the third-floor commission chambers of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
