By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent, with additions from Gazette Editor G. Moritz
SIOUX FALLS – Unlike the silliness in the US House of Representatives, Commissioner Jean “One Ballot” Bender was chosen unanimously to lead the Minnehaha County Commission as its chairperson in 2023.
Likewise, Dean Karsky was unanimously chosen as vice-chair during the Jan. 5 re-organization meeting.
The meeting also saw the swearing in of two brand new commissioners, Joe Kippley and Jen Bleyenberg, and one re-elected commissioner, Gerald Beninga. All three were elected last November to replace retiring commissioners Cindy Heiberger and Jeff Barth.
Newly elected Minnehaha County Register of Deeds Amanda Halsey was also sworn in by Second Judicial Circuit Judge Sandra Hanson.
The other person elected in November, but one who will not take office until April is County Auditor Leah Anderson.
The position of auditor always runs through the first quarter of the year in case there are ever any election matters that need to be cleaned up.
The current auditor, Ben Kyte, was appointed by the commission in 2020 to replace County Auditor Bob Litz, who resigned at the end of that year.
Anderson defeated Kyte in the Republican primary last June and cruised to victory in November over her Democratic opponent Brian Wirth.
But during public comment last week, Anderson spoke and said she was upset she wasn’t getting a raise for a job she hasn’t started yet.
During the final meeting of 2022, the then-commission set the 2023 pay for all elected and non-elected county employees, as is their job, according to state statute.
At that meeting, pay increases were made for the elected sheriff, state’s attorney and treasurer, who were all continuing their positions from previous years, but the comment was made to keep the salaries for the newly elected people the same as they had not yet started, and there was no performance data on which to base a raise.
The base pay for the newly elected auditor and register of deeds was kept at the 2022 rate of $89,232.
The amounts of the salary increases that were discussed on Dec. 27, 2022 were all posted on the county website four days prior to that meeting.
They were also on display when the item was discussed at the final 2022 meeting, plus, former chairperson Heiberger opened the meeting to the public comment before the commission unanimously voted to accept the increases.
However, no comments were made by anyone in the public at that time.
Pay restructuring
The overall agenda for the meeting was short, and the only salary issue before the commission this week was to determine their own pay for 2023, something they are also required to do by state statute.
When that came up for discussion, new commissioner Joe Kippley referred to something Barth had told him.
When it comes to commission salaries, “make small increases (every year), so you don’t ever have to make large ones.”
In the past, Barth shared the story of one of his early years on the commission. He said they had foregone giving themselves raises for many years, and it had gotten to the point where the compensation to be a commissioner was far enough below other counties to make the Minnehaha job an unattractive position.
Barth said the commission was finally forced to put in a huge 19% pay increase, something that they usually very frugal commission felt hard to swallow, but necessary to do.
And now, with the departure of Barth and Heiberger, the last retired commissioners were gone.
All of the current county board members have other full-time jobs or their own businesses.
“(To be on the commission), we have to sacrifice other business and private sector opportunities,” Kippley said.
After Bender allowed the public to weigh in on the issue, which no one did, commissioners voted 5-0 to increase the pay for all commissioners in 2023 5% to $32,822.40.
This raise would even apply to the newly elected commissioners, because, as Karsky explained, it was important that all commissioners be considered equals.
Commission again champions local journalism
Minnehaha County Commissioners voted to support local journalism and open government when they unanimously voted to select four official newspapers for their legal publications: the Brandon-Valley Journal, Garretson Gazette, Minnehaha Messenger and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
State law requires counties to publish legal notices in all newspapers that have physical offices in a county, but it puts a cap of three on that requirement.
In South Dakota, very few counties have more than three newspapers, and those that do, have papers owned by the same companies. The four official papers in Minnehaha County are owned by four different publishers.
This is the fourth year in a row the county has gone beyond what the law requires in establishing their legal publications.
In making the motion to do so, Commissioner Dean Karsky said, “For the benefit of the citizens of the county – and because you folks do a fine job of disseminating information throughout the county and rural communities – we changed a few years ago to support all of these local publications, so I would make a motion for the Brandon-Valley Journal, Garretson Gazette, Minnehaha Messenger and Sioux Falls Argus Leader (to) all be recognized as our official county newspapers.”
The motion was seconded by Commissioner Gerald Beninga, and the commission voted 5-0 to approve it.
However, before the final vote was taken, Chairperson Jean Bender opened the matter up to public comment, and one person spoke.
Gary Meyers, a Minnehaha County resident, had this to say: “I don’t know if the newspapers select their own reporter to report for them, but if they do, I would like to see you reconsider who you select for official newspapers or do something with the reporter. I’ve been reading his column for years, and his reports are more opinion than factual.
“You know I belong to the South Dakota Canvassing Group, and he has not given us – when he reports things, he has a tendency to put his slant on it. He doesn’t report the facts, he twists the truth. And if chosen by this commission, I think the commission needs to hold him accountable. He needs to stick to the facts and not his opinions.”
Meyers was referring to former editor of the Yankton County Observer, Dave Baumeister, who now covers county meetings and events for the Brandon-Valley Journal, Garretson Gazette and Minnehaha Messenger.
Baumeister has also written editorials and op-ed columns for these papers that are separate from his news articles reporting county business.
Meyers and the S.D. Canvassing Group had often spoken in the past during public comment at county meetings about perceived election “irregularities” in South Dakota since the 2020 elections.
Later in the meeting, Commissioner Joe Kippley responded to Meyers when he said, “As a new commissioner…I feel compelled to say something, because I just took the oath of office to support and defend the constitution, and I just make it very clear that so long as I am part of this institution, we’re not going to favor or disfavor any reporter or newspaper entity.
“Under the First Amendment, they have freedom of speech…that is a very important function in our civil society, and I think some of these rural newspapers do a great job…and keep some of our smaller towns going.
“So, I am proud that we designated these county newspapers to do what is essential for official notices, but … in their opinion columns, they can say whatever they want to say, and (we) are not going to be picking the reporters that get to come into this room.”
When contacted after the meeting by the Gazette Editor, Baumeister said, “Unless it figures into something happening at the meeting, when I cover the county commission, I very seldom mention what is said during public comment. However, when a few people from specific groups show up over and over again, I have focused on them in op-ed pieces.
“Sadly, in these days of FOX News, Rachael Maddow and Alex Jones, many people don’t know the difference between fact and opinion.”
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 9 a.m. on the third floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
