By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
July 26th - SIOUX FALLS – This week, the Minnehaha County Commission finally made it “back” to their new home on the third floor of the county administration building for their last regular meeting of July.
The new room is slightly larger than their previous one and is currently set up with around 60 chairs.
The chamber also has four video screens: two behind the commissioners and one to the side for audience members to see, as well as one in front of commissioners so they can view what is put up.
Also, “Zoom” video conferencing capabilities have been improved so that people calling in can now see the commissioners they are speaking to.
A big addition, though, is that the room now has windows to the outside that the previous room did not have.
While the blinds on those windows were pulled at Tuesday’s meeting, the silhouetted image of Cathedral was clearly visible as a backdrop.
When the meeting began, the consent agenda was quickly approved before two people stood up for public comment. The first, Leroy Mattieu of Sioux Falls asked about pay for elected official, specifically noting the difference in pay between the county auditor, treasurer and register of deeds.
Commission Chair Cindy Heiberger told Mathieu that public comment time was just for that “comments from the public,” and commissioners did not answer questions or make comments during that time, although he could contact commissioners at a different time to get his questions answered.
And for the first time since two weeks prior to the June 7 primary election, someone was back to talk about what she called “election integrity.”
Vicky Buhr of Sioux Falls spoke about people being registered multiple times, although she did not elaborate as to how she knew this.
Nor did she make a distinction as to whether she was referring to same person or different people who happened to have the same names (i.e. “John Anderson” or “Dan Johnson”).
She also seemed to be criticizing poll workers when she claimed a “foreign person” was allowed to vote without presenting a passport.
At the end of the meeting, when time is given for “non-action commission discussion,” Commissioner Jeff Barth refereed to both commentor’s concerns, even though they had already left the meeting and didn’t hear his remarks.
As to pay, Barth explained that the commission sets the pay rate of all elected and non-elected county employees, and commissioners, who are the stewards of the county’s money, can make pay adjustments for even elected officials based on their job performance.
While there is a base pay for all elected officials, the longer they are employed, the more they will usually make, as they may be subject to annual increases from the commission.
For example, Pam Nelson, who served as Minnehaha County Treasurer for 16 years made more money than Kris Swanson, who has been county treasurer for less than two years.
As to comments on “foreign people” voting, Barth said, “I don’t use my passport when I go vote. If they have a passport from Nigeria, then they aren’t Americans (and can’t vote).”
People who aren’t American citizens are not able to register or vote, and while people need to have a photo ID to vote regularly, even without one, they can still vote provisionally.
Auditor Ben Kyte reported at a recent meeting that 29 people voted provisionally in the past election, and 18 of those were accepted as valid.
August 2 - SIOUX FALLS – At the second meeting in their new space, Minnehaha County Commissioners were probably glad for the extra room, as almost all of the five-dozen chairs were occupied.
People seemingly came to see what would happen with the county moratorium on new gas pipelines, but most, undoubtedly, came away disappointed, when, like the Public Utilities Commission, they voted to defer the issue until the PUC makes a ruling.
While the PUC had been taking comments on a proposed Carbon Solutions CO2 pipeline that would pass through eastern South Dakota carrying carbon dioxide from Iowa to North Dakota, they deferred making a decision “indefinitely” on the issue to allow Summit more time to plan out a specific route.
While it was proposed last spring, the county commission had decided to defer the second reading and vote on their local moratorium.
And at this week’s meeting, even though the room was filled with people who wanted to speak, Chairperson Cindy Heiberger did not take any comments, and on a motion from Commissioner Jean Bender, they voted 4-1 to continue to defer action until such time as the PUC moved ahead.
Commissioner Jeff Barth, who is himself a candidate for the PUC, was the sole vote against deferring action.
But Barth did put questions to one person present, Dan Lederman, a representative of Summit Carbon, who also happens to be the chairman of the South Dakota Republican party.
Barth asked Lederman how much he was being paid and what legislators he was giving that money to before Commissioner Dean Karsky called for Barth to be ruled out of order.
Heiberger did so, pointing out that commissioners shouldn’t be asking random questions of people attending meetings, and that if he wanted to, he could ask Lederman those questions later.
Lederman did not look up or respond to any of Barth’s questions.
The next commission meeting will be at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 16, in the third-floor commission chambers at the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
