By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – The Minnehaha County Commission finished its regular business on Tuesday, July 7, in just 14 minutes.
With the reversal of a property tax abatement being deferred to July 14, the only item on their agenda was the hiring of a temporary tax and revenue technician to help with the glut of customers at the county treasurer’s office.
Treasurer Pam Nelson again talked about some of the reasons that keep people lined up outside the administration building for two to four hours.
Nelson said that prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, wait times were generally less than 20 minutes, and, of course, what waiting there was took place in the building’s climate-controlled hallway.
But with “social distancing,” the line that starts inside now stretches outside the south door and continues back along the sidewalk toward the county courthouse on Dakota Ave.
During this business item, Commissioner Dean Karsky talked about conversations he had with two separate residents.
One, he said, “was a good, old-fashioned, butt chewing,” where the person complained about having to wait outside for long periods of time.
However, another person Karsky spoke to was just taking a spot in line to renew his auto license plate.
He told Karsky that he could use other methods to renew (mail, online and self-service kiosks), but “he said he was ‘too cheap’ to pay the extra $1 (fee).”
The commissioner pointed out “that was his choice,” even though people who make that “choice” have to wait hours in line, as well as extending the wait time for others.
Still, Nelson said most of the business at the office has been for new vehicle titles, which cannot be gotten at any other location.
But she was happy when commissioners approved her new hire unanimously.
“We’ve been putting in one hour of overtime every day,” Nelson said, “and the office has been working Saturday mornings for the past three weeks to go through the mail” and do other things they can’t get to while they are staffing all 12 of the office’s windows to cut the line down.
The Minnehaha 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 all, and public comment is always encouraged.
