Apparently, Rapid City has everyone in the state whipped;
Although many of the incumbents in next month’s mayor and city council races pledge they are proponents of open, transparent government, they operate the most closed-door city council sessions in South Dakota.
In 2010, councilors voted to shield their discussion from public view at 20 of the 23 regularly scheduled council meetings. They spent more than 18 hours discussing city issues they deemed sensitive enough for private discussion. That is nearly 20 percent of the 98 hours the body met in total, according to an analysis by the Rapid City Journal.
And compare that to Sioux Falls;
However, records indicate that Sioux Falls — which is more than twice as populous as Rapid City — entered closed sessions at only nine of its 43 meetings in 2010. That accounted for less than six hours, or 10 percent of the total meeting time. Sioux Falls City Attorney Dave Pfeifle said they only use the sessions for brief updates on litigation and other important discussions.
The litigation part I understand, but what does ‘important discussion’ mean? Personnel and Litigation matters – fine. Anything else should be wide open. Hasn’t RC learned something from the sanitation debacle? Maybe they have; MORE SECRECY.
However, Rapid City is a democracy and Sioux Falls is a dictatorship that denies citizen’s constitutional rights. Give me liberty and you can hide the truth.
PL, Will you ever move off your conspiracy-driven drunken stupid stupor? I’m sure that I recall that some time back you were telling all and chomping at the bit to move far-far away to Sioux City or Dakota Dunes or some place other than here? As long as you somehow remain here, you will forever be known as the (pathological) Village IDIOT! Nuff said.
Brenda – If you spent 40 G of your own money to fight for the constitutional rights of all the citizens of SF you would be a little peeved to. But PL, Brenda is right, You need to get off of your Thomas Payne box once in awhile.