South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Ethics

Elections Ethics Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls Ethics Commission Meets Wednesday (10/25/2017)

l3wis 3Comments

UPDATE: The ethics commission will soon be giving a written advisory opinion on what happened today. A citizen asked if it was OK for Jill Entenman to be on the Charter Revision Commission with her husband, Jim Entenman running for mayor. IT WAS NOT a complaint, it was a request for an opinion on the matter. The ethics commission determined it was OKAY for Jill to serve on the CRC but she SHOULD recuse herself when they are voting on matters that involve revisions that have to do with the mayor or the mayor’s office or duties.

The commission is set to meet in the old city council chambers at city hall, 3 PM.

Someone asked an ‘opinion’ on the ethical importance of citizen board members and conflicts of interest with candidates that are running in the Spring election.

Since you can’t technically ask for an ‘opinion’ anymore, it will appear as a complaint (even though it is NOT).

Ethics Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls State Funding State Legislature

Government Secrecy in closed settlements serves no one

l3wis 1Comments

Ellis says something I try to bang in people’s heads all the time, it’s your money, you are the boss;

Put aside the corruption issue. It’s a matter of good government. And good government is about understanding who the boss is. And the boss is you, the taxpayer.

YOU pay the money that gets secretly negotiated away in these confidential settlements to who knows who for who knows what. It’s YOU, the taxpayer, who pays the salaries of the public officials who negotiated the confidential settlements. They work for YOU, not the other way around. And besides the potential for abuse, confidential settlements also allow government officials to hide their incompetence from you, the employer. What if the government is negligent in some matter? They can hide it from the taxpayer with a confidential settlement.

You can bet that when Jamison’s bill gets its hearing, the defenders of this practice will argue that confidential settlements give local governments leverage to negotiate better deals. That they save taxpayer money.

They can say it all they want. But you know what they can’t do? Prove it.

That has been my argument for ages. They tell us it must be secret, but they can’t tell us why. Because if they did, a lot of them would be in jail.

Ethics IM 22 South Dakotans State Funding

Were voters hoodwinked by both sides on IM 22?

l3wis 4Comments

After the repeal today of IM 22, I started thinking about a rule I usually abide by, Never trust a politician (or politico) farther then you can see them (in person).

As you know, while I sympathize with the pathetic class the South Dakota Democrats have become, I still hold on to my independent roots, and for good reason. Neither party offers many solutions, they are here to protect themselves.

It seems to becoming clearer everyday that IM 22 is an example of when both parties decide to bake a cake together. Yeah, you know how that will turn out. Ever ate a sh*t sandwich?

While I still think the SD GOP is destroying our state with one party rule and the lack of any ethics reform or rules, I still think there are stinkers in the Democratic party.

No doubt, the repeal by the Republic party of South Dakota of IM 22 is stupid. But hey, they are stupid. They should have just let the Supreme Court decide, but they are so worried someone is going to take their bag of chips they didn’t want to hear the truth from them, they wanted to make their own rules.

Not such a bad idea really, when you know your power is going to be taken away from you after 40 years of iron fist rule. Just look at their heros, like that character Bill Janklow, who worked in public service most of his life and became a multimillionaire. Gee, wonder how that works? Cream of the crop ass-wipes, who wiped their asses with IM 22 today.

But, But, But.

What about all this talk about all the ‘outside’ and ‘dark’ money from the supporters of IM 22.

For the record, I think all political money is ‘dark’.

Which brings us to Mr. Weiland.

Why couldn’t he drive to Pierre and make his case? Really? Why couldn’t he?

Maybe it was about money? Was it Rick? Was it about money? Or was it about us?

Good question.

The Sunshine state still remains dark, very dark. Both sides of the coin.

Ethics IM 22 Republicans State Funding State Legislature

Should we really be surprised that our Legislature and Governor want to gut IM22?

l3wis 5Comments

Time and Time again we have watched our state legislature, which mostly is controlled by Republicans, defy the wishes of the voters. They are doing it again with the attempt to repeal IM22.

We have seen the mountains of corruption over the past 40 years this party has wreaked on South Dakotans, and I believe, this is why IM 22 passed. We have had enough.

But when are South Dakota voters going to really get it? Most if not all of the corruption is being sewn on us by the Republicans in the state legislature. I want to be careful how I say this, I know many Republicans in government in South Dakota that are good people, but it seems the Republicans in the State Legislature are the cream of the crop when it comes to corruption.

Going to Pierre to essentially benefit themselves and their businesses, and without ethics laws, running rough shot over the citizens. You might say that not all of the Republican legislators are bad, and I get the argument, but as Stace Nelson pointed out on Belfrage today, the good ones are no better then the bad ones if the good guys don’t stop the bad guys in their party. In other words, if you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Also, as Stace points out, the corruption runs deep, if it isn’t suspicious suicides and murders over EB-5 and Gear Up, it’s sex scandals. What will it take to reign in this problem?

First off, the opposition party is ‘part of the problem’ they need to not only grow a spine, but they need to grow in numbers and overtake the snake pit that has become the SD GOP. This means educating voters that Republicans in the State House ARE the problem and need to be voted out and kicked out of Pierre, they are destroying our state. It’s obvious from this repeal, that they are happy with the status quo, and don’t want things to change. It takes more then measures, initiatives and referendums to stop them, it takes giving these clowns their walking papers.

As I told a local government official tonight, there is not much we can do as citizens when the SD GOP has held us hostage for so long. I can only blog so much about the despicable behavior of these characters. It will take massive education to get South Dakotans to send some of these whack jobs packing in 2018.

So at the end of the day, don’t be surprised if this repeal passes, you voted in these crooks, and when you have the fox watching the hen house, you should know what the results will be.

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