More inaction from the Munson administration

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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Munson didn’t include the homeless shelter in the 2010 budget;

“This is a huge decision to go it alone,” County Commissioner Carol Twedt said. “We were always under the hope we would have a partner in the city. But we don’t, so we are going to be brave and do the right thing.”

I would support the city’s inaction if 1) The city and county weren’t saving $400,000 a year in emergency services by having this program 2) the city wasn’t spending money on silly ‘Quality of Life’ projects that we don’t need. It seems Munson ducked controversy once again just by doing NOTHING. Pathetic.

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What has treasurer Nelson been saying for months?

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That the state is freaking inept when it comes to license renewels and when are our mostly Republican county commissioners gonna fess up? Apparently never.

Statewide, about 50,000 renewal notices went out without information about the $1 per vehicle postage fee. About 11,000 Minnehaha County residents got notices for 21,000 vehicles.

Okay, we are talking about $21,000 or maybe more. So are county commissioners enraged over this lost revenue? Nope. Are they stomping around the state offices telling them how to do there job? Nope. So what are they doing?

“Why don’t we be the good guy and just eat it?” Twedt asked fellow commissioners.

Yeah, why not? We don’t have a problem with belittling Pam Nelson behind her back in commission meetings for something that isn’t her fault, but when the state really screws up, we just say, “Oh Well.”

Talk about gutless. But this isn’t the first time the state flubbed;

Nelson added that the state DMV contributed to longer lines in June, as well. Renewals sent out then referred to 50-cent or $1 dollar postage fees in a confusing enough manner to convince some people to come to the treasurer’s office and pay in person, she said.

“Oh, but hey, the state doesn’t make mistakes, it is all Pam’s fault, remember, she just needs to learn how to manage her lines” – Give me a break.

Hillmer promises the next series of renewal notices will be correct and clear.

“Definitely. I will make sure I look at them myself before they go out,” she said.

You should have looked at the first round. Are you so busy you don’t have time to proof read a couple of paragraphs? I have often thought the best way to solve this problem and reduce lines would be if renewal customers were sent a postage paid envelope AND just add an extra $1.00 to everyone’s renewel right off the bat so the postage and handling is covered. But of course, that makes sense, and that does not fly in Pierre.

“We had a perfectly good system working,” Nelson says of the license renewal procedure before the present one was adopted 13 months ago, “and now we’ve got one problem after another.”

I don’t think anyone is listening to you Pam. Maybe you should change your registration to Republican, wait, you are too smart for that party, nevermind.

Just when you thought the Minnehaha County Commissioners couldn’t be more petty

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They prove us all wrong. Now they are in a pissing match about ‘Letterhead’. Yup, you heard right, they are griping about the use of a piece of paper;

Four commissioners complained to Chairman John Pekas he should not have used commission letterhead to write to Circuit Court Judge Bradley Zell. Commissioners say the letter undercut their own request to Zell that Gourley receive a prison term when he sentences her Monday.

Yeah, John! What do you think? That you are county commissioner or something? Wait?

Commissioner Anne Hajek noted that she and Pekas are lawyers, and she is a member of the state bar association ethics committee. It’s that committee’s position, she said, “when you use letterhead, you’re speaking for the whole organization.”

But Anne, this isn’t the SD Bar Association, it is the chickenshit county commission. You know, there is a difference. One is a club the other is an elected position. There is a HUGE difference. Though I don’t think much of Pekas, I do back him on this one. As a county commissioner he has the right to use CC letterhead, get over it.

Pekas told fellow commissioners Tuesday that while Gourley has pleaded guilty to embezzlement, an investigation is ongoing and more information about the case might be forthcoming. He reiterated that under those conditions he would not presume to tell the judge he should sentence Gourley to prison.

I am kind of on the fence about this. On one hand, she is a crook, and should sit in a cell, but on the other hand, as John points out, there is probably more people involved, how couldn’t there be? Secondly instead Gourley costing us more money by putting her in jail, I suggest 10 years of house arrest with work release. And I suggest that we garnish 75% of her wages until she has paid us back. Let the family that enabled her to commit this crime by pretending they didn’t know where the money was coming from figure out how she is going to eat.

HELP WANTED: County Commissioners w/o EGO’s

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This story is further proof that most of our county politicians are inept whiny babies that couldn’t manage to get themselves out of a wet paper bag let alone manage a county;

Figuring out how to adequately serve a growing community is tough enough without the bickering that’s going on between these two sides.

Lines at the Minnehaha County Administration Building have resurfaced, and it’s clear the commission and treasurer need a better staffing plan.

Residents are the ones who suffer the most when a poor relationship among county officials hinders progress toward that end.

That’s just it, there was a simple solution. A staffer needed to be replaced, the money was in the budget and the CC said no. Who’s to blame? The County Commission. They need to replace the staffer, apologize to Nelson then STFU.

Their egos are really getting old.

The mostly Republican County Commission accuses the Democratic County Treasurer of playing political games with 'lines'

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Who is ‘playing games’? This pissing match back and forth is getting old. It’s petty and immature;

Commission Chairman John Pekas wondered aloud whether Nelson is orchestrating the long lines to get more staffing.

One True Thing release

“We’ve gone through these slowdowns time and time again when she doesn’t get her way,” Pekas said.

Commissioner Anne Hajek took exception to an incident late last month in which Nelson told people who had been waiting in line – some for several hours – to register their complaints with the county commission.

“That kind of lobbying (for more staffers) down there does concern me somewhat,” Hajek said.

Well, knuckleheads, in Pam’s defense you do control the purse strings and she asked you to replace a staffer that had quit. Obviously our brilliant County Commission doesn’t know the difference between a replacement and hiring a new staff member. Let me put it in simple terms for you. When you get a flat tire on your car, you replace it, you don’t drive around with three tires too save a few bucks.

I have met Pam on several occassions and I appreciate her honesty, yes she is opininated, but she does make a good point;

Nelson denied having anything to do with creating the long lines, saying: “How … could I do that? It’s virtually impossible. There’s no reason I’d want to argue with (the commission) on a regular basis. It just adds stress to my life.”

Well duh. Pam has to run an office effectively, this includes having enough staff. I feel anytime you have to wait in line for an extended period of time, you are being taxed extra, it’s inexcusable and the CC need to let her replace that flat tire.

Of course our cowardly commission had to take issue with Pam when she was not around, easy to kick a dog when it is down;

Nelson wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting when commissioners began talking about the issue.

They practice this quite a bit, like school girls gossipping about a classmate in the lockeroom. Real cool.

Instead, Nelson said, the current problem stems from the fact that the treasurer’s office is understaffed by about three employees at a time when the county is growing.

“If the sheriff and police need more people, it’s only reasonable to assume I do, too,” she said.

Don’t assume anything. Don’t you know armored vehicles to storm neighborhoods with telephone booth casino robbers is more important then providing customer service to taxpayers? C’mon Pam, you should know what Republican’s priorities are by now.

Of course, Pam hasn’t been on the up and up either;

“I was having this conversation, explaining things to a gentleman, and this lady kept butting in and saying not very nice things,” Nelson said. “I told her to drop dead. It was horrible, unprofessional. But what can I say? I promise I’ll never do it again.”

Yeah, probably should not have said that (though I would have probably chuckled if I was standing nearby) I can’t imagine what this woman was blabbering. Was it Anne Hajek?