The Casual Observer: Despite bad timing, county Home Rule should be considered

Recently, I sat through the Minnehaha County Commission discussion of a draft “Home-Rule charter” – and the public comment that went along with it.

This was a proposal of something that had been under discussion for 30 years and had even come up for a vote 20 years ago, but before going into the specifics of the latest incarnation of Home Rule, some background is necessary.

In 1889, the South Dakota legislature set up the methods whereby all counties would be formed. And this eventually applied to municipalities, as well.

And beyond that, legislators had the foresight to realize that at some time, the template they created for forming local governments might not work everywhere.

Except, to do something differently, it requires a majority vote of city/county electorates.

So, for a Home-Rule charter to be enacted, it is not done so by some whim of city or county commissioners; it is a mandate of the people.

If the voters in a particular government district don’t want it, their method of organization stays the way it was designed in 1889.

But even though general state rules call for certain elected positions, the people elected to many of those positions aren’t responsible to anyone. 

Minnehaha County Commissioners have put rules in place about fulfilling specific duties on the commission or they get thrown off, but other elected officials don’t have any such restrictions.

The State’s Attorney doesn’t have to be an attorney.

And the auditor, treasurer and register of deeds don’t even have to show up at work.

If they can get people to elect them, they get paid no matter what they do or don’t do.

So once that person is elected, there is no accountability. And whoever is an incumbent, buys a lot of billboards and (in South Dakota) runs as a Republican, is most likely going to get re-elected.

This is where Home Rule could play a part.

Commissioner Joe Kippley did bring a draft Home-Rule proposal that called for the combination of the auditor, treasurer and register of deeds into one appointed position, but that was just a draft proposal, and many changes could (and should) be made to it before it ever gets to the voters.

But putting aside who might lose a job, the proposal of Home Rule in Minnehaha County is a good one.

The city of Sioux Falls, which is most of Minnehaha County has used Home Rule since it was voted for in 1994.

Currently, Minnehaha County is home to over 200,000 people.

The county with the next largest population – Pennington – has just over half the people as Minnehaha at 117,000.

The smallest county – Jones County – has around 800 people.

Does it make sense that all of the counties in our state should have to follow the same format.

That’s like saying Walmart must use the same business plan as Ma and Pa’s Consignment Shop in Trail City. 

Instead of people packing a meeting to tell everyone why a certain elected official is the greatest thing since sliced bread, they should have been saying, “Let’s look at this proposal to see how it can be drafted so no one is going to lose her job in the next five months.”

The charter can just as easily be written to take affect when the terms of the current auditor and register of deeds end. It isn’t nice to take a person’s job away from them unexpectedly. However, every elected official should admit the possibility that they won’t be employed after the next election.

If people are really worried about elected officials being responsible to the voters, they get much more accountability with the county commissioners, as their make-up can completely change every two years, as opposed to four.

But again, if Home Rule were to be adopted, it would be decided by the voters, and not by who can yell the loudest in a meeting room.

When I spoke with Commission chairman Dean Karsky about this issue, he said the reason it was being brought up now was not because of any one person, but because we are coming up to a general election that should draw a huge voter turnout.

And while that makes very good sense, I think there does need to be more than 100 days for the proposal to be fleshed out before voters would be able to make an informed decision on it.

So yes, I think the proposal of Home Rule for Minnehaha County is good, but no, I don’t think rushing it through would be a good idea.

And although it seems most commissioners agree with me, this issue should not be forgotten.