...Lake Herman Toodles Along Online...

Jonathan Ellis from that Sioux Falls newspaper writes a summary of South Dakota's open government practices for the Sunlight Foundation. He says South Dakota has a culture of treating government records as the property of the government, not of the people. Obviously, we need to keep teaching our leaders that the government is us!

Ellis will have the chance to discuss his column with his colleagues on the state's new open government task force today. Among specific issues for discussion will be the repeated secret rule-making that the Governor has allowed to cover the illegal activity of gas station owners and the state itself in not following its own prohibition of the sale of low-quality gasoline.

Meanwhile, one sewer district with no sewer is doing all it can to keep government open. The Lake Herman Sanitary District held its first teleconference Monday. Charlie Stoneback and I agreed to ask Banner Associates to update its proposal for a new sewer study to include the cost of adding residential areas adjoining the district. Our meeting minutes are all online.