The truest statement of the day comes from Sen. Tim Rave (R-25/Baltic), discussing calls from his colleagues Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-18/Yankton) and Sen. Larry Lucas (D-26/Pickstown) to bring Mike Rounds, Dennis Daugaard, Joop Bollen, and Jeff Sveen in for questioning in their investigation of the EB-5 scandal:
Investigating... it's not really in our skill set or our wheelhouse....
[Sen. Time Rave, quoted in Charles Michael Ray, "Dems Push for EB-5 Inquiry," SDPB Radio, 2014.08.27]
You know, Senator Rave, kids come to my classroom all the time and say, "I'm not good at French (algebra, speech, taking tests...)." I say to them the same thing I say to you: "There's no better time to get good at it."
No worries, Rave, Marty Jackley doesn't know he's there for either.
There's enough lawyers in the legislature that investigation should not be a problem.
This legislator's lack of skill probably reflects a deliberate desire to avoid developing that skill. Adults who don't want to learn are more frustrating than students who don't want to learn
Rave's comment is precisely what is wrong with South Dakota and keeps it in the top ten states noted for corruption.
The South Dakota legislature needs to empower itself with meaning legislation that provides transparency and oversight of all state agencies and branches of government.
We talk relentlessly about or state's corruption with the EB-5 scandal, stonewalling, and ongoing cover up.
I'm stilling waiting for state political candidates to lay out a plan by candidates to say what they will do to stop this madness.
It is one thing to say we should get rid of EB-5 because politicians and their cronies have sticky fingers and can't control their greed and power, it is another to say what they will do about it when abuses against South Dakotans does occur.
Obviously we will never be able to totally stop crony capitalism corruption, thieves are sneaky and can always find a way to swipe a dollar, but we should have strong laws in place when it does happen.
I remember the Watergate Committee, they weren't skilled investigators either, but they all became one very quickly because they had to.
Exactly, Kal. Why are legislators even THERE if they are unable to take care of constituents' best interests? That means following up on political and economic activity, especially when there are serious issues -- and big money -- involved.
[I'm stilling waiting for state political candidates to lay out a plan by candidates to say what they will do to stop this madness.]
Roger, as a voter, what kind of a plan would you like to see?
Sounds like an argument for a Unicameral legislature? Also perhaps one that meets more often than once a year for 3 months. Lots of work to do and not enough people or time to do it. And let's not forget we need to leave time for the lobbyists to schmooze. ;-)
Love the idea of a unicameral for South Dakota, but get rid of term limits if you want any hope of strengthening the legislative branch beyond acting as a deaf, dumb & blind rubberstamp for the executive branch. They enacted eight-year term limits in Nebraska and it ruined any sense of institutional memory in the committees and for any major longterm program development. It would also be smart to make the legislative seats nonpartisan and to make redistricting more of a public service policy instead of a spoils of war policy.
Transparency in real time in all state offices would be key. Entirely repeal the state gag law and pass a whistleblowers law to provide incentives and protections for state employees who report illegal/unethical behavior and can identify significant, lasting costs savings that do not undermine the intent of state programs and services. Increase campaign finance reporting requirements, including a much more detailed and meaningful report on candidate incomes and holdings. Ban gifts from lobbyists and their clients that are over $5. There are plenty of ideas that would be effective in Pierre. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Of the 105 SD legislators currently serving, there are at least 4 with such investigative skills within their wheelhouse: Sen Craig Tiezen (former RC police chief), Rep Lance Russell (former states attorney), Rep Stace Nelson (retired NCIS federal agent), and Dan Kaiser (current Aberdeen police officer). Of those, at least three have publicly indicated the EB5 matter needed to be fully investigated: https://madvilletimes.com/2013/12/legislature-again-stifles-eb-5-discussion-some-gop-share-dems-concerns/
I do not believe any of them are members of the current panel, nor do I believe have they been appointed to a sub-committee to fully investigate.
96 I don't understand the fixation or implementation of term limits for our legislature. Don't the voters have the final say? Otherwise that is valuable experience and continuity we are losing if they are valued members. If not vote them out.
I agree the executive branch has way too much power in SD
Lynn, it was a fad based on a dumb idea back in the 80s when right wingers blamed everything on Congress. The knuckleheads decided they needed to pass term limits in state legislatures to set the example ... and they did. One brain dead rubberstamp legislature after the other stand as examples of weakened, dumbed-down legislative bodies that lack the expertise and the collective smarts to stand up against governors and special interests. They lack a respect or understanding of process is common in these shelled-out legislatures.
If you want to get more people involved you have to raise the pay, the reason why so many keep coming is because so few can afford to campaign for a job and then make $12,000 a year, while probably having to give up their real job.
As for the issue, the problem with this statement is not that the legislature is not good at this, or that its not their job, its that nobody else is doing it, so why don't they at least try. That is what I'm sick about in Pierre, its always someone else's job to do something, they generally won't say who, but just that it is not their job.
I have supported the unicameral idea for SD since about 1967, but I have recently decided that a better approach is to have one house from single-member districts, and another house more like the parliamentary system where parties get the same percentage of legislative members as that party gets in the general election. With parties A,B,C , if A gets 40%, Party B gets 55%, and party C gets 5%, with a hundred member body, Party A would have top 40% of their slate in the legislature, Party B 55 members, and Party C 5 members.
Could a unicameral legislature be accomplished through an initiated measure?
Doug, interesting. And I like the idea of getting rid of parties altogether. Let South Dakotans vote on the candidates who will best represent them in state government without concerning themselves with a party designation. Then streamline the legislative process by moving it through selected committees to the floor for a vote or into the trash can where a great many of all our "precious ideas" belong.
Joseph, it's $6000 a year.
We have a citizenry legislature. That means it's a lot of farmers, some business people, some moms - there isn't even a lawyer in the Senate. You get the idea. We do have access to branches of govt that can investigate and that's precisely what we have depended on - US Attorney and Attorney General. Our AG was about to indict Benda and we can reasonably assume this drove him to suicide. That means a Republican AG was hot on the trail of a cancer in the Republican party.
The whole thing stinks, it stinks anytime public funds disappear. We've called for audits and to date it's only political speculation and baseless accusation that Rounds or Daugaard or Jackley did anything wrong. Brendan Johnson has the motive and means to do something if there is anything remaining that points to Rounds and Co..
I hope Mercer is successful in obtaining the police reports and that Joop accepts the invitation to answer the committee questions. If he doesn't, I support a subpoena.
Jana: "Could a unicameral legislature be accomplished through an initiated measure?"
Looks like it to me: http://ballotpedia.org/Laws_governing_the_initiative_process_in_South_Dakota
"Investigating... it's not really in our skill set or our wheelhouse...."
Yes, that is true. It takes no skill to do what the executive branch wants the legislature to do.
96,
True transparency, the whistleblower idea, and other items you suggest are all a start to reform government and make them responsible to the people of South Dakota.
I've never supported term limits, politicians can become crooked at any point in their career, and I should be able to choose to vote for reject any candidate at election time.
Having a unicameral or changing the structure of our legislature may be a good fix, but it is a long term fix at the best and likely won't happen. You know how South Dakotans hate change, even for the better.
96 & 12,
Some of what I'm talking about are the suggestions 96 has made; transparency, whistleblowers, etc.
A change of state government to a unicameral does not fix the immediate problems with corruption, that could be a possible fix in the future, but not likely. You know how South Dakotans hate change even if it for the better.
I've never been a fan of term limits, first of all I should always have the right to vote for whoever chooses to run, second is that I don't know that term limits effectively stops corruption, a politician can develop sticky fingers at any point in their career.
I would study the legislation of other states and develop what they have found successful in providing oversight to all state agencies and branches of government. The elected members of the state legislatures are our elected guardians, they have a citizens mandate not just to make sure government does their job, but to provide transparency and accountability.
For anyone in the know, does the legislature have a strong ethics board or committee, how does it work and do they have investigative and subpoena powers?
The scam EB-5 is, should never have been able to grow as it has if transparency and oversight had been in place, there may have been some corruption, but it should never been able to develop to the magnitude that it has.
The legislature should not fear empowering itself, if they don't, corruption will continue to go unchecked and we'll never know the extent of EB-5 corruption.
I did support term limits at the time. I didn't have the wise foresight on the issue that other Madizens apparently did have.
What could South Dakotans do to create or empower a more independent and active press in Pierre? I think that is another important aspect of creating good government in SD. Suggestions from 96, Roger and others are great too.
BTW, SD wasn't always this way, and it doesn't have to stay this way. SD has had good, responsible, responsive state government in the past. It can happen again. What is proposed is less about change and more about returning to SD's traditional citizen/government relationship.
I always have supported term limits, which has had support from both the right and the left. In South Dakota, term limits were a response to a corrupt Legislature that kowtowed to the Executive Branch. The problem is not term limits; it's gerrymandered districts.
Let me explain this. Back in the 1970s and 1980s there were many districts, particularly in rural areas, where a legislator had lifetime tenure. These fossils were of two varieties--dumb hacks/yokel ciphers or corrupt toadies of the lobbying interests. In the cities things weren't much better, but districts were at least somewhat fairly drawn back then (after we got rid of at-large voting), and many districts were contested and winnable by either party.
Anyone who was around then knew that the more terms a legislator spent in Pierre, the more tied to the lobbying interests and the executive branch that legislator was likely to be. Term limits helped solve this problem, at least for a time.
With gerrymandered districts, term limits have less impact. A legislator can pretty much be assured of eight years if he or she first gets elected. Without term limits, that would become a lifetime tenure.
You see what pathetic fools current Legislators are? Well, now imagine that they have lifetime tenure. That's what you would get without term limits.
What you really need is to fairly draw the districts to produce the maximum of districts that can be fairly contested by either party. Or you could go to a unicameral or a reduced bicameral legislature. Then you could professionalize it without adding a lot of cost.
Transparency is a big key. South Dakota government has always lagged in being open and honest with its citizens. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. State government has a history of active suppression of a free press and academic freedom, and it often tries to intimidate and threaten those who disagree with actions or decisions. And they use their power to continually whittle away at the main way (initiative and referendum) citizens can stop their nonsense.
My concern is not so much with past scandals. EB-5 is just one in a long line of corruption going back (in my political lifetime) to the Oahe Project. It would be nice to learn the details, and hold those folks accountable, but while you're doing that, they've alway launched their next corrupt efforts. You might want to think about what they might be and how you're going to counter them.
I've got two---Powertech/Azarga, which was set up by the Legislature's caving in to various law changes in the early to mid 2000s. How is that going to be stopped? Can the initiative be used if the legal route doesn't work?
Second, is Daugaard's attempt to establish a high-level radioactive waste dump, which saw its first (last minute in the state legislature) state appropriation investment last session. This money sets up an in-state lobby (consisting of RESPEC and SDSM&T) for federal and private nuclear industry money to get a dump sited here. The federal money to do this is supported by Obama and the nuclear industry, and they're just waiting for dumb Denny to stretch his hand out for this federal largesse to make the Chamber of Commerce folks ejaculate. Meanwhile the poor folks won't get Medicaid coverage because THAT would be socialism.
Deb,
To be clearer on what I'm suggesting, I visited the Center for Public Integrity website that shows state ranking for corruption. I'd share it here but I don't know how to do that.
CPI ranks South Dakota as 49th (their ranking is reverse of usual rankings) and puts SD at the bottom of states at risk for corruption. The overall grade for South Dakota was an F.
CPI used 14 metrics to arrive at their grading system, they are as follows with the corresponding grade.
1. Public access to information. D+
2. Executive Accountability F
3. Judicial Accountability D-
4. State Civil Service Management F
5. Internal auditing B
6. State pension management F
7. State insurance commission F
8. Political financing F
9. Legislative Accountability F
10. State Budget Process F
11. Procurement D
12. Lobbying disclosure F
13. Ethics Enforcement Agencies F
14. Redistricting B-
If you take notice, most of the weaknesses in these areas are where money is involved that can either stolen or used as political favors (i.e. no-bid contracts).
From this report, you can there are virtually no checks and balances on any branches of government or its agencies.
Until these areas that actually solicit corruption are fixed, the crony capitalism in South Dakota will continue undeterred and profitable for those on the inside.
Mr. Pay, why does it always come back to your fantasy about radioactive waste dumps? You are like the Sibby of waste dumps. Beth would want you need to get a grip on reality, sir.
I think the perfect place for that nuclear dump site should be around Sioux Falls. If it is not there, then it should not be anywhere else in the state either. Sioux Falls is the largest city in the state and therefore would have the workers to work in the dump site. No other place in South Dakota would work, only that place.
I like your idea Jerry. It's perfect.
Grudz, you, on the other hand, are massively imperfect! But I can always recognize your button-pushing, rabble-rousing self. You are so ornery! Trouble maker.
Rep Hickey,what happened to all the EB-5 records that Bollen absconded with? I have heard no definitive answer whether those records were recovered and placed in a secure location. Records were incomplete when this whole shebang got rolling. One would think an honest gubmint would have,as a first prority, thoughts of securing all written or electronic records.
Usually I am a very good analyzer. This time I have nothing else to add. They do not want to, they do not have the skill, they do not have skill. But then the question becomes, "if all us regular people can analyze this so well, then why can not a bunch of regular people in the legistature analyze this well enough to figure out what happened." Well back to : they did not want to, they ignore their own skils, and they do not use their own skills. The Indians are right, it all ends up a circle. When one party has all the power the circle always comes back to them.
Grudz: Thanks for confirming that people should be concerned about Daugaard's radioactive waste dump. I can't tell you how many people in power tried to peddle your line of b.s. ( using words like "fantasy") regarding Janklow's plans of a nuclear waste dump. When apologists for the power elite start using those sorts of words in the face of a $400,000+ appropriation going to folks who have a 40 years of experience in the nuclear waste field, I take that as an admission that that is exactly what is going on. Thank you for the admission.
South Dakota republican legislators are really not good at anything it would seem. They are too ignorant to pass the Medicaid Expansion so why would we expect them to do something constructive like look in the mirror to find corruption. Even a corrupt politico like Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania has the smarts to know what will bring health and money to his state. http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2014/08/28/Healthy-PA-approval-expected-soon/stories/201408280284
Here in South Dakota, legislators continue to look at their belly buttons in fascination and allow the head belly button watcher to continue his arrogant ways. Is this really the best we can do?
i imagine it was homestake's initial idea to look at a nuke waste dump under lead.
sd republican economic developement: 1) kill all buffalo, exterminate all indians (the wonderful wizard of oz) 2) ship coal slurry water out-of-state 3) superfund heap-leach gold mitigation 4) bury eastern urban garbage at edgemont 5) buy out homestake's hard rock hole 6) permit more uranium mines rather than mitigate unreclaimed 100+ past sites 7) grudz-i would say we are right on track with a north american nuke dump in-state, say, in the northern hills?