And you thought SF’s city government lacked transparency

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Apparently, Rapid City has everyone in the state whipped;

Although many of the incumbents in next month’s mayor and city council races pledge they are proponents of open, transparent government, they operate the most closed-door city council sessions in South Dakota.

In 2010, councilors voted to shield their discussion from public view at 20 of the 23 regularly scheduled council meetings. They spent more than 18 hours discussing city issues they deemed sensitive enough for private discussion. That is nearly 20 percent of the 98 hours the body met in total, according to an analysis by the Rapid City Journal.

And compare that to Sioux Falls;

However, records indicate that Sioux Falls — which is more than twice as populous as Rapid City — entered closed sessions at only nine of its 43 meetings in 2010. That accounted for less than six hours, or 10 percent of the total meeting time. Sioux Falls City Attorney Dave Pfeifle said they only use the sessions for brief updates on litigation and other important discussions.

The litigation part I understand, but what does ‘important discussion’ mean? Personnel and Litigation matters – fine. Anything else should be wide open. Hasn’t RC learned something from the sanitation debacle? Maybe they have; MORE SECRECY.

 

Cap & Trade and Green Energy production will drive energy costs up?

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But when utility companies spend money greasing the palms of our PUC officials that has nothing to do with our energy costs going up?

Public Utilities Commissioner Gary Hanson solicited money for an energy conference from many of the Midwest utility companies that the PUC regulates.

If this is the kind of thing that Gary thinks is okay, I would prefer he does not run for Mayor of Sioux Falls next year. We already have enough of that shit going on in City Hall.

Otter Tail Power Co., a $2,500 sponsor of last week’s conference, has a 15.3 percent rate increase, or $3.8 million, pending before the South Dakota PUC.

Kind of like Sioux Falls developers funding the campaigns of the City Councilors who voted for an unecessary tax increase last year that benefits them. But hey, there is no connection, just look the other way.

“The simple answer is, they should have never done this,” said David Schultz, a professor of business at Hamline University in St. Paul and a frequent lecturer on political ethics. “I question the motive, the conflict of interest is there. Customers, going forward, will question whether their next rate increase is on merit, or based on a trivial, but important, sponsorship as the utilities came through for these commissioners when they needed it.”

I have questioned utility sponsorship for years. This story is way overdue. For instance one of the biggest sponsors of SculptureYawn is Excel Energy, with it’s state director being the key founder, who probably spends countless hours of company time and resources to organize the event. I even talked to the VP of Excel about it once on the phone, wondering how the SD director can be critical of SculptureWalk dissenters (myself) on company time? Of course he defended him, basically saying he has to freewill to do what he wants. How do I get a job like that? While I am all for corporations sponsoring public art, I question our rates going up every year while service gets poorer. How about finding ways to save customers money on utilities instead throwing thousands of dollars around for din-dins and gigantic welded metal geese and turtles?

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Once again, pay to play is alive and well in South Dakota and it’s time the State Legislature ponied up and made this practice illegal. Yeah right, who am I kidding?

Today’s champion of open government: Fox News?!?!?

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Actually Fox Business Network.

The network filed a FOIA request to see where exactly our tax dollars (and our kids’ and our grandkids’) are going. Due to a little heal dragging on the part of the Treasury Department, Fox sued them to force them to release the data, including details such as what “toxic” assets were purchased, any collateral involved, and any restrictions put on the use of the money.

Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News commented, “The Treasury has repeatedly ignored our requests for information on how the government is allocating money to these troubled institutions. In a critical time like this amidst mounting corruptions and an economic crisis, we as a news organization feel it’s more important than ever to hold the government accountable.”

So there you have it. The journalistic crusaders at Fox have shown today that every once in a while,  they do something right. Here’s hoping they win.

Open records with Exceptions? What’s so ‘open’ about that?

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Good luck getting this door open.

Senator Knudson is wasting his time if he thinks their needs to be exceptions;

This year, the presumption of openness bill is being written by Senate Republican Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls.  He says the legislation will presume government records are open and will contain a list of specific exceptions.

Chuck Baldwin, a journalist in residence in the Contemporary Media and Journalism Department at the University of South Dakota, says the exceptions in the pending bill will determine its quality.

Or it’s viability. Federal law already protects citizens personal information from being shared, such as Social Security numbers. Either write and pass a bill with some teeth in it, or don’t bother. This is just more showboating by another Republican running for governor in 2010.