Not sure if this has to do with the termination of city clerk Debra Owen or the walking in of agenda items, but the city got served;
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.
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.
This time it isn’t in Harrisburg. Surprise!
When serving the public, even in a non-elected, volunteer role, you still have an obligation to your duties. I remember getting gaveled by Mayor Munson at a SF City Council meeting for making a comment about the Ethics Committee being political appointees (which they are) and he went off on a tangent about how they are volunteers, blah, blah, blah. Well goody-goody gumdrops, that volunteerism should not subvert their duties.
And committee chairman Dennis Popp says the group isn’t elected and doesn’t represent anybody. Usually, school superintendents and chiefs of police aren’t elected either, but they’re required to do the public’s business….in public!
What is creepy about this is that it wasn’t the RC school board that had the meetings it was a volunteer subcommitee made up of business people, that’s scary. I find more and more that business groups in SD love property and sales tax increases because it doesn’t affect them just the working stiffs they pay low wages to already. If they are giving advice to a school board, it better be out in the open, for our wallets sake!
l3wis