Petition mess over at Minnehaha County?

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I’ve known about this mess for a few months, in fact I told Pam Nelson she had a peculiar challenger, her niece’s husband, and currently her employee. She seemed dumbfounded, since Marlin lives in Lincoln county;

As Jonathan Ellis reported last week, Marlin Schlenker is running for Minnehaha County Treasurer. His candidacy is noteworthy for multiple reasons:

  1. Schlenker’s running against his aunt-in-law and boss, incumbent treasurer Pam Nelson.

  2. Schlenker and his wife Sondee filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last May to get out of $195,765.74, most of that associated with Sondee’s business, consignment shop Resale Living. Hmm… Minnehaha County, do you want a guy who couldn’t keep his own books balanced managing your public treasury?

  3. Schlenker lives in Lincoln County—not by much, just a block south of 57th Street, the in-town county line between Lincoln and Minnehaha.

No worries Marlin, maybe you can prove you are a Heutterite and they will give you immunity.

What has treasurer Nelson been saying for months?

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That the state is freaking inept when it comes to license renewels and when are our mostly Republican county commissioners gonna fess up? Apparently never.

Statewide, about 50,000 renewal notices went out without information about the $1 per vehicle postage fee. About 11,000 Minnehaha County residents got notices for 21,000 vehicles.

Okay, we are talking about $21,000 or maybe more. So are county commissioners enraged over this lost revenue? Nope. Are they stomping around the state offices telling them how to do there job? Nope. So what are they doing?

“Why don’t we be the good guy and just eat it?” Twedt asked fellow commissioners.

Yeah, why not? We don’t have a problem with belittling Pam Nelson behind her back in commission meetings for something that isn’t her fault, but when the state really screws up, we just say, “Oh Well.”

Talk about gutless. But this isn’t the first time the state flubbed;

Nelson added that the state DMV contributed to longer lines in June, as well. Renewals sent out then referred to 50-cent or $1 dollar postage fees in a confusing enough manner to convince some people to come to the treasurer’s office and pay in person, she said.

“Oh, but hey, the state doesn’t make mistakes, it is all Pam’s fault, remember, she just needs to learn how to manage her lines” – Give me a break.

Hillmer promises the next series of renewal notices will be correct and clear.

“Definitely. I will make sure I look at them myself before they go out,” she said.

You should have looked at the first round. Are you so busy you don’t have time to proof read a couple of paragraphs? I have often thought the best way to solve this problem and reduce lines would be if renewal customers were sent a postage paid envelope AND just add an extra $1.00 to everyone’s renewel right off the bat so the postage and handling is covered. But of course, that makes sense, and that does not fly in Pierre.

“We had a perfectly good system working,” Nelson says of the license renewal procedure before the present one was adopted 13 months ago, “and now we’ve got one problem after another.”

I don’t think anyone is listening to you Pam. Maybe you should change your registration to Republican, wait, you are too smart for that party, nevermind.

HELP WANTED: County Commissioners w/o EGO’s

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This story is further proof that most of our county politicians are inept whiny babies that couldn’t manage to get themselves out of a wet paper bag let alone manage a county;

Figuring out how to adequately serve a growing community is tough enough without the bickering that’s going on between these two sides.

Lines at the Minnehaha County Administration Building have resurfaced, and it’s clear the commission and treasurer need a better staffing plan.

Residents are the ones who suffer the most when a poor relationship among county officials hinders progress toward that end.

That’s just it, there was a simple solution. A staffer needed to be replaced, the money was in the budget and the CC said no. Who’s to blame? The County Commission. They need to replace the staffer, apologize to Nelson then STFU.

Their egos are really getting old.

The State is at it again; Skimming the till

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The state has this great idea to control the internet licensing renewals even though each county already handles it themselves. They just can’t figure out why the counties wouldn’t want them to help out;

Hillmer said she knows some county officials are worried, but those concerns are unfounded.

“We’re trying to provide consumers with a mechanism to do online renewals, and to do it efficiently,” she said.

“I guess I’m miffed that somebody would complain that we’re doing something of this nature,” she added.

Um. Well where do I begin? You F’ckd up the software to begin with. You blamed the counties for the F’ck up, you have been cashing in on the late fees and now you want to skim the till a little more. Miffed? I think the counties have a right to miffed.

Minnehaha County Treasurer Pam Nelson said she has one full-time staffer and a half-time person devoted to handling the county’s online renewals. She questions whether the state will have to add staff to handle the duties, which would cost taxpayers more money.

“In the end, it’s going to take money away from counties, and it’s going to cost people more money,” Nelson said. “That’s what I care about.”

And that’s what Pierre loves about it, making government bigger, more expensive and less effective.

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