State Legislature

Smoking Ban South Dakotans State Legislature Video lottery

Pitty Pat Powers won’t be happy about this

l3wis January 9, 2009 0Comments

Looks like the government is going to take away private business owners rights! Blame the darned majority citizenry!Â Damn populists! In today’s Gargoyle Leader yesterday’s online poll had 73% supporting a total smoking ban (3,000 votes).

Knudson says if the legislature doesn’t pass an all-out smoking ban this year, it’s likely supporters will put the issue to a statewide vote.Â

“And my sense in talking with people is that it has broad public support and would likely pass if it was put on the ballot,” Knudson said.Â

I’m sure the Video LotteryÂ Lobby will dick around with it and try to get their telephone booth sized casino’s exempt. One more reason why VL is a bad way to fund government.

Ethics Governor Rounds State Legislature Washington Pavilion

It’s not â€˜Criminal’ it’s â€˜Unethical’

l3wis December 31, 2008 0Comments

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ethâ‹…ics

â€“plural noun

1.

(used with a singular or plural verb ) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.

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2.

the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.

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3.

moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

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Did the Rounds administration do anything illegal in reference to the pay-to-play no-bid contract controversy? I don’t see that, and neither did anyone in the RCJ columns. But just because something is legal doesn’t make it ethical.

Do some of us do unethical things, whether it’s in our personal or professional lives? Sure we do. But I also think there are different levels of it.

Besides government other organizations provide a code ethics. Though subject to interpretation (as I found out when I asked for an ethics opinion about a couple Sioux Falls city councilors) for the most part they keep members on the up and up.

Last year the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences (finally) changed their code of ethics barring board members from participating in exhibits or providing professional services to the Pavilion for payment. This didn’t happen overnight. It was a long drawn out process after years of complaints about a certain board member by not just me but several other artists and advocates in our community. In my opinion it took to damn long and I think the only reason it happened was this board member no longer serves (but I could be mistaken).

The irony of all this was that this person was one of the founders of the ad agency that got the lucrative no-bid tourism contracts from the state. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

In one attack on me in a letter to the editor he vehemently opposed openness at taxpayer funded institutions like the Pavilion. No surprise looking back now, huh?

Bill Clinton cheated on his wife in the White House. Over $40 million was spent trying to impeach him for lying about it. It was unethical (the cheating part) and probably cost Al Gore a lot of votes (even though he still won).

Last year we had to endure the Sutton hearings because the legislature thought it was unethical for an adult male to climb into bed with another adult male. Maybe it was, even though the DCI could not find proof a crime was committed. Sutton was censured.

Mike Rounds gives not just a handful of no-bid contracts to campaign contributors, but hundreds and hundreds of them and there isn’t an ethics investigation?

There should be.

Maybe Rounds will be cleared of any unethical practices, maybe an investigation will find something illegal was done. Who knows, but it’s worth the effort.

No one should defend cronyism, whether you are a Rep, Dem or Indy, even if it is being practiced legally.

Even if you don’t have a problem with the ethics of what Mike did, I would think fiscal conservatives would take issue with the irresponsibility of no-bid contracts. And if the State Legislature is truly made up of mostly conservatives the law would have been changed years ago.

I don’t think it is. We have become a Big Government state, and that is why most politicians just turn away from this issue.

So is Rounds a criminal? No way. Is he a sneak? I think so, but an ethics investigation would be the only true measure.

I hope some legislators have the guts to pursue one. It’s way past due.

Competitive Bidding could save SD taxpayers millions, but how could King Rounds pay back his campaign contributors?

l3wis December 29, 2008 0Comments

Woster writes an article on competitive bids;

South Dakota’s state government has hundreds of active contracts worth millions of dollars for professional services ranging from legal work to health care to advertising, and most are provided by private sector businesses and individuals who are awarded the jobs without going through a competitive bid process.

There are 1,800 of these contracts currently active and on file with the South Dakota auditor. But nobody â€” including Gov. Mike Rounds, his budget director Jason Dilges or contract manager Rob Swanson in the auditor’s office â€” knows exactly how many of the 1,800 were awarded without bids or competitive proposal.

Mike just can’t figure out where we could make cuts in the state budget?

â€œI think it’s very important that we learn the nature of all these contracts,â€ Senate Democratic leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls said. â€œThe taxpayers have a right to know how their dollars are spent. If there’s a good reason to avoid requests for competitive proposals, then say so. Then the taxpayers will either agree with you, or they won’t.â€

I think it’s time Scott and other Democrats and Republicans who actually care how our tax money is being spent give Mike a good thumping and don’t let him spinÂ them in a corner.

â€œLook, it’s your money,â€ said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago-based Better Government Association. â€œIf they don’t know how it’s being spent, does that give you confidence? At a bare minimum, it’s reasonable to expect our public servants to know where the money went.â€

Mike knows exactly where it went – scratching backs.

â€œGosh, this is just way too secretive,â€ Heidepriem said. â€œIt’s clearly simpler for the governor’s office to operate that way, and it allows them to favor who they want with taxpayers’ dollars.â€

I truly believe that Scott wants to fix the system – but we had known for years how Rounds operates his office, in a cloak of secrecy. I think it has gotten so bad that the only solution is impeachment. You can slap his hands with a ruler all you want, but once a spoiled brat – always a spoiled brat.

Woster also touches on the ‘amazing job’ Louser and Shister does for the SD tourism department;

The 32-year-old agency currently holds exclusive contracts with the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development worth more than $7 million. And since Gov. Mike Rounds took office in January of 2003, Lawrence & Schiller has been awarded more than $23 million in state contracts, most with tourism, and virtually all without competitive bids or alternative proposals from other firms.

During that time, Rounds received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Lawrence & Schiller officials, something that critics say poses ethical issues that need to be addressed in state law.

â€œI would hope pay-to-play is not taking place here,â€ said state government reform activist Lee Breard of Pierre. â€œBut I will let the taxpayers of South Dakota draw their own conclusions.â€

Nah . . . Mike would never ‘repay’ his campaign contributors, that is above him to use state resources for his own benefit (choke, cough, spit). All aboard Rounds Airlines!

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