Tag: Frieberg Nelson and Ask law firm

08/16/2023 A Voice From the Gallery

“Never trust the translation or interpretation of something without first trusting its interpreter.” ~ Suzy Kassem*

*150 QUOTES BY SUZY KASSEM [PAGE – 2] | A-Z Quotes. (n.d.). A-Z Quotes. https://www.azquotes.com/author/54644-Suzy_Kassem?p=2

Folks please forgive the delay in publishing this Video, processing a 3 hour, 20 minute video took more time than usual

The August 16, 2023, regular meeting of the Alcester City Council was called to order by Mayor pro-tem Darla Reppe with the following council members present Councilman Kerry Hedden, Councilman Brian Johnson, Councilwoman Julia Sundstrom, Councilwoman Cyndi Peeples with Councilwoman Kendra Hatle taking part via telephone until she could attention in person in the council room.  City Attorney Sam Nelson was also present, in person at the meeting.  The council and the gallery recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Agenda Item #3 – Approve the agenda was addressed with a “point of order called” which concerned Agenda Item #4 Mayoral interviews.  The point of order addressed the open issue of duly elected Mayor Lukas Driesen, his document of resignation and the document of his rescission of resignation and the legally of proceeding to interview any potential mayoral candidates.  City Attorney Sam Nelson addressed the council and gallery regarding a legal opinion and the threat of the city’s liability insurance carrier continuing to provide liability insurance to the city. (00:12:12.) Mr. Nelson addressing the job that Mayor Lukas, “…from a posistion of impartiality…Mr. Driesen has done a fine job…”)

Questions to Mr. Nelson regarding his opinion from the council and the gallery were addressed and discussed.  The agenda approval was ultimately voted on in the affirmative.

Agenda Item #4 – Public Input – Pastor Scott Connor addressed the council with questions.  Mrs. Trudy Hedden addressed the council with her question, “…can Lukas be re-appointed” and the answer she received was Yes, Lukas Driesen can be re-appointed as Mayor.  

Agenda Item #5 – General Policies Discussion by Vickie Larsen  I addressed the council with concerns, changes in policy to make managing city business and departments more efficient, changing finance procedures and billing form requests from certain vendors of the city to identify specific costs in order to cut costs and eliminate certain fees to have a more realistic budget and dig ourselves out of the hole of over-spending as the past twelve years of dubious, opaque spending. *

* my notes will appear on the blog.

Agenda Item #6 – Community Center- Landon shared with the council the Community Center is losing money being open on Mondays with no appreciable up-tic in the future.  This is due to lack of staff and customer patronage.  

Discussions for carpet cleaning, advertising for part-time bartenders and servers, rental double booking fiasco, walk-through dealing with failures of completion, failures of workmanship of the building, and safety issues with course trees.

Agenda Item #7 – Police Department – No imperative updates.  Report that the National Night Out event went well.

Agenda Item #8 – Legal Updates – Sam. Discussion on property line Setback ordinances, Fencing restrictions, Council-at-large representation as opposed to Ward delinations and Appointment of Abigail Moore and Darla Reppe as authorized officials to act on behalf of the City of Alcester pursuant to Ordinances.

Agenda Item #9 – HRC signature on paperwork for HRC  Mayor Pro-Tem Reppe signed document in front of City Attorney Sam Nelson.

Agenda Item #10 – Wass Funeral Home request for two handicapped parking places in front of their establishment on Second street.  The Council voted to designate two handicapped spaces with possible discussion on designation of signage costs

Agenda Item #11 – Camera Quotes and Decisions.  Discussion took place but no action was taken until more information was available about the number of cameras needed and the capacity of coverage was determined.

Agenda Item #12 – Old Clubhouse Discussion.  Any action on this item was tabled due to whether the council really wanted to undertake the costs of refurbishing versus removing the building retaining ownership and control of the property for future city development and usage.

Agenda Item #13 – Banner Engineering with Tanya Miller via telephone.  Ms. Miller went over re-assessments, $8200.00 charge plus taxes (not to exceed) completion of Engineering Services for the hourly amount including reimbursement expenses plus taxes. Motion was made to approve, passed. Discussion to approve paying Banner Associates $9547.37 already due. Motion was made to approve payment and was approved.

Agenda Item #14 – Pool  Discussion on ongoing issues of the facility and pool which in the long run, would it be cheaper to repair, replace or decommission.

Agenda Item #15 – Finance Office 

Budget preparation by Councilwoman Kendra Hatle.  Note here:  a completed budget due date for city approval is September 1st.   As I understand it, absolutely no work had been started on the budget by former Finance Officer Patricia.  Councilwoman Hatle has been trying to make sense of the hot-mess, failure to maintain common sense, transparent bookkeeping for our city books. Councilwoman Hatle has spent many hours trying to make sense of non-sense.  I believe at the completion of her task, she should be rewarded with monetary compensation for taking this task on.

The council has agreed to contract with a neighboring community’s Finance Officer to come and assist Councilwoman Hatle and Assistant Finance Officer Abigail find their way through the chaos of our city books and to effect regular transparent bookkeeping methods and policies.

Yet another indemnification of Mayor Lukas’ RIGHT to Fire Patricia Jurrens as Alcester Finance Officer and for the Alcester City Council to UNANIMOUSLY approve the termination of Patricia Jurrens. Another note here is albeit hearsay that, “…Ms. Jurrens apparently has been verbally maintaining she voluntarily quit…”  If that is the case, it is my understanding that one cannot apply for unemployment if she/he quits.  It is my information Ms. Jurrens has applied for unemployment…all the while she claimed Mr. Nyreen voluntarily quit and apparently took steps to see to it Mr. Nyreen’s application for unemployment.  Mr. Nyreen was fired, Ms. Jurrens was fired so how is it that Mr. Nyreen who was FIRE was denied unemployment due to a claim he voluntarily quit but Ms. Jurrens who was also FIRED claims she voluntarily quit yet she files for unemployment?  Really?

Question of the compensation for Councilwoman Cyndi Peeples for her volunteering to cover for the vacation related absence of Assistant Finance Officer Abigail Moore.  The council voted to monetarily compensate Councilwoman Peeples but the amount of compensation was placed on hold until an opinion was offered by City Attorney Sam Nelson.

There was a question from the council regarding the presence of FORMER FINANCE OFFICER Pat Jurrens in the city offices behind the counter while Councilwoman Cyndi Peeples was in charge of the city offices.  According to the answer, Ms. Jurrens came in looking for a paper for the library. Why didn’t the Librarian request the document and have it emailed?  Why was she allowed access to city documents and allowed to walk over and just help herself to city documents?  She no longer has ANY RIGHTS to actively accessing city filing systems or protected documents!

Agenda Item #17 –  Executive Session (if Needed) was called.  Immediately a motion from Councilwoman Cyndi Peeples called for an executive session to discuss personnel and that a police officer remain (curious). SDCL 1-25-2 (1) Personnel  This motion violated open meeting law because given the action taken immediately upon exit of the council from Executive Session was the acceptance of the two resignation documents received from Councilman Kyle VandenHul and Mayor Lukas Driesen did not comply with the specific requirements mandated by definition of closed session South Dakota Open Meeting Statute.  This discussion was merely the acceptance of only two of the three documents already received from duly elected Mayor and Councilman.  Therefore because the motion was a violation of executive session statute by barring public participation, depriving the public from input and any discussion of the subject matter and discussion of decision to the acceptance of only two of the three documents received by the council along with the concluding vote.  All decisions and votes are invalid because the Executive Session violated South Dakota Open Meetings Law.

Agenda Item #18 – Council was adjourned at 9:42 p.m

08/02/2023 A View From the Gallery

I read a redacted version of this statement to the council.  I was limited to three (3) minutes for which I did not plan and therefore it came off disjointed until the end.

“This concerns the rapid, flimsy and questionable excuses with which the Alcester City Attorney Sam et.al. are attempting to unseat our Mayor Lukas Driesen.”

“The time starts with the pre-election steps Lukas Driesen took to run for the seat of Mayor of Alcester, SD.  Mr. Driesen contacted Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens for the number of signatures he needed for his petition for mayor…” Alcester is a Second Class Municipality.  A second class municipality defined in South Dakota State Statute is a city with a population between 500 and 5000.   According to SDCL 9-13-9, the number of signers required for nominating petitions in first, second and third class municipalities…Time for circulating petitions.

9-13-9. Number of signers required for nominating petitions in first, second, and third class municipalities–Time for circulating petitions.

In municipalities of the first and second class, if the candidate is to be voted for by the voters at large, a nominating petition shall be signed by five percent of the registered voters of the municipality based on the number of registered voters recorded by the county auditor on the second Tuesday in January of the year of the election. No petition need be signed by more than fifty voters.

If the candidate is to be voted for by the voters of a ward of a municipality of the first or second class having more than one ward, a nominating petition shall be signed by five percent of the registered voters of the ward based on the number of registered voters recorded by the county auditor on the second Tuesday in January of the year of the election. No petition need be signed by more than fifty voters.

In municipalities of the third class, if the candidate is to be voted for by the voters at large, the nominating petition shall be signed by not less than three registered voters of the municipality. If the candidate is to be voted for by the voters of a ward of a municipality having more than one ward, the nominating petition shall be signed by not less than three registered voters of the ward. A petition signer in a municipality of the third class is not restricted in the number of petitions which the person may sign.

No nominating petition may be circulated until on or after the last Friday in January before the election.

Source: SL 1913, ch 119, § 106; SL 1915, ch 115, § 4; RC 1919, § 6320; SDC 1939, § 45.1309; SL 1973, ch 49; SL 1978, ch 60, § 2; SL 1980, ch 64, § 1; SL 1981, ch 67; SL 1983, ch 52, § 4; SL 1986, ch 67, § 5; SL 1987, ch 76, § 1; SL 1988, ch 63, § 7; SL 1992, ch 60, § 2; SL 2004, ch 75, § 4; SL 2017, ch 57, § 1.

Folks our number was 522 registered voters times 5% equals 26.1 signatures for his petition for mayor.   It is usual to get a few more signatures just to be safe.

Lukas Driesen achieved his signatures and was duly elected Mayor of Alcester, South Dakota.  Alcester Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens administered the Mayoral Oath of Office to Lukas Driesen.  Then Alcester Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens flatly refused to hand over any of the tools of the officer of Mayor which included Keys to offices, keys to any and all municipal buildings and city owned properties.  This blatant insubordination was just another act in a long line of insubordinate behaviors, lies, inexcusable failures to perform her duty, failures to supply accurate and complete information to the duly elected city council and residents and a history of violations of South Dakota statute it became necessary to terminate Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens.

Mayor Driesen used his authority as duly elected mayor, confirmed by Patterson v Linn and removed Patricia Jurrens

Patterson v. Linn, 

#21745 “KONENKAMP, Justice (on reassignment).

[¶1.] By statute, the mayor in an aldermanic-governed municipality has the authority to remove officers the mayor appointed.  Clifford L. Linn, the mayor of Sturgis, summarily fired the city finance officer during her one-year term.  The city has a personnel policy outlining legal procedures for discharging employees, but it was not followed.  The finance officer brought suit.  In granting summary judgment for the mayor and the city, the circuit court concluded that even if the personnel policy applied, it could not override the statute empowering the mayor to remove an officer.  We affirm.”  Considered on Briefs May 29, 2001…Opinion Filed 11/7/2001

https://ujs.sd.gov/Supreme_Court/opiniondetail.aspx?ID=194

from the position of Alcester Finance Officer, terminating her employment on or around July 6, 2023, with a formal confirmation by roll call vote of the Alcester City Council on July 18. 2023.  This process can be viewed and heard in the video presented at www.avoicefromthegallery.com dated July 24, 2023, time stop (00:18:50.90)  AGENDA ITEM #4 with a unanimous vote of the council.  

Unfortunately due to threats and aggressive behaviors toward Mayor Driesen, he offered a letter of resignation but as I understand the situation the letter was not presented to anyone on the council nor the city attorney.  It was just passed on. The council under the direction of President of the council, mayor pro-tem Darla Reppe did not act upon or accept this resignation ‘document’.  On July 26, 2023, Mayor Driesen rescinded that resignation with a written document of rescission of his previous document of resignation and copies of the signed and dated rescission were distributed to the members of the city council.

However, City Attorney Sam Nelson Through Attorney Austin Felts stated the first document stands m and made no comment on the rescission document.  Now let’s talk about the history of the presence of the firm of Frieberg, Nelson and Ask. Attorney at Law as Alcester City Attorneys.

January 8, 2018, the Alcester City council voted to approve the 2018 Retainer agreement between the City of Alcester and Attorney Charles Haugland of Gubbrud, Haugland and Gillespie Law Firm.  Motion was made by Alcester City Councilman David Larsen to approve the retainer agreement, with a second coming from Councilwoman Darla Reppe and with all members of the council having a true and complete copy of the retainer agreement, the council voted unanimously to approve the retainer agreement between the City of Alcester and Charles Haugland, Attorney.

However, on January 9, 2018, Mayor Tom Glass and City Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens hot footed it down the street to Mr. Haugland’s office and announced, “the city council felt that it was ‘time for a change’ concerning the retention of Mr. Haugland’s Law Office and Mr. Haugland in particular…that the city intended to retain Tom Frieberg of Frieberg, Nelson and Ask as the new City Attorney for the City of Alcester…”  With Glass and Jurrens comment he (Mr. Haugland) would remain until sales documents were completed.  Mr. Haugland responded, “NO!”  Mr Haugland tendered his Letter of Resignation January 16, 2018.

WOW the council of two, Glass and Jurrens ‘decided’ it was time for a change less than 24 hours after the council voted unanimously to approve the retainer agreement which awarded Mr. Haugland $105.00 per hour for his legal services.

There was no meeting on January 9, 2018, for the council to meet and decide… JUST Glass and Jurrens yapping.  Now folks about that ‘new’ retainer agreement.  Moving on to the February 5, 2018, council meeting where Tom Frieberg is seated at the council table, n ote vidieo.  Man,  Mr. Haugland’s seat did not even have time to get cold.  Now Mr. Tom Frieberg is called upon to review the ‘New’ 2018 Retainer Agreement which awarded $150.00 per hour fee to Tom Frieberg and $125.00 per hour fee to Mr. Sam Nelson..  So who wrote that ‘New’ 2018 Retainer Agreement?  Was it Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens who had already pinched Mr. Hauglands work-product to suit her ‘needs’ or was it Councilwoman Melissa Kay, a law student?   After Mr. Frieberg’s ‘review’, Councilman Dan Haeder moved to approve the ‘new’ 2018 Retainer Agreement, using Freiberg, Nelson and Ask Law as the city of Alcester’s new city attorneys. I gotta wonder if ol’ FOPat was a client of Frieberg, Nelson and Ask.

Now Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens does not like or trust Mayor Lukas.  Her words not mine.  UP STEPS the firm of Frieberg, Nelson and Ask opine-ing and arguing Mayor Lukas’s letter of resignation stands…but his letter of rescission (The revocation, cancellation, or repeal of a law, order, or agreement. “the plaintiff agreed to the rescission of the agreement”) does not?  

WRONG!

  They are both legal documents and duly signed and dated.

Then there was a hear-say comment that Councilwoman Hatle could take part in the meeting via telephone but she could not vote.

WRONG!

From 08/30/2020 through and past the date of 03/15/2021, the city of Alcester carried telephone participation where absent council members participated and VOTED via roll-call vote via telephone.  As well as our city attorney Sam Nelson has on numerous occasions taken part with opinions etc. when he has been away in Pierre Lobbying or whatever called him away from our council meetings. 

In the October 2, 2019, meeting held in the Alcester Golf Course ‘clubhouse’ I made a comment on how often a lawyer was correct.  Something to the effect that a lawyer is only right half the time and I asked him (Sam) which half he was working on?  With that said, please take note of my video of April 15, 2019, where the ballots from the election were being canvassed.  Take note in the video where the ballot box was illegally opened, the ballots were illegally dealt out to the city council members by Councilman Dan Haeder and how Councilman Dan Haeder held the totally empty ballot box up to show my camera.  Big time Election violation, which I wrote up a complaint and filed.  A DCI agent viewed the video when he came to visit me and questioned me regarding that complaint.  NOTE:  the lower left hand part of the video, note that City Attorney Sam was in attendance and sat quietly watching and without comment as to the illegality of what he was witnessing.  Sam was …

WRONG AGAIN!

So I concluded my abbreviated remarks with:

 “…when you (the council) go into executive session to discuss the position of Mayor… VOTE to accept Mayor Lukas’s recession document which negates the resignation document and returns Mayor Lukas to his place as Mayor or you may VOTE TO APPOINT Mayor Lukas without taking any more interviews, restoring him to his duly elected position to Mayor of Alcester.

It is a sad commentary when the threat of a lawsuit is used to force a city council to acquiesce to bad advice whether it comes from a local drunk, a cry-baby countess of self-entitlement, a beer can throwing coward, or ubiquitous, omni-present threats of a lawsuit.