Tag: Melissa Jean Kay Alcester SD

02/01/2021 A Voice From the Gallery

          The February 1, 2021,  Alcester City Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Dan Haeder, , Councilman David Larsen, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilwoman Linda Talbott and Councilwoman Melissa Kay in person.  Councilman Marcus Ireland was counted present via telephone and City Attorney Sam Nelson was absent but available via telephone IF the council needed him.  M-m-m, you hiding Sam?

The city camera is beeping, Mayor Haeder adjusts it, he now puts the memory card in, Mayor Haeder sits down and camera starts beeping.  H-m-m.

          Council recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

insert video

Item #3 – Approve Agenda   Mayor Haeder called for motion to approve the agenda.  Motion is made, seconded and with no discussion the agenda is approved unanimously  (X5 Ayes) without change.

Item #4 – Approve Minutes of January 4th and 18th meetings Mayor Haeder called for motion to approve the minutes of the two meeting in January.  Motion was made by Councilman Larsen, seconded by Councilwoman Talbott, discussion was called with Councilman Ireland responding to add the adjective “alleged” before the narrative involving executive session in the 01/04/2021 minutes.  The group decided to add the word “alleged”.  Councilman Larsen made the motion to amend the initial motion by adding the word “alleged”, Councilwoman Talbott seconded the motion to amend, no discussion on the amendment, the group vote unanimously X5 Ayes to amended.  The Council returned to the motion on the floor, Councilman Larsen moved to approve the minutes for January 4 as amended, and January 18 (as written should have been noted in the motion), Councilwoman Talbott seconded the motion and with no further discussion the motion was approve with a unanimous vote X 5 Ayes.

Item #5 – Public Input– I spoke to the erosion issue on the Sunnyside Storage project and possible loss of one of the buildings on the private property.  A retaining wall was to be built but as of this meeting had not been completed nor was it signed off by the ‘alleged building inspector Geoff Fillingsness.’  I asked, once again, about the city website with Finance Office Jurrens responding it (the website) was up. (09:53:47).  As of this writing I still do not see a website!  I commented on the telephonic participation of Councilman Marcus Ireland who, it appears will be taking part in the future council meetings until election.  I commented on the residents of Ward II have been to all intents and purposed disenfranchised by way the lack of their ability to readily contact their Ward II representative, Marcus Ireland.  Cell telephone number was to be provided to the newspaper for publication.

Mayor Haeder announced there was to be a virtual legislative meeting tomorrow, February 2, 2021.

Councilwoman Darla Reppe announced she had been contacted by a constituent who did not wish to be identified.  The constituent was extremely unhappy with the Burke Sh**house and requested the council take measures to fix the situations.  The council was warned back in December 2019 and January 2020 by me with regard to variances distributed by Finance Officer Pat Jurrens and approved by the council to allow non-residential building in the Numsen Addition prior to the building of these Beck Drive nightmares.  I warned them of the possible sharp decline in property values of innocent neighbors, and the possibility of losing any future sales of the remaining properties. However there is a precedent in Sioux Falls which caused the demolition of a violation of covenants in a historic neighborhood.  Mayor Haeder who was then a councilmember voted to approve the Burke Sh**house.  I noted in my complaint that Codes and Covenants ran with the property and it was up to the property owners to vote to change the Covenants and the city did not have the power to ordinance away the covenants.  Covenants were put into place to protect the property owners investments and assets.  To Councilmember Reppe’s un-named constituent, you can sue for lost value.  The council was warned and went ahead with the variance in spite of the warning.  I believe there may be a liability against the council for allowing the Sh**house variance. In last night’s meeting, Finance Officer Jurrens offered up a legal opinion (19:05:57).  Sorry madame bookkeeper, your alleged degree is in bookkeeping not legal opinions.  To Councilmember Reppe’s constituent and my Numsen’s Addition neighbor, upon your request I will give you copies of my research.  By the way, I do believe any resident has the right and ability to file a complaint on the Sh**house.

Item #6 Department Head Updates –

Streets-Lonnie Johnson (absent) Chip sealing – advertising of Bid date  03/01/2021 6:15 pm

Hire Cash Hemmingson for Snow removal, Shop and Street Maintenance-???how many bodies does the city need for snow removal??? Call for Motion.  Motion was made by Councilwoman Kay, seconded by Councilwoman Reppe,  discussion question asked to amend start date with an immediate start date of February 2, 2021.   Motion was amended by Councilwoman Kay, seconded by Councilwoman Reppe, no discussion and a unanimous vote X5 ayes to amend the motion.  Call for motion returned to original question to hire Cash Hemmingson at $11.00 per hour for an immediate start date of  February 2, 2021.  Councilwoman Kay made the now amended motion, Councilwoman Reppe seconded the amended motion, with no further discussion the council voted X5 ayes to hire Cash Hemmingson at $11.00 per hour starting February 2, 2021. 

Shop Computer – Aw the shop computer crashed.  So FO Pat went shopping for a shop computer.  Where did FO Pat go out for quotes, why to her good bud Applied Software Beresford? So does Alcester get a friends and family discount from Mr. Monson?   Somehow I don’t think the $1216.00 price tag is a discount, do you?

Cemetery – No update

Water – Pumps have been installed

Police Dept – Police Chief Conference  Approval to attend Police Chief’s Conference. Council approved Police Chief Christie’s travel to the conference.

Police Chief vest purchase-Council approve purchase of vest for PD.

Golf Course -Trade in golf cart.  Phasing out and Trade one Yamaha for the purchase of One EZ Go Golf cart spending up to $2000.00.  Motion was made by Councilman Larsen, Second came from Councilwoman Talbott with the Mayor wandering off topic to some sort of Lift. Finally came back to topic for unanimous vote .

Library – Councilman David Larsen gave a summary of the Summer Reading Program.

Item #7 – Mask Policy  “Ordinance vs. Recommendation vs. Resolution Discussion related to do we do an Ordinance, do we do a Recommendation or do we do a Resolution?  The Consensus landed on a resolution.  Mayor Haeder called for a Motion to approve the 2021-03 Resolution, Councilwoman Kay made the motion to approve the resolution with implementation as soon as published.  Councilwoman Reppe seconded the motion, no discussion and with 4 ayes and 1 no from Councilman Larsen.  (00:00:00)  As soon as published, I was told the website was up and running.  In fact I pointed out we publish on the website.  In fact I believe the city is require to publish notifications on the website if we have one.  No response. Telephone call was made to Attorney Sam Nelson at 7:16 pm. for advice on the Resolution.  Dare I ask what that phone call cost?

Item #8 – Employee Bonus discussion Yup there it is.  Longevity/Performance Base Bonus Discussion.  Now folks while I sat listening to the presentation by Councilwoman Kay, it was hard not to chuckle at several points she attempted to make.  Going back to a time as she was hawking Bambee HR, she stated she/council did not know much about Human Resources takes me to a question she asked me when she was practicing her Legal Badgering Skills 101 on me, “Do you know how to read?”. 

          My response then is the same as it is now, “Yes very well!”  So madam you write you worked your way up in janitorial skills, from toilet processing to management of employee scheduling, sales, customer phone relations, and processing bids for services.  Additionally in your linked auto-bio you allege you, “… completed a Human Resources training course and Dealing with Difficult People course climaxing in protecting employees rights while maintaining the integrity of the company…” Wow!  So according to your proposed bonus performance review techniques, given the manner with which you dealt with me and I as your employer (tax payer) I should be able to score you on your performance, Right?  So let’s see what questions might I ask.  You see when I got the agenda about bonus discussion, I did my research.  I think taxpayers would like a preview of questions they might like to ask.  Shall we?  So Councilwoman Kay, did you protect my rights during the Great Badger inquisition?  Did you deliberately lie to the other council members to make your case?  Did you perpetuate a deliberate lie by administrative staff?  Did you or did you not make a false swearing with regard to the above listed questions?  That’s okay, I don’t expect an answer.

Item #9 – Finance Office Updates Alternate garbage route- so now the residents must tote their garbage across the street.  Really why not a central pick-up dumpster with a discount for residents who are willing to haul their garbage and/or their disabled neighbor’s garbage to the central dumpster.

2020 Audit-Approval to pay the bill.

Board of Equalization meeting- March 15, 2021 6:00 pm

Virtual District Meeting March 18, 2021, 5:30 pm

Reminders and Updates

Item #10 – Community Building – notation the builder took the liberty of changing the 8 foot garage doors out for 12 foot doors. 

Item #11 – Volunteer Roster- No Update

Item #12 – Executive Session 1-25-2.1 Personnel  AGAIN Call for motion, second, no discussion and unanimous vote.  Executive session commences at 7:51 p.m.  Those staying in executive session were Councilman Larsen, Councilman Ireland (via telephone et al), Councilwoman Kay, Councilwoman Reppe, Councilwoman Talbott, FO Patricia Jurrens, employee Wanda Halverson, Police Chief Jeff Christie, Police Officer Austin Schuller and Mayor Header. 

Newspaper reporter Gordon Richard, Employee Peeples and Vickie Larsen left the room.  Mr. Richard and Ms Peeples left the building while Vickie Larsen remained in the hallway. Interesting watching the group and the body language, like watching a silent movie.  The police officers left the executive session at 8:13 pm approximately 22 minutes after the commencement of the session.  The executive meeting continued on until 8:37 pm when it was declared out of session.

Item #13 – Adjourn at 8:38 pm

Contact City Council

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

01/04/2021 A Voice From the Gallery

The January 4, 2021,  Alcester City Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Dan Haeder, Councilman Marcus Ireland, Councilman David Larsen, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, and Councilwoman Melissa Kay in person with City Attorney Sam Nelson.  Councilwoman Linda Talbott absent, no explanation but can be available by telephone.(01:14.57)

Above is the oath of office which I affirmed on July 20, 2020, to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of South Dakota.  I promised to the very best of my ability to work for all the residents of the city of Alcester not just those located within the confines of Ward III.  I meant that promise, but in the performance and fulfillment of my promise it was alleged by a l.i.t. (lawyer-in-training) I failed to do what I promised.  I asked the October 7, 2020, Executive Session in which these allegations were delivered be open session and video-taped, I was told I did not have that right.  I was dismissed based upon the opinion of the l.i.t. without proof other than her opinion.  The form of Executive Session used in Alcester, meeting is closed and no record is made.  It gets down to she said, she said.  It is now my time!

The meeting was opened with the recitation of the pledge of allegiance…ironic.

Agenda Item #3 Approval of the Agenda was dispatched with just one amendment.(02:36.83) by Councilwoman Kay.  Agenda Item #18 Executive Session ( if needed) for SDCL 1-25-2.  SDCL 1-25-2 refers to the whole statute and should be specific to one of the purposes listed below:

1-25-2. Executive or closed meetings–Purposes–Authorization–Violation as misdemeanor.

Executive or closed meetings may be held for the sole purposes of:

(1)    Discussing the qualifications, competence, performance, character or fitness of any public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee. The term, employee, does not include any independent contractor;

(2)    Discussing the expulsion, suspension, discipline, assignment of or the educational program of a student or the eligibility of a student to participate in interscholastic activities provided by the South Dakota High School Activities Association;

(3)    Consulting with legal counsel or reviewing communications from legal counsel about proposed or pending litigation or contractual matters;

(4)    Preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representatives;

(5)    Discussing marketing or pricing strategies by a board or commission of a business owned by the state or any of its political subdivisions, when public discussion may be harmful to the competitive position of the business; or

(6)    Discussing information listed in subdivisions 1-27-1.5(8) and 1-27-1.5(17).

However, any official action concerning such matters shall be made at an open official meeting. An executive or closed meeting shall be held only upon a majority vote of the members of the public body present and voting, and discussion during the closed meeting is restricted to the purpose specified in the closure motion. Nothing in § 1-25-1 or this section prevents an executive or closed meeting if the federal or state Constitution or the federal or state statutes require or permit it. A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor.

Source: SL 1965, ch 269; SL 1980, ch 24, § 10; SL 1987, ch 22, § 1; SL 2014, ch 90, § 2; SL 2019, ch 2, § 1.

The agenda was amended to place agenda item #18 between agenda items #7 and agenda item #8.  So was the agenda approved by the quorum of four.

Agenda Item #4 Approval of the Minutes of December 7, 2020, and December 21, 2020, again without discussion or delay.

Agenda Item #5 – Public Input- Vickie Larsen addressed the following topics in public input: cemetery, snow plow speed, building permit, executive sessions handout, website, Nohava, who is the council president and vice-president. 

– cemetery– (04:47.70)  Discussion on this point is the driving over a gravesite with digging equipment.  During the process of excavating for a new grave, the cemetery grave digger appeared to have backed his trailer with the grave digger over the top of a grave, leaving large ruts in the surface of the grave.  I asked for the name of the culprit.  I got a non-answer from FO Pat, “a guy”  Really? I asked for a name FO Pat replied I think his name was “collie” another non-responsive answer.  The city now owns and manages the cemetery and FO Pat does not know who digs the graves.  The grave this dimwit backed over, Coach Sievert’s resting place and no one at the city level seems to care .

-Snow plow speed-(05:41.90) I reported I saw the snow plow (loader w/bucket) plowing the street in front of my home on Lincoln Drive at an excessive speed and that it was NOT Lonnie Johnson driving.  Again note the badger line I got from Councilwoman Kay.  “Did I witness this”  Yeah I did and it was not Lonnie Johnson driving the heavy equipment.  I also had reports from others in the community who witnessed the same excessive speed of the plow apparatus.  I asked the question, what happens when the bucket snags a upheaval of the curb and gutter?  Bucket gone, curb ripped up and something worse?  Please note the feedback Lonnie (11:13.80), Lonnie (11:30.93) and of course Councilwoman Kay’s badger banter (12:45.27).  I stated I did not recognize or know who was driving the plow apparatus, just it was not Lonnie Johnson.  Mr. Johnson asked the question, “was that between your property and Orville Embrocks…”  I did not realize at the time he was referring to an event a couple of years ago, where he snagged the water shut off pipe for my house, failed to let us know about it until after pipes burst in a severe cold snap and water began flooding out of my garage and they could not shut the water off because of the damage to the water shut off at the curb. 

– Building permit on the Sunnyside Storage- This is where a retaining wall was called for on the building permit and the wall was not built.  I asked the question was the final inspection done, it has been reported to me that several building permits were issued and fees were charged, but there was no final inspection by the Code Ordinance officer.  So why isn’t the Finance Officer following up on this.  I believe there is to be a report of approval of the work issued to the permit holder to clear the permit and so the city cannot come back and accused the permit holder of failures.  Who is not doing their job?

-Executive Sessions– the present council and councils going back to 2012 do not have a working grasp of proper Executive Sessions.  I found a tutorial on Executive Sessions from a 2015 Association of School Boards of South Dakota which gave a simplified explanation of Do’s and Don’ts of Executive Sessions to keep the council from violating the Executive Session statute 1-25-2.  It takes Executive Sessions from proper Motion entering Executive Session to ending an Executive Session.  The Mayor and each council person got a copy of the handout and city attorney Sam Nelson got a copy with the copy write permission from the author of the piece.  (http:// http://convention.asbsd.org/wp-content/uploads/ts-of-Executive-Session.pdf)

– Website– still waiting- asked FoPat – still no launch date.  I did ask if it would be in 2021.

– Jeff Nohava– I asked if the ambulance had a covid clean process.  Mr. Nohava stated the ambulance complies with the protocols.  I have seen how the ambulance has complied with other protocols in the past. Yeah.

– I emailed this question to the Finance Office, “Who is the President of the Alcester City Council and is there a Vice-President?  I seem to remember Councilman David Larsen was President of the Council, is that correct?  Folks  this is FO Pat’s response, her email to,” Mayor Dan, Please address Ms Larsen’s questions…Thank you in advance..Pat.  So I asked again, Councilman David Larsen responded he was and I was told by another council person that Councilwoman Linda Talbott was the vice-president of the council.  I had asked this question because when I got the boot, I did not know if the president and vice-president positions had changed.  Now we all have the answer.  Simply put the President of the Council takes over in the absence of the Mayor.  The Vice-president takes over if both the Mayor and President of the Council are indisposed.  So why was the question so far out of the FO purview she had to email Mayor Haeder to respond?  Makes a body wonder, doesn’t it.

No one else had any input, but given certain responses given to me, I can see why other members of the public might not be willing to respond.

Agenda Item #6– Alcester EMS- Jeff Nohava- reporting the service has 10 EMT’s/Nurses (RN, LPN), 6 Drivers and 6 Student attending the Akron class.  So are these 6 students taking the class in Akron going to be NREMT?  Mr. Nohava mentioned the ambulance had received a grant for a Lifepak 15 AED. 

Agenda Item #7 – Department Head Updates-

–Streets-Lonnie Johnson reported the need for an upgrade of the electrical panel in the city shop ($1800.00).  Electrical Panel upgrade approved.  Street Vehicle Discussion- again-so we go from needing another truck with the capability to pull a trailer to the proposed purchase of a 2015 Nissan Rogue S (compact sport utility vehicle) 45,500 miles, no warranty, all wheel drive, 4 cylinder, trailer hitch unknown (per Lonnie) for an “out-the-door price” $15,000 with the now stated purpose to go to conventions, trainings, read meters (do ya’ll have drive-by capabilities now?) (25:40.90)and FO Pat and Wanda drooling.(we get a car, we get a car) Now folks key here is where is the money coming from,  Street Department?  I will direct you back to Mr. Johnson’s statement about the losing our streets (11:13.80) and the proposal to take $15,000 from the 2nd penny fund (29:56.53) which was originally limited to capital assets expenditures to pay for a run-around car? We keep playing games with the condition of our streets; FDR which was a joke, intermittent patching of streets are like plastering 30 minute wrinkle cream on a 90 year-old woman who worked in the great outdoors most of her life, and too many streets with no curb and gutter to stabilise the street.  But we apparently desperately need a “company car” to do what, shop?  What are the drawbacks to this model of vehicle, reports of seven (7) recalls on the 2015 model – one of which involved the shift selector knob, complaints of vehicle control and engine failure but it does have a towing capability up to 1,000 pounds when it is properly fitted for towing.  Motion was made to purchase the new toy and motion passed.  My question is do we have to take a temporary loan out until the second penny sales tax fund has recovered enough to allow a $15K expenditure?

– Cemetery-Parker Dooly- No substantive update other than we need a new mower.  Wish list— a Hustler commercial grade mower with a 60 inch deck with add-ons.  Instructed to do more research (until the next meeting?)

–Water/Wastewater– Dale Pearson reported the department is working on the wiring and installation of the new pumps.

– Police – Officer Schuller reports the past month’s activity and reports the continuing recovery of Police Chief Christie.

– Golf Course– Councilman David Larsen reported the golf course is closed up for the season.

– Library– Councilman David Larsen reported the library is doing well.

Agenda Item #18 – Executive Session – if needed Councilwoman Kay moved to enter Executive Session 1-25-2 for Personnel, Second came from Councilman Ireland, with no discussion the quorum of four moved in to Executive Session at 6:46 P.M.  Everyone but the Mayor and Councilman Larsen, Councilman Ireland, Councilwoman Reppe and Councilwoman Kay was dismissed into the hallway including Alcester City Attorney Nelson, FO Pat and Wanda Halvorson.  Mayor Haeder and the four council members remained in Executive Session until Mayor Haeder declared the council of Executive Session at 7:21 P.M.  No action was taken.

Agenda Item #8 – Legal Updates – Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson gave a report on city actions against the property owners of 307 Iowa and 205 Ofstad.  No Executive Session was not needed.

Agenda Item #9 – 2021 Retainer Agreement – Frieberg, Nelson and Ask.  No fees were disclosed during this discussion.  There was an amendment regarding the mileage charge for attending regular meetings.  The amendment was bungled.  Councilman Ireland moved to approve the Retainer with the second coming from Councilwoman Kay.  No discussion and a quorum of four aye vote.

Agenda Item #10 – Official Newspaper – Alcester Union-Hudsonite was declared the official newspaper with a quorum of four aye vote.

Agenda Item #11– Official Bank- Premier Bank was declared as the official bank of the city of Alcester with no discussion and a quorum of four aye vote.

Agenda Item #12 – Covid 19 Quarantine Policy- discussion.  Working off the SD Department of Health version of a quarantine policy discussion was initiated with Councilwoman Melissa Kay apparently not sufficiently read-in to discuss.  So why make any motions or decisions until the policy is in black and white and documented?  Tentative language was discussed but not in document form for the meeting.  Councilwoman Kay appeared to want to shove the policy through seemingly to cut corners of procedure, pushed for motion.  So the council approved in a quorum of four aye vote on a Quarantine Policy.

Agenda Item #13 – Masks- To mandate or not to mandate, that is the question.  FO Pat does not want to wear a mask!  (1:44:36.07) FO Pat says she is a team player.  As I said in the session, if the city mandates Masks the city office is the ‘face’ of the city.  Lead by example, Madame FO you are the example.  The language for any mandate will be available at the next meeting to be approved or amended.

Agenda Item #14 – Finance Office Updates

– Warrant approval- December warrants were approved by a quorum of 4 aye vote.

– CRF submissions – Covid Relief Fund  $116,623.80 in claims submitted by Alcester.  Need a complete listing.  How many of the listing are wish list versus Need claims?

– 2021 Resolution of Fees dither-dither-pass

– 2021 Municipal Elections – Sign up

*Councilman David Larsen leaves the meeting due to indisposition at 8:46 P.M.

– 2021 Wages and Salaries called.  I questioned the ‘quorum of three issue’.  City Attorney Sam disagrees, saying it is in statute.  I asked which statute?  I was told by City Attorney Sam, you can look it up.  Nice response Sam.  You know I have often wondered why Ol’Glas and FO Pat wanted to dismiss a seasoned, city attorney as Mr. Haugland.  Now I had suspected Pat had a ‘working’ relationship with the Frieberg firm and wanted to send some ‘tit for tat’ business their way.  So the city replaced a seasoned attorney well versed in municipal law with a young ‘whipper-snapper’ whose Bar membership was shiny with new and in need of practical on-the-job-training in the area of municipal law.  Councilman Ireland was kind enough to share the statute of SDCL 9:8:8 which I have read and will be researching and Yes, Mary Jane I still do read!  I yield to the SDCL 9:8:8 with its most recent update of 2017.  Still have a problem with merit raises for ‘perp’ walk experience. The motion to allow a 3% cost of living raise for full-time and part-time employees was passed with a ‘quorum of three (3)’ aye vote.

-Reminders and Updates.

Agenda Item #15 – HRC update  – the Sh*House is near completion and no rent increase for the four-plex.  I can see why they might not raise the rent on the four-plex when their view is now a Architectural Oxymoron.

Agenda Item #16 – Community Building Update.  Report by FO Pat devolved into a We did this, We have that, we will , we will.  There was an amusing moment when Councilwoman Kay asked the question, ‘who is we’.  Shoot I figured the ‘WE’ was Pat and the Lint in her pocket.

Agenda Item #17 – Update of the Volunteer Roster- Add three, omit two.  Again a quorum of three (3) vote of aye.

Agenda Item #19 – Adjourn –  Again a quorum of three (3) vote of aye. 

Meeting was adjourned at 9:09 P.M.

Contact City Council

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

11/16/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Dan Haeder with Councilman David Larsen, Councilman Marcus Ireland, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilwoman Linda Talbott and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson present.  At-home-tele-conferencing the meeting was Councilwoman Melissa Kay.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and approval of the agenda was called.

Approval for the minutes of the now infamous meeting of October 7, 2020, was called with correction and approved with yet another version-in-error of what went down.

As you read through this specious concoction of fact, falsehood, quasi-legal opinion by a Bambee barrister with ambulance tailgating tendencies and whose only licensure at South Dakota Bar is her driver’s license indicating she is over 18, can drink but should not drive.  At no time was any evidence of wrong doing presented other than Councilwoman Vickie Larsen had an opinion, voiced it, voted on the prudent side for the people of Alcester and Councilwoman Vickie Larsen is not an ovis aries following FO Peep nor the rest of the ‘council gang’!  I know comes as a shock to the council, but ya’ll do not HAVE to vote unanimously.  There is no mandate, council members have to vote unanimously on routine city business unless it is a special circumstances situation. 

          “At 6:09 p.m. Councilwoman Melissa Kay made a motion to enter into      Executive Session pursuant to SDCL 1-25-2.1-Personnel; Councilwoman        Linda Talbott seconded it.  During discussion Councilwoman Vickie Larsen stated  if the Executive Session was related to her-she would request her        legal counsel. (one would think with both FO and Mini FO taking notes alleged to be minutes of the meeting could get it right but evidently not)      When discussion of the motion to go into Executive Session was called I     answered,

          Vickie, “Yes, if this is to discuss the discipline of a city council member and that person is me, I waive my right to executive session, I want it done in   open session and on camera.”

          Mayor Haeder , “How does anyone feel about that?”

          Councilman David Larsen, “We won’t know until we are in Executive         Session, will we?”

          City Attorney Sam Nelson, “No, uh forgive me for disagreeing to the extent the way you characterized it Vickie.  Executive session is not necessarily a personal right to you but is a privilege of the council with the exception of certain statutes and is the council’s decision as a whole to whether they want to enter Executive session for the purposes of discussing, uh, you.  I believe under statute an officer or elected officer qualifies as personnel so, uh, the discussion could be held in Executive session whether you wanted it to be or not.  However, any vote or any action would need to be, uh, taken in open session.”

          Vickie,  “No I was advised just (inaudible) I insist on open session and open discussion and you have in front of you a Bill of Particulars, Uhm, I want to know what the problem is, please fill those out so I may have those.”

          Mayor Haeder cuts in, ” So there is a motion on the floor, we are going to act on this motion right now.  So, uh, if there is no further discussion aside from what has already been discussed, I ask for how do you vote?”                    5 ayes—1 no

          Vickie, “I object I want this evidence on the camera, I want to video tape it!”

          Mayor Haeder , “and that means we are in Executive session at 6:09 P.M.”

          Vickie “I am going to refuse until I have legal counsel!”

          Councilman David Larsen, “that was a short meeting,”

          City Attorney Sam Nelson, “Do you have one (attorney) on stand-by?”

          Vickie,  “Not tonight”

          City Attorney Sam Nelson, “Excellent, Uhm, I don’t know that you are        entitled to legal counsel, Uh, per the statute…discussion is allowed under         SDCL 1-25-2.”

          Councilman David Larsen, “Should we even be talking of this in Executive session?”

The above is a transcript of the opening salvo of a discussion of the agenda item discipline of a city council member.  Too bad FO, Mini FO and Councilwoman Kay did not take the class where meeting minutes are to be fact and not opinion based.  Better work on this Councilwoman Kay for your bar exam, first draught versus bottle maybe?

Agenda Item #5 Public Input- So Alcester City Council ya’ll just approved the October 7, 2020, minutes in gross error and with what appears to be tortious interference and particular when the camera showed a couple of broad grins on council members when the Discipline of a Councilmember was called.  Councilwoman Kay you wanted me to name a complainant and I refused giving you a name.  Given the manner and nature in which ya’ll came after me, did you really think I was going to throw someone employed in Alcester and dared complain about the Vindictive squad to the wolves? 

Second on my list for Input, was an expression of gratitude for the 30 plus years of loyal service by former Alcester Finance Office Mike Kezar to the city and citizens of Alcester and the lack luster reception my suggestion elicited.

Third on my list.  Yeah, well you remember when I asked Mr. Nohava and the council about EVOC certification of the “volunteers”.  I had the occasion to watch in horror as a firefighter came screaming down first street enroute to a fire call.  As I watched this moron whip around two cars, all but running them off the road at the intersection of first and Iowa with little regard to safety.  This is not the first time I have seen this happen.  Perhaps a re-run of EVOC training would be a benefit.  Oh yeah, by the way running the four-way flashers when you run a four way stop in your private vehicle does not mean jack.  In addition, if you injure someone you personally become liable meaning actual expenses with punitive awards.

Agenda #8 street signs.  Has gone from one sign to two signs with the promise of scattering slow children signs like the seeds of dandelions.  I think we need a slow adult sign or better yet a dangerous FO alert sign.  FO on the loose, if you see them wandering please let the mayor know immediately.

Agenda # Finance Office –

Cares money, it appears only the mayor read the document outlining the purpose of the Cares money and he was bored.  It became apparent from body language the other council members either had not read the document or they lacked the comprehension app.   Not for entertainment computers for the dump guy.  Keep in mind that FO Pat can track where you are with these little ol’ devices.  Do you trust her?  Listen to the exchange if the we don’t get reimbursement for the 8 cutesy computers, the cost of $2400 plus cost will come out of the general fund.  There goes street/water improvements, we are just going to have suck it up buttercups and drink brown water.

Adjourned at 6:50 p.m.

Contact City Council

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

11/02/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

“the argument from intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence” Ayn Rand

Prior to the official beginning of the meeting a remark was made by Mayor Haeder with regard to the importance of the next day (November 3, 2020, election day)  Check out how on top of things one council member was, “’cause she asked if there was something important going on?” (00:00:18.63)  Listen to the response.  Note here that the set-up for voting was on the agenda.  So Councilman Talbott, that was your first hint it was election day on Tuesday?  

The November 2, 2020, version of a city council meeting was called to order by Mayor Dan Haeder with council members Marcus Ireland, Linda Talbott, Darla Reppe, David Larsen, Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson and of course Melissa Kay seated and ready for city business.

The council and gallery members recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Precursor to approval of the agenda concerning Executive Session (00:03:13.30)  A flashback to a child’s game where in the world is…?  The council was looking for their #2  SDCL 1-25-2.2  I told them School!  After more discussion, they finally figured the conundrum out but does beg the question how many law students does it take to read SD executive session law?  What No Cliff notes for law?

Agenda Item #3 – was the approval of the agenda. (00:05:20.13)  Some discussion regarding the time and appropriateness of an Executive Session to cover two separate properties and the presence of Geoff Fillingsness, enforcer.

Agenda Item #4 – approval of the October 5th, October 7th and October 19th minutes of meeting.  The motion was made by Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Seconded by Councilwoman Linda Talbott but at the call for discussion there actually was a call on the accuracy of the minutes of those meetings by Councilwoman Melissa Kay, although she could not seem to get the correct date.  H-m-m  First it was October 19th but then it was October 7th.  Ironically it was both meetings with inaccuracies in the minutes.  The purpose of minutes of an official meeting is to reflect accurately movements of the meeting without descending into editorializing.  Gee, somebody should have schooled bookkeeper Jurrens about that duty.  Of course one cannot be sure just who is taking those minutes whether it is bookkeeper Jurrens or the junior bookkeeper/receptionist.

Bookkeeper Patricia Jurrens writes in the minutes of October 7, 2020, “At 6:09P.M . …During discussion… (correction)Alcester Councilwoman Vickie Larsen waived her right to executive session and asked the meeting be open and her camera on to record the proceedings, the council said No it was not her right, Alcester Councilwoman Vickie Larsen insisted it was her right as the object of the session.  The council said it was their right to closed session and not hers…Alcester Councilwoman Vickie Larsen then asked the motion be delayed to the next meeting so she could have her attorney present.  The Alcester City Council then asked, “…do you have an attorney on speed dial” Alcester City Councilwoman Vickie Larsen answered, “NO”…The Alcester City Council then asked, “Is your attorney here…” Alcester City Councilwoman Vickie Larsen answered, “NO”  The Alcester City Council then made the statement, “You have no right to council…”  A loud discussion ensued…”

The council finally meandered through their approval of the October 19, 2020, minutes in error and postponing approval of amended minutes of October 7, 2020. (00:07:08.97) Bookkeeper Jurrens lead Councilwoman Melissa Kay by the nose to the conclusion that (00:10:33.53) Vickie Larsen refused to abstain from voting.  Really?  I stated I did not refuse to abstain (00:11:05.50), I was STILL a member of the Alcester City Council and bookkeeper Jurrens is NOT a legal authority. 

Agenda Item #5 – Executive session – Interviews for Ward III Council Seat.  No takers, do ya’ll s’pose I should have volunteered again?

Agenda Item #6 – Pushed back for the 6:30 P.M. scheduled Sealed Bid Opening-

Agenda Item #7 – Public Input – I reminded the group about an accounting error on Bookkeeper Jurrens part regarding cash back on credit card charges at the golf course I had raised in during my audit required oversight session with bookkeeper Jurrens. (00:14:41.20) In the October 19, 2020, meeting bookkeeper Jurrens answered my question with a non-answer that the city did not retain customer information.  I did not ask that question.  I commented the city should not be advancing cash back refunds on credit card purchases just for cash in the pockets purposes.  This is a practice similar to paying for a purchase and writing the check for $50.00 over the amount.  This is a bookkeeping no-no and ripe for fraud accusations against the city and/or customers.  Just a bad bookkeeping practice all the way around!  Once again bookkeeper Jurrens says, “…the city does not retain customer information…”  Non-answer. The second part of my input was to present Alcester Councilwoman Kay with a partially corrected paper of her design. (00:16:27.30) (00:30:35.40)

Agenda Item #8 – street updates

Agenda Item #9 – water/wastewater- pumps on order

Agenda Item #10 – Police Department Update by Chief Christie-  Chief Christie advised the council of military ordinance discover and the clearing of the munitions.  Police Chief Christie emphasized if someone in the community comes across similar discoveries of munitions is DO NOT TOUCH, CALL 911. (00:22:26.23)

Agenda Item #11 – Landfill/Cemetery – received a donation for trees for the cemetery.

Agenda Item #12 Golf Course/Library – short a Library board member, need a volunteer.

Agenda Item #13 Legal Updates – Involving 307 Iowa property, 204 Ofstad property and the Employee Manual Update.  There will be a resolution for the employee manual update at a future meeting.

The properties of 207 Iowa and 204 Ofstad will appear later under Executive session.

Agenda Item #14 – city street sign replacement – Update per Wade Dahl in a 2023 project.  My opinion Alcester should contract in a joint powers agreement to lower prices.

Agenda Item #6 – 6:30 P.M. Bid Opening for Police Office Glock   Bid was awarded to the highest bidder, John Wegh.

Agenda Item #15 – Old School Center – Second reading of 2020-16 Revised.

Agenda Item #16- Executive session – not needed beyond properties.

Agenda Item #17 – Finance Office Updates 

Website- Alliance hosting the site.  Finally!!! (00:16:11.80)

          2021 Operating Agreements – Liquor Licenses

Agenda Item #18 – HRC Update Meeting to happen sometime according to Mayor.

Agenda Item #19 Alcester Community Center – Bookkeeper Jurrens gave a summary. 

Agenda Item #20 – EMS Update  According to Councilwoman Kay the city has no interest in Alcester Ambulance so why is this an agenda item?  H-m-m?

Agenda Item #21 Update on Work Comp volunteer roster nothing to add or delete?

Agenda Item #22  Chit-chat session until Code Enforcement Officer Geoff Fillingsness finally shows up.

Executive Session for 1-23-2.3 Legal/Contractual matters involving 307 Iowa property and 204 Ofstad property. Motion by Councilman Marcus Ireland, Second by Melissa Kay no discussion and vote 5 X ayes.  6:57 P.M.  I must gather up my camera, tripod, see-through back pack, and  leave the room.  Mayor Dan Haeder supposedly shuts down the city’s camera which is not removed nor is it cloaked.  Leaving the Finance Office computers up and running, leaves all council personal phones in the room, leaves the City Attorney’s computer in the room and at let us not forget bookkeeper Patricia Jurrens still has her fanny parked in her chair of unsolicited advice.  H-m-m?

At 7:30 P.M. Executive session is still on-going when Code Enforcement Officer Geoff Fillingsness is excused and the meeting continues with Mayor Haeder, Alcester City Council members, Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson and bookkeeper Patricia Jurrens.

At 7:37 P.M. Mayor Haeder calls the Executive Session out of session, allowing us back into the council room.

At this point I had activated my camera prior to returning to the room trying to forestall the rapid fire resumption of open meeting without allowing us to seat ourselves.  Unfortunately I inadvertently activated close up setting which resulted in a 3 to 5 minute close up of Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson’s face.  A close up worthy of pore counting ability.  I elected to edit that 3-5 minute section from the video ’cause I really did not think Alcester City Attorney Sam would appreciate that close up.  During that time there was no vote on the matters of the Executive Session. Mayor Dan Haeder called for Adjournment, Alcester Councilman Marcus Ireland moved to adjourn, Alcester Councilwoman Melissa seconded the motion and of course a unanimous vote to adjourn times five ayes. 

Contact City Council

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

10/31/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

November 2, 2020, Alcester City Council Agenda

6:00 P.M.

Please note the agenda, you may want to be there. Specifically the cost of the street signs, the computers to be paid for by CARES and lest we forget an EMS Update (ought to be interesting.)

Let your council know what you think:

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

08/03/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Mayor Dan Haeder opened the August 3, 2020,  meeting of the Alcester City Council at 6:00 p.m. with council members David Larsen, Darla Reppe, Linda Talbott, Vickie Larsen and City Attorney Sam Nelson present in the new city council room on 500 Dakota Street with council members Marcus Ireland and Melissa Kay remotely present via telephone.

The group recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mayor Haeder called for approval of the agenda.  Agenda was approved as written without change

Agenda Item #4–approval of the minutes for July 6th and July 20, 2020, were approved as presented via roll call vote.  Roll call vote was used due to the fact two of the council were taking part via telephone. 

Agenda Item #5-Mayor Haeder presented the council with the revised 2020-2021 Council committee assignments.

Agenda Item #6-was called with no public input.

Agenda Item #7-Street Updates- Lonnie Johnson was not present.

Agenda Item #8-Pool Update-some where the water was left on so there was water over run of the pool.

Agenda Item #9-Water/wastewater Updates- There was a waterline break due to movement of a mobile home move.  Water availability was shut off/ interrupted to several mobiles homes and adjacent homes.  Water was restored to patrons by Monday.

          Discussion on the upgrade of the wastewater plant and the need for a rate  increase to facilitate the grant needed for the upgrade.  Public hearing to take place September 8, 2020, in council room at 500 Dakota Street at 6:15 p.m.

Agenda Item #10-Police Department update.  Chief Christie explained to the council the method by which case numbers are assigned to any one particular call.  When the Alcester PD is called out, a number is assigned to that call.  If additional action is taken those may be assigned a number which would artificially inflate the number of calls.  So one call could contain more than one case number assignment, if I understood the process correctly.  For instance a public disturbance call could involve a domestic case, a public intox case, an assault case, a drug case and so forth.

          PD to move into their new building on Wednesday.

Agenda Item #11-Pleasant Hill Cemetery-No report other there was an issue with the mower.

Agenda Item #12– Golf Course

          Pump issue, silt in the pond issue around the intake pipe

          Library-Computer scanner UVC disinfectant device.

Agenda Item #13– Personnel Manual-Discussion-I listed items contained within the document that I felt needed to be addressed and adjusted for. As you will hear Sam opine no underlying concerns.  Since the document will be a resolution it can be amended.

Agenda Item #14– Legal Updates- None

Agenda Item #15-Executive session – None

Agenda Item #16 – Planning and Zoning Amendment Second Reading, needed for Ordinance 2020-08 to be in effect and facilitate movement of offices.

Agenda Item #17– Finance Office- Approval of warrants, records destruction to separate archival preservation from just out-of-date records.  School Sign-contribution from city-delay to make sure such a donation of tax dollars is allowed. Community Building closing date, Budget Committee meeting set for August 12, 2020, 1:00 p.m.

Agenda Item #18 HRC Update-Covenants and an interest in another lot sale.

Agenda Item #19– Fairboard

Agenda Item #20– Community Building Update- Notice that City Hall and the Fitness facility will move to 500 Dakota Street rather than be in the Community Building upon approval of the Development Board and Council.

Agenda Item #21-EMS Mr. Nohava met with the EMS group.

Agenda Item #22 Volunteer Roster-none

Agenda Item #23 – Executive Session – Not Needed

Agenda Item #24 – Adjournment 

                               Council adjourned at 7:55 p.m.  

04//15/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Mayor Glas called the April 15, 2020, special meeting of the Alcester City Council to order at 6:00 p.m. with Councilwoman Linda Talbott, Councilwoman Melissa Kay, Councilman David Larsen, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, newly appointed Councilman Dan Haeder and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson present.

Upon recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, the council moved to approve the agenda for the evening. Motion, second, no discussion and unanimous Aye vote X5 approved the agenda as presented with no changes or amendments.

Agenda Item #4 – Public Input was called. Vickie Larsen (me) responded with suggestions for the Park play equipment location change for safety and isolation reasons. I remarked the play equipment located in the park should be located in one location for the safety of the children.   I noted that with the equipment scattered about the park the way it is now, children are vulnerable to attack or removal from the park by pass-through strangers and leaves no straight-line access or view from parents seated on park benches or in the shelter houses. This is a safety issue we had discussed many years ago in a SRTS meeting. I added with the pandemic we are currently experiencing, with the equipment scattered throughout the park makes it almost impossible to isolate the equipment for pandemic reasons.

Councilman David Larsen did ask the question, had the signs been posted concerning the social distancing as it relates to the park equipment and the shelters. The signs had not yet been placed in the park.

Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens noted that Loren Fischer had contacted the office wanted to make a permanent move to the garbage can placement on other peoples yards “…to save our city streets…by reducing the number of passes…” Loren Fischer Disposal STILL makes three passes down Lincoln Drive…tell me again how it save the streets? It appears that the Sooper Dooper Garbage truck cannot make the turn on Lincoln Circle. H-m-m I have a suggestion. To all the folks who have garbage on Lincoln Circle instead of moving your cans east, move them cross country just a bit south and a bit west to 410 Hyden Drive since Finance Officer Jurrens wants to save wear and tear. That street is concrete and the Sooper Dooper Garbage Truck can navigate the turn without ripping out the street. But from the vacant looks of things we are stuck truckin’ our cans all over the road.

One last notice in public input, the meeting of the HRC has been postponed indefinitely.

Agenda Item #5-Emergency Ordinance 2020-04 Second reading. Discussion continues noting the changes to Section 2 and Section 5 Amendments. Motion, second, discussion from Councilwoman Melissa Kay concerning local law enforcement actions once the Ordinance goes into effect. Effective date 04/15/2020 and unanimous Aye X5 vote.

Agenda Item#6-MidAmerican Gas line. Apparently in the rush to get Beck Drive on line by the Councilwoman Jurrens, something happened with the gas line. A conference call took place with a representative of Mid American Electric. I apologise I did not get the name, the acoustics sucked and Mayor Glas mumbles worse that Mr. Magoo.  Evidently MidAmerican is give the city 2 credits for the additional gas line. So we the tax payers of Alcester will only have to pay $4800.00 to lay gas line somewhere between Beck Drive and Lee Drive. Now folks most developers figure the cost of utilities into the cost of the lot but not here, nope not here. The rest of us get to pay the cost. No action taken, dumped into the May meeting. Wonderful!

Agenda Item #7-AMKO Bond Nothing happening. Apparently this is a bond to lower the interest rate so ‘we’ can save money on a bond payment. The AMKO Bond agent would like a meet with the local bank but the bank representative is on pandemic schedule so AMKO representative needs to reschedule the meeting.

Agenda Item #8-Executive Session-If I understood the mumbling correctly it is for Legal Counsel. LITIGATION? Motion, second, discussion none and unanimous vote Aye X5 at 6:20 p.m. Council out of Executive session at 6:49 p.m. NO discussion or action taken.

Agenda Item #9-Adjourn

Motion, second, discussion none and unanimously vote Aye X5.

Meeting adjourned at 6:49 p.m.

04/06/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

On April 6, 2020, Mayor Glas called the April 6, 2020, regular meeting of the Alcester City Council to order in the Auditorium Gym with Councilman David Larsen, Councilwoman Melissa Kay, Councilwoman Linda Talbott, Councilwoman Darla Reppe and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson present. The reason for the meeting’s move to the Auditorium Gym was to adhere to social distancing due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Please forgive the sound quality, no microphones for the council so the only microphone was that of my video camera. Some of the meeting may be a challenge to hear or comprehend because of the acoustics.

The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by Agenda approval with no changes to the printed agenda. I would like to note here, the approval included a motion, a second to the motion, no discussion* and unanimous* approval of the four city council members.

Agenda Item #4-Approval of the minutes of March 2, 2020, and March 16, 2020. Again motion, second to the motion, no discussion, and unanimous approval of the four city council members.

Agenda Item #5 – Executive Session for interview of candidates vying for Ward II and Ward III vacant positions. Motion, second to motion, no discussion and unanimous approval. Executive session commenced at 6:03 p.m. I had put my name in for Ward III, Dan Haeder put his name in for Ward III and no one showed up for Ward II vacancy. I was given the first interview spot.

I stood up and moved forward toward the council. I did turn my video camera off, although my first instinct was to leave it on because it was my interview, I had no need for secrecy in my responses to questions and the public might be interested in what exactly goes on in Executive Session (at least for interviews).

As three people in the gallery left the room at 6:03 p.m., I announced there would be no need for Assistant Finance Officer Wanda, Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens or Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson. As soon as these three had exited the room, I began to speak to my qualifications for Alcester Councilperson. I described my education, a few of the positions I have held in the local area CERT, EMS, Girl Scout, and Business Owner to mention a few. I specifically mentioned I was a business owner and would be an asset in the sense I had experience with employees, Human Resourcing, accounting, payroll specifically mentioning the two computer accounting programs I had used in the past.

After I finished my curriculum vitae, I responded to questions from the mayor and four council members. Councilwoman Melissa Kay started off with the question what would I change or bring to the city. I spoke to live-streaming all council meeting and selling city rental properties to get the property back on the tax rolls. I mentioned the four-plex, explaining it was never meant to be owned in perpetuity by the city and off the tax rolls. As it sits right now, we collect no taxes from the four-plex and it has reached a phase where it needs upgrades which will come out of taxes. The rents in the four-plex cannot keep up with the expenses as it sits right now. In addition because the construction of Beck Drive (Pat’s hobby horse) cost the city somewhere between $200K and $300K and over the years of that expense, only two or three lots have been sold so the city has not paid any principal, just interest and pay-off time is quickly approaching. Minimal lot costs are increasing just to maintain the interest payment. Really? The residents of Alcester are being expected to pay for Beck Drive where nobody is living and paying taxes while our streets are floating into the storm sewers.

I spoke to encouraging and building up main street businesses. I spoke of governor’s houses to replace and upgrade housing on the west side of Alcester. The city has the ability to purchase these homes, site them and re-sell them which will improve home values on our west side recapturing taxes to work on the infra-structure.

I spoke to developing a program to involve our students in local government, to educate them in the proper way to govern and know what they can do to participate in their local government.

Councilman David Larsen posed a question on my position about firing employees and I assumed he was referencing one specific employee. I answered his question that I would not necessarily fire that employee but I would definitely define and close the parameters of that employee’s job description. A follow up question on if I were to be appointed and in relation to my blog about any discussion of that employee which I took to mean Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens. I responded I could not nor would I discuss any employee in public venue as a Councilwoman on the Alcester City Council.  However and not part of my response to Councilman Larsen’s query, I would not tolerate the continued employment of a Finance Officer who violated state and local laws.

Mayor Glas, Councilwoman Reppe and Councilwoman Talbott had no questions for me. In fact Mayor Glas did not want anymore chit-chat on my qualifications, but I did understand why. My interview closed at 6:25 p.m. and I left the room. Immediately after I left the room, Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson was called in for a question.

At 6:25 p.m. Dan Haeder was called into for his ‘interview’ and five minutes later he was out of the Executive Session. Imagine that! No wonder Mayor Glas asked no questions of me. Folks, the decision was already a done deal before I ever walked through the door. In fact I surmise it was a done deal upon closing on the house on Park street. You see folks the council is not interested in what I could do or bring to city government, they do not care what actual experience I have, how many city council meetings I attended BEFORE I put my name in for council seat, they just want to protect Finance Officer Pat Jurrens no matter what violations she has accrued or short cuts she has taken or will continue to take.

At 6:33 p.m. Pat wasted no time swearing Dan Haeder into office to do her bidding. There, however, is a problem when Dan Haeder was forced to resign his Ward II seat, he no longer occupied the position of president of the council. He must be elected to that position, so the vice-president of the council has moved into the position of president of the council.

Agenda Item #6-ROCS Transport Service-no one showed up

Agenda Item #7-Public Input

Council skipped over this to Open Chip Seal bids, (06:40:00) I called point of order that the council was not following the agenda. City Attorney Sam weighed in with an opinion the Council does not have to go by the agenda. I argued the council approved the agenda (02:04:00) without change or addition, therefore they were obligated to follow the agenda order. There was an opinion that the bid opening was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the council had to abide by that. I argued since the bidders were not there in person the agenda time was not sacrosanct and the delay was marginal.

Agenda Item #8 – Seal Coat bids opened. I find it deplorable Mayor Glas feels the need to comment on a specific bidder i.e. referencing TopKote bid, “…You’re going to like this (07:58:00…), yet I was not supposed to critique the Finance Officer’s Failures. Or, “… TopKote must not want the business…) from newly appointed Councilman Dan Haeder (08:47:00)  Folks if we allow our council to make comments such as these, we will earn a deplorable reputation. Motion to accept Road Guy bid at $1.70 square yard, second, discussion none and unanimous vote X 5.

Agenda Item #7-Public Input- I spoke of the necessity of closing the pool and summer recreation. (11:54:00) Listen closely, then do your own research. Council members and Finance Officer Jurrens who has been allowed to respond in a pseudo council member position on any and all subjects. Finance Officer Jurrens only has the ‘expertise’ to comment on computer viruses and Pat-demics. Yes, Patricia Jurrens was seated as a city council member from Ward I pushing her agenda of recycling, I often wonder what  she was recycling, she then voted to not appoint Finance Officer Kezar because he would not spend down city accounts to suit her.  After her vote to fire the Finance Officer, she applied for his job.  So Folks, she is not a member of the council! (12:45:00 through 14:54:28). Councilman Haeder brought up a question concerning Peace Lutheran and Easter Basket deliveries. According to Finance Officer Jurrens, she took it upon herself (over-stepping position yet again) to call parents, asked them for their concerns on this community outreach and voiced her opinion. (18:10:13) Yo, Pat-demic the bookkeeper’s opinion does not count. I did not hear you asked parents about the hot lunch program for the students and their concerns. Preparation for lunches and Easter baskets would have the same handling precautions. You insult us!

Agenda Item #9 – Wastewater- (21:07:00) Translation by Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens.

Agenda Item #10 – Streets- (21:16:00) Translation by Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens.

Agenda Item #11– Police Department – Chief Christie delivered a recap of the month on his own and without Pat-demics translation. Motion to purchase a new police vest for Austin, second, discussion none and unanimous vote X 5.

Agenda Item #12 – Golf Course – Hire of Golf Course Manager-Motion to hire Deb Braaten at $12.50/hour, second, discussion none and unanimous vote X 5.

Agenda Item #13 – Legal Updates –

SDML request for city governments to issue a letter to Governor Noem regarding a state of emergency. Mayor Glas wanted to shirk his duty with his comment he signed the letter because it did not mandate him to close down businesses in the city due the Pandemic Covid-19. (32:10:00) The next interminable semantic discussion of the difference between the verbs of ‘shall’ and ‘is’. They forgot the ‘pixie dust’ sprinkling of; shall vs. should, shall vs. may, shall vs. will, shall vs. mandatory and etc. Then the council moved on to the definition of the noun ‘premises’. Oh and lest we forget the definition of Misdemeanor II and what fines the city should charge—$122.50 or $25.00 per incident. City Attorney Sam’s Robert’s Rules of Order comment (1:11:00:57) is telling. The council conducted the First Reading of the Ordinance 2020-04 with two amendments and projected effective date of August 30, 2020. Amendment of page 4-motion to amend, second, discussion none, unanimous vote X 5, Amendment of Section 5, motion, second, discussion none unanimous vote X 5 and finally the First Reading of Ordinance 2020-04, motion, second, discussion none and unanimous vote X 5.

Executive Session-Legal Counsel Motion, second, discussion, unanimous vote X 5. In Ex Session at 7:50 p.m. and out 8:02 p.m.

Beck Drive-gas line discussion on gas line billing, trying to figure out where the gas lines and other utilities Lee Drive area.

Agenda Item #15 Goodwill Great Plains Shredding- OH a favorite near and dear to Pat-demics heart. Councilwoman Melissa Kay (01:29:55) comment on historical documents statute of which Pat-demic was ignorant. Should have had the counsel of SDML on that one.

Agenda Item #16 – Pleasant Hill/Landfill Update ARE YA KIDDING ME? (Freudian slip, a bad pun in agenda labels or obituary?) Land fill is open Monday and Thursday Evenings 5p.m. to 7p.m. Saturday 8 a.m. to Noon.

Mayor has to potty 8:20 p.m.

Agenda Item #17 – Finance Offices Updates. Dumpsters on Friday.

Quam & Berglin Warrant, closing, costs and purchase price $15,368.25. Discussion of council (01:47:00)whizzing and moaning about purchase the building to house the police department and have the remodel and repairs several times the cost of the purchase price. Motion, second, discussion none, unanimous vote X 5

Police Charger revised First payment $3995.66 Motion, second, discussion none unanimous vote X 5

Warrants-motion, second, discussion none unanimous vote X 5

HR Human Resources – (01:57:08.93)Bambee I have to assume the council after reading the fine print decided Bambee was too expensive. But it was decided to form a committee of three, Councilman Dan Haeder, Councilwoman Melissa Kay and Employee Pat Jurrens. Yeah right Pat-demic deciding if two misdemeanors or if bloating comp time claims are a firing offense.

2019 Annual Report- discussion on water fund mandate. There is a protected minimum of $59K hold back/reserve but as usual Pat wants to spend it down to nothing . (02:13:26) Council take back your powers, Finance Officer is not elected, she is not your equal, she is just a bookkeeper! Motion to approve the 2019 annual report, second, discussion, unanimous vote X 5.

Destroy records– 2001-2005-Motion, second, discussion none, unanimous vote X 5.

Amko approval– special meeting Bond People April 15, 2020, 6: 00 p.m. Motion, second, discussion none, unanimous vote X 5.

Continued discussion of Covid-19 – put up posters use park at your own risk, advertisement in the paper versus close park, park shelters, swimming pool–No decisions.

Golf Course – Food to go only. No bar.

Finance Office Open/Close– FO Pat Jurrens wants to work from home. Where is oversight on that one. How are people going to access building permits, pay bills, and etc. Oh I know an operating official website which will take payments. Councilwoman Melissa Kay asked about this. (2:37:49.27) Furlough Wanda, Keep Finance Officer Pat in the city office with the half-door locked and with a plastic drape over the top of the half door. No brainer! City business essential.**

Reminders and Updates–

Clean up April 10-27, 2020

HRC-meeting coming up

Fair Board-06/01/2020 fair cancellation date

Alcester Community Building- architect to redraw- Leave out the Finance Offices and council room because size-wise the city gains absolutely nothing–Keep the city offices down town.

Volunteer roster-none

Agenda Item #22– Executive session personnel

motion, second, discussion none, unanimous vote X 5.

9:45 p.m. in session with Attorney Nelson but without Pat Jurrens or Wanda.

10:06 p.m. out of executive session

no business coming out of executive session

So another secret session to appoint another council member?

Agenda Item #23 Adjournment

Motion, second, discussion none, unanimous vote X 5. 10:08 p.m.

*Note the number of actual discussions for each Motion and note the number of unanimous votes for each Motion.

**Long, un-researched discussions outlasted camera battery.

03/03/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Mayor Glas said, “well I guess it is time…” and so the regular meeting of the Alcester City Council was half-glas’d into session with Councilman David Larsen, Councilman Dan Haeder, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilwoman Melissa Kay and Councilwoman Linda Talbott in attendance–who knows where Councilman Lance Johnson was, he sure wasn’t a sittin’ in his seat at the council meeting. Small wonder why the council hasn’t a clue of what is happening per comments made later in the meeting.

Pledge was called, Agenda Approved without change, Minutes approved without change and finally public input was called without all the enthusiasm of “oh, dang she is here”. I responded I had public input.

Agenda Item #5 Input- I announced I had, immediately prior to the meeting, delivered to the Mayor’s seat my formal appeal request of Councilman Lance Johnson’s variance and a FOIA (Freedom of Information Request-South Dakota Sunshine) and I also pointed to the 17 page, fine-print, terms and conditions of the BAMBEE contract as well as an article titled, “Making the Best Use of Your City Attorney”.

Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens said she didn’t have the copy of the appeal and the FOIA and I responded they had been placed at the Mayor’s seat. I commented on the fine print of BAMBEE pointing out the yellow highlighter on the document. Specifically mentioning item #3 where BAMBEE explains she cannot give a legal opinion, Oh deer! It was my impression that legal was the whole purpose of hiring BAMBEE. Now folks BAMBEE requires a $500 audit fee right off the bat, then requires a monthly fee, the combined totals account Mayor Glas’ stated was a grand total of $2500.00 to $3000.00 (01:17:55:63) annual fee for HR advice. HR advice which HAS to be run past our city attorney, who the city council previously insinuated is not trained in HR and is costing the city too much in legal fees! H-m-m the two gentlemen who currently hold retainers to represent the city, list their areas of expertise as Real Estate, Probate, Federal Income Tax, Family Law, Municipal Law, Civil litigation and Criminal Defense which seems to cover territory which has prominently figured in our HR problems recently and still has one doozy HR problem still in the hopper. Somehow I think our retained attorneys cannot ‘handle’ this situation without a conflict question.

I also pointed out the article on, “Making the Best Use of your City Attorney” might be a good read if it is true as Councilwoman Melissa Kay pointed out later in the meeting, (01:22:31:30) “…we only have one or two times a month where we are seated in Council, we do not get enough information and we do not know how to deal with it…”  ?

Agenda Item #6 – Executive Session-Contract- and request for Revolving Loan for a local businessman. Council went into Executive session at 6:05 p.m. and came out at 6:17 p.m. with no motion made.

Agenda Item #7 – Legal Updates-

  1. a) Shouse discussion – Now I had to ask what Shouse was, thinking it was a misprint. It was explained a Shouse was a metal house/shed which according to FOPat is just ‘the thing’. Yeah? IN TOWN? Is the illegal garage at 518A Anderson Street now morphing into a metal sh** house? Yet another effort on FOPat’s part to legalize a ‘favor’ for a dirty-handed councilman?
  2. b) Chip Seal – Now we have to amend the chip seal bid to delete the most wondrous, amazing street treatment ‘evah’ and a Fantastic Failure Done our Roads. Given the efficacy of FDR on our streets, we would have had more success papering our streets with laminated BFranklin paper. So now we must pay for City Attorney Tom to apply Anti-Monkey Butt lotion language to FOPat’s and Mayor Tom’s RASH bid contract to FIX our streets! (54:42:43)  Get the Red out of our Budget!  I warned the council in a past complaint the vandalism to the curb at 518B Anderson Street would create water damage to the street and I was told by Mayor Glas the water ran-off just fine.  Check out how he changes his tune (52:55:17)(54:42:43)(55:55.17) about street damage due to cracks in the curb and gutter.

Agenda Item #9 – Nuisance Update –  (13:08:07) Arlene’s Cafe sidewalk drainage solutions. The city sat, wasting council time on discussing this issue and its ‘fix’ solutions. This is private commercial property NOT belonging to the city of Alcester. While there is certainly an issue with water draining down-stream from the city owned bar and city responsibility for the property, the simplest solution is to routinely clear the space between the City owned building and the adjoining Arlene’s Café property of snow BEFORE it gets to the sidewalk. Messing with an apparently sound sidewalk on the east side of Iowa street is unnecessarily costly. The two entities can share the cost of removing the alley snow, leaving each entity responsible for the snow clearance of the sidewalk fronting each property as provided by ordinance.

Agenda Item 8 – At this point 6:30 p.m. the time for scheduled bid (17:41:90) opening for the auditorium property.  Mr. Scott Hansen representative of Alkota Cleaning Systems was present (26:40:00) for the opening. Mayor Glas opened the lone bid received, which offered $120, 000.00 for the building/and property and which was well below the appraised price on the auditorium of $260,000.00. And so the great debate/discussion began over a bid contract which the council failed to read and understand their own terms and conditions for bidding. When the council put our auditorium up for bid, they lacked the foresight to make alternate plans for holding city council meetings, they lacked the foresight what to do if the bid is substantially lower than appraisal, and what is the lowest bid we are willing to take for our building. Judging from the discussion,

“Our council Hindsight is 20/20 and our Council foresight is legally blind.” (Inspired by the quote of Benjamin Graham)

How many people would put their homes up for sale without a clue where they were going to live after promising an immediate possession sale?

Questions were asked of Tom Walsh who was also present (29:26:77) with regard to the Golf Course Community Building. The council opined they cannot possibly make a decision to accept the Alkota Bid until they KNOW IF AND WHEN the proposed Community Building Dream Gaffe project is consummated. Mr. Walsh gave an update from the architects of the golf course project.  In a past meeting when FOPat was ‘splaining’ the project to the council she commented that, “…the architects projected the cost of the community building high…” It appears that COOP Architects project costs missed the boat ’cause the reported bid info shared on March 2, 2020, meeting was “the bids came in SIGNIFICANTLY HIGH-something nearer to $1 Million+ over. FOPat commented they, “…just couldn’t figure out where the costs came from…” (00:00:00) Dear Sweet Auntie Em, this is our finance officer who cannot figure out expenses? Folks the items involved in this bid HAVE to be commercial grade not Sh**House grade or Residential grade. More discussion to take place at the March 16, 2020, special meeting set for 6:00 p.m.

Agenda Item #9 – Nuisance(continued) – Council touched on 204 Ofstad, 208 West Fourth, Dog License Compliance. City Attorney Tom Frieberg to clean up Dog Licensing ordinance language to compel our Police Department to act as dog catchers. Councilman Dan Haeder made an analogy concerning dogs-at-large, citing a tragic car/truck crash on I-29. The crash cause summary per news reports was a northbound tractor-trailer with a pup trailer abruptly braked to avoid two dogs crossing the interstate. A Mazda following the tractor-trailer rear-ending the pup trailer. The operator who was wearing seat belt was pronounced dead-on-scene with no injury to the tractor-trailer driver.

Councilman Haeder’s analogy (40:53:57) using the crash, inferred dog owners were culpable because the dogs were running-at-large. Errors in that analogy include such circumstances as:  1- Dogs could have been deer. 2- what exactly was the Mazda driver doing, what was the speed of the Mazda (posted limit 80 mph), how close was the Mazda following the tractor-trailer, were there contributing road conditions, 3- There is no ordinance dogs in Alcester must be caged, just that they are controlled, their vaccinations are current, they are spayed/neutered and have a city license which proves the appropriate documentations has been provided to the city, the only apparent concern for at-large-dogs relates to menacing behaviors, 4- As I understand motor vehicle liability relating to rear-end collisions, is the failure to have one’s vehicle under control is a cause for citation for failure to have control. Tragically it was the failure to have the vehicle under control which ultimately caused the death. There is no justification for licensing dogs in this analogy and no justification for attributing a tragic death to a pet owner.

Perhaps instead of licensing cats and dogs, owners of domestic pets voluntarily register their pets with the city without license or cost and we avoid the Mayor Glas’ and the city council’s castration of our city police department into dog catchers which distracts our police department from their very real job of enforcing the drug laws, domestic abuse laws, embezzlement laws, false 911 reporting and liquor violations. Anybody on meth or over-reaching political authority is far more menacing than Fluffy or Lassie any day of the week!

7:03 p.m. Alcester City Attorney Tom Frieberg left the meeting.

Agenda Item #15– Executive Session called at 7:03 p.m. for interview of two candidates for Utilities person. Out of Executive session at 7:52 p.m. with no decision voted upon or action taken.

Agenda Item #11 – Streets- Most important issue was the city asking for advice from Engineer McLaury. Now I personally have a problem with this because Mr. McLaury in all his engineering prowess during the SRTS issue caused the illegal vacation of alley behind to two residential properties from 4th street to 6th street, the earthen dam design caused AND CONTINUES TO CAUSE flooding of the property at 301-4th street along the east side of the alleyway, required a significant change order which ultimately cost the taxpayers of Alcester an project over-run of $20,000.00 ’cause he could not seem to figure out the ADA restrictions and requirements while maintaining his bid quote. Now FOPat wants to reward him with another shot at our tax coffers?

Agenda Item #18 – Finance Office

a) Warrants

b) HR Services – California BAMBEE (01:17:03) Ask to see the copy of the terms and conditions of BAMBEE I provided to the city.  The council has presented BAMBEE, yet none of the council seems to have read or investigated this subject adequately to make AN INFORMED DECISION.

*PLEASE NOTE Finance Officer Jurrens cannot seem to get a simple agenda done properly. She cannot seem to go from 18 (a) to 18 (b) to 18 (e) without screwing up and leaving out 18(c) and 18 (d). Now folks I make proofing errors, but I do not get paid $46K to get a simple agenda correct!

*e) District meeting – Vermillion March 19, 2020. Now you have heard about HR BAMBEE and how according to Councilwoman Melissa Kay, “…we just do not have the information, the experience or the know how about HR…” District meeting is where you can get this information, SDML to whom you pay a membership dues is another source of information, Alcester City Attorney to whom you pay a retainer for HR information and council-folks it is part of what you were elected/appointed to do.  Readers check out the video (01:39:58:63) and (01:41:23:00) see how many council members attend the district meeting. Oh do not FOPat it where you sign up and only show up for a hour.

You want to have information, demand your finance officer get it to you in time for you to read up on the subject matter BEFORE council meeting. IF your finance officer cannot get the job done or get the information to you in a timely manner-FIRE HER BUTT! In addition do not accept her ‘translation’ as accurate, it is YOUR responsibility to verify all information. I email information from time to time to the you, or lay it at your place at the council table. I put it in front of you so when I reference it,  you can pick it up and read it at brain level. I do not place this information on your chairs so you must absorb the information through your emergency exit!

Agenda Item #18 (?) Alleged payment for a Website- HOORAY Now payments made to the city, the golf course, the pool and etc. can be made to the city via the Official Website.

WE DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE THE CITY OFFICES AT THE GOLF COURSE COMMUNITY BUILDING ‘CAUSE ALL PAYMENTS CAN BE MADE THROUGH THE OFFICIAL ALCESTER WEBSITE PAYMENT PORTAL. WE CAN ACCESS AGENDAS, MINUTES, FORMS AND ALL OFFICIAL NOTIFICATIONS THROUGH OUR OFFICIAL WEBSITE     YAY!

Agenda Item #18 (f)   Updates and reminders-One item not under the updates and reminder is the 2019 Election Issue, according to my source the complaints have been investigated and the reports are sitting in line on the prosecutor’s desk for execution.

Agenda Item #23 Executive Session

8:50 p.m. In Executive Session for Personnel

9:23 p.m. Out Executive Session for Personnel

NO ACTION TAKEN

Agenda Item #6 (?)

9:25 p.m. In Executive Session for Contracts

9:35 p.m. Out Executive Session for Contracts

NO ACTION TAKEN

Agenda Item #24 -Adjourn

Adjourned at 9:35 p.m.

02/26/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

  • Folks you ever wonder why FO Pat is foaming-at-the-mouth for a office with a view?

She and Mayor Glas put her old digs up for auction and she ain’t got nowhere to go!

  • Now ya’all gotta know it ain’t ’cause she is qualified for an office with a view.

Nah, she sure ain’t no book-keeper.  Nope she’d rather keep a set of spare books just to keep track of her off-hours.   Let me define those off hours to ya’all;  off-hours are what she takes when she s’posed to be a workin’, lockin’ the  residents out of the finance office on Tuesday afternoons and against city ordinance, those kind of hours among other things.

  • Ya’all gotta know it ain’t ’cause she is a holdin’ a torch in the air on a little island spoutin ‘give me your tired, your poor…” shoot she don’t even want your garbage.

Boy howdy accordin’ to the local newspaper ol’ FOPat and Mayor Magoo sure did pour some gasoline on that there torch with their musical chair garbage pick-up.  Evidently Mayor Magoo and FOPat never heard ’bout an essay on Civil Disobedience by Thoreau.  Mr. Thoreau described civil disobedience (breach of law) as one’s moral duty if the alternative legal obedience causes harm to others.  Mr. Thoreau an educator refused to pay a poll tax which would expand slavery into the southwest and for his non-payment he was arrested and spent a night in jail.

Now ladies and gents, you can have a say but you have to do it in numbers, lots of numbers.  If you live on the side of the street which will host the garbage-can-soiree, come to the March 2, 2020, city council meeting and JUST SAY NO.  If you have to tote your garbage can across the street onto your neighbors property, come to the March 2, 2020, city council meeting and JUST SAY NO.  IF we get at least 50-100 property owners to show up to tell FOPat, Mayor Glas and the council, NO!  NOT JUST NO, BUT HECK NO! we will make our point, we ain’t takin’ this garbage!  Check out this weeks “Alcester Union-Hudsonite Newspaper”, front page article, see where Mayor Glas wants to send the garbage-can-picket-line.

But if they ignore us, then we take a page out of Henry David Thoreau’s Essay and PUT AN CIVIL DISOBEDIENT EXCLAMATION POINT ON THE GARBAGE!  We need to breach their legal britches with a not-so-civil boot!  We ARE the people, we will take back our Voice with a resounding NO WE AIN’T GONNA TAKE THIS GARBAGE!