County Commission - Regular Meeting

Thursday, June 4th, 2026, meeting of the Brookings County Commission to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Number three on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve.

Second.

Motion is second. Any comments, changes, requests? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Number four is an invitation for a citizen to schedule time on the commission agenda for an item not listed. There is a five minute time limit per person. Anyone wanting to speak during this time agenda item must sign in prior to the meeting. No commission action will be taken during the agenda item. Any requested action may be scheduled for a future meeting date. And today we do have two people signed in. First one is Peggy Parker.

Okay, is this, can everybody hear me okay? Okay. Good morning, my name is Peggy Parker and I am a South Dakota native. I was born and raised on a farm northwest of Arlington. I graduated from Northern State University in Aberdeen. For 30 years I have lived in several states, but in 2016 I moved back to South Dakota and am now a resident of Brookings. This is home. At this present time I have seven grandchildren living here in Brookings, ages ranging from 18 years to a one year old. These are the seven reasons that I'm here today. I have done research for a few years now concerning the type of books that have been made available to what writers and publishers call young adults. From what I understand from my research, the US Census Bureau has classified young adults as being 18 to 25 year olds. However, I was told this last week at the Brookings Public Library that young adult readers are classified as being sixth through 12th grade. The book writers and publishers have come up with their own ages for young adult. The ages for those grades range from 11 to 19, and that is a huge concern for me. We are discovering with the help of a website called ratedbooks.org that many of the books in the young adult section have explicit sexual content, very foul language, and very inappropriate how to's on sexual activities that even would make a full grown adult blush. Science has proven that the frontal cortex of the brain, which contains the imagination and reasoning, is not fully developed until the age of 25. We have all been teenagers, and I think we can remember the awkward, insecure feelings that were developing between the ages of 11 and 19. And these books are the last thing I would want my grandson to read at this time of his life. Volunteers from the Rated Books Organization have read and rated 33,000 plus books that are made available in libraries across the nation. We have discovered there are many books on that list that are currently being displayed in our own public library. Ratedbooks.org uses a rating system from 5 to 0, with 5 being the most sexually explicit to 0 being the least sexually explicit. Here is just a short list of some of the books made available in the young adult section of the Brookings Public Library. Remember, this is 11 to 19-year-olds. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins, which is rated a 5, Kingdom of Ash, Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn, which is by Sarah Moss. Those are fours and the three. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, which I believe is in front of you right now. That is rated a three. This Book is Gay by Juna Dawson, which is rated a four. 99 Days by Katie Cotugno, which is rated a four. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sievel is rated a three, and that's in the adult section of the library. But there are four books on this list, rated four and one five, and these are in the young adult section. This is not right. A friend sent me a couple of pages from one of these books, which had been placed in the young adult section of our library. Ratedbooks.org gave a four rating to the content that was sent to me. I couldn't even get through the first page. When I thought of my grandchildren getting their hands on these type of books without knowing what was truly inside, I began to weep. Nothing was said on the front cover or back of the book that would have given any indication of what kind of words would be absorbed once the reading began. I realize that legally, these authors and publishers can put out whatever content they desire. But I am asking that there be a way that these books can be marked on the outside, so at a glance, the parent can see that there is explicit sexual content that lies within. The librarian I spoke with last week informed me that they are in no way responsible for what the children check out of that library. All the responsibility lies on the parent. Mom or dad needs to make sure their children are not reading what they themselves would not approve of. When I entered the library, there was an 11, 12 year old boy with a book bag over his shoulder. He was alone. No parents was with him. I have no idea what he checked out. And then I thought, will the parents ever know what he checked out? So what I and other grandparents are asking of you is that there be an avenue we can use to be able to quickly recognize the explicit content of a book before it is even checked out, to be able to stop the content before it reaches the eyes and imagination of a young child. who could be so adversely affected by what they read and remember. This type of warning is already available in movie theaters and in the music industry. For movies, they must be rated R, PG-13, PG, and G. It is a quick and convenient way to know and understand what that movie may entail. And Amazon Music already has criteria in place to help parents determine what music is being listened to. It makes for very effective parental control. So my question is, why is this not being done in our libraries? We really need your help. I'm a taxpayer. I'm thankful for the library. But first and foremost, I'm a concerned grandparent who believes something needs to be done to be able to help these children in the abundance of books made available.

Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next, we have Nancy Stewart.

Good morning commissioners. My name is Nancy Stewart and I've been a voting citizen in Brookings for over 40 years. I would rather not be here talking to you about this subject, but feel called to take a stand against the growing movement to introduce and groom our children. for sexual activity at earlier ages and I found this to be true in our own public libraries. I have worked on updating the list that we have of books that are in our library, public libraries that contain obscene and profane language targeted at 12 to 17 year olds who are children and teens, not adults. the term young adult has always been used to describe adults ages 18 through 35. however some years ago the library deceptively replaced teen and youth sections with the term young adult for kids who are in 6th through 12th grade or ages 12 through 17. this appeals to a teenager's desire to become an adult and to prepare them to start thinking they are ready to participate in adult activities such as sexual acts There are two reasons why I'm here today. One, I understand that the library is requesting additional money from Brookings County and I have to protest against giving more of our hard-earned tax dollars to enable the purchasing of more of these books for minors that contain pornographic and obscene material. Two, we have now entered into the summer season and there will be many more children and teens spending unsupervised time in the library. It needs to be a safe place for them and at this time it is not. The young adult shelves have books containing obscene materials intermixed throughout and promoted in the displays. I would like to see our state follow the example of other states that have passed laws to enforce immediate removal of challenged books depicting sexual contact conduct until they undergo a review process. Texas passed HB 900, Florida enacted HB 1069, Iowa, Missouri, South Carolina, and Tennessee passed laws also. Idaho passed HB710 that allows civil suits against public libraries that provide materials deemed harmful to minors. In South Dakota, the library in DeSmit has a policy, and Sioux Falls has had a battle going on over this issue. I have copies of excerpts from these laws for you. I visited our Brookings Public Library and talked with the director of the young adult section. She informed me that she chooses which books are purchased and personally reads many of them. Although some of the books contain objectionable material in them, as you can see, she smiled sweetly and said, that's only your opinion. I was stunned that she finds nothing wrong with the content of these books or with children reading them. She said the library follows the policies of the American Library Association and the recommendations of the publishers that she buys the books from. I asked her if a ten-year-old could check out any book and she said yes, the full responsibility to monitor what children are reading rests solely on their parents in the library and at home. I was a working mother, and I know there's no way a parent can read all the books their children bring home before they let them read, and many of these passages are cleverly hidden in various parts of these books. Some parents are themselves desensitized to sexual contact, and some just don't care what their children read. Movies that look like a good family movie get an R rating if they contain just one scene of sexual conduct, and minors are not allowed to watch them in the movie theater. It would help parents and kids if the books had ratings on the covers and warnings if they contain content harmful to minors. Technically, it is illegal to give a child pornography, but the legal meaning was manipulated to apply to only visual images. It is also illegal to give children obscene materials, but only if a reasonable person finds that the book, taken at a whole, lacks any value. That is how the head librarian can declare that there are no obscene books in the library. In South Dakota, the penalty for promoting and disseminating obscenity to minors is a fine of up to $6,000 or imprisonment up to five years. In 2025, a bill went into law to create a legal exemption to shield librarians from prosecution. In other words, it allows them to break the law and provide minors access to obscene materials. The American Library Association has been at work on getting our libraries to where we are today. As far back as 1970, they have been pushing an agenda to promote sexually explicit materials to minors, and they have succeeded. What started off in the Brookings Public Library as a single spindle of young adult books has exploded into the whole front section of the library thanks to the grant that Lowe's gave for new furniture and bookshelves. We can't stop all the access that our children and teens have to porn, but we can try to reduce what now exists in our tax-supported public library. Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you, Nancy.

All right. Moving on to number five, consent agenda items. We have the minutes, travel and education requests, personal action items, cellular authorizations, and human services report. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and second. Any comments? Hearing none, call the roll, please.

Post. Aye. Miller. Aye. Jensen. Aye. Hostler.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Moving on, number six, approval of the claims. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Comments?

I did hand out one correction this morning to the sheriff's office claims, just a reduction in a reimbursement to one of our deputies. All right. Any other comments?

Hearing none, I'll call the roll, please.

Post? Aye. Miller? Aye. Jensen?

Aye.

VanderWaal?

Aye.

Hostler? Aye. Motion carries.

All right. Moving to letter B, Department Head Reports. Brian with Highway.

Morning.

Morning. All right.

Last week we've been busy getting ready for our culvert projects and this week we started our culvert projects. We did a culvert up near Astoria on Monday and yesterday we worked on a Culvert just north of town here on County Road 8. Wrap that up. Because of the rain we were supposed to be getting, we got one more to do on that. We'll be continuing to work on our culverts. We got some pretty big culverts by Oakwood that we're going to be working on. So there'll be some road closures coming temporarily. We won't have anything permanently closed for an extended period of time but i've been sending notifications out to the emergency staff and getting it posted on our website with the help of michelle so trying to communicate that way Aside from that, ChipSeal was supposed to start yesterday. They are starting today down by Sinai. And also today I have a meeting with the DOT. We received four preliminary engineering grants and kind of throughout the county, and we'll be meeting and doing type, size, and location surveys on those structures. So eventually we can apply for replacement grants for them Aside from that Hopefully we anticipate to get done with the chip seal this week but Supposed to rain this afternoon, so I'm sure that'll shut them down pretty quick So it might drag in the next week, but they're hoping to be done this week pending any weather And as far as the Elkton thing goes, I've got Jeff McCormick coming to answer any of your guys' questions on that, and he will be here at 9, so he said he does plan on coming so we can get questions answered for that. As far as I know, the project in Volga is kind of getting wrapped up and seeded, the first portion of that. That work's been happening, and July 6th, that project will kick off again in Volga. So that's a short month away. That's all I got.

Anybody have any?

All right Jen with finance I Don't need that much time Okay, just a couple things in the finance office I Surplus sale, Jenna's working on gathering from department heads things that they need to sell, and that'll be taking place in August sometime. So that process is going on. The mobile home distress warrant sale is this Friday. As of right now, there's seven homes on the sale. If any of those homeowners come in before then, it'll be taken off. But right now, there's seven homes on the sale, and that's happening this Friday. Everything with the election went really smooth no problems with tabulating no problems at the polls everything went fine I'm sure you've all heard there is going to be a runoff election for the governor's race And that basically just means we're gonna run an entire election again starting next Friday so absentee voting starts Friday the 12th and Voter registration deadline for the runoff is July 13th and then the runoff election is July 28th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. just like any other election. We internally are gonna run it a little different. We're not gonna set up the big absentee voting in the lobby downstairs. We're gonna run it out of the conference room next to our office. But we'll still have a couple temporary employees coming in to help us out and just do our thing, run another election.

You guys will make sure it's all signed to make sure that that's where they're in there.

Yeah So that's all I've got We'll do the canvas later at the end Kim and Jen I'll come up and give you all the details on the election I just had a couple questions the surplus items when we did get those all declared are they offered to like cities or other governmental agencies if it's anything that's

Yeah, once I get the collection from each of the department heads on what they are wanting to get rid of, I usually just pass that along internally to other county departments to see I give them the list and say, hey, is there anything on this list that your department would be interested in having? That way we can do a transfer at that time. Otherwise, no. Most of these other municipalities use the public surplus auction site, which is the same site that the county uses. I would think if they are interested in them, they'll be looking at that site as well. The short answer would be no, we don't.

Anything else, thank you.

Thank you, John Bob with County Development Good morning morning today's weather should start again about 4 p.m. It sounds like The main focus for our area is US 14 and north, similar to what happened last night, although we did have that little bit come to our south. Right now it's a little iffy on exactly what's gonna hit, but it says here rain could be anywhere from one inch to five inches. So just have to be careful on that. Once again, it starts about 4 p.m. Tomorrow we got more severe weather coming in, but that's mainly to our south and looks like Moody County and to the south into Iowa. Tomorrow it's projected only to be thunderstorms if we get weather at all. And we do recommend if you're outside to stay aware of your surroundings. You know, if you hear thunder, We're see lightning probably need to go inside because you just never know the rain last night we had about Approximately a half an inch in Brookings from for most reports and as you went north you got a whole lot more they had had three three plus on handling County dual County and in areas north so Unfortunately the Weather Service also cautioned us that that water has to come south so we look for the big sioux river to go up and any of the small streams coming from the north it's going to start taking some water there's no flood warnings or anything out yet but it just takes time for some of that stuff to go down last week and then your in your packet you should have had a travel late travel request there was a tabletop exercise concerning local emergency planning committees down in yankton it was sponsored by the environmental protection agency in south dakota department of agricultural natural resources i went through my emergency management liaison and got permission to go ahead and go down and attend that training that training was real good they brought people in from region 8 environmental protection agency out of denver Region 7 out of Kansas City, Missouri came up and out of their headquarters in Washington DC and they put on a professional tabletop exercise similar to what happened with us probably 10-15 years ago when we had that big tabletop over at the East Fire Station and we had the FEMA FEMA teams come in to give us training and We had to drop our county development blue pickup down to Sioux Falls to get our radio antennas fixed by Sioux Falls Solution. We managed to do that. We did talk to the Bruce Fire Department. It looks like the Bruce for Peter is going to have to be relocated. I'm talking with the Bruce Fire Department now. They are in the process of trying to get a... electrical pole donated to him through one of the big power cooperatives and so they want to tear the elevator down in Bruce. So that happens to be where our repeater sets. So you're gonna be seeing that come up here before long. We got a zoning meeting tonight at 8 p.m. on Monday at 6 p.m. We're back in this office with a drainage meeting. We've got an agenda that we sent out. There were some questions on notification on that particular meeting. I ran ads in the Town & Country Shopper two weeks consecutively. I emailed everyone that's on my email list, blind carbon copy. So if any commissioner got an email on the drainage meeting, so did the other commissioners, but we blind carbon copy, so it's not an official meeting. And we also mailed letters. I mailed 60 letters out. to various landowners and of course it was brought to my attention we know the US Mail doesn't get there anymore in a day like it used to so hopefully if if you got neighbors concerned with the drainage I'm counting on you to use Whatever whatever means you've got to let your neighbor know we're having that meeting And I do appreciate that June 10th. We've got our kickoff for the 765 kilo vote subcommittee and Working on the agenda on that. We'll get that out later today and We probably won't have that total total committee subcommittee formed until then I got letters out to the township board and seven different townships that I explained last month and So at that meeting, we'll basically choose a chairperson and we'll get the guidelines on how many meetings, the times of meetings in the future and things like that. Basically, the first meeting's gonna be setting the ground rules and possibly some data. If I got it, I can pass it on to people. And then once the second meeting starts, then we'll start getting to the meat of the subject on that. Any questions?

Bob, with the Bruce repeater and that, I know in our E911 meetings we've been talking about evaluating countywide radio coverage. Do you have any updates on that, or could you reach out and just see what the updates are, where that's going?

My plan is, because Volga came in also, and they still have problems with their repair, so yeah, today I'm wanting, that's my mission this afternoon, is to see where we're at in that situation, and if we don't have a plan yet, I'll get motivated on that, because we do need that study to at least get started so we know what's going on. 10-4.

Thank you. You're welcome.

anybody else have any questions for bob yes i have one bob the 765 subcommittee is that meet that initial meeting is that open to the public by all means right we have no we have no none the only people as far as i know and i'm not a lawyer so i'm not giving legal advice only people that can have meetings quote unquote hidden would be the elected officials like you and executive session for for state specified reasons And 765 kilovolts don't, not at my level. Maybe once it gets higher level than me, but no. Anytime we have a meeting and we're gonna try to get our agendas published online so the public knows. Just like the drainage, thank you for, Anyone interested in the drainage meeting Monday, all you have to do is go to Brookings County main website, go on to departments, county development, and we've got it broken down. Zoning, drainage, and emergency management. If you go to drainage, we've actually got the environmental assessment, draft environmental assessment that we're going to be discussing Monday night. It's on our website. So we try to put everything we've got on when we can. And we'll do the same with the 765. That page is not developed yet, but we'll develop that page under the zoning sign.

OK. Can we get these meetings noticed on our Facebook page and stuff too?

Yeah, when the agendas are created through the website, they automatically hit our Facebook page.

Okay, thank you Sheriff you're still good All right moving on to scheduled nine well, we don't have a school man, so we're passing that number eight regular business letter a action to approve agreement number 26-42 an agreement with SPN Helms engineering and surveyors for the final design and bidding phase for the 217th Street which is North Drive and and 486 Avenue, Cornell Street, street improvements in the amount of $18,000. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Motion is second. Discussion?

Like I mentioned earlier, I got Jeff here with SBN and Associates to answer any of the questions that the Commission may have regarding this project.

I had a couple questions I called Brian the other day. Is this the second phase or third phase of the Elkton sewer project?

This will be phase four. Phase four? The one that's coming up, yep. We're currently under construction with phase three. It's been going really well. I would say a little bit ahead of schedule. That one will finish the Elk Street, which would be their main street, and the North Drive intersection with concrete, but that's, yeah, that's currently the phase three project. This would be the final phase, phase four.

Okay. County Road on the west side of town that what was that in phase two or phase one?

I just The footage of the Elkton projects and on our County roads, I believe it's just about 5,000 feet is that I don't know if I have that quite that number phase one there was Basically that whole length of town. I believe we did on that ride. You know we would have stopped at First Street, so we didn't get up to the railroad tracks and across that intersection But it would have pretty much been that entire length and then this phase four project Starts a few hundred feet east of that intersection and we stop a little bit before we get to the edge of town because the Sewer stops at that point, but the water continues on but that's way over in the ditch, so we're not Dealing with any street work on that one, okay? And they had received a grant through this They did receive a grant for the sewer and water funding pretty favorable one considering I think it was the last phase of their project. It's roughly between the sewer, and I can't remember which one, but the sewer was a little over a 50% grant and the water was a little bit under or vice versa. It comes out to about 50% of the project. The other half of it will be a SRF loan that will get paid back through the sewer and water funds. So they'll have an additional It's about a $17 surcharge per month per user for their water and sewer bill to pay that to pay that loan.

Yeah Yeah, and it were how many years would that be that's for 30 30 years. Okay, so

And I did ask Jeff to kind of put together some numbers. That the city itself will be paying for you know for our road improvements, you know we. The county at 0 cost. into any of the improvements until I actually approached Jeff this last fall and you know at the time I approached Jeff they were in the plans of you know applying for the grant not knowing whether or not we would get the grant or sorry that Elkton would receive the grant And I hated to push this on the commission like that. You know, I was anticipating that we would, you know, do the original preliminary design and we would have a year or two to take this into consideration. And then it got expedited when Elkton actually received the grant. the previous project of i'll let jeff kind of touch on that as far as what uh their grant uh covered and then what the citizens of elkton and the businesses of elkton will actually be paid for or they you know over the course of 30 years on our roads i'll let him kind of touch on those numbers

So the the phase one project we had about a bit at that time There was about two hundred and ten thousand dollars worth of street improvements on that Cornell that would have been The county part of the project just looking at a few of those unit prices between some of the cost today to that I could imagine that would probably be at least 350 to 400 thousand on it The current phase that's under construction right now, just for that intersection and completing that, that part of it is about $106,000 worth of improvements. And the phase four that we're talking about now and the one that will go to bid, it has a total of just under $1.9 million worth. worth of improvements, and that would include coming back on Cornell the first, the intersection on the northwest corner of town, and finishing all of the rest of it. Of that, about 690,000 of it we're having with the water and sewer project that would get funded by the City of Elkton's funding package. And that project is solely on the county road. There's no other city street project on on that project.

I think there was some questions that the first time we looked at this cost was. Somewhat lower than what your estimate is now. Can you explain what? Why the dollars?

Boy, was that just the last time I was here or the very first time I was here?

January 20th when we presented it to the commission, I believe it was.

Sure, sure. So to me, at that point, it would have been just getting into the design and getting into more detail. I mean, we've gotten through the preliminary design at this point and feel much more comfortable and confident with where the numbers are at. I don't know exactly what the change would have been And I don't have that initial estimate with me, but I would imagine it's just getting into better details of But I think Brian mentioned it oil costs is figured into the estimate I We've got it probably as an asphalt composite, so that would be included with it. We're still all running off of preliminary estimated numbers. We'll have to go through the whole bid process and see what contractor actually has for bid numbers, but the bidding market seems favorable right now. Even from what I've seen since January, some of those unit prices may be Could be less because it's pretty competitive market in the underground world right now as far as sewer and water goes I'm not quite sure where the Street and asphalt part of it is that Anybody else have any questions concerns So I would like to just make one additional comment, because talking to Brian yesterday, I learned a little bit more about how your guys is operating. I'm obviously more versed into the municipal world and where their budget sequence goes in. And it sounds like your budget is coming around here now or the end of June. What I had proposed trying to get through final design and bidding was the idea to get that part of it completed and be ready for your 27th budget. You know, we wouldn't bid it in touch. We know that part of your budget is approved. The city of Elkton is ready to go to bid as soon as we know what's happening here. I don't know if it's anything that you would want to move further than that right now, but, you know, my my thought of where your guys's budget year is to where you're actually at is is a little bit different so i maybe approached this a little different than i would have had i realized your budget year was coming up so yeah and that's why like when you see on there that's why it pushed all the construction side of it you know to to future approval but that was I was thinking that's because you guys wouldn't have a budget for that until the first of the year.

Yeah, and of course, like it goes, we have budget meetings at the end of June. They get approved by the end of the year. So for anything that we would need to write a check for, we would need numbers to be able to approve September, October.

Okay. Then that's probably okay with where I'm at.

Yep.

The budget's approved in September.

Yeah, September. So we would need numbers before that so that we could have it in the budget if we were going to allocate any funds for 27.

You wouldn't want to go to bid publicly until after that budget is approved, correct? Correct. well we need to know ideas on on how much to approve if we're going to prove and then of course but i mean would you would you do that on on you know my estimate or would you do that on actual hard bid contractor number i would think you'd have to wait because you probably can't award a project you haven't budgeted funds for. We usually base our budget on an estimate. I'm good with where we're at. That is more like what I was thinking.

Somewhat with the timing that you're here is you have to design it with the transition area between the elevations on the road, correct? Correct.

Well, so as far as the current phase project, we've got a change order that we're working through with the contractor now to make some revisions to meet the proposed design moving forward. And there's extra cost that's going to come into the city's project for the current year to be ready to accommodate that because we had to swap out some culverts and swap out some structures.

Yeah, we're we're bidding the current project with anticipation that this is Any other questions comments Thank you very much, so we have a motion in a motion in a second to approve the 18,000 Does the Commission have any comments questions concerns? Okay hearing none I'd call the roll please I

Miller hi Jensen hi Vander wall hi post hi hostler hi motion carries all right Thank you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you guys Let her be on the agenda action to declare two Glock 9 millimeter handguns a surplus surplus property to sell based on appraised value Do I have motion to approve so moved? second motion a second comments

Sheriff Stanley.

I've got you. I've got you.

I presented a surplus for two Glock weapons, as you stated, and what I'd like to do is that these two weapons, one was Scott Sebring's service weapon that he carried, and the other one is mine that I carried. I would like, after I retire, to be able to purchase, we both want to purchase our duty weapons back. We don't have to replace these. Both him and myself that normally wear plain clothes wear a smaller weapon. The deputies wear a larger one. And so it's not anything that we have to replace. There's still enough. smaller weapons in that if one of the detectives right now wears a larger weapon, so I have an extra one anyway. So that's what I want to do. I called Russell Olson in Pierre. uh... i did this one time before uh... for trading uh... at one point and and uh... we did something similar to that i couldn't find my notes on that so i wanted to get it so we made sure we did this right and that he explains to me and i was explaining it to stacy and then i suggested stacy calls russ and and so she'll explain the procedure for this uh... i know that I would like to see maybe the commission in the future to think about this for the sheriff or any deputy that spends 20 or 25 years or whatever to be able to do this. So it's just something to think about. I know there are some agencies, it's just like I sell the canine back to the handler for a dollar, but I'm not suggesting that you sell these back for us to a dollar, we're willing to. to pay what they're worth. When I bought these guns, they were $409 at the time I bought both of those. They're either in my name along with the sheriff's office, so if you agree to go through the procedure, both Scott and myself will have to take it upon ourselves to get that transferred into our names and take it out of the county's name. So I'll turn it over to Stacey. I'm sorry I talk too much. No, you're fine.

The other part of this is we have to have the gun appraised by three individuals. It can be any three individuals who are familiar with guns, not commissioners, so citizens. that can go to Like the exchange and they can give it an appraisal value So we have we get three individuals to appraise the value of these guns if it's under 500 I think is what Russ said and when I spoke to him Which it should be they were new under 500 then the Commission can decide from there what you want to do you can put them on the public sale for surplus, or you can enter into an agreement with Sheriff Stanwyck and former Assistant Sheriff Scott Sebring to purchase these back at a dollar amount. You just have to do that as the next action once we know the appraised value and how you want to handle it, then we do that as a separate action at a future meeting. So the next step would be to, and probably as an amendment to this motion, is to appoint three individuals that you believe could appraise these guns.

Would we have to appoint them or could we use just companies like the Exchange Runnings and Like Mike cotton or somebody's just company like that. I mean I have my hostler sports, but being a County Commissioner I should not and Appraise it, but I could do a transfer with With the FFL, but I would not feel comfortable appraising them, but it states you brought up Doesn't one person have to be a resident of the county and

SO 613.2, IT SAYS THE GOVERNING BOARD SHALL APPOINT, SO YOU DO NEED TO APPOINT, THREE REAL PROPERTY OWNERS OF THE POLITICAL SUBDIVISION TO APPRAISE THE VALUE. OR YOU CAN EMPLOY A PERSON OR PERSON LICENSED BY THE STATE TO DO FEE APPRAISALS IN LIEU OF PROPERTY OWNERS. Mean if someone at the exchanges lives is a property owner here in town. You know I here in the county.

It's it would be fine I'd just be careful, so we don't end up racking up more expense and getting them appraised Right I don't know that there.

I mean you can do that for you know the fee appraisals, but I think this would just be asking them to do a

An appraisal 26 how much is it worth? Right?

Yeah, I think what I did before I think I had the exchange and I can't remember if it was Mike cotton But I had Dennis Miller Because he's familiar with weapons and stuff and I think it Dennis Well, we could we could even it says Commission not County employee, correct?

We have the Outdoor Adventure Center that is well-versed in that. So Joe, our director out there, could be one of three that we could appraise because he purchases a rental.

Whoever does the appraisals cannot then purchase the guns. Correct. Shouldn't be an issue. I would assume that the commission is going to enter into an agreement for purchase with. And we don't have to open it.

I would caution not to ever open up guns to the public. Right. I mean, this is for. Yeah. sebring and myself to purchase a uh... agencies in the past have had auctions where that's rapid city that they had an auction someone bought a weapon and did something with it so i would never advise a commission to ever opened up to sell guns you know what I'm saying is that you know so this is and we don't have to open this up this can be according to Russ this is can be between the Commission and us to retirees at some point

Well, and there are departments that do this all the time, and I don't know when you guys went from the .40 cal Glock 22s to these. They will trade in their handgun and get an appraised value for those, and then the officers will pay that price.

and then what doesn't sell goes to the store for trade in and then they sell them retail uh... yeah just to the county just traded in at a purchase place and then you know where it's at and and and that could have been but we don't i don't know by two guns so why go through you know buy a new two new guns the store in the shed i mean not in the shed but in the in the gun locker but there's yeah this is i mean there's

makes sense to be able to do that if we can i mean if i don't know if we need to appoint two people or three people today or can we appoint can we um can sheriff could you contact a couple three people to ask if they could appraise them and then at the next uh at the next meeting just bring those three names that we can appoint at that time and and maybe even right away after that they could

And we could do it now. You know, I recommend the exchange and and we can and I can get ahold of Mike Cotton and then Dennis Miller.

If you want to perfect if if that's who we've used before, absolutely let's. We could do something like that. I would. I would take a amendment to the to the motion to appoint. The exchange Mike Cotton and Dennis Miller. For appraisal value to Glock 26 is.

I'd move that amendment.

Second. Motion and second on there. Okay. So, Jenna?

Sorry, can I just, one more time, it was the Exchange, Mike Cotton, and Dennis Miller?

Dennis Miller, correct. Okay. So, I suppose I would call for a, do we need a voice vote or a roll call?

I'd do a roll call.

Okay, roll call vote on the amendment.

Jensen? Jensen? Vander wall post Miller Hossler amendment carries and then roll call vote on the initial movement motion Vander wall post Jensen Miller Hossler made motion with the amendment carries Okay

Marty just stay in touch with me when you get those and we'll work on getting the next step done I'll make up a form or have you approve a form you know so okay sheriff We just brought up in discussion here the guns at the OAC are registered in your name moving forward is Whatever we need to do

joel's already changed that and so he's been purchasing guns and it's already changed when i did that uh... the exchange is really helpful when they sent that into the feds uh... they put put a note that i was the uh... you know the sheriff and that i was representing so uh... it there should be an issue with all those, because he's already traded some of those guns and things like that, so that's not an issue. Once you trade a gun at a federal firearms, they have to resell that like a new gun, and so then it's re-registered You know, like if there's change, traded a gun and Sean went to buy it or you went to buy it, it becomes a new purchase. So he's traded a lot of those off.

I knew he did some, and I wasn't sure. I just want to make sure that.

No, and I agree. But I have documentation that I was representing the county of purchasing those weapons. And then all the ones at the beginning, those 60 weapons, did go into my name. But I have documentation say that I was representing Brookings County.

Okay. Yeah.

Want to thank you commissioners that means a lot to us two guys if I do appreciate that so, thank you very much sure if maybe you mentioned this but this transfer wouldn't take in place until January 3rd or whatever it is

Following that's totally up to the commission if that's if that's an issue the transfer for Sebring because he was retired would probably be before but I would guess that When sheriff Stanwyck submits his retirement papers we could fill out the paperwork at that.

Yeah, I just soon you know I just soon carry carry it and till the end Thank you very much, thanks sheriff

Alright letter C discussion on setting a date for work session to review Senate bill 96 which established a county sales tax To offset owner-occupied property tax and goes into effect on July 1st 2026 discussion only Be noted that the county sales tax doesn't go into effect July 26 It's the law that says we can pass one or enact one So is there any dates or anything that we would want to?

I guess I would like to gauge interest if there's interest from the commission on holding a work session to kind of dig into this a little bit more. I know Jennifer Beller has received a lot of good information at a recent conference that she attended. Just to hear that, it could be at another meeting. It can be at the next meeting. If you want to do something separate where it's more open to the public, similar to what we're doing for the drainage board, I don't know. I'm just gauging the board's interest in doing something like that regarding this new law that goes into effect July 1.

I think it would be a really good conversation to have to get more information on. I would like to see it an open meeting where public can attend also. A separate meeting. to deal with this because this has potential to have an impact on a lot of people and a lot of different things involved with that.

I think it's important to make sure that not everything you read on the internet is the truth and to make sure that we get the information out from the people who know and have the ability to have the public ask those questions and And that, of course, we want to do our research on our own, too, but we want to make sure that we get that correct information out to them through our research.

I did talk to a former legislator that was in appropriations, and he would... he'd be more than willing to come and speak on this.

Any information like that that you could get me on who to reach out to as well would be good. I know with the drainage board meeting next week, we don't probably want to schedule something else next week, but I think it would probably be a good idea to get this discussion in before the law takes effect on July 1. So either like the week of June 15th or the week of June 22nd in an evening, like a 6 o'clock time again. Is there...

I'm okay with either the 15th or the 22nd in the evening. It looks good. I think, yeah, it is good to do it in June just so we can make sure. So I'm good with either of those two.

I would prefer the 22nd myself just so we have some time to get things all put together if that works.

22nd looks good.

6 o'clock?

And that way we can get some time to get the word out as well. Jennifer, does that work for you? I should ask that before. Okay, perfect.

Yeah, that is the day before budget meetings.

Even better. Get to spend lots of time together.

All right.

Any other discussion, questions?

All right. Number nine, director's department report.

All right. So as Jennifer had mentioned, with the runoff election, we do need to schedule a special commission meeting on Thursday, July 30th. We'll just do it right at 830. It'll be quick. We're going to have to canvas the votes from the runoff election that morning. So make sure you get that on your calendars, July 30th. Thursday at 8.30 a.m. We will canvass the runoff election results. Commissioner Hassler and I had met with the director of library services Asia Gustafson and assistant city manager Samantha Beckman regarding the library They're going to start providing the Commission with a number of different reports They have a monthly newsletter some quarterly reports some quarterly numbers the librarian also gives a report to the City Council so that will be sent our way and And then, as Gustafson said as well, like to come to the commission meetings a couple of times a year to give their annual report, probably that February-March timeframe, and again, kind of fall, August-September to provide information on their summer reading programs. I think this discussion all came about because we had sent the request to have an ex-officio member on the library board I think I've not received anything in writing saying no, but I don't think the answer is yes to us for that is what I am understanding. I haven't gotten anything official at this point. But the board does meet monthly. It's typically that second Thursday of the month. It's at noon. It's at the library and they're historical room I think they call it, one of their meeting rooms at noon. They're open to the public so if we could without having an official ex officio on that board if someone wants to attend those routinely I don't know I guess maybe looking for some direction there if it's if there's an interest on the board to maybe designate someone to try to attend those or direct staff to attend those kind of to that's maybe a discussion item I think that's what I get. I guess I'm looking for some direction on what you would like to see there as far as attending those meetings.

Do we want to have somebody or is it just if somebody can?

I think attend if you're so inclined. We'll appoint somebody to that.

Do you know is there a staff member that is willing?

I have not had that discussion with any departments.

If we're able, if somebody's able, just go. Then after

The discussion at our last meeting about the special events licenses that we do distribute, the commission does set the number of licenses that can be issued to an entity per year. That's not really spelled out in statute that you have to limit that. It's the commission's decision on what you want to do with that. It is listed as six. That's in our ordinance. That would need to change if you're interested in changing that. And actually, a public hearing is not required if the entity is already licensed. So for instance, Lemke's, who's already a licensed seller, wouldn't necessarily need to come in and have the public hearing. that again is part of our ordinance and I think some of that is that so that you are aware that the sheriff is aware that this event is happening out in the county at a location. So with that in mind, you know, is there any, change to the ordinance that you want to see. It would have to still go through first reading, second reading, publication and whatnot. If there are changes, Jenna has tons of time right now. We have...

I just had a question. We did an event license here a couple meetings ago and it's on off sale. Essentially They can sell beer to go whenever they would please. Is that correct?

What license are you referring to?

We just did one for the event center east of Aurora. I can't remember the name.

That would be an on-off sale, so yes, they could sell off sale.

Yeah.

They could sell off sale wine and beer, I think is what that one was for, yes. There's only, as far as liquor sales off sale, we only have six of those licenses available in the county. Selling a bottle of whiskey to someone to take and walk out the door with, there's only six licenses available to do that. But as far as wine and the malt beverage licenses, they're all on off sale. I think the sheriff knows where I'm going here.

Are they included then if, Sheriff, you do go out and do a check of...

Yes, now that they're licensed through the county, they will become part of the checks, yes.

But they operate, you know, just because we provide them through our ordinance to operate outside of their... Residents or their business address doesn't mean that if this is a new they have still have to operate under the Under their current license whether they're on off sale or not They still have to abide by all those all those guidelines under South Dakota law so Which includes ID checks and everything and if they get if somebody gets into a bind They could face consequences

It was just the on-off sale. The off sale is the only concern.

That's how all of those licenses are. How they come down from the state is an on-off sale.

I think the only other issue that I think that one of the businesses was talking about with the special events license is that the commission has set a limit on those. I believe back in 2018 I think that it was always three and then a few years We saw an increase in businesses for that so then the Commission upped it to six So I think it's up to your discretion on whether you want to increase that more you want to keep it you want to I mean I think that was one of the the questions from what I was gathering from that business and that would be up to the Commission and

And we haven't had, I know we did that during my tenure here, I think it was in 24, I think, 23 later, 24, somewhere around in there. In that time, That we upped it to six we haven't had anybody hit six or even come close have we so I don't know if there's really any reason to change that until Until there's that becomes an issue.

I like all your thoughts Sean I think we just leave it alone for now we can change it you know going forward if we see a need but I I think we I like the idea that we know when they're at taking place so our Sheriff's Department or Highway Department or whatever is

Knows that events going to happen and we're we're understanding of it sheriff for any comments on I Think that the public hearing is kind of an unnecessary part of it I believe I

The limit is, I mean, I was thinking we could probably raise it to 12, because are we ever going to deny one if they reach six? Are we trying to limit business from functioning that way? So I guess, but the public hearing, we could still have a notification for the sheriff's office and anyone that needs to know. That's an email when an application comes through from one office to the next saying, hey, this is going on. But a public hearing of dragging a businessman in here bleed his case at a specific time just seems like undue burden does the actual business owner need to be here though for that i mean much like zoning where the applicant is not not present at the meeting we've had them before where they're not well for oh this come up next week and now we haven't met and so they can't do it there are short notice events that come up that I think we handled one of them before.

I can somewhat see what Doug's talking about.

If one were to come up within the meeting and you can't have your public hearing notice.

That does become an issue sometimes if an event doesn't know to contact one of the establishments. There's just a couple of establishments really that are willing to do this routinely, but yes, if they don't contact one of those in time, we have to do the publication of the public hearing. It takes several weeks. You need to plan ahead with these. As far as the Applicant being here. I don't know that that is necessary I think it's been you know come and and you know it's just been as more of a courtesy that they've been coming, but if the Commission You know directs Jenna to say it's not necessary Or if they just send in you know a statement as part of their application explaining what they're doing. I you know that would probably suffice as we're you know pretty familiar with a couple entities that do this and But yes, having the public hearing definitely requires some foresight into this. You can't just decide on Thursday that you want to have Lemke's come and serve at your wedding on Saturday. That's not how it's going to work.

And, you know, this does only affect in the county. It doesn't affect Brookings, Sevalga, events that happen in those city organizations. So, I mean, we've approved two this year. Is that right? We haven't approved very many at all this year, which is lower than what we have in the past.

The event center that is new out by Aurora, those are their licenses. Those are not special events licenses. Those are their license for that premise. The only special event license that we recently did was at the last meeting for Lemke's to serve at the Bennett Barn because the Bennett Barn does not hold their own license.

That and the Owl Lodge is just two places.

There's a couple places out in the county that don't have their own. They aren't licensed themselves.

So just so I'm clear, so special events license, so let's say J Street Pub or Lemke's Bar and Grill are going to apply for a special events license to serve at a wedding at such and such date. Because those two entities already are licensed to sell, My understanding is that we would not have to do a public hearing. We would need to publish, but that application will still come on your agenda so that you can see it, you still approve it. That way the sheriff's office still knows what's going on and then we just kind of, is that, I'm understanding that correctly, correct?

Yeah. Yes. Okay. But our ordinance would need to change in order to do it that way because right now it says a public hearing is required and that's

specific to our local ordinance that we have in place because the flip side is if one of these events is going on now it becomes just a bring your own cooler type thing and it's completely unobserved yes so if we can make it easier to comply we get more compliance

You know it's a wedding it's a wedding it does not really create a lot of issue for my office It's just nice to know in case we do get called in that area or whatever that that it's going on So I appreciate that but a lot of times it's it's they're rather small gatherings that really don't Has that created any issues for us in the past years I

But yes, those applications would still need to be approved by the commission, so there would still be this level of, Marty's department would still be informed. And it's not something that you can decide today that you're going to do on Saturday, because it has to get on a commission agenda. So it still needs to be noticed that way. But again, that would all need to be changed in the ordinance in order for that to actually happen. So if you want us to change some, update some verbiage in the ordinance, we can sure work on that.

Might do. Take a look at it.

And then the only other thing I did include, there's some procedures from our South Dakota Association of County Commissioners for submitting resolutions to the association to be approved at the conference in September. A lot of times things that are approved there would become possible bills that would be carried at the next legislative session in 2027. So if there's anything that you can think of that Brookings County would be interested in submitting, the deadline is the end of July to get those submitted. Other than that, just some upcoming dates. We do have that special drainage board meeting Monday at 6 p.m. here in the chambers. I did receive, after everything was published, we got an invitation to the 34th Avenue Water Plant Open House with Brookings Municipal Utilities. That is on June 9th. That open house is from 10.30 to 3 o'clock. The address is 1230 34th Avenue. That open house. The Vietnam Veteran Memorial, Traveling Memorial is coming here next week already. It'll be located out at the Fishback Soccer Fields. They do have a ceremony here At 9 a.m. on Thursday, June 11th, so next Thursday at 9 o'clock in the morning, they're having a welcome home ceremony. Commissioner Hosler is going to say a few words on behalf of the county at that for us. And if you plan to attend, it's been noticed, so that would be great. Next Thursday as well is our safety picnic. I think I've reached out to those of you who plan to attend that. And now we have the work session for SB 96 on June 22nd at 6 p.m. The next day is budget hearings all day on the 23rd. We also, a new addition to the calendar is the Brookings Firefighter Street Dance Saturday, June 27th at 7 o'clock downtown Brookings. Otherwise, yeah, just a couple things that have been there. that are a little farther out. So that's all I have unless you have questions for me.

Any questions? Thanks, Stacy. Mm-hmm. State's turning report. Nothing.

Yeah, this report's just for the chair. So I'll give an update on a few of the bigger cases in our office that had come to a conclusion here in the last, I would say, maybe two to three weeks. And I think each of these cases was mentioned in the newspaper, but I'll just tell the commission kind of what happened. So in South Dakota versus Bailey Melcor, that was a case that had arisen out of an assault that had been reported on an infant child. It was his biological child. And based on the medical evidence that was processed by law enforcement, we had initiated a prosecution for felony child abuse, three counts of aggravated assault, and then an aggravated battery of an infant which is a unique charge that is specific to infants that have sustained bodily injury to their head it requires severity brain hemorrhaging that type of thing and so he had been arrested on that we had prosecuted it he had sat in jail for a number of months as that case processed. Part of the plea agreement was that he plead guilty to all five counts, and that's what he did. And then Judge Howard imposed a 30-year sentence on that individual. A significant sentence because of how old he is. He was 19 at the time he committed the offense and 20 when he was sentenced. No criminal history. And then with the change in the law, the truth and sentencing bill that passed two years ago. He'll have to serve almost nearly all of the 30 years. So pretty significant sentence. We were pleased with the outcome. The victims were also pleased with that. Our staff at our office worked very diligently on that case. You know, there's a lot of court hearings, a lot of litigation that happens in our office with the defense attorneys, court appearances, and then obviously processing some of the evidence, putting together the case. So that was a good outcome. The second case is the state of South Dakota versus Banderas Lopez. This was a case involving a sexual assault on a woman through the use of, it was third degree rape that he ended up pleading guilty to. Third degree rape is when you are Intoxicated in this case through drugs and as a result of that intoxication, you did not consent to the sexual penetration. And so this case was prosecuted by our office and he entered a guilty plea. He was given four years in the penitentiary on that case. Another unique part of that case was he had been identified by ICE immigration enforcement that he was here illegally. And part of the reason he sat in jail for the number of months that he did was because the judge had made a finding at his bond hearing that because of his illegal status, he posed a flight risk. And so anytime an individual that the judge finds may pose a flight risk, There's bond considerations that go along with that. And so if a bond is obviously higher and an individual can't post that bond, well, there's a likelihood that they're going to stay in jail during the pendency of the case. Obviously, a very challenging case because you have a victim who was drugged. was sexually assaulted, can't easily recall the events that happened. And, again, our staff at the state attorney's office put a lot of work, diligence into that case, making sure that justice was served in a difficult case. Thankfully, we were able to get a guilty plea, and the judge sentenced him to four years, like I said. Last case I'll touch on. is the Sean Running Horse case. This is South Dakota versus Sean Running Horse. This is a domestic violence case. This is an individual that was released on parole for violent offenses, and then while he was on parole, assaulted his girlfriend using a sharp object. She did sustain injuries as a result of that object in her stomach area. He was charged with aggravated assault. Aggravated assault, there's lots of different definitions of aggravated assault. The particular subsection we charged out in this case was assault resulting in serious bodily injury. And so given his parole status and given the violent offense, the judge found that he posed a danger to the community. possibility that he be imposed a penitentiary sentence bond was set in a higher amount and so he sat in jail for a number of months waiting for his case to be resolved and so you can kind of see why some of these individuals sit in jail for as long as they do is because it's a violent offense there's flight risk issues meaning that there's a possibility they'll flee but then also based on the nature of the allegations and the violence associated with those allegations. We don't want these individuals running around the community, right? So they sit in jail while we, in the state attorney's office, try to secure a conviction on them. And so the judge imposed 10 years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary on a guilty plea to the aggravated assault. This again was a unique case because some of the individuals that were present during the assault were intoxicated. And so recollections aren't always there. And so, you know, you're trying to get the best outcome short of trial because of some of the difficulties that the state might encounter putting that case through a jury trial. So you're kind of balancing those factors. Again, our staff at the office worked very hard. On that case. Through court hearings, litigation with the defense to secure that conviction, and I think. Through these three cases that I just talked about, I think Brookings County is safer. It's a credit to law enforcement, both the Sheriff's Office for housing these individuals. The other agencies that do the investigations that give us cases that we can put together and prosecute. And then you know the staff at my office for for seeing these cases through. Happy to answer any questions, but I thought I'd just give that report just for our chair since he was giving me a hard time about it. Thank you.

Commissioner reports. Commissioner VanderWaal.

All right, thank you. On Wednesday, May 20th, I attended the Brookings County Outdoor Adventure Center. Welcome to summer event. Great event. Took my granddaughters. Great event. Congrats to Joe and the team out there for picking the right day with the nice weather. On Tuesday, June 2, here I came to the um this very room to watch the vote counting i was very impressed with the staff and how quick it went and i'd like to thank all the staff that's been at those vote centers thank you commissioner post

Yes. On the 28th, this is a little premature for June's dairy month, but we gathered at the dairy industry, gathered at the Dakota Bank Center and had a celebration of the dairy industry going forward. It was great to see a large gathering of people in this industry that does incredible good for the agriculture and economic development of that county. I'm glad they chose here to host their event. And then on the second, I also came in and watched the vote counting and learned a lot about how the process works and was good to firsthand see that information. Thank you.

All right.

Commissioner Miller. All right. Thank you. The morning of the 20th, I had an ICAP board meeting. I've been very fascinated with that organization and what they're doing. They cover a lot of different things and a lot of different avenues that they deal with. Then at noon on the 20th, I had a beta board meeting. They run on a good ship over there, move a lot of people. On the 28th, I had a board meeting for the domestic abuse shelter. And then Tuesday the 2nd, again, I was able to come in and watch the voting. And kudos to the finance team for what they did. Very well-oiled machine. It was fascinating to watch that process firsthand. So well done, everyone. That's my report.

Yes, yesterday I had a conservation district meeting. They had some reports and they sold over 35,000 trees this spring. They planted about 65 acres of trees. Their grass seedings are down. They don't know if they contribute to the dry weather or what it was, but they are down on the grass seedings they've been doing but they did finish up planning everything about a month ahead of time because of the whole other and Going pretty good out there I did have a note that numerous Township representatives have called about the subcommittee and I've encouraged been encouraging them to make sure that each of the townships in that area Have a representative on that subcommittee, so that's my report I

All right. Yeah, my reports on the 21st, May 21st, I attended the Homestead Meats groundbreaking down on 20th Street South. They're expanding their business from up by up north of the Lowe's going down there. So that's going to be a great addition. That afternoon, we had an LEPC meeting over at the main office for the fire department. On the 27th, met with the Stacey reference that met with the city in reference to some of the library questions and comments. The 28th, we had a Brookings Regional Growth Alliance strategic planning meeting and board meeting kind of wrapping up as we merge those four organizations and now have our CEO in place for a couple months now, really planning for the future of the Growth Alliance and Brookings Region to have that entity best serve Brookings County and the surrounding areas. On the second, tenant ribbon cutting for border view exterior cleaning. Another great business that the Growth Alliance is bringing into our communities. They're really helping with chamber events, economic development throughout the county. then yesterday we had a meeting over at the courthouse with court services to make sure everything our courthouse is up to snuff and and address any issues or anything like that there is one one thing I don't know if anybody's been seeing the the Facebook or any of that, but the growth Alliance has in the community has been the past couple months has they've been. having the community make little tiles for America's 250th community mural that's going to be placed on the north wall of the VFW. That unveiling is tonight at 7. So if anybody is able to attend, of course it's not noticed and I know they didn't send anything, but they've been putting that out there. But that mural is up and it's going to be unveiled today. So it's kind of going to be Very a very neat event and a neat mural to kind of show off America 250 and that is my report We will move into number 12 action to approve the canvas for the June 2nd primary election and

Give us just a minute here while we get set up.

I'm gonna run to the bathroom too quick.

Do we need a point of privilege here, a restroom break?

I guess. All right. I guess everybody's scared of you. All right.

Yeah, I mean, who wants to hear it?

for you guys. Thank you for your patience.

Yes. Thank you, commissioners and the listening public. Before we go ahead and get started, I just want to just thank a few people. Obviously want to thank our team, Kim, Jen Beller, and all of the temporary election workers that we have hired. Those guys were able to help me know set up the election supplies we hold two days worth of school where we go and we train all of our election workers get them their supplies and ballots get them on their way so it's a really it's a it's a long process it's a lot of hard work that goes into it so i just want to thank everybody i want to thank sean plowman for helping me with the hot spots terry heideman and marty stanwick who showed up election night to help assist in the garage. As you know, once the polls close and the poll workers gather up all their supplies, we have our superintendent, which is a Republican, and we have a Democrat. They bring those ballot boxes and the supplies back to the city county building. So Marty and Terry and some of our temporary election staff go down there and they help them bring in all that stuff. So thank you guys for that. I want to thank Dick Peterson for donating popcorn to all of our polling locations. It's a treat for those guys and they all really love that. So thank you, Dick. I want to thank Commissioners Doug Post, David Miller, and Kelly VanderWaal for showing up election night during the tabulation process. You don't quite know what goes into it until you are physically here and and see the process and you watch it and you ask questions. So thank you for that. I do strongly encourage everybody to come during the public test. That's really the place to be asking all the questions on how it all works because election night, focused, laser focused. So thank you three for showing up. And last but not least, I want to thank the media. It was just so fun. We haven't really had the media presently here in the building since COVID hit. Once COVID hit, they kind of, you know, were just behind the scenes and they just wanted it emailed. So thank you to all the media that showed up physically. We put them up in the exec session room and I think they We're just having their own little party in there as well. So thank you for that All right, I think we'll go ahead and get started So on today's agenda, we're gonna just go over some statistics of the election We're gonna open up the returns, which is our recap sheets from every vote center I did provide each of you a copy so that way you can kind of physically look at that yourself and We did not have any provisional ballots. So we have zero to certify Then we are going to declare the results We will review the poll book I have a list in this binder that has all of the eligible voters that were able to vote in this primary along with all of the names that voted in each of the locations and Then we will draw a vote center to audit. And then we will draw two races to audit. We need to audit one local race and one statewide race. So once we get all done, Jennifer and Kim will do that process. For the primary election, we had 45 election workers. This does not include all of our staff. or the four hired temporary election workers. We had one resolution board that was made up of one Republican worker, Travis Bortnum, and we had one Democrat worker, Bonnie Thompson. The resolution board recreates ballots that are rejected from the tabulator. They recreate express vote ballots and they recreate our UOCAVA ballots. Absentee voting this time went on for about 40 days. It's supposed to be 46, but as you guys all know, our ballots did not arrive in time. Nothing our office did. Many of the counties, I think all of them, didn't have their ballots in on time. We had nine polling locations set up throughout the county. We had, for this election, we had a 28% voter turnout, which is slightly higher than past primary elections. We had 19,660 registered voters. I should say eligible voters for this election. We had eight styles of ballots. We had a Republican seven ballot, a Republican district seven school ballot. District eight, a district eight school ballot, a Republican precinct for ballot, a precinct five ballot, a Republican federal only ballot. And we had a non-political ballot total. We had 5,470 ballots cast for this election. Of that, 1,752 voted absentee. So whether they voted in person or by mail. And then we had 3,718 that voted at the polls. Good news, we had zero ballots that were left unstamped. So for the ballot to be official, the poll workers have to stamp that ballot with the official ballot stamp. If any of them are left unstamped, they are rejected by the tabulator and they're not counted. So good news, we didn't have any of that. We had zero provisional ballots. Those are folks that are not on the registration list and they claim to be registered. Instead of completely turning them away, we offer them to vote a provisional ballot. This is a ballot that's not counted on election night because I need to do a little bit more research, but we had zero of those and we had zero emergency voters. These are folks that are mistakenly left off the voter rolls and that should have been on there. So again, we had zero of that. The post-election audit, it is going to be held Wednesday, June 17th at 9 a.m., and it will be held right here in the chambers, third floor, city-county building. Everybody is invited to attend this. As I stated in previous slides, we will have one vote center to audit, and we will be auditing two races, one statewide race and one local race. The state canvas will be Tuesday, June 9th. As our finance officer, Jennifer Beller, had already stated, there will be a runoff election for the governor's race. That absentee voting window, that will begin June 12th. So that is all I have for that. So I think what we're gonna do now, and Stace, if you wouldn't mind. She's already on it. All right, so now we are going to go over the returns. This is the recap sheet, so Kim will open that up. All right, I think we'll go ahead and start with We're going to go ahead and get started with the absentee and their paper clipped together we've got two. The recap sheets can get a little bit messy and you'll kind of see that throughout some of the other polls but it's a really long day and then we ask our election workers to complete the recap sheet so it's a lot of math. What we do is we're going to compare their recap sheets to what our tabulator read. And again, you guys have these in front of you, so you should be able to see. One thing you'll notice on this detailed receipt is that it talks about overvotes and undervotes. An overvote happens when a voter selects An over vote happens when a voter selects for candidates or options more than are that are allowed in a contest, while an under vote occurs when a voter selects fewer or none at all for a specific race. So if you have. Pretty self explanatory, but if you have three candidates and you're only supposed to pick two. And the that voter selects all three. It just that would be an over vote and then none of it counts. All right, so as you can see, we had initially, we had 1747 come in initially, and then we had three more ballots that were dropped off. So ballots, and then actually two more at the end of the day when my board left. So I had to recreate, I think it was at like 4.30 p.m., I had to find three more people, two Republicans and a Democrat, to open up those two official ballots, which is this sheet. So we had a combined total of 1,752. When we put those ballots through the tabulator, you can see that we had it counted 1,751. I had Kimberly put those ballots in that tabulator twice to make sure that it came out correctly, and it came out 1,751. Per statute, we can be within five and still be fine. It's hard to know where that one ballot is. What I think happened is that when the envelope was opened, the absentee ballot envelope was opened, there may not have just been a ballot in there. And so the board may have just didn't record. They're fine. So that would be the absentee. Our vote center one is the activity center. They said for ballots to be counted, there should have been 855 ballots to be counted. When we put those ballots through the tabulator, it counted 855. And you can see that number up there. It also shows you blank sheets cast. There were seven. There are ballots that people just leave blank. It's still counted, because that's their choice to leave it blank. Vote center two, this is Bethel Baptist, our area one. These guys are housed in the gymnasium of Bethel. When they filled out their recap sheet, they had ballots to be counted was 585 ballots. And when we put those ballots through the tabulator, it came out as 585, so they were spot on. Again, no unstamped ballots on any of the absentee or the vote centers. Our vote center three, it would also be in Bethel Baptist Church. They have a nice cafeteria area, and we put them in that area. They said their ballots to be counted on election night should be 508, and when we put their ballots through the tabulator, it also counted 508, so they were spot on. Our fourth vote center is Holy Life Tabernacle. Their recap sheet told us that the ballots to be counted on election night is 553. And when we put those ballots through the tabulator, it also read 553. So they were also spot on. Our fifth vote center is in Aurora. It's at the Impact Church. Their recap showed us that we should be counting 203 ballots. And when we put those ballots through the tabulator, it also showed 203 ballots. So they were also spot on. Vote Center 6 is our Elkton Community Center vote center. Their recap sheet showed us that they had 118 ballots to be counted on election night, and when we put those through the tabulator, it also showed 118, so they were also spot on. Vote center number seven is our white McKnight Hall Center. Their recap sheet, again, is a little bit messy. They started off with 530 ballots, When we initially put their stuff through, they were off, and so we had them recount the ballots unvoted at the end of the day, and we found that they were off just in their counting. And again, it is after you've been working over 12 hours, 15 hours, and then to have them do math, sometimes their math is off. So it was off after recounting. And so they had ballots to be counted was 181. And when we put the ballots through, it also was 181. So they were spot on. Our vote center number eight is the Bruce Community Club. The ballots to be counted from them on their recap sheet was 160. And when we put those through the tabulator, it also read 160. So those guys were also spot on. Our last vote center is the Volga Community Center. Their recap sheet told us that we should be counting 556 votes. And when we put those through the tabulator, it also read 556 ballots. So they were also spot on. So I think now, after going through the, any questions on the recap sheets? I think right now we will go ahead and declare the results, and we will have Kim just read the race and the turnout of that. Thank you, Stacey.

Oh, we're shaking it off. OK, so for United States Senator we had Justin McNeil with 941 votes and Mike rounds with 3058 votes. United States representative for Marty Jack Lee. We had 3186 votes and James Bealotta with 691 votes. For Governor, Larry Roden received 878 votes, John Hanson had 906, Dusty Johnson had 1,200, and Toby Doden had 1,110 votes. State Representative District 7, we have Roger DeGroot with 1,678 votes, Dennis Willert with 1,001, Melissa Heerman with 1,683 votes. And then for District 8 representative, we have Samuel Krueger with 318 votes, Todd Wilkinson with 644 votes, Danny Brown with 174, John Nelson with 405, and James Sapp with 361 votes. For the sheriff race, we had David Beitler with 2,506 votes and Sean Hosler with 1,141 votes. For our delegates to state convention, we have Diana Page with 1,044 votes, Susan M. Struwe with 851 votes, Roger DeGroot with 2,263 votes, Jeffrey A. Struwe with 961, and Seth T. Hansen with 1,552 votes. For Precinct Committee Man, Precinct 4, there was Wesley Cheddar with 179 votes, Ronald William Carlson with 68 votes, and then for the Precinct Committee Man, Precinct 5, we have Leon Pasal with 158 votes, Pat Powers with 291 votes. For the precinct committee woman, precinct four race, we have Madeline Kerr with 90 votes and Linda Adams with 100 votes. For our school board member, Brookings School District 5-1 race, we have Marcie Dirks with 1,506 votes and Kelsey Bauman with 2,145 votes. And that was all of our races.

I'm just going to put this up here. I'll just put this public results page kind of up here so you can see too. I am going to kind of. Come up to you guys if you want to move that and just kind of show you the poll book and then once we do that we can go ahead and declare the results and then once we do that will have Jennifer come up and draw for a vote center to audit as well as the races so. If you want to take a look at that, I'll come up with the poll list. These are all the eligible voters back here. And then these are the names of everyone who voted at each vote. So you guys can kind of look at it, pass it around. If you guys have any questions, let me know. I'll start down here with you, Kelly. Is there anything that you guys want to look at or ask before we take a motion and second to declare the results I

All right, I would look for a motion to declare the results of the 2026 primary election So moved second motion a second any comments questions Hearing none call the roll please post

Miller Jensen Vander Waal Hassler motion carries Awesome, and then yep that whole list will be down in our office along with anything else that you guys are interested in looking at you can just come down to the office and Look at whatever you guys would like to look at but I think for right now We'll go ahead and have Jennifer draw one vote center to audit along with one statewide race to audit and a local race and just as a reminder to the listening public the audit will take place in this chambers room on Wednesday June 17th and we're gonna begin at 9 a.m. okay so we have like Jenna mentioned earlier nine polling locations from the day of we have technically ten

because we have the absentee as one, but that is not included in the audit per the guidelines that they have laid out. So we have each center listed here in the bowl and Jennifer is going to draw one. Okay, so we have Volga Community Center for our location. Then we're going to poll a statewide race. Again, we have to have one statewide race. U.S. Senator is the first race that we will be auditing. And then the second one will be the rest of these county- Don't dump that in. What's that?

Empty your- Nope.

It's actually, so it's one statewide and one other.

Oh, okay.

Yes. Thank you though.

Well, the statewide ones were in there too, so I wanted to make sure.

Yes. And Brookings School Board member. So those are the two races that we will be auditing and the location again like Jenna mentioned on June 17th at 9 AM so. If you want to watch, feel free to come up and watch them. Audit. That's all we have.

I just want to thank everybody for their due diligence. And I think the last one, I was encouraged when you said that there wasn't any ballots that didn't have stamps, because on our last race, We had a lot of those, and I think that is a testament to the training that we provided to the poll workers before. So thank you very much, you guys. All right, moving on to number 13, executive session in accordance with SDCL 125.2 for one per personnel. Do I have a motion to enter? So moved.

Second.

Motion is second. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. We are an exec. Thank you very much.