Colman Keeps Money from Kids, Cops?

...wherein the Madville Times blows its chance of being invited to live-blog next year's Looney Day...

The City of Colman hired a new police chief, Matthew Schlueter, back in May. He started on May 19 and was looking forward to hunting and fishing in the area. Alas, he didn't make it to hunting season. The city fired him June 25, without publicly citing a reason.

Hmm... you usually have to kick someone's dog to get treatment like that. So whose dog got kicked?

Well, as Schlueter and his attorney Todd Epp tell it, he kicked not a dog but a cow... the Colman cash cow. According to a news release from Schlueter's attorney, the City of Colman has been issuing speeding tickets on Highway 34 through town for years and collecting the fines. No big deal, right? We all know that 35-mile-per-hour stretch is a great revenue generator. Problem is, revenue from speeding tickets on state highways, even within city limits, is supposed to go to the state, which then divvies that money up among the school districts of the county where those tickets are issued and the state law enforcement training program. If folks didn't want to contest the ticket (simpler for everyone to keep it out of the court records, right?), Colman's previous police officer was simply having offenders write their check to the City of Colman.

According to the SD Department of Public Safety, the City of Colman issued 581 speeding tickets in FY2005. The state audit of the city for that year shows revenue from fines of $21,000 (see Table 2, page 8... and then, let's go out on a limb and compare that to the bigger town of Salem on busy Highways 81 and 38, which collected $326 in fines in FY2005). I don't have the data available to break down how many of those tickets were issued on Highway 34, and I'm not clear on how much the state should receive from such tickets. But let's say half of those tickets happened on Highway 34 (that's a conservative estimate: the rest of Colman isn't big enough to give a guy room to get a running start and break the speed limit). Suppose $30 per ticket for law enforcement training and a similar amount for the schools: that's over $17,000 for each program that was never collected. (Anyone with better-informed figures is enthusiastically encouraged to submit them here!)

New police chief Schlueter investigated previous ticketing practices and eventually got confirmation from Attorney General Larry Long that issuing city tickets and pocketing the fine without remitting the state is bad (i.e., out of compliance with SDCL 23-5-52 and SD Const. Article VII Section 3). Assistant City Attorney Jim Billion acknowledged this position in a letter to the city finance officer on June 11. Almost quicker than you can say "Rosco P. Coltrane!' the City Council terminated Chief Schlueter on June 25.

As stated above, the City Council gave no public reason for ousting its new chief, and since Schlueter was a probationary employee, it probably doesn't have to give a reason. However, if Schlueter was fired for refusing to violate state law and continue the earlier ticketing practices, he might stand a chance. It's on those grounds that Schlueter is appealing his quick termination.

Now this is just Schlueter's story. Barring other information, the Madville Times tends to give the underdog the benefit of the doubt, since underdogs generally have less to hide. However, we welcome further information from our neighbors in Colman who might be able to shed some light on what actually was going on.

In the meantime, while gas prices and Madville Times Jr. keep us from speeding much any more, the Madville Times will stick to the Hwy 19-38 route to Sioux Falls.