More Indy Fun: Rondeau-Bassett Challenges Sattler for Roberts Co. Auditor

Roberts County Auditor Dawn Sattler's falling down on the job will not go unchallenged. Wilmot's Cheryl Rondeau-Bassett has filed as an Independent to challenge the incumbent Democrat for the job. Expect Rondeau-Bassett to run on a simple platform: she'll actually do the job instead of letting $765,000 fall through the cracks and getting the state auditor general on the county's back.

Now the big Indy question: will Mark St. Pierre's petitions pass Secretary Nelson's muster so Senator John Thune's record can also face electoral challenge?

Roberts County Auditor Not "On Top" of Finances... But "Not Doing a Bad Job"

Following up on Roberts County's violations of state law uncovered in a scathing state audit, HJ Pro Voice interviews (in a text document unnecessarily plugging up bandwidth in bulky PDF format) with inattentive auditor Dawn Sattler. The interview is included with HJPV's summary of Tuesday's county commission meeting.

HJPV assures us "THERE IS NO MONEY MISSING" [caps in original]. Sattler ascribes the budget violations to the beleaguered jail construction project. According to HJPV's meeting summary, the jail project was apparently supposed to be a money-maker for the county. Roberts County expected to make $360,000 from housing state and federal prisoners. HJPV reports from the commission meeting that a new facility in Hughes County has taken most of the federal prisoners and that state prisoners have only generated $4500 for the county this year. Oops.

Back to Sattler: she says she didn't do her financials the way she should have. She says she wasn't forceful enough in opposing things she should have. She promises she'll keep a closer eye on the budget... but the fact remains that, in violation of state law, Sattler allowed let the county play shell games with $765,000.

Sattler is running for reëlection. She says she's not doing a bad job. Really.

Roberts County Fails State Audit: $765,000 Improperly Accounted

The Sissteon Area Blog posts the results of the state's audit of Roberts County. The results are... unsatisfactory. Auditor General Marty Guindon lists these five violations by Roberts County in a report dated March 16, 2010:

Finding No. 2008-01: Internal accounting controls over financial reporting for the years 2007 and 2008 were inadequate resulting in inaccurate information being presented to users of the annual financial reports.

Finding No. 2008-02: Internal accounting controls over monitoring of cash and fund balance were inadequate resulting in negative cash balances in the Road and Bridge Fund and Jail Construction Fund of $445,098.72 and $320,149.52, respectively, and deficit fund balances of $42,353.32 and $320,149.52, respectively, at Decmeber 31, 2008.

Finding No. 2008-03: Deficiencies were noted regarding internal accounting controls and record keeping resulting in diminished assurance that transactions were properly executed and recorded and assets were properly safeguarded.

Finding No. 2008-04: The county auditor did not prepare, publish or file with the Auditor General of the Department of Legislative Audit on a timely basis annual financial reports for the years ended December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2008 in violation of South Dakota Codified Laws (SDCL) 7-10-4. [Those reports are due March 1; Roberts County filed its 2007 report on June 17, 2008. As of the release of this audit, Roberts County had not yet filed its 2008 report.]

Finding No. 2008-05: The County did not comply with state laws related to the County's budgeting procedures. [The auidt cites overdrafts in the General Fund and Road and Bridge Fund, unapproved excess spending on the county jail, $520K in unauthorized supplemental funding on the Public Safety budgets, and overestimated revenue resulting in deficit in the Road and Bridge fund.]

Words you really don't want to hear in an audit: violation and did not comply. And check out Finding #2: the accounting was off by $765,000. That's a lot of money floating around with no one accounting for it. That's a lot of room for monkey business.

The Auditor General reviews the Roberts County financial statements and finds that Roberts County's expenditures, disclosures, and cash flows "are not reasonably determinable."

The Auditor General concludes:

In our opinion... the financial statements referred to above do not present fairly, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, the financial position of Roberts County, South Dakota, as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, or the changes in its financial position or its cash flows, where applicable, for the years then ended.

Roberts County Auditor Dawn Sattler apparently has some explaining to do to her neighbors around Sisseton... and to Pierre.

All Local (or Close Enough): Sisseton Communities Meeting Place Blog

Click click click—my morning Web surfing leads me to the Sisseton Communities Meeting Place, a fun local blog from our neighbors in northeast South Dakota. I found it through a link on the Watertown Public Opinion's blogroll... hey! Jon Hunter! How come you haven't linked me back yet on the Madison Daily Leader site?

SCMP (anyone calling it Scamp yet?) is dedicated to discussing Roberts County, local government, schools, the jail, and other matters of import to the 10,000 hardy residents of the Sissteon-Peever metroplex. And Todd Epp thinks there's nothing to write about—there's always local news! And SCMP goes looking for it.

On the good side, SCMP is following the collaborative community journalism model, posting a few details, asking questions, and getting more background from commenters. For example, a post last Friday asked about a possible shooting incident folks were talking about. Commenters quickly explained that the incident was actually a police training exercise (though if the police train the way they drive, Sisseton folks might still be jittery). The blog also offers a host of links to local resources: local media, local reservation media (I think in the big city they'd call that alternative media) local schools, even the Roberts County Freecycle group (Discover the Unexpected™, indeed!). Local, local, local—I likey, likey, likey.

On the bad side, the conversation is mostly anonymous. Even the "Administrator" offers no personally identifiable information (though that toe looks suspiciously like South Dacola's Scott Ehrisman). Perhaps the locals know perfectly well who is producing the blog, and perhaps commenters living in the midst of mistrust between Indians and white folks can make a stronger case for wanting to keep their identities private. Nonetheless, real community discussion that brings folks together requires names and faces. I hope the SCMP administrator and his commenters will consider taking that step toward openness and authenticity. Real names and faces only make your words and your community stronger.

On the whole, I applaud this effort at community discourse and watchdoggery. Such online conversation may get ugly sometimes, but even the ugly stuff isn't anything folks aren't already thinking and whispering to each other. If something's amiss in your community, you might as well get it out in the open where everyone can facce it and maybe fix it. Keep up the conversation, Sisseton and neighbors!