Yankton Businesses Want Heat on Smoking Ban Cheaters

Someone's being naughty in Yankton: several local business owners attended Monday's city commission meeting to urge the city to snuff out cheating on the smoking ban. The business owners allege that somebody in town is letting patrons smoke, in defiance of the clear will of the Legislature and the good voters of South Dakota. The complainants were too polite to name any cheaters, but the Press & Dakotan's Nathan Johnson reports complaints of smoking on the premises at Yankton's Tobacco Road.

The business owners think the $25 fine imposed by the new state smoking ban isn't harsh enough to deter some hardcore devotees of tobacco freedom. They want the city of Yankton to pass an ordinance that would impose additional fines or revoke the offending business's liquor license.

The city declined, saying it already has rules that allow it to deny liquor licenses to folks who engage in naughty behavior, including violation of state law. That makes sense to me: I'm all about not passing additional rules when existing rules can do the job.

I am a little disappointed, though, with Yankton City Attorney Dave Hosmer's lack of enthusiasm for enforcing state law:

City Attorney Dave Hosmer told the commission he has provided some advice to police in regard to enforcing the statute, alluding to the confusion that may exist as to whether such an establishment can allow smoking.

“If they are caught smoking in an establishment, and the officer can establish that the person was actually smoking, they will get a ticket,” he said. “If the person says, ‘I’m standing in an establishment which is exempt because it is a tobacco place or a cigar bar,’ I’ve instructed law enforcement that they should prepare a report and give it to the state’s attorney, who will then decide whether or not to issue a ticket.

“I don’t think that we should take the fault for a poorly drafted statute,” Hosmer added. “I think the State of South Dakota needs some better interpretation” [Nathan Johnson, "Smoking Ban Rules Questioned," Yankton Press & Dakotan, 2010.11.23].

"Poorly drafted"? Actually, SDCL 34-46-13 through 34-46-19 look pretty darn clear to this layperson. No smoking inside public places. Clear definition of exemption for cigar shops and tobacco shops. Attorney Hosmer is welcome to not like the statute, but he's hard-pressed to demonstrate any poor drafting in the text. Instead of pretending the ban is complicated and defanging the local enforcement by providing lawbreaking bar owners with a pre-fab excuse, Attorney Hosmer and the city should provide the Yankton police with a list (surely a brief one) of establishments that meet criteria of the smoking ban exemptions and authorize them to do their duty on the spot.

Hanten Launches "South Dakota Online" -- Who Needs TV?

First blogs beat up the newspapers; will Web TV kill KELO next?

Yankton 'Net maven Ben Hanten is busy innovating again. Yesterday marked the relaunch of SouthDakota123.com. In 2005*, Hanten created SouthDakota123.com. He took a swing at creating an aggregation service dedicated to South Dakota blogs, back when collecting blog content was a real technological challenge. As Hanten notes, blog aggregation is now so easy nearly anyone can do it. So he is reinventing SD123 as a platform for South Dakota Online, a weekly live video broadcast dedicated to highlighting all the interesting things happening in South Dakota's subsphere of the World Wide Web—blogs, YouTube, everything! The program is currently scheduled for every Wednesday from 3 to 4 p.m. Central.

His inaugural webcast beamed out from the basement of Ben's Brewing Company in beautiful downtown Yankton yesterday. How'd it go?

Contentwise, Ben's first broadcast was an enjoyable tour through the South Dakota Web. The program offered a brief discussion of Chris Nelson's mustache and the photo fracas between Dakota War College and Badlands Blue, an interview with SouthDacola's Scott Ehrisman, and notes on John Meyer's Twins MVB and John and Scott Meyer's ThePostSD.com and its potential to serve as the new alternative media in South Dakota. Hanten then featured some local videos from a Rapid City tattoo convention and what I might describe as a weird white-kids' mutation of the old Sun Dance ritual, as well as a couple comedy videos.

Techwise, South Dakota Online still looks plenty rough, but no rougher than one would expect from a live program hosted and produced by one man. If Hanten looks a little distracted during the Webcast, it's because he's keeping a lot of plates spinning. To run his live Webcast, Hanten is running his computer, a video camera, a screen capture program that allows him to switch from the camera to what's happening on his screen, and a phone connection that pipes calls onto the broadcast audio (eventually to be complemented by a Skype connection). He's monitoring his e-mail and Twitter to get messages from viewers and incorporate them into the show.

In my own classroom, I get distracted just trying to switch between my slideshow and webpage demos while trying to answer student questions and stick with my lecture notes. Hanten is trying to do twice as much in front of a live audience that he can't see. That's an enormous communications challenge. Bringing another person into the studio would be an enormous boon for the show. Hanten could concentrate on the content and presentation while a separate producer could man the video feeds. That added hand could troubleshoot problems (like those cantankerous YouTube videos not displaying) while Hanten does some good hostly improv to keep the show moving.

But I'm sure doubling the production staff is already on Ben's wishlist. Right now, he's making another admirable leap out onto the high-tech highwire. If the program catches on, it could become part of a new wave in South Dakota entertainment and culture, providing an outlet for creative expression that no other medium (and certainly not the corporate media) will provide. Keep at it, Ben!

If you missed it, the first episode is available any time you want to watch. Ah, the joys of the Web! When online stuff doesn't work the first time, you just go back and fix it: Hanten includes the feature YouTube videos that didn't beam out right during the live show. (Watch those kids swinging from the hooks in their shoulders—yeeessshhh!)

*Clarification from Ben himself—sorry about the misstatement, Ben!
--------------------------
p.s.: I don't say nice things about people just because they say nice things about me. But I thank both Ben Hanten his guest Scott Ehrisman for their kind words about the Madville Times during their conversation on South Dakota Online's inaugural broadcast yesterday:

Madville Times is probably our South Dakota 'Left' blog... Cory's probably the guy if you really want to go and read about Democrats and liberals and the Left in South Dakota he'd be the guy to read, that would be the website to get the actual political news [Scott Ehrisman].

Cory's for sure a thinker. He's putting a little thought into what he writes. A lot of times he's going off of studies or other research, so Cory's is probably a little bit more of an academic blog [Ben Hanten, interview, South Dakota Online, 2009.10.14].

Thank you, gents! And thank you, South Dakota, for supporting intelligent online conversation.

Yankton Super: SD "Pokey" on Wind Power

The Yankton School District just announced it will erect a 2.4-kilowatt wind turbine to provide a little green juice to its new bus barn and admin building. It's not much, but every little bit helps. The wind turbine will also help teach kids about wind power, as do the turbines at Sanborn Central and a handful of other forward-thinking South Dakota schools.

The quote of the day comes from Yankton Superintendent Dr. Joe Gertsema:

South Dakota's been a little bit pokey about... getting to the wind energy.... There are a couple schools in Iowa -- I know there's one for sure -- where they literally have put up these towers to generate energy to run their school. [Dr. Joe Gertsema, interview, WNAX Radio, 2009.09.23]

Hit the books, kids! Dr. G. says we've got some catching up to do!

Local Chow: Charlie's Pizza House in Yankton

I've been meaning to give props to Charlie's Pizza House in Yankton for some time. Located at the intersection of Highway 52 and Summit St. on the west side of Yankton, Charlie's had caught my attention several times, as it sits just up the street from the Star-Lite Inn, where I almost always stay when I'm in Yankton for speech tournaments. Alas, debate and interp schedules usually have me hustling too fast for a sit-down meal, so a visit to Charlie's kept ending up on my "next time" list.

What finally got me in Charlie's door? Good local marketing. Last March, while I was judging the South Dakota State Debate Tournament, I chatted with Yankton debater Olivia Hopewell. She was helping run the tab table. As I was checking out for supper, she recommended I go to Charlie's Pizza. She also recommended I tell the lady behind the counter she looks like Marilyn Monroe. (The lady behind the counter is her aunt.)

Now Olivia is paid to wait tables, not advertise. But her talking up the joint convinced to me finally to take the extra time to go see how I liked Charlie's Pizza House. Chambers of Commerce, take note: the best marketing comes not from splashy ad campaigns designed by expensive out-of-town consultants, but from locals who give a dang about where they work.

Thanks to Olivia's marketing, I found a Pizza House with good local casual class. The interior is a little dark, but the walls are bedecked with an exuberant array of old signs and movie posters, good 50s–60s cool. The kitchen is right at the front by the counter, where you can see the cooks working pizza wonders. (And Olivia's aunt, who was indeed at that counter when I walked in for my March visit, bears an arguable resemblance to what Marilyn have grown to be had the movie star given up Hollywood and come to Yankton to spin pizzas.)

Having the kitchen at the front makes it easier to thank the folks who make your dinner. If my two visits—the March solo trip and our family outing last week while camping—are accurate indications, you will want to thank them. Charlie's makes good pizza. And it's unique pizza. The menu includes several specialty pizzas, all named for movie stars. On my first outing, I had the John Wayne: beef, ham, green olive, mushroom, barbecue sauce, and (the kicker!) crab. This combo makes even green olives taste good (and I am not an olive fan). Last week, my wife and I split a Bette Davis: chicken, alfredo sauce, tomato, and onion, with a strong dose of garlic salt. More yum! And the medium, with a salad and two slices of cheesy bread, was plenty to split among my wife and me and our happily distracted three-year-old.

Other highlights from the menu:

• Sauerkraut makes not one but two appearances on the menu, on the Hawaiian Elvis and the Festus. I admire the chef's courage.
• The Clint Eastwood is a chicken pizza. (Don't let Eastwood find out!)

Of course, we're talking pizza here. I've never met a pizza I didn't like, whether it's cheap heart-attack cheese pizza from Casey's c-store, wiener pizza in Russia, or that frozen Red Baron pizza that had a pencil in it that Mom wouldn't let me finish when I was 10.

Charlie's warrants return visits not just for good chow, but good atmosphere and good service. They're not a franchise, so Charlie's can be its own place. There are no uniforms. Olivia was waiting tables during last week's visit in a t-shirt and running pants, yet she was as poised and professional as any waitress I've encountered in our fair state. (But of course she's poised: she's a debater!) She didn't push us to order more or try to hurry us out, and she never came across as officious; she just did her job as if she were enjoying it.

Charlie's has a sizable bar area, about the same size as the dining area. Sometimes that might turn me away, especially with our three-year-old in tow. But Charlie's makes the combination of family food and bar work. They also display a sign declaring "We are proud to be 'Smoke Free'"—yes, complete with unnecessary quote marks. So while some bar and restaurant owners whine that a smoking ban would put them out of business, Charlie's Pizza House banishes smokes to the parking lot or elsewhere in Yankton and seems to be doing just fine.

Charlie's also has a game room crowded with video games (I played some mutant-alien-green slime shoot-em-up; my wife played Ms. Pac-Man) and, glory of glories, a foos-ball table. On our visit last week, I heard a grown man shout, "I haven't... played this... for years!" (His exuberant outburst contained some punchy Anglo-Saxon modifiers.) A few minutes later, over passionate spinning and thwacking, we heard the same man exult to his working-man buddy, "Oh, you got stung!" I can't help enjoying the sight and sound of two grown men enjoying silly, harmless fun between pizza and beer.

Charlie's benefits from a great location. They surely pick up lots of traffic from the Mount Marty campus and the hospital (and I assume they don't send traffic to the hospital). They are also the first eatery all the campers on Lewis and Clark Lake hit when they come back into town. Charlie's is a perfect fit with camping: instead of staying and eating at cookie-cutter franchises, you pitch your tent along the river, bike to town, and eat somewhere unique, somewhere that helps anchor your unique memory of the place rather than blending in with every other Pizza Hut or Burger King you've rushed through.

So if you're in Yankton for camping, debate, or Riverboat Days, or if you're just passing through on a glorious non-Interstate trip, swing by the west side of town for supper at Charlie's Pizza House.

And don't forget to tell Olivia's aunt she reminds you of Marilyn Monroe.

Gehl Suspends Yankton Ops -- Bad Sign for Madison?

When employment figures are good in Yankton, there's cause for optimism in Madison. So said Jon Hunter last week of Yankton's April decline in unemployment and good news from the Yankton Gehl plant:

Just like the Madison plant, the Yankton Gehl plant had laid off employees and cut back hours dramatically. The company announced in April that about 100 employees in Yankton would return to work.

While the two plants make different products, the improved fortunes at Yankton would indicate that the company as a whole is more optimistic and less likely to retrench further [Jon Hunter, editorial, "Progress in Yankton May Mean Madison Gets Better, Too," Madison Daily Leader, 2009.05.26].

Four days later, Gehl announced it is temporarily suspending production at the Yankton plant. No word yet from our man Hunter on what that means for Madison.

Far be it from me to be a pessimist, but I would think Hunter's headline is as plausible as its contrapositive. Anyone else nervous?

Highest Unemployment in Southeast South Dakota: Lake County, 7.2%

KELO reports that among South Dakota's largest cities, Yankton has the highest unemployment rate, at 6.7% (according to January data).

A quick review of the state's unemployment stats reveals Lake County isn't in too good a shape, either: our January unemployment rate was 7.2%. There are still 12 counties worse off than we are, but our rate is the highest rate in southeast South Dakota.

Compare those numbers to the statewide average of 5.1%. Even Huron, which I don't think of as a vibrant job market, has kept its unemployment down to 3.8%. Our friends up the road in Brookings are storming along at 3.0% jobless (add that to the campaign file, Mayor Munsterman).

Yankton Chamber Aims Dollars at Young Agriculturalists

My trip to Yankton this weekend brought to my attention a darned good idea for community development: the Yankton Area Chamber of Commerce has created a scholarship program for young people going into agriculture. The P.A.Y.—Promoting Agricultural Youth—Scholarship will give $500 each year to a graduating senior from Yankton or surrounding counties who intends to study agriculture at college. The Yankton Chamber is also thinking beyond college and aiming to see its investment plowed right back into the community by looking for students who "have their eye on a specific job here at home," says Jeff Pravacek, chair of the Chamber Agribusiness Committee.

Why an ag scholarship from an organization that the casual observer might think focuses more on in-town business?

"Agriculture is vital to this community and we're tring to promote that fact," [Pravacek] added.

Pravacek said that establishing incentives for youth to stay in... their home community is key to economic stability [Lisa Hare, "PAY as You Go," Yankton Press & Dakotan, 2008.09.13, p. B1].

But how many young people actually want to stay on the farm instead of heading for a nice cushy city job? More than you might think, says Pravacek:

Today's producers are business managers more than laborers.... People (in agriculture) still have to work hard, but it's not really the sweat and blisters work with a pitchfork that it used to be. It's a better lifestyle today, so that is more appealing to our young people [Hare, 2008.09.13].

The Madison Chamber sponsors an Ag Scholarship as well. Scholarships like these are a good investment of local dollars, especially if they are targeted at young people who are inclined to reinvest their talent in their hometown.

Yankton Recall Recap

With David & David sworn in already and rsbailey putting aside his/her/their computer to enjoy the solstice and other co-opted pagan festivities, Kelly Hertz of the Yankton Press & Dakotan offers a good local recap of the recall. Of interest to campaigners and bloggers (and whatever strange combination of the two may evolve in 2008):

Recall organizers started newyankton.com when the petitions were being circulated, then mothballed it when the petitions were filed. I have to believe they may have second-guessed themselves on that decision during the campaign. That's a decision we probably won't see repeated [Kelly Hertz, "A Last Look at the Recall," Yankton Press & Dakotan, 2007.12.21].

The decision by Ben Hanten et al. to mothball the NewYankton.com blog was an unusual one. But it couldn't have been an accidental or casual decision. The recall organizers created the blog for a specific purpose, to get the word out, communicate with petition circulators and interested voters, and keep their petition-drive ducks in a row. They achieved that purpose, then decided not to push further with the blog. One interpretation of this move is that the recall organizers did not want to come across as shouting bullies. Rather than spend another six weeks possibly putting foot in mouth, they got what they wanted -- a public vote -- and simply put their faith in the majority to make up their own minds.

As for newyankton.info - a group that was both anonymous and "forthright" [sic] - it was an intriguing idea that turned into its own worst enemy. Claiming on a P&D blog that newyankton.info wielded a "flaming sword of justice" (and they damned me as self-righteous), one thing it didn't wield was what makes Web dialogue a democratic revelation: It didn't allow interaction and conversation. The only opinion it was interested in was its own. So, what seemed initially to be a new, smart idea turned out to rely on musty political methods that the interactive Web has rendered obsolete.

Indeed, rsbailey made the same mistake that some other bloggers are chided for: shutting out the readers. Among the keys to making blogs work are transparency and interaction. The margin of victory for the challengers suggests that Bernard and Rupiper were on the way out no matter what tactics their blog mouthpieces used. A good, interactive, transparent, authentic web presence isn't a sufficient condition for winning, but it will become increasingly necessary.

(Note to Russ -- if you're running in 2008, tell Darin to set you up a blog!)

Rupiper: Difficult to Get the Message Out?

...Hanten got his message out in two weeks.

The Yankton Press & Dakotan covers the city recall election results that replaced Mayor Curt Bernard and Councilman Dan Rupiper with design engineer David Carda and attorney David Knoff (cue the music, kids!).

Evidently ex-Councilamn Rupiper is having a little difficulty with reality:

"It's very difficult to get the message out in a short period of time," he said. "This was not an election driven by issues. If you really analyze it, it's everything centered around 'recall' and what the recall meant. To counter that is extremely difficult. We weren't able to do it" [quoted by Nathan Johnson, "Carda, Knoff Prevail," Yankton Press & Dakotan, 2007.12.19].

"...[D]ifficult to get the message out..."? Um, back in October, Ben Hanten and the original New Yankton group were able to get their message out in two weeks. I suppose if you're busy hunkering down in your office with your lawyers trying to come up with legalisms to stop the democratic process instead of accepting the challenge and knocking on doors for a few weeks, then yes, it might be difficult to get your message out. It doesn't help when your only major web presence is an anonymous cast of cryptic characters veering erratically from occasionally reasonable policy statements to Christmas stories and cries of the death of democracy on a mostly unnavigable website.

Local democracy isn't that hard, kids. Take the fight to the streets: knock on doors, talk to people, back it up with a decent website -- presto! message delivered. The recall organizers got it; Bernard and Rupiper didn't.

Yankton Democracy Marches On...

...though we could use a few more marchers!

The Yankton Press and Dakotan posts unofficial election results for yesterday's City Commission recall. And indeed, people were unhappy with the incumbents:



The Press & Dakotan offers full coverage this morning. No comment yet this morning from newyankton.info -- they're probably lamenting the death of democracy at the hands of... a democratic process.

The politically observant will probably look at that turnout -- 38% for a single-issue, off-season special election -- and say, "Dang, that's pretty good!" The Madville Times remains dismayed that more people don't get out to vote, whatever is on the ballot. Citizens should jump at any chance to have a say on what government at any level is doing. "The majority has spoken!" has a much nicer ring to it than "The majority of the minority has spoken!"

While newyankton.info's rhetoric about evil winning if good people sit back and do nothing goes a little far for one local recall election (casting your enemies as evil is not a good basis for practical political discourse), there is more room for evil -- or at least bad results, like the decline of representative democracy and civic engagement -- when three out of five people don't participate in the political process. Our elected officials sacrifice time all year long to go to meetings, study issues, and put their names on the line with their votes. Democracy asks us regular citizens for much less: read a bit, talk to our neighbors, keep an eye on what's going on, and drop by the polls once or twice a year to spend five minutes making check marks. Pretty small price to pay for government done right.

See you at the polls in June!

Yankton Commissioner Rupiper Takes Campaign Online

Special for our Yankton readers: five days out from the recall election, Commissioner Dan Rupiper has a new website! The newyankton.info folks link to DanRupiper.com, which went online this morning at 6:35 (at least that's the "LastSaved" tag in the source code).

It's not an impressive website -- just one page, no functionality, no links, no contact information. But then if you live in Yankton, you can probably just pick up a phone book or call City Hall. Rupiper's page has the basics: nice picture, fair slogan, good outline of achievements and reasons to keep him in office. And given the short time before the election, maybe that's plenty for the online side of the campaign.

See? Online democracy isn't that hard, is it? Turn on the computer, make your case, and let the voters decide.

Judge Anderson Lets Yankton Recall Proceed

They're weird, but they're fast: the anonymous newyankton.info folks have posted Judge Bruce Anderson's decision (faxed at 17:32 today; newyankton.info got its copy from attorney William Taylor) allowing Yankton's December 18 recall election to proceed. Judge Anderson finds that the petitioners (Mayor Bernard and Councilman Rupiper, who wanted the court to keep them from facing the judgment of the voters) were indeed grasping at legal straws, assembling a mishmash of previous cases that just don't apply to the statute in question. The judge acknowledges that the recall petitions were "not a model of clarity and are poorly drafted" [p. 7, parag. 2]. However, recognizing that restraint is the better part of judicial valor, Judge Anderson writes the following important justification for not intervening:

The judiciary must exercise restraint in interfering with the elective process which is reserved to the people in the state constitution and as per statute.... By exercising restraint in determining the legal sufficiency of recall charges, the court neither questions the truth of the charges, nor inquires into the motives of those filing the charges.... Furthermor, statutory provisions relating to recall of elected officials are to be liberally interpreted in favor of the electorate (p. 7, parag. 1).

In conclusion, and in the same vein:

This court has not made any judicial inquiry into the truth or falsity of the specific charges set forth in the recall petitions. To assess or determine the truth or falsity of the allegations in the recall petitions is left specifically to the voters and electorate of the City of Yankton [p. 9, parag. 1].

Judge Anderson's judicial restraint protects the democratic process in a way that belies the grim "funeral for democracy" cartoon posted tonight at the top of newyankton.info's homepage. Now it's up to the voters... the way it should be.

Cross-posted at KELOLand.com... which didn't get around to reporting the story until Tuesday morning, 12/11, 07:06.

SouthDaCola Calls Yankton Recall Fracas Right

I'm pleased to link for the first time to one of Scott Ehrisman's visual commentaries at SouthDaCola. Today he takes a well-deserved poke at Yankton Mayor (for now) Curt Bernard, who doesn't think he and fellow councilman Dan Rupiper should not have to face a recall election duly and legally called by 1400+ Yankton. As Ehrisman notes, most South Dakotans labor under our "right-to-work" laws, which work more like "right-to-fire" laws. Readers, enjoy! Scott, well put.

NewYankton.info Posts Bernard-Rupiper Claim

But don't take this layperson's opinion: read Mayor Bernard and Councilman Rupiper's legal filing for yourself, courtesy of NewYankton.info, see if it passes your own legal smell test.

Yankton Officials Grasp at Legalisms to Stop Election

Yankton Mayor Curt Bernard and City Councilman Dan Rupiper are asking the First Circuit Court to stop the recall election called against them by 1400 Yankton citizens. They base their legal challenge on SDCL 9-13-30, which lays out the rules for municipal recall elections. SDCL 9-13-30 requires that the recall petition "contain a specific statement of the grounds on which removal is sought." Bernard and Rupiper argue the petition circulated in Yankton fails to meet that criterion.

The rambling and annoyingly anonymous* folks at NewYankton.info provide a scan of the petition text. "Gross partiality, oppression and/or misconduct... forcing the resignation of City Manager Jeff Weldon... conduct resulting in multiple City of Yankton employees resigning or quitting...." The mayor and his friends at NewYankton.info point toward a lengthier recall petition from Hot Springs that goes into much more detail on the reasons for recalling then mayor Carl Oberlitner.**

Bernard and Rupiper justify their court challenge in a media release:

In a media release issued by Bernard and Rupiper Tuesday afternoon, they wrote that "this is not about this one recall. It is about setting precedence. With the new tools of e-mail, blogs and Internet attacks, anyone may be able to just blitz the public hard enough to get the signatures without time for full truth or real grounds.

"If this stands, recalls will be more common and no commissioner will ever feel they can stand for what is right for the whole community against any bullying self-interest group," they wrote. "Commissioners would then just dumb down and stay safely within the herd" [Nathan Johnson, "Bernard, Rupiper Challenge Recall," Yankton Press and Dakotan, 2007.11.21].

Elected officials must be terrified, just terrified of the possibility that new technology might actually empower citizens to challenge authority and exercise their democratic rights. Welcome to the 21st century, Curt and Dan. The only special interest group you have to fear is the general public itself. 1400+ people signed the petitions; a few thousand more need to show up to vote you out. That's not bullying or subverting the will of the people. That's democracy.

As for the claim that the petition is vague, Bernard and Rupiper are grasping at straws. SDCL 9-13-30 doesn't impose a minimum-word count on the petition (this isn't my English classroom); it just says "a specific statement." The petition clearly stems from the commission's firing of the city manager. Good enough. Let Yankton vote.

Hot Springs mayor Oberlitner also resorted to the courts to try blocking his recall. Public officials understandably will do anything they can to protect their reputations (Rupiper himself says he's trying to protect "the credibility of our own names and reputations here" [Johnson 2007.11.21]). The judge rejected Oberlitner's claim, but Oberlitner didn't need to raise a legal ruckus; he survived the recall. Instead of tying up the courts with a thin legal argument, Bernard and Rupiper should simply let their records stand for themselves and make their case in the court of public opinion. They have NewYankton.info to argue their case for them; all those new-fangled Internet tools can work for them just as well as against them.

*A WHOIS search shows the "writers" at NewYankton.info have taken great care to hide their identity. No names, no physical address, even disguised e-mail addresses. Just a P.O. Box in Vancouver, Washington. The only name available on the site is in the e-mail address linked to rsbailey@newyankton.info. Even if rsbailey is a real person, the site speaks as "we." The original New Yankton group that successfully organized the recall put their names to their effort; who else is NewYankton.info? Emotions are high in Yankton, but it's a shame when neighbors can't just talk to each other.

**Puzzlingly, the NewYankton.info folks go to the trouble of whiting out Mayor Oberlitner's name on this public document, though not that of land developer Steve Simunek.

Yankton City Government Paralyzed

The Yankton City Commission offers another puzzler: last night, the commission let die without a motion a proposed investigation of possible "criminal micro-management of city employees" [Nathan Johnson, "City Investigation a No-Go," Yankton Press and Dakotan, 2007.11.14]. Possible misdeeds in that area have motivated a recall election of Yankton Mayor Curt Bernard and Commissioner Dan Rupiper.

The embattled mayor himself had called for an investigation, so why did the commission back away from that idea? It seemed like a good idea...

However, after returning from an executive session with City Attorney Jim Goetz, Mayor Curt Bernard explained that a law went into effect earlier this year making it illegal to spend public funds if they could influence the outcome of an election.

"I think it kind of precludes any discussion of this investigator work," Bernard said. "But, in fairness, I think there is some gray area in this law, so if the commission wants to proceed with that, there is a lot of gray area here." [Johnson]

Attorney Goetz and Mayor Bernard appear to be referring to HB1048, this year's campaign finance reform law, specifically SDCL 10-27-20, "Expenditure of public funds to influence election outcome prohibited."

Oh my. Goetz's and Bernard's explanation sounds pretty thin. The city wasn't talking about buying posters or airtime to combat the recall effort. They were talking about an investigation of possible wrongdoing by elected officials who also just happen to be on an upcoming ballot.

But if the mayor's interpretation of the public expenditure clause is correct, he may have just given us a recipe for complete governmental paralysis during election season. If hiring a special investigator might influence an election, couldn't hiring a consultant to come up with a plan for a new city pool (which the Yankton City Commission did last night) influence voters as well? What about the 3% salary adjustment for city workers they approved last night? What about the vote to re-open the outdoor skating rink?

If I'm a Yankton city worker this morning, I'm thinking, "A 3% raise and outdoor skating this year? Yahoo! Our commission is great! I'm not recalling those guys." My vote's just been influenced! By the expenditure of public funds! Call Chris Nelson! (AG Long is still recuperating -- don't bother him!)

Oh well. Mayor Bernard appears to have found an easy way to avoid difficult issues. Elected officials around the state will be pleased to have this clever bit of lawyering at their disposal. Looks like the voters of Yankton will just have to handle things themselves.