(C) South Dakota Searchlight
This story was originally published by South Dakota Searchlight and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



South Dakota’s public servants should spend more time with the public • South Dakota Searchlight [1]

['Ruth Grinager', 'Seth Tupper', 'Luke Hagen', 'Samantha Chapman', 'More From Author', 'March', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline']

Date: 2025-03-13

I’m concerned that some of our elected South Dakota public servants have disappeared. The nonpartisan South Dakota League of Women Voters in Sioux Falls once again volunteered to host three legislative coffees during the 2025 legislative session. Two were canceled as our elected public servants failed to commit to meeting with the public. Another was canceled to accommodate the previously unscheduled inauguration of Gov. Larry Rhoden. One was later added, and one was rescheduled, giving us a total of two this legislative season.

At the first of those two legislative coffees, three of our Sioux Falls area Democratic legislators showed up to answer constituents’ questions, while zero Republican legislators appeared. The second coffee had similar results, with one Republican legislator and two Democratic legislators answering questions. Meeting with a broad swath of constituents and hearing their opinions (not just guessing about them or listening to friends, relatives and personal echo chambers) is part of the elected official’s job. I’m grateful to the six area legislators who understand their job and prioritized the public. However, I feel a showing of six out of 21 Sioux Falls-area legislators meeting their constituents in public meetings is not brag-worthy. That bar is incredibly low.

This trend is happening on the national level also, where South Dakota has only three elected public servants. I can’t remember the last time Sen. Mike Rounds, Sen. John Thune or Rep. Dusty Johnson had an open town hall meeting where a broad swath of their constituents was welcome to attend and see and hear their elected public servants, and ask them questions.

I knew the House was in recess recently and Rep. Johnson was home in South Dakota. I called his office to find out when he’d scheduled a town hall meeting. No one in the office knew, but I was informed that the representative only does telephone town hall meetings. They couldn’t tell me when the next phone meeting was scheduled, but if I got on a list, I’d get a two-hour notification before the meeting began. Questions for that phone meeting could be submitted ahead of time but not all questions would be answered.

This type of “meeting” isn’t transparent or easily accessible to some voters. It also isn’t well advertised, and I get Rep. Johnson’s weekly updates. When I contact our three national public servants by email, the general canned responses I get back often do not even address the concerns I originally shared. If given the option, I now ask for “no response necessary” because the responses are an embarrassingly poor showing for the legislator’s staff.

Every South Dakotan should be concerned. Who are these elected public servants serving? The voters hire them, and we can fire them. Those of us who pay taxes provide their salaries; and for our national officials, we provide incredible benefits packages, too. As the “hirers” and “firers,” our responsibility is to be aware of their job performances (voting records) and determine if they are worthy of being rehired. Their responsibility, as elected public servants, is to listen and be responsive to the public’s needs, questions and concerns — to inform us and be transparent. Public meetings are one good way of doing that and provide elected officials with a wide cross-section of constituents’ views.

What’s up with our state and federally elected public servants, and why are so many of them MIA?

After teaching middle school science in South Dakota public schools for 25 years, Ruth Grinager is now retired and living in Sioux Falls.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2025/03/13/south-dakotas-public-servants-should-spend-more-time-with-the-public/

Published and (C) by South Dakota Searchlight
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/sdsearchlight/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.