Check Out The SOTA

Claudia has a very good letter to the Editor in this week's SOTA that makes some really good points regarding what really happened leading to Sheriff Owen's resignation versus what we were told happened.......

It is a "must read" so be sure to check it out! Just click the colored SOTA name in this post to read it.

Thanks to Claudia and of course to Chuck for telling it like it is....

Does anybody see a pattern here?

Does anybody see a pattern here?

In 2006 Moen was voted out as sheriff and Gaikowski elected. Gaikowski was to have begun in January 2007, but the CC decided to create a "new" position suddenly. This "new position" entailed them appointing McClelland
and giving him complete authority over Gaikowski, leaving nothing for the duly elected sheriff to do. Of course Gaikowski resigned (something the CCs were hoping would happen all along). Due to the many complaints from voters over this the CC appointed another Native American, Owen, who was reelected by the voters. Owen endured many months of harassment by the CCs with their vendetta against anyone with any ties to the Oyate.
Now Owen has resigned, leaving the county vulnerable again to the idiotic whims of a few who imagine themselves invincible and all powerful.

This pretty much boils down to white supremacy and a total discriminatory attitude by some of the ccs. They don't want a Native in a position of any sort of power, plain and simple....even if that person was duly elected by the people.

Have we had enough yet? Are we going to allow even more damage done to our county by those who took an oath to work for us rather than against us? The damage done by our present commissioners will live long after we get rid of them so the sooner we get them OUT the sooner we can begin the healing process. Roger and Tim are okay, but the others are not.

How much more of this behavior will it take for the PEOPLE to take back our county??? We need to stand up and be counted and we need to do it NOW!!

Sheriff Owen is OUT!

We hear from a good source that yesterday the CC held a special meeting during which they gave Vince $20,000 and got him to resign.
The Buzz is that the only application comes from Deputy Travis Grajczyk at this time.
We also hear that Chad Ward tried to resign as well, but the CC tabled his request.
The lack of support from the CC, running a large county department without sufficient manpower and the general harassment from those "Good Ole Boys" were the main reasons it was said.
All we can say at this time is "What were they thinking" or perhaps better yet: "Were they thinking at all?"

Please Vince, if you are reading this.....please reconsider!!

A Little Bit Of This 'n That

911:

We hear that it has been proven that 911 would be cheaper to keep it here in RC so LEAVE IT BE BOBBY! The equipment we already have in place will be good enough for several more years and a substantial savings would be made by keeping 911 in local hands. That news ought to free up some of Mr. Horton's time so he won't need to be running all over digging up bones anymore. Perhaps he can begin by earning his paycheck??

JAIL ISSUES:

Poor Horton keeps running all over trying to cut dispatchers down in the jail. Why don't you give it up Bobby? First you used the excuse of 911 and not needing the dispatchers. Then you made a fool out of the entire county by running to neighboring counties to see what their budgets, manpower hours and staffing needs were....but you forgot you were comparing apples to oranges. Now you are running to Pierre trying to meet with state branches to preach your story, only to find nobody will meet with you. Give it up Horton. Even you should see that this is out of your league.

It always seems to come back to the word HORTON. Wherever there is trouble or argument, you will find Horton. Besides making RC look foolish, yourself look ignorant, you are also throwing up stupidity at Hull as well. People think RC must have some pretty slow CCs and a Chair CC who can't even control his own board's idiotic public behavior. It must be a regular circus at the courthouse on Tuesdays.....at least that is what every single county in the entire area is thinking, and they are probably correct.....

911 Follow Up

Our Sheriff, Vince Owen, has made some very good points on this subject *see the previous post* so we would like to "revisit" this subject a little more.

Vince could you please post exactly what issues need to be resolved on 911 as you mentioned in your prior comment? Are these issues that we need to know concerning 911?

Speaking from a citizen's view on this, we understand that RC would need equipment to handle the incoming/outgoing calls plus people to do that, certainly more training involved if RC was to take all incoming 911 calls....but is there more to 911 than what we citizens see? What are the cost ratios as to having the needed equipment/operators compared to costs of paying another county to take the initial calls and notify us?

We've had charges on our telephone bill for more years than I care to recall earmarked for the 911 system, but so far all we have seen from those charges are some road signs (put up when the county was back against the deadline I might add). Most rural residents have gotten a mouthful for a new address and that's about it so far.

Vince also suggested that everyone contact your CC and let them know that you want this very important issue decided by THE PEOPLE and not a few who have shown they don't give a hoot about what is best for Roberts County. Contact your area commissioner (who works for you no matter what he thinks) or go to a county meeting and voice your opinion please!

A big THANKS to Vince for the input on this and kudos to you Vince for yet another productive income-producing month!!

Don't Mess With 911

It seems that our small-minded CC's are trying to use the 911 system to undermine our sheriff. DON'T EVEN THINK OF THIS!!
We cannot stress enough how very critical 911 is and how keeping it local is to our advantage in so many ways.

Having one local call center to accept incoming 911 calls keeps mistakes to a minimum, has much less chance for error when only
one phone call is needed rather than one to call and another to relay that information. A local 911 call center also has the big
advantage of quicker response time, more knowledge of area where the help is needed as well as being less costly.

There really is no advantage to having another county receive the calls, none. In fact it would drive costs up, result in more
mistakes and slower response time. It would not reduce jail staff as dispatchers would still be needed to answer 911 calls whether
coming from another call center or coming directly from those in need of help.

We have been charged a fee for quite some time already for this service so our county ought to be ready to begin this service
without even more monies. What has been done with those monies already received CC? So far the only results we have seen
are those the county has been forced by law to follow, such as the rural addressing signs etc.

Chuck has an excellent article in today's SOTA detailing the jail's county contributions to date. Just click the

SOTA link

It is a pity how much 5 commissioners can mess up a county with their "get-even" attitude. Give us a break! Leave our sheriff
and jail staff alone and let them do the fine job they have been doing. Maybe with the deposits from the jail that Vince & Chad have been
giving to the county we can accomplish this 911 transition without even more money??

Is BIG BROTHER Watching You??

We hear that one of our CCs is attempting to dig up dirt where none exists. It is well known that Horton has been going around to other counties Sheriff departments trying to get comparisons as to costs and/or operating procedures to RCs (and we all know you cannot compare apples to oranges don't we). All he has accomplished so far is to make Roberts County the laughingstock of the entire region.

So now he has branched out.

He was seen sitting at the landfill recently watching activities. Finding nothing worthwhile there he proceeded to watch the 24/7 program at the jail.....which is a state program with no county monies involved. Frustrated with that activity he sat and watched the dispatcher's office all night.

Who will be next? What are the CCs looking for? Could the CC be thinking of cutting our Sheriff's staff when it is already down below the bare minimum already? Is Horton drawing overtime/night shift wages for his nocturnal detective shifts? We will be watching closely to see who the CC throw mud at next and how much of it actually sticks and how much splashes back at them.......we do know that both Zempel and George do not support these underhanded activities. We also know how to rid our county of those CCs who actually encourage this sick behavior don't we?

Jail Revenue & More Questions

Jail Revenue to County:

$44,767 to general county fund from different agencies, work release, telephone cards

$14,281 to general county fund from grant written by Chad and Vince

$28,458 amount county saved by not sending juveniles to other facilities

That is a lot of money to be given back to county funds. Especially when you never hear the CC say anything about it. All you hear them talk about is how broke the county is? Where are the county records? They are considered public now so should be truly public....where are they ? And what do those records say?

More Questions.....

Dept of Labor ordered county to pay overdue overtime hours to dispatchers, jailers & deputies. County wrote checks with no hours or amounts paid. Could this be because county sent a different set of figures to the state than what was supposed to be repaid? Why were employees made to sign forms that were supposed to be for correct names and addresses but were really releases for county so no further action would be taken against county for unpaid hours? Why didn't Auditor inform those signers of what they were signing? Why did Auditors office only allow the employees to see the line to sign, nothing more? Does the Auditor or CC really think this will fly? Do they realize how easily it will be to check the true figures and see who is really telling the truth and who is not?

Accident Input?

We've heard about a bad accident a little north of the Alco corner near Sisseton this morning. Supposedly 4 teenagers hit a bridge abutment over the creek there at a high rate of speed.

Does anyone know more about this? Please share.

Our thoughts are with the families involved and hoping for the best.

Open Meetings or Business As Usual?

It seems our commissioners are taking more and more of our public county meetings into "executive session". Where does it stop?
Just what does constitute "public right to know"?

Our CC chairman was very public with saying the commissioners were discussing public business in executive session.
Who makes the call and how do we know it is legitimate?

Maybe it is time that the citizens of the county protest this behavior by complaining to the state? Maybe it is long past time that our commissioner meetings are
broadcast on local television so more of us can see just what does go on in those meetings? We certainly cannot read about them in our local newspaper as
we all know that what is printed is a far cry from what really happened don't we?

After all, our commissioners should have nothing to hide should they?

Roberts County Will Get Stimulus Check

The Watertown Public Opinion had a very good article in today's newspaper with a breakdown of who gets what of the
much-talked about stimulus money. The link to the newspaper is below:

http://www.thepublicopinion.com/

Roberts county will get a check of $155,185.00

The commissioners will have one year to obligate that money towards specific projects, which they will choose. We would hope they choose wisely.

We certainly hope this goes towards road/bridge repairs and not towards paving some little used road that goes to a commissioner's home, as was done in the past.

The way this money was allocated was not good for the smaller communities. Those cities with populations of under 5,000 will not get anything from this stimulus package....nothing at all. That is a pity since South Dakota is a very rural state, with the majority of our communities having less than 5,000 people.

We would like to thank the good people of the Watertown Opinion for their coverage of our state and our communities. We depend on you for news and you do not disappoint.

Incident At County Jail

There has been mention of an incident at the new county jail where a prisoner managed to damage an overhead sprinkler to the extent that it allowed water to get into the booking area. You will find this story on KSFY TV website for one.
Cameron was quoted as saying he had been told a prisoner threw a shoe and another, unnamed source was quoted as saying the prisoner had used their hands to do the damage.
Commissioner Hull was overheard to have said that he knew this would happen, that he didn't want that type sprinkler system installed in the first place....never mind that this breakaway system was designed especially for jails and recommended by Pierre.
My questions would be: Why did the prisoner have access to shoes in a cell and just who is this anonymous, unnamed "source"?

NEWSFLASH

We are hearing rumors about a fatality at the Viking Motel. Supposedly there was a fight with several people involved and someone was killed. We heard it happened a few days ago.

Does anybody know more? Is there truth to this?

CC Power Play

For those who don't read the local newspaper, there is a small item in the latest CC report regarding the power struggle between the CCs and the Sheriff over the jail maintenance man.
The "new guys" voted to place him where he belongs, under the direct supervision of our Sheriff, while the "old school" voted to keep him under Dawn's supervision aka commissioners. Guess what? Hull cast the tie-breaking vote to keep this guy under Dawn's thumb. It probably would not even have gotten voted on except that George (seconded by Zempel) made a motion to right a wrong.
It would seem that Roberts County is "business as usual" with the county commissioners. Nothing has been changed with a majority being made up of the same old gang.
We need to think about upcoming elections, who will replace those 3 and maybe revive that recall petition that was discussed earlier.....

Where Is The News In Newspaper?

There was an interesting letter to the editor in this week's Courier concerning the lack of news reporting. It seems the city liquor store was robbed a few months ago and nothing was printed about it.
That is pretty normal for our local newspaper. One would think since the courthouse is only across the street from the newspaper offices that readers would get news articles that are current, newsworthy and unbiased. Not so.
We figure that the Courier is forced to keep all current news off the printed pages to make sure there is enough room to print all of that useless gossip news. Do people actually read that stuff? Most newspapers quit that archaic printing about the time the telephone was invented didn't they?
There was an obscure mention buried in the city minutes regarding purchasing a better alarm system for the liquor store awhile back, but nothing about why the city needed it.....
The letter brought up some good points. Is news of this being kept quiet because the robbers are related to someone or was this not printed because the police don't want their records to show an unsolved case? Could it be that our "free press" is dependent on someone other than the editor to authorize what gets printed and what does not?

Tribal Concerns

It has been mentioned there was no place for all things Oyate.

Here is where you want to post your tribal concern comments. We have room for all RC citizens on this blog.

Seven Commissioners??

Remember when it was said that RC had 6 Commissioners? It sounds like we have another one, making a total of 7 now. It has been reported that 2 wanna-be CCers are attempting to dictate who gets off probation and when in the Sheriff Dept and one of them is insisting on being in on the CC decisions. It would seem this is all a sham so an informer can be kept running between the jail and the courthouse.
I am sure that our Sheriff has nothing to hide so why don't those 2 Counterfeit Commissioners just get back to doing the work they were hired to do? It might not be too early to start thinking of the next elections coming up and who needs to go and who can replace them?

Roberts County considering court reforms

The Watertown Public Opinion has an informative article today regarding changes offered by our new States Attorney that warrants reading. The link for this is below:

http://www.thepublicopinion.com/articles/2009/01/14/news/local_news/local06.txt

Some ideas that were brought up by Cameron were a Teen Court and changes in methods for DUI handling, among others. These seem to be worthy of more attention as they would most likely alleviate the overloaded RC court system and help the RC budget as well as being beneficial to those charged.

Good ideas Kerry! We need changes here in RC and it sounds like you have some good ones.

The story also gives a rundown on the newest Grab Game by Kay for that RC county dollar she can no longer call hers. We applaud those commissioners for standing firm on this issue.

Another good article by Joe O'Sullivan of course. It seems we get more RC news brought to us by the Opinion than our own local newspaper.

RC Road Maintenance or Lack Of

We are wondering what the RC road maintenance policy really is? We can't help but notice that most of the county roads have not been touched recently despite blizzards and snowstorms. Gravel or tar, the roads are getting very tough with little or no snow removal.....except that done by local farmers who were forced to move snow in order to get out. We have not seen a snowplow on our county road for well over a week now, almost 2.
No notices have been published nor signs put up stating policy changes that we are aware of. We would think the current upheaval in that department should not affect the roads and the responsibilities RC has committed to the county residents.
In fact, the roads have only been cleared a few times this winter season so far; so the argument of "lack of funds" shouldn't apply.
It is getting rather embarrassing when people from other areas mention the poor shape our RC roads are in.
The city of Sisseton has done an excellent job with snow removal this winter so far and is to be commended for keeping up with what winter has dealt us.
Perhaps they could give the RC Road Dept some advice?

CC New Leadership? HA!

The Watertown PO had an article yesterday that stated our CCs voted against giving themselves a pay raise. Do they think that will give them a good impression with the citizenry in RC? More like they knew if they did vote more money there would probably be some very vocal complaints around the county.
The article went on to say that Hull had been voted Chairman (we knew that would happen) and Navratil is to be Vice Chair.
I think they saved some low-end titles for those "new" guys though.
Enjoy yourselves commissioners, while it lasts.

They also hashed over the dilemma of appointing a deputy States Attorney and appointing a full time public defender. What is this? Didn't our old SA say there was no need for a public defender when she was in office? Suddenly we need a public defender and Kay just might happen to be available? and if that ploy doesn't work, there is always the NEED for a deputy SA isn't there....

In another publication there is quite a story about Richard Glynn returning to Sisseton, perhaps he would be available for one of those positions??