Three minutes into this video recording of Sue Broadhurst’s public comment, she brings up a vote that the commission made concerning a fee schedule for the assessor’s office during the 8/15/23 commission meeting (you can see here in the meeting minutes) According to SDCL 1/27/1.16:
Material relating to open meeting agenda item to be available–Exceptions–Violation as misdemeanor.
If a meeting is required to be open to the public pursuant to § 1-25-1 and if any printed material relating to an agenda item of the meeting is prepared or distributed by or at the direction of the governing body or any of its employees and the printed material is distributed before the meeting to all members of the governing body, the material shall either be posted on the governing body’s website or made available at the official business office of the governing body at least twenty-four hours prior to the meeting or at the time the material is distributed to the governing body, whichever is later. If the material is not posted to the governing body’s website, at least one copy of the printed material shall be available in the meeting room for inspection by any person while the governing body is considering the printed material.
The public wasn’t given any information or materials, as seen here on the online agenda (no materials included) as to what the fee was going to be, no materials were given to the public, etc, and so she asked if that means that left them in violation of this state law, therefore leaving their vote null and void. She requested they look into it and fix it. This kind of state law violation carries a Class 2 misdemeanor, which carries a potential $500 fine and 30 days in jail.
Our State’s Attorney, while focused on making sure some parts of some laws are followed, didn’t seem to care about this one.