Commissioners reorganize for another year of county business
It was a busy day in the county board room last Tuesday. By law, the county commission must meet on the first Tuesday of January, just days after they closed the books on the old year.
The first order of business was to reorganize. Finance Officer Sylvia Chapman opened the meeting, calling for nominations for a board chairman. Kyle Carmichael was uncontested and re-elected to another one-year term. He took over the meeting at that point, calling for nominations for vice-chair. Rusty Foster will continue in that position, also uncontested.
Two new employees were introduced during the four-hour meeting. Eric Jackson (son-in-law of Dave and Judy Gano) has begun his new employment in the Director of Equalization office and Misty Jorgenson (relatively new bride of Chauncey Jorgenson) has begun training as a deputy in the Finance Office in preparation of Chapman’s upcoming retirement this summer.
Employee wages were set for 2022 at a mere 1% increase over last year’s amount. There was a reason for that.
The county is in receipt of American Rescue Plan dollars from the Federal Government. When creating their 2022 budget last fall, Perkins County Commissions decided to use some of those funds for employee pay, saving General Fund dollars. County “essential workers” who continued to work during the COVID pandemic last year will receive $2,000 in mid-February, in lieu of a larger percentage raise increase. That money will be for full and part-time employees who worked the entire year with full timers receiving the full $2,000. Others will be prorated according to the number of hours that they worked in 2021.
Anthony Fike, agent for Dacotah Insurance, Lemmon, was present to present the new property/auto/liability package, which becomes effective on February 1. Chairman Carmichael commended Fike on his easy-to-understand comparison chart detailing the differences in the policy from 2021 to 2022.
The overall increase of $3,820 is approximately 5%. That increase is mostly in auto coverage. There were five auto claims in 2021 and twenty-two in the past six years, totaling $200,559 in claims paid out. That amount represents a 41% loss ratio vs. total premiums paid in that same time frame. Fike termed that “extremely high.” He suggested that, in the future, new employee driver records be screened prior to hiring.
Not quite $1,000 of the premium increase was in property. Much of that would be due to the rising cost of materials for replacement costs in the event of a claim, Fike said. The deductible per occurrence increased from $1,000 to $2,500 in that area.
The South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance (pool insurance) had asked to be considered for the county property/liability/auto policy. They received information from Chapman in mid-December but didn’t have time to quote the policy by last Tuesday. Chapman told commissioners that SDPAA insures most of South Dakota’s counties and many municipalities.
There was discussion about whether or not to give SDPAA Agent Jerry Krambeck, Spearfish, more time to prepare a quote. That would’ve required a special meeting of the county commission in order to have a new policy in place by the February 1 deadline.
Some commissioners felt he should be given the opportunity while others were prepared to accept Fike’s proposal. Commissioner Mike Schweitzer, attending the meeting on speakerphone from Lemmon, is and has always been a strong supporter of doing business locally. “We have a choice to support local business or send our money to Spearfish,” he said. He believes that local tax dollars should be spent by those who pay taxes in this county.
Commissioner Wayne Henderson agreed that the pool’s quote would have to be “substantially less” to get his vote. Schweitzer agreed. “He’d have to be about half,” he said.
SDPAA has quoted policies in the past but has never been able to come in below than the local agent.
In the end, official action was taken to continue with Dacotah Insurance. There remains a continuing discussion of whether or not to add umbrella coverage. Currently, there is a $1 million cap on coverage per occurrence. Fike will come back with figures for additional coverage.
Conversation continued regarding last week’s proposed legislative action for property tax reduction on reclassifying crop land that hasn’t been used that way in more than 25 years. Two West River counties would bring that bill to the SD Legislature later this month if they have enough support from other counties.
Perkins County Commissioners aren’t sure that the change would benefit Perkins County farmers. This county uses its own soil and values table, approved by the Department of Revenue. If such a bill were to pass, they would have to use the DOR’s 2005 soil and values table.
Corina Molnar, Director of Equalization, had done a quick study of the proposed bill and how it could affect Perkins County. One thing that she wasn’t in favor of with the resolution sent from other counties is a line that would mandate her to access penalties on landowners who misrepresented their crop acreage. “I’m not in the business of accessing penalties,” she said.
Commissioners still don’t feel educated enough to support the legislation and, therefore, no action was taken to offer their support for the proposed bill.
In other business, board members were approved for various boards throughout the county including those that have a commissioner representative. Todd Campbell was named to both the Fair Board and the Regional Landfill Association; Rusty Foster to the Weed Board; and Mike Schweitzer to the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC).
Sheriff Kelly Serr presented the Pennington County Jail contract for approval and Chapman the list of delinquent property taxes, which will be published in both county newspapers. There is a total of slightly more than $81,000 outstanding taxes on that list, less than usual, and Chapman termed that “really good.”
