Commissioners address racial slur fallout; Amtrak study and budget talks also highlight meeting

The Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, June 24 in the County Boardroom. With all members present, the commission heard agenda items including talks of antisemitism, Amtrak services, and budget work sessions.

Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen moved the public comment to the beginning of the meeting after a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Joel Arends being the no vote. 

“I just want to directly acknowledge a matter that has caused some concern, and some hurt in our county and perhaps beyond our county. It happened on May 27 at one of our meetings, there was a racial slur that was used by a member of our commission and I just want the public to know and state clearly that those statements have no place in our meetings or in any setting where public officials serve the people and the constituents of the county and it does not represent the values of Lincoln County as a whole. Words carry weight no matter what their intent is and I feel like the language of this commission needs to reflect the values that we should hold of being respectful to people, being fair, and engaged in the public service that we were elected to do. So, I’m asking that tonight we all conduct ourselves with professionalism and integrity even during public comment,” Landeen said. 

Landeen opened the floor to the commission first to make a statement and Commissioner Jim Schmidt was the first to speak. 

“I just wanted to support what you just said, words certainly have consequences and words that are never appropriate, such as words that we grew up with when we were young, they were wrong then and they were wrong now and we have been reminded by the fact that we’re here tonight and by the fact that we are going to listen to public comment,” said Schmidt. 

“I don’t think that this commission in any way, shape, or form has ever tolerated that kind of comment, we’ve always tried to maintain a very positive and professional decorum. So, I’m going to reserve my last comments for later on, but I just want to support what our chair has said,” Schmidt continued. 

Chairwoman Landeen opened the floor for public comment for items not on the agenda. Linda Montgomery was the first to speak. 

“There is one thing that it does say in the big book that who’s going to throw the first stone. We all have issues with our mouths, with condescending comments and I think this is an okay discussion, but I need to say we need to know who is going to throw the first stone. Thank you,” she said. 

Richard Rigney stood next to express his thoughts. 

“I wasn’t here for the event that happened regarding a racial slur being presented and I’m not sure if it was somebody on this side of the wall or on that side who did that, but a couple of things that I will say as a retired United States Air Force Veteran, I understand the consequences of using such language and how it can offend somebody, but I also understand that somebody else’s offense and language that we use is not necessarily our responsibility. Somebody may call me ugly but I have the choice in that case to be offended or walk away and brush it off like it’s just words that they use and as somebody who has started working back at the National Guard base and working around military people, we joke around all the time, no racial slurs aren’t thrown around, we have more respect for each other than that, however, joking, insults, and things like that happens all the time and each person has the choice to either be offended or to not be offended. There are some things, there are rules and regulations that are in place now, but I can tell you when I started my military career, those types of rules and regulations weren’t necessarily in place and if they were in place they certainly weren’t enforced and it was kind of the same thing. People had their choice to be offended or not offended. As we all know, the First Amendment exists, freedom of speech, but I do support the fact that you’re presenting this and you’re saying this type of language shouldn’t be involved in meetings like this, and I understand that, and I agree with that. But I just wanted to make the point that everybody does have the choice to be offended or not offended,” he said. 

With no other public comment, Chairwoman Landeen opened the floor back up to commissioners willing to speak. 

Commissioner Doug Putnam stood to make a comment. 

“I’m going to make a comment about what I said the other day, and I guess I’m going to explain who I am and my heritage and my people before me. My name is Douglas Allen Putnam, and my ancestors left England in the early 1600’s, been around here for 400 years through the Revolutionary War, I’m sure they participated because they sure didn’t like England, then we moved up to the Civil War, we fought on the side of the North to preserve the Union, free the slaves, and then we became Republicans at that time. Then we move up to World War II, my uncle was part of a crew on a bomber in England, My dad, he went to Japan right after things happened, and I guess my heritage and my ancestry, I’ve never swayed much from that, this little deal. I talked to Rabbi Mandel Apperwitz, I probably got it wrong, I’m sorry about that, but him and I had a nice conversation and he decided this whole deal wasn’t a big deal. It happened. So he wasn’t offended, but he emailed me before he talked to anybody else, they were calling him, the press and whatever and he wanted to talk to me before he talked to them and we did and prayers for him and his daughter. They’re in Minnesota, his daughter’s got some problems, so Godspeed on that. But, I guess, one thing I will do, is I’m going to apologize to all the Jewish people I might have offended and to Ben Shapiro, can’t forget him. He’s the only Jew I actually knew, Jewish person,” Putnam said.  

Assistant Commission Administrative Officer, Paul Anderson was present to introduce Dan Bilka, All Aboard Northwest Coordinator, to discuss the FRA Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study findings. 

“Our sister state, North Dakota, receives almost $29 million of economic benefits by their once daily Amtrak Service, the Empire Builder, but we in South Dakota receive zero benefits,” Bilka said. 

Bilka reported to the commission that the Federal Railroad Administration has been looking into former and potential Amtrak long distance services that could serve rural America. Four considerations are looked into when making the choice which include community size, rural networks, enhancing connectivity, and reflecting on public engagement. 15 new proposed routes have been added across the country, with two being in South Dakota. 

“I want to emphasize for all of you folks down here and across the state is they’re only looking at existing legally secures railway rights-of-way,”said Bilka. 

“So we’re not talking about green fields or eminent domain but utilizing and upgrading the existing rail system for passenger and freight opportunities,” Bilka added. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for public comment on the matter. Bruce Hanky stood to speak. 

“I’m someone who frequently uses Amtrak, over the last few years, I’ve done it a dozen times, and one of the first times we took the Empire Builder from St. Paul to Seattle and we saw the number of people who use those trains as commuters. I ran into a woman who once a month was going to her daughters, she could drive, but it was several hours so she takes the train, with the utilization of the trains, they’re full all the time. We are missing out on not only that, but the economic value it would bring to South Dakota,” he said. 

Sarah Steever stood to voice her opinion. 

“What time of day does the train actually go through South Dakota because I’ve looked into going to Lacrosse to the Northwest and it was an overnight trip and so the towns that we would have been going though in North Dakota would have been in the dark. How many towns do they stop at that would actually have a station that might have an economic benefit tourism wise, and what kind of jobs would the 2,000+ jobs be and is it self-sustaining and how much will be coming from the state?” she asked. 

Three others echoed Stever’s concerns on economic impact and ease of use. Bilka responded to the audience by reporting long distance trains bring five to ten times the rate of return on taxpayers equity and there is no form of transportation that is not subsidized. The commission thanked Bilka for his presentation.

Director of Equalization, Karla Goossen was present for a budget work session. 

“During the April 1 budget meeting that we prepared for the commission I had indicated at that time a replacement of a 2005 Dodge Dakota. Instead of replacing, I am requesting to purchase an additional vehicle, and not use this as a replacement,” Goossen said. 

The oldest vehicle the department currently has is a 2005 Dodge Dakota with 107,000 miles and Goossen feels the vehicle is becoming increasingly more unreliable. The commission thanked Goossen for her presentation. 

Mick Baruth stood to voice his opinion.

“We all know the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse that takes place with our taxpayer dollars. How do we know? Because we all have friends and family that tell us how inefficient our government is. These people work in all various levels of government. All you have to do is listen at virtually any and all get togethers and the overwhelming consensus is what a joke some of the jobs are and how much we the tax payers overpay for virtually every project from big to little. A perfect example is our county auditor asking for $55,000 to purchase a vehicle. That reminds me of my brother in law at his ranch who graciously gifted a box full of roasts, steaks, and hamburgers to his hired man and the next morning the hired man’s wife came knocking at his door and asked if she could exchange some of the hamburger for more steaks. We all know if the public knew 1/4 of how their taxpayer dollars were really spent there would be much more participation. I thank you for having these meetings once a month at night and I challenge you to change from three meetings a month to two and have them both at night,” he said.

Commissioner Joel Arends requested board discussion and possible action on a proposed resolution condemning antisemitism. 

“We’ve had tremendous growth in Lincoln County over the last two decades, we’re at almost 80,000 people and in my estimation that tells me that we are a very welcoming county and people feel welcomed here, they want to keep moving here, and this is a place where they want to work, play, recreate, and practice their religion regardless of race, color, creed, or gender and so in standing with as welcoming as we are, I think we want to continue that and it’s important that when antisemitism, whether its benign antisemitism or blatant, when it rears its head, we have a duty to stand against it, especially in these times. In the last ten years there’s been an 893 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents, according to the FBI. Just since October 7, 2023 when Hamas attacked Isreal, there’s been 10,000 antisemitic incidents recorded just here in this country alone, and it’s unfortunate. And when antisemitic comments, whether they’re blatant slurs or I think in this instance just outmoded and outdated, they unfortunately give cover to groups and people who have much more sinister designs than typically what the people who just say them. In this instance here, we had an elected official who made an outmoded or outdated statement, unfortunately, but, for those of us that have the privilege to serve, there are people and groups out there who will use what we say to their advantage and we want to deny those groups and those people the advantage that they get from that,” Commissioner Arends said. 

Arends thanked Putnam for admitting his mistake to the public and sharing the story of his family name. Motion by Arends to approve and the resolution denouncing antisemitism failed to support a second and the motion died. 

Commissioner Schmidt chose to make a comment after the motion. 

“I don’t find any fault with anything you’ve said and you spoke very eloquently, clearly, and succinctly. My concern on this one is this. This particular resolution mentions one ethnic group, and I think we should take the time as a commission and discuss this and come back with a resolution that condemns all bigotry, all discrimination against all groups,” Schmidt said.