Justice Center costs draw sharp criticism at County Commission meeting

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, August 4 in the Lincoln County Boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items including the legislative audit, intersection study, and justice center conversations. 

Auditor Sheri Lund requested board action to approve and authorize the Chair and Auditor to execute the letter of engagement with the South Dakota Department of Legislative Audit for the Audit covering 01.01.2025 through 12.31.2025. David Weidler of South Dakota Legislative Audit was also present to discuss the agenda item with the commission. 

“We are here to conduct a fiscal compliance audit for the calendar year ending December 31, 2025. The major things in the engagement letter that I want you to be aware of are that we’re going to give our opinion over the financial statements and the notes, which comprise of basic financial statements under the accounting standards for governments,” he said. 

The section Weidler wanted to bring to the commission’s attention most was the management responsibility portion of the report. 

“We’ve been asked to provide the non-audit service of preparing the notes to the financial statements, the schedule of the county’s proportionate share of net pension liability or assets and the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. As this is a non-audit service, we request that management and the board of governance are responsible for making all management decisions regarding those items and we will request your representation as such during the closing conference,” he continued. 

Commissioner Joel Arends asked if this was the standard letter used with county governments. 

“Yes, we have four standard ones, two for the cash basis counties, which is what Lincoln County is, and then we have two for gap counties, which is Minnehaha and Pennington,” Weidler answered. 

Weidler next discussed the procedures that will be performed in the audit. 

“Our billable rate for the state fiscal year is $99, 2026 was $98, and I’m not aware of any time spend on your audit that we would have done during the state’s fiscal 2026 year but just in case there was, we are looking at $98 to $99 per hour, not including any time spent traveling here for any of us that are working on your audit or any time where we are here working on another project or another special project, it’s strictly time spent of the audit for Lincoln County,” he said. 

A motion to approve the chair and auditor to execute the letter of engagement by Arends, seconded by Doug Putnam, motion carried unanimously.

Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit presented Josh Prather and Justin Pump from IMEG for a presentation on the final report of the 271st and Western Ave intersection study. 

“We did the 106 and Western Ave traffic study. We gauge these intersections by the level of service and give a grade from A through F, which is based off the delay in seconds that someone has to wait at the intersection. An A is less than 10 seconds, and an F is more than 80 seconds and it kind of changes based on what the intersection configuration is. Lincoln County’s master transportation plan and industry standard is level service C or better you are good and D or worse an intersection needs improvements,” Prather reported. 

The group worked to place traffic cameras up which counted and watched all the turning movements, saw how people are getting through the intersection currently and projected that going forward. 

“Conclusions on this study are forecasted 20 years into the future, which is a normal study,” he said. 

“The first configuration we looked at here, is a traffic signal with the current lane configuration. So, we’re not going to change anything; we’re just going to put traffic signals up. This is the best case scenario, 20 years in the future,” Prather continued. 

Commissioner Arends asked if the team knew what was going to happen at the intersection of 117 and to the South of Birdie View. 

“Right now, I will say this, we are working back and forth through access issues with the city and those are ongoing negotiations that I am working with them on,” Fluit responded. 

Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen thanked the men for their presentation. 

Commissioner Doug Putnam asked for board discussion on the Justice Center. 

“Well, it’s going to be a tale of three courthouses. Hutchinson County built a courthouse. Hanson County built a courthouse. Turner just got theirs done. Hanson County is a one story 18,000 sq ft plus 5,400 in the basement at a cost of $2.8million and it was done in 2010 I think. There’s about 33,000 sq foot, one story, at a cost of $5 million. Now think of the square footage on this whole deal and the cost,” Putnam said. 

“When was this built?” Jim Schmidt asked. 

“Oh, I don’t know if it was a few years ago, less than ten, it doesn’t matter the cost. It could increase a little bit, but we’re looking at square footage,” Putnam responded. 

“Now, here’s Turner County. They just built it. That’s two stories and about 28,500 sq. ft. total with two stories. They built two stories because they didn’t have a lot of room to go with a one story or it would have been a lot cheaper. Now, this is a cost of $19.8 million. To understand what I’m saying here, we’ve got a complete upstairs with two courtrooms, a big one, a small one, and then all of the administration having anything to do with courtrooms, justice, everything and that’s on the second story. Now, my contention is to compare it to the courtrooms that we built out there in the cow pasture at 74,000 sq. ft., would that be right? Now we go back to Turner County on the first floor. If we got rid of everything, just got rid of it all and it was an open place, we could probably put in about probably four more courtrooms with total of six courtrooms. That would then be considered courtrooms, not a courthouse. So my contention being is how the heck did we end up with 75,000 sq. ft. for six courtrooms, maybe only four that we’re using, three stories, had 40 acres, could have built a one, didn’t have to be three stories. Who signed off on building that monstrosity? Paul, can you find out who signed off on that? It’s just a total, what do you call it, a boondoggle, a big blue silo, all the people my age, big blue silo meant, you know what it meant. Who and why was this ever built? Another thing too, everybody kept thinking it was going to be a jail there. I had a lot of people under that illusion because they built it so big and it wasn’t. There’s no jail, only courtrooms. If you compare that, even if you added a couple thousand square foot over Turner County’s building there and made it a little more elaborate, you couldn’t spend $54 million. The guy I talked to from Turner County said they have some spenders on their board too so they spend a little more. He said they could have done it for less than $19.8 million but they have their spenders so it cost them a little more. How can you compare a complete courthouse to what’s out there in the cow pasture from $19.8 million to $54 million. All of the taxpayers in Lincoln County are going to have to pay on that for 50 years. How can this travesty ever have happened? I mean this is the biggest, I don’t know, in the corporate world this would be called a joke, I think. Then we have, I solemnly do swear that I will uphold the United States Constitution of South Dakota and I will fairly, impartially, and honestly discharge my duties. Well, there was a dereliction of duty here. Now, we have to pay on that for 50 years, $3 million a year, and of course this is part of the $12 million deficit that we have. No, it isn’t even in that, so hell, for ‘27 we got $15 million, would that be right?” Putnam asked. 

“You’re throwing numbers out that I don’t know,” Lund responded. 

“Well, the payment is $3 million a year, my understanding; maybe it changes every year, 50 years. You even put a roundabout in the parking lot. What did that cost? Who signed off on that? Anybody? I just can’t understand this. That’s one part of my three-part section. You guys got hosed. All the taxpayers of Lincoln County. I’m sorry,” he said walking away from the podium. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for public input on the agenda item, hearing none, the commission ended the discussion.