Salary increases, airport finances spark debate at Lincoln County Commission meeting

With all members present the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, Jan. 6 in the Lincoln County boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items including electing positions, salary discussions, the courthouse, and airport.

Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen called the meeting to order asking to elect a new chair and vice chair. Motion to approve Commissioner Landeen as chair by Jim Schmidt, seconded by Betty Otten, motion carried 3-2 with Doug Putnam and Joel Arends being the nay votes. Motion to appoint Schmidt as vice chair by Otten, seconded by Landeen, motion carried 3-2 with Putnam and Arends being the nay votes.

Commissioner Otten asked the commission to reconsider elected officials’ salaries for 2026. 

“I asked for this because if I could have rescinded my vote I would have because I think that our salaries for our elected officials should follow the budget of 5% so that they are in line with the rest of the employees,” Otten said. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for public comment and Scott Montgomery stood to speak. 

“I got 2.8% why should I keep going backwards for you to keep moving forwards? This division can’t continue,” he said. 

Sherry McKenny also stood to speak. 

“At the December 2 meeting it was discussed and voted on and it seems like this is not the first item since I’ve started coming here that wasn’t up to someone’s liking so they bring it up again at the next meeting. At the December 2 meeting you voted for the 2.5% increase and I think it should stay that way,” she said. 

Motion to increase the raise to 5% by Otten, seconded by Schmidt. Chairwoman Landeen asked for commissioner comment and Commissioner Arends expressed his opposition. 

“I think the 2.5% increase that the elected officials got is more than adequate and we need to send a message to people in Lincoln County as well as the rest of the state that elected officials need to live just like the residents and citizens that they govern. It’s ultra important that the public understands that when you’re here in Lincoln County, the median household average wages have only gone up 16.5% in the last five years. Government should not grow faster than what median household average wages are growing. Average household wages are not growing at 5% and this just shows its not only tone deaf, but it creates a structural imbalance. When we pay government officials better than what the citizens who we govern are. Those citizens pay the property taxes that pay these salaries and we need to be in line, not above,” Arends said. 

Motion carried 3-2 with Putnam and Arends being the nay votes.

Human Resources Director, Kari Elling requested board discussion and action to approve Commissioner’s salaries for 2026. 

“I’m presenting a few options for salaries for discussion. We did budget for a 5.5% increase for this year,” she said recommending the 5% raise for the commission. 

Chairwoman Landeen agreed with Mr. Montgomery stating a 2.8% increase, she would support that. 

“I think increasing the commissioner pay is a slap in the face to taxpayers. Taxpayers are being soaked. They’re being told ‘we’re bad people, we don’t care about elected officials if you don’t want to increase their pay.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. We are insulting taxpayers by continuing to tell them that they have to pay their elected officials more in order to respect them more. Respect does not equal more pay, respect equals more conduct and the conduct is you have to live like the citizens you govern. Frankly, I’m going to support a 5% cut to the commission’s salary this year,” Arends said. 

“That makes good political rhetoric and it certainly plays to those individuals, but I have yet to find anybody that says to the thousands of miles we travel without any compensation and we pay for our own way like when we go to national conventions and pay for our own ticket, we pay for our own time because we are committed to better government. And to tell me that we are slapping in the face of taxpayers. I don’t know what taxpayers you’re talking to, but I’ve got about 8,000 people up there that would disagree with you, so consequently, I totally am opposed to that kind of attitude,” Commissioner Schmidt responded. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for public comment and Sara Steever stood to speak. 

“I just wanted to point out that state legislators make $16,348 roughly a year, with their per diem of $7,120 which would cover the 40 days that they’re working out there for a total of $23,468 a year and I think they work pretty hard too,” she said. 

Commissioner Arends made a motion to cut pay by 5%, seconded by Putnam, motion failed 2-3 with Schmidt, Otten, and Landeen being the nay votes. An alternate motion to increase commissioners salaries by 2.5% by Schmidt, failing due to a lack of a second. Motion by Otten for a 2.8% increase, seconded by Schmidt, motion carried 3-2 with Putnam and Arends being the nay votes.

Commission Assistant, Paul Anderson requested the commission consider a motion to designate three legal newspapers for Lincoln County. 

“In 2025 Sioux Valley News, Lennox Independent and Tea Weekly were selected as legal newspapers. The Commission also elected to publish in The Dakota Scout,” said Anderson. 

A motion by Schmidt to use Sioux Valley News, Tea Weekly, and the Lennox Independent while continuing with publishing in the Dakota Scout, seconded by Otten. Chairwoman Landeen asked for comments. 

“The tax payers should not have to pay a fourth newspaper when it’s either not required by law and it costs extra money. We don’t need to pay the Dakota Scout more money. The fact of the matter is the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay more money for an extra newspaper. What I support, and I wish our legislature would do this is move South Dakota to an all internet based system where one does not need to have a subscription to a newspaper in order to get onto said website and access the legal classifieds. But with regard to naming four newspapers, it’s just an extra additional cost that the tax payers shouldn’t have to bear,” Arends said. 

Motion approved 3-2 with Putnam and Arends being the nay votes.

Commissioner Putnam called for board discussion on the Old Courthouse roof. 

“I had the opportunity to go up and look at the roof and I didn’t realize that they had built a building over a building 120 years ago. There’s wood up there that is getting dry rotted from being there for all these years but the overall build of that building, they used some pretty stout lumber to build it and it looked to me like it was overbuilt, so that things going to be around for a while yet. It just amazes me how they come up with all the trusses and rafters and everything that they did do on that. So we have a building that can sit there, it isn’t going to hurt nothing. We don’t have to spend a million and a half to five million to tear it down. I say we relax and let it sit there and if we need it for a little something, we’ve got it,” he said. 

Doug McKenny stood for public comment. 

“I sat on the board and I’m in agreement with Commissioner Putnam. That building is going to be here longer than we probably will be and start doing some of the maintenance. That was neglected for five years with nothing done to it. You need to start doing it a little bit at a time like we talked about on the committee,” he said. 

Putnam also requested board discussion on the Marv Skie/Lincoln County Airport and future development. Working with Auditor Lund, Putnam provided documents showing losses at the airport over the last eight years. 

“In my office I had three of the people from the airport board and David Myers there. We talked about it and they contended that they are only $50,000 away from being in the black and then I brought up this piece of paper and all four said it wasn’t true. Well, I believe that Sheri drew this up and it’s truthful. After that episode, I was blacklisted from talking to anybody on the airport board again. Then, Commissioner Schmidt went around my back and talked to everyone on the board to get this done. Commissioner Arends asked if he had talked to me and he said he couldn’t get a hold of him, it goes to voicemail. I’ve never had a problem, I have two phones, so that was a lie,” he said. 

Putnam stated he had phone calls placed to airport manager David Myers, but no calls were returned until after the vote had taken place. 

“Commissioner Schmidt has been on this County Commission since ’99. 20 years ago when they made the deal of 15 cents per square foot, it stayed that way and it stayed dormant and the tax payers of Lincoln County had to cough up money to keep it in business with no accountability.  So I personally think that this is a sad affair that needs to be rectified and I would like to ask commissioner Schmidt to step down from the airport board,” Putnam continued. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for discussion from the commission.

 “I think one of the issues that the public needs to know about is yes, on the operating budget, we are $63,000 in the red, but that is excluding capital outlay and the capital outlay when you add that in drops us down to on average $250,000 in the red. So when commissioner Putnam says the airport board came to him and told him that they only run $50,000 - $60,000 in the red, that was not the whole truth. The whole truth is the airport runs when you include capital outlay which is just a fancy term for fixing up the roads and runway. That $250,000 added onto that $60,000, that’s our 5-10% contribution. Federal government pays the other percentage. So it’s important in terms of transparency. You won’t learn about or get a blow-by-blow like this in the Dakota Scout they just print the minutes, but in terms of actual transparency, it’s important for taxpayers to know that on average we’re running about a $250,000 debt out there,” Arends said. 

“You know, Commissioner Putnam, I’ve never been called a liar before, but I would hope that you sometime would get the facts straight. As far as you’re a member of the board, there is a difference between being a liaison and being a board member. You are welcome to attend, but I want to share with the public where we are. This airport has been an albatross to the county forever. It is something this county probably never ever wanted and was here before I got here. It has suffered from neglect. At one point in time this airport could have been a reliever airport for the Sioux Falls airport, but commissioners before my time took a crosswind runway away and build hangars on it. This year, it is my intent to work with David and work with those individuals that have hangars out there to come up with a plan to set this on course to make this airport self sustaining,” Commissioner Schmidt said. 

Commissioner Schmidt addressed Commissioner’s accusations personally. 

“I want to go back to Mr. Putnam here who makes these allocations about secret meetings. There are not secret meetings. If the airport people call a meeting they issued an invitation to myself, David, and also said they were going to issue one to Commissioner Arends and whether you got that or not I do not know, so we did have a meeting and we sat and listened to what the airport owner of the hangars wanted to do. This isn’t an easy situation, you can be a critic all day long, you can find all kinds of faults, but what are you doing to put this on a path so it will pay for itself” Commissioner Schmidt responded.