Reformed Secretary of State’s Office for Improved Customer Service

The Secretary of State’s office is most likely the first government institution that a new business startup will come in contact with. That experience should be friendly, simple and efficient.

As a business owner and legislator I often heard about the delays and frustration in Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings and with business filings in the Secretary of State’s office which are of paramount importance to the lending industry and business owners. However, after entering office on January 2nd we discovered that things were much worse than we had anticipated in the business division.

j UCC filings were 75 days out when I took office. State law says they must be filed within 2 days. It took 9 months, through various means of staff working overtime and prioritizing that we are proud to say UCC filings are now current. With the support of the Governor’s office and Legislature, we have a contract with a company that has done extensive work with neighboring states and will ensure that UCC filings will remain current by allowing users to enter data online and our office will approve their filing within forty-eight hours.

j Business filings and annual reports were 5 weeks out when I took office in January. State law says they must be processed within 5 days. We are proposing a similar web based solution that will allow users to enter their data and allow our office to approve within forty-eight hours which is what today’s business environment expects.

The offices of state government that private enterprises rely on to conduct business must be responsive.

By filing documents in a timely manner, being responsive and running the office efficiently we have generated $1.5 million more dollars to the state general fund beyond previous budget projections of $6 million to end the year at $7.5 million in revenue.

We have, in just the business division, the daily communications in which we answer on average 200+ phone calls which take 3-5 minutes each. We also handle 200+ pieces of incoming mail and 900+ pieces of outgoing mail on a daily basis.

In the business division of the Secretary of State’s office, all the pertinent information on every paper filing that is sent in has to be entered a keystroke at a time.

In Fiscal Year 2002 there were just over 41,000 Annual Reports filed, by 2008 there were 54,500 and in 2015 there were 74,000 Annual Reports filed. This was accomplished with just 2.5 Full Time Employees (FTEs).

UCC Filings were 63,435 for which there were 1.5 FTEs.

Business in South Dakota is growing at a rapid rate, nearly doubling the annual report filings since 2002. However this office still maintains a staff of the same size thirteen years later and with twice the workload. Currently, there are over 154,000 corporations filing in South Dakota compared to 54,000 in 2008 and that number will only increase as our state’s population approaches the one million mark.

The Secretary of State’s office interacts directly with our county sheriffs. There are over 80,000 residents with a concealed carry permit. Having that permit gives an individual reciprocity in 26 states. Since we came into office, the turnaround time from when that approved permit came into the office to be processed was several months behind. When you sign up for a pistol permit, you are given a temporary permit from your county sheriff’s office for 30 days. In many cases, we were receiving over 20 calls a day from people who were asking if that temporary permit was still good and wondering where their official permit was. Since January 2nd, that turn around has been decreased to 2-3 days. We receive the form, process it and send the permit out.

This office, like all of state government, should be here to serve you efficiently and then get out of the way. That is why your support for creating a web based filing system is so crucial for the next legislative session.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the Secretary of State’s office with further questions, ideas and feedback. (Email: sdsos@state.sd.us. Phone: 605-773-3537. Fax: 605-7736580.)

Sincerely,

Shantel Krebs Secretary of State