Director’s Notes

I wish there were a way for cities to declare a nasty, stubborn jerk to be a public nuisance, and be able to recover the costs of having those folks in your town.

By and large, South Dakotans are great people – but even we have a few who aren’t. We get calls in the office about these folks, who for whatever reason are just ornery. A recent example was the guy who just would not get a building permit. The town took him to court several times, and won. Now he has applied for a permit – and the city is out thousands of dollars in court costs, simply because he was being a stubborn jerk.

We hear it a lot in property maintenance issues, and we may have more of this because of our strong feelings about private property rights. But when we choose to live closely together, as all citizens of municipalities do, we agree to abide by some rules. Mow the lawn; keep weeds under control; pick up garbage; don’t let your dog run loose or bark all night; if something is falling off your house, fix it. These are basic things that most people do without anyone telling them to, but when someone doesn’t, it affects the property values and quality of life of the entire town.

As we look toward another legislative session, we are going to hear a lot, again, about local control, but I’m afraid we will, again, see very little of it allowed.

Nothing is more local than municipal government. It is, literally, as close as the lawn on your property, the paint on your house, the water and sewer inside your home. President Abraham Lincoln said, “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities.” Municipalities are the embodiment of legitimate government.

When we live together in a society, our actions (and inactions) affect the well-being of others. City government is the system we’ve established to allow us to live together as harmoniously as possible. Local control isn’t an abstract idea – it is essential to our democracy, our citizenship, and to the prosperity of our state.

Until next month, remember we are always available at 1-800-658-3633 or yvonne@sdmunicipalleague.org.

Yvonne Taylor Executive Director