Garretson school district Business Manager Jacob Schweitzer sits outside the school library during an executive session of the school board on Feb. 23, where the public was not allowed to participate in the decision-making process. SDNW photo.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Open meetings advocates in South Dakota are increasingly concerned about new legal language that some government officials believe gives them the right to exclude members of the public from speaking or asking questions at public meetings.
Recent school-related personnel incidents in Garretson and Rapid City have drawn attention to the willingness of public officials to operate without input from residents.
Two seemingly harmless words added to a state open meetings law in 2019 have sparked a debate over the rights of citizens to publicly comment at official government meetings in South Dakota.
Those words, “regularly scheduled” were added in front of “official meetings,” launching a legal tug-of-war between public officials and advocates of community input. Some government bodies have used the language as a legal loophole in which they have denied the public the right to speak at some official meetings.
In the latest article published by South Dakota News Watch, available here, reporter Stu Whitney explains how the loophole is being used and why open-meeting advocates are concerned.
