Governor Kristi Noem has been the subject of two ethics inquiries--one about using her clout to secure an appraiser's license for her daughter and another about the use of South Dakota government airplanes.
How's that going?
On Friday, Stephen Groves reported for the Associated Press in Gov. Kristi Noem tried to avoid ethics hearing, seal records:
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem asked a state ethics board to dismiss a complaint against her without a public hearing and to seal off certain records, documents released Friday by the state’s Government Accountability Board show.
The Republican governor, who is widely seen as eyeing a 2024 White House bid, argued in an April motion that the state’s attorney general, a fellow Republican who filed the complaint, was out for political retribution and should be removed from the complaint. Noem had pushed former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg to resign and later for his impeachment over his involvement in a fatal car crash.
The attorney general’s complaint was sparked by a report from The Associated Press last year that Noem had taken a hands-on role in a state agency. Shortly after the agency moved to deny her daughter, Kassidy Peters, a real estate appraiser license in July of 2020, Noem held a meeting with Peters and key decision-makers in her licensure. Days after the meeting, Peters signed an agreement that gave her another opportunity to meet the licensing requirements.
The South Dakota Legislature’s audit committee, controlled by Republicans, unanimously approved a report in May that found Noem’s daughter got preferential treatment. . . .
Jeepers.
And there's South Dakota ethics board releases documents outlining investigation into Noem conflict of interest complaint in the Forum news chain papers:
The Government Accountability Board released a trove of documents outlining the committee’s investigation into one of the complaints against Gov. Kristi Noem claiming she abused her office in helping her daughter get a real estate license.
According to statute, the "information, reports, or complaints and the investigative records and files of the board are confidential and not a public record... until the board votes in favor of conducting a contested case hearing." The release of the documents indicates that a hearing, which would allow Noem the opportunity to respond to the complaint, could be on the way.
The entire contents , which include hundreds of pages of exhibits, transcripts and correspondence between key players in the probe, were posted to the Boards and Commissions website just after 8 a.m. on Sept. 9. An exhaustive table of contents can be found here .
The complaint was filed by Jason Ravnsborg, the former attorney general. It alleges malfeasance, conflict of interest and a handful of other abuses of office stemming from the July 27, 2020 meeting between Gov. Kristi Noem, her daughter Kassidy Peters and the then-director of South Dakota's appraiser certification program, Sherry Bren. The meeting was first reported by the Associated Press....
Dakota Free Press looks at that trove in Ravnsborg: Governor’s Daughter Failed Appraiser Certification Four Times. Better he "struggle through the flaccid prose of killer Jason Ravnsborg" than I.
Misuse of the plane
As to the other issue--the use of the state's plane--the story has legs.
Some background on the issue from Jazzmine Jackson at SiouxlandProud in The 2006 law at the heart of Noem’s plane controversy:
Behind the controversy surrounding the use of the state plane is a 2006 law and a 2021 complaint regarding how the public aircraft can be used. Both were brought forward by the same South Dakota lawmaker.
Senator Reynold Nesiba (D-Sioux Falls) was a part of a concerted effort in 2006 to bring some accountability to the use of the state plane frequently used by the governor and state employees. At the time, there was concern that then-Governor Mike Rounds was using the aircraft for political and personal reasons and so Nesiba sought to find a way to hold the users of the plane accountable.
“The attorney general explanation says state law currently allows state employees to use vehicles owned or leased by the state only for state business,” Nesiba explained in a phone call to KELOLAND News on Thursday. “There’s a limited exception for state employees with a supervisor’s approval. The governor and certain law enforcement personnel are exempt. The proposed law requires aircraft owned or leased by the state to be used only for state business with no exceptions.” . . .
At the time, Nesiba didn’t think the law would need to be enforced but rather would serve as a reminder to future governors to be “prudent stewards” of the state plane.
But in February of 2021, the senator had some concerns when it came to how Governor Kristi Noem was using the plane and whether it was in accordance with the law he helped create.
“Governor Noem has acted as if it’s her airplane, she forgets that it’s our airplane and the people of South Dakota who pay for that airplane have set very clear rules. We only want it to be used for state business,” Nesiba said.
Nesiba said he supports the use of the plane and any additional security needed to protect the governor, but only if those trips are established as state business.
In a letter sent to then-Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, which can be read here, Nesiba asks Ravnsborg to clarify whether Governor Noem violated SDCL 5-25-1.1. The letter alleges that Noem may have used the state airplane for campaign use and also may have been accompanied by non-state employees for non-state purposes. . . .
Noem tried to frame the inquiry as a matter of her balls in a fight with killer former Attorney General Ravnsborg in the Keloland interview, Governor Noem defends her use of the state airplane:
Governor Noem finally agreed to a one-on-one no-holds-barred interview and we hear from her and her Democratic challenger Jamie Smith, who has been one of her biggest critics.
Last week, while Governor Noem was out campaigning in Sioux Falls neighborhoods, she agreed to answer our questions concerning her use of the state airplane.
The topic recently made headlines, when the government accountability board forwarded the investigation into whether Noem abused her power or violated state laws by using state airplanes to fly to political events to the attorney general’s office. Noem denies doing anything wrong.
“I’ve used the plane probably half as much as the previous governor, nobody has covered that, I use it very little for the exact same events the previous governor did, and the governor before that, and the governor before that, so this is just a political hit job because I was the only one who had balls enough to say this attorney general that killed a guy and left him in a ditch and lied about it and covered it up shouldn’t be the attorney general anymore,” Noem said.
Well, golly jeepers no. Ravnsborg was properly removed from office, but the complaint originally came from the Democrat who wrote the law.
The flight records were released on Wednesday, KELOLAND reported in KELOLAND News obtains Governor’s state plane travels.
One can READ: 5 years of South Dakota state plane travel logs. Since then, reporters and other folks have be pouring over the flight logs.
There does seem to be one particularly egregious example of private use of the public plane. At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger reports Flight Log 2019: Noem Flew Son, Nephews, Son’s Pal on State Plane the Weekend of Daughter’s Custer State Park Wedding.
Yeah, that would be personal use.
As for the investigation in the complaint by South Dakota's new Attorney General, appointed by Governor Noem, the Mitchell Republic's Jason Harward reported in Noem-appointed attorney general recuses himself from state airplane probe:
In an effort to “avoid even the appearance of impropriety,” South Dakota Attorney General Mark Vargo has recused himself from the forthcoming investigation by the state Division of Criminal Investigation into Gov. Kristi Noem’s use of a state airplane.
Jessica LaMie, the state’s attorney in Hughes County, will oversee the investigation, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office on Friday, Sept. 9. Vargo's office “will have no further comment and will not release any reports or evidence concerning the complaint until the investigation is complete," according to the statement.
On Aug. 22, the Government Accountability Board referred a complaint regarding misuse of the state airplane by Noem to the attorney general’s office, saying the office could “take action if deemed appropriate.”
Soon after, a small group of lawmakers including Rep. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and current House Speaker Spencer Gosch, R-Glenham, called on Vargo to recuse himself and “allow for an impartial investigation into the allegations.”
Noem appointed Vargo as interim attorney general in June after the former officeholder, Jason Ravnsborg, was removed from his position by the Senate after being impeached for his behavior during and after striking and killing a man with his car in 2020.
Questions surrounding Noem’s use of the state airplane for matters outside official state business were first raised by an article published by RawStory in February 2021. The state law regulating use of the state airplane, which was extended to cover the governor after a successful ballot measure in 2006, offers no exceptions to this rule.
A full accounting of Noem’s use of the state airplane was published by KELO earlier this week. . . .
Read the rest at the Mitchell Republic. There's a strong take on this at Dakota Free Press in Vargo Appoints Hughes County Prosecutor LaMie to Handle Noem State Plane Ethics Complaint:
Holy cow—the Government Accountability Board released 23 documents this morning relating to the ethics complaints against Governor Kristi Noem. The documents evidently show that Governor Noem tried to shut down the ethics panel’s investigation of her nepotism. Thank you, Judges Gienapp, Kean, and Wilbur for filling my weekend reading list; I’ll have analysis of those documents later.
The GAB must also have finally released its official notice to Attorney General Mark Vargo that it is punting the complaint about Governor Noem’s alleged misuse of the state plane back to the Attorney General’s office. Attorney General Vargo has finally affirmed the wisdom of Representative and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith and handed that investigation to a special prosecutor . . .
Heckova a Twitter defense, Mr. Fury
Earlier this week, Keloland's Eric Mayer reported in Author of story on Noem’s plane use in 2019 following AG complaint:
More than 18 months after publishing a story documenting South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s use of the state plane in 2019, Daniel Newhauser is glad to see some of his unanswered questions are still being asked.
Newhauser, a freelance reporter, wrote a story on Noem’s plane use based on flight logs published by Raw Story, a Washington, D.C., based online news publication. The story documents when Noem used the state plane to travel to a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition at a Las Vegas casino, a networking conference called Turning Point USA Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas and a NRA Women’s Leadership Forum in San Antonio along with other trips.
“It’s good to see the long tail of investigative journalism and accountability playing out in South Dakota,” Newhauser told KELOLAND News. “The people of South Dakota clearly wanted this – this law that regulates the use of state airplanes.”
The law Newhauser referred to was Initiated Measure 5, which voters passed 55-44 in 2006 to create civil and criminal penalties for violating state plane use outside of state business.
Newhauser said the law has gray areas and noted it’s unclear how it would be enforced.
“It’s never happened before,” he said. “So this is very, it’s a very novel, new situation.” . . .
“It’s going to be up to, I guess, the Attorney General now and the people of South Dakota to decide whether or not legitimate state interests are served with the governor flying to conferences of right-wing groups around the country, including the NRA, Turning Point USA, the Republican Jewish Coalition and others,” Newhauser said. . . .
Newhauser said his story started because there were questions whether Noem was using the state plane while attending campaign events for President Donald Trump in Fall 2022.
“It was pretty clear that the state plane was not being used for specifically campaign events,” Newhauser said.
He said many of the flight logs show normal use – Pierre to Watertown or Pierre to Custer State Park. He said the flight logs are just a list of cities and dates that don’t say much until you cross reference the cities and dates with public information.
“Visiting the NRA, is that state business or is it political? There’s a little bit of both. I mean, there’s certainly room for gray area here,” Newhauser said. . . .
That article led to a misleading tweets from Noem's communications head Ian Fury:
Even the reporter who broke the state plane story a year and a half ago admits, “It was pretty clear that the state plane was not being used for specifically campaign events.”
— Ian Fury (@IanTFury) September 9, 2022
Will @RepJamieSmith take back his lies? pic.twitter.com/vTuKYg70W0
Use a screenshot, don't supply a link to the article, and truncate the quote? Then hope no one tracks down the article and reads the entire passage:
Newhauser said his story started because there were questions whether Noem was using the state plane while attending campaign events for President Donald Trump in Fall 2022 [ editor's note: is this a copy editing mistake? Newhauser's article was published in 2019] .
“It was pretty clear that the state plane was not being used for specifically campaign events,” Newhauser said.
He said many of the flight logs show normal use – Pierre to Watertown or Pierre to Custer State Park. He said the flight logs are just a list of cities and dates that don’t say much until you cross reference the cities and dates with public information.
“Visiting the NRA, is that state business or is it political? There’s a little bit of both. I mean, there’s certainly room for gray area here,” Newhauser said.
"Specifically" carries a lot of weight, and the remaining two paragraphs illustrate what that might be. Noem has stressed she'll be a transparent leader, and asked that we put on our positive pants. Write your own joke about her balls.
Photo: One of the South Dakota state planes.
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