The Casual Observer: Partisan politics have no place in local government

What follows are some words that readers may want to remember.

“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state… Let me now take a more comprehensive view and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally…

The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.

Please, forgive the 18th Century language style here, but that was the common way of speaking when George Washington wrote it in 1796.

In his Farewell Address at the end of his second term as President, he warned the American people about the divisions that could be caused by political parties.

When the Founding Fathers wrote and adopted the Constitution, they made absolutely no reference to political parties. Most likely, they were thinking all Americans should work together to make the country a better place.

Although people indoctrinated into what I call the “party mentality” would disagree, no one political party has a monopoly on good ideas.

While, today, against the advice of President Washington, we see political games played in Washington, D.C. and Pierre, we should not see them at the local level.

In South Dakota, city and school board members run on non-political ballots, and, as I have written in the past, that should be the same way for county offices.

However, in the eight-plus years I have been covering the Minnehaha County Commission, while there have been mainly Republicans elected, I have never seen any commissioners pushing a political agenda.

That is, until now.

At their Tuesday, July 22, meeting the regular business was limited, but during public comment, one item was brought to the forefront … the “dreaded” United Way!

Usually, in what I write, I don’t give any credence to anything said during public comment, as that is a time for people to just vent about what is bothering them. It is not a time for debate.

For the most part, people don’t have any proof for what they are saying, or at least they don’t have anything I can vet.

(Just because somebody posted something on the Internet does not make it true and doesn’t automatically count as “proof.”)

At this meeting a person read from a packet of talking points that he most likely got off a website run by like-minded people citing why the United Way was so terrible because on its applications for employment and various services, it used DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) practices, as well asked what a person’s “preferred pronouns” were.

I didn’t give the guy a second thought, until county auditor Leah Anderson chimed in.

Keep in mind, Minnehaha County does not give any money to the United Way. However, it does allow for payroll deductions for employees who want to donate to the United Way, in the same way the State of South Dakota does. 

This is not a new practice, as it was started decades ago (four or more in some places around Sioux Falls).

In one breath, Anderson spoke about how much time it diverts from county business to process these deductions, but in the next breath she said that only 13 people take advantage of doing the payroll deductions on a regular basis. That is roughly 2 percent of county employees.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that a lot more than 2 percent of the citizens in Minnehaha County either support DEI practices and pronoun preferences, or, simply, just do not care one way or another.

Anderson did point out that it is inequitable that the county doesn’t do payroll deductions for any other organization, but she failed to say that any other organization has ever asked for the privilege.

I felt the bottom line here was when Commissioner Joe Kippley said that if the United Way didn’t exist, then the government sector would need to step in and deal with the problems that this one charitable organization already works with.

That, my friends, could cost the county millions of dollars more than dealing with a handful of payroll deductions.

By the way, I always taught my argumentation students to lead with their best arguments. 

In talking about costs, Anderson didn’t say that by cutting out the United Way payroll deductions, it would allow the county to eliminate a full-time employee or half an FTE, or even a quarter of an FTE.

So without that argument being presented, we have to assume it doesn’t exist. In fact, without that argument, I am going to contend that if an employee, who is already being paid, would only have an extra 30 to 60 minutes a year to do other things.

Personally, I would rather have my tax dollars paying to raise money for dealing with mental health and housing issues than to have those same taxes paying people to watch cat videos on YouTube.

Besides, once the information about these deductions for a few employees is put into the system, the computer takes care of the rest.

Now, let’s finally get to what George Washington warned us about.

Also during the non-action commission discussion, Commissioner Cole Heisey added his thoughts, and he definitely interjected a political diatribe when he talked about “woke ideology.”

That is very much a recent political term and, as such, has no place in local government discussions.

This is a shame, because up until now, I have seen Heisey say some very thoughtful things and ask some very good questions.

And while I would like to see that continue, I hope the political games do not.

Remember, partisan politics “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.”

Which means, they certainly have no place in making a better city or county.

Dave Baumeister is a contributing writer to the Brandon Valley Journal, who reports on the Minnehaha County Commission meetings and other county-related topics.