The Argus Leader has a story today on the Division of Banking’s refusal to release applications and complaints on some lenders, despite the records being noted as public documents. But, there’s a curious carve-out that says otherwise:
The applications, according to Bret Afdahl, the director of the South Dakota Division of Banking, are not public documents. Afdahl denied an Argus Leader request for the applications, in part by quoting a law whose title notes that banking division records are “open to public inspection.” In his denial of the records, Afdahl noted that the “division must encourage full and complete disclosure of financial and background information” of those seeking a license under laws regulating money lenders.
Money lenders are a distinct class of business regulated by the division. They are typically associated with high-interest, short-term loans.
The Argus Leader also requested all consumer complaints received by the division since Jan. 1, 2014. Afdahl denied the paper’s request for those records, arguing they aren’t in the public interest and could be used to harm people or banks.
To understand why the Division of Banking is saying no, when the Argus is saying “yes,” you’ve got to go back to the law:
51A-2-35. Records of division open to public inspection–Exceptions–Court order. The records of the division are open to public inspection. However:(1) The director may withhold from public inspection any record, including any correspondence, for so long as deemed necessary for the protection of a person or bank or to be in the public interest;(2) The director shall withhold from public inspection any record required to be confidential pursuant to federal statutes or rules or regulations of the board of governors of the federal reserve system or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and(3) Reports of examination shall remain the property of the division and shall be furnished to the bank for its confidential use. Under no circumstances may the report or any supporting documentation be disclosed to anyone, other than directors and officers of the bank or anyone who is acting in a fiduciary capacity for the bank, without written permission from the director.Any record of the division shall be made available upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction if cause is shown.
And that’s an exception that’s pretty wide open.
I have to concur with the state’s largest paper, who adds: “The application also asks whether an applicant or “control person” of the company has been convicted of a felony, been subject of previous regulatory actions, declared bankruptcy or possessed unsatisfied judgments or liens. All of that information is already publicly available.”
In fact, the ownership information of the banks is also going to be largely public through the Secretary of State’s Office corporate filings.
Given the fact that all of that information IS available through public sources in other places, is the “deemed necessary for the protection of a person or bank or to be in the public interest” carve-out from open record laws warranted or needed?
It’s the same for video lottery. We have no idea who exactly our state is in business with for video lottery and payday lending. The applicants hide behind LLCs and for all we know the state of South Dakota is in business here with the Gambino crime family on Vegas. I’m probably not that far off on this one with regard to who the real players are in the payday biz in our state.
“for all we know the state of South Dakota is in business here with the Gambino crime family on Vegas”
Steve, I used to think of you as a decent legislator, but stupid statements like that are what have marginalized you. You’re sounding more and more like the democrats you have been hanging out with.
yeah he should trust us that we know what is good for the state. they don’t need those records to be public
People in the know tell me our video lottery interests are tied into Vegas. We don’t know for sure. We should know who our state is in business with.
I’m marginalized to the degree I vote my conscious and principles regardless of whether or not it keeps me in favor with leadership or the Governor or the party. Every elected official ought to be willing to commit political suicide at least once a year voting the right way and doing the right thing even though it marginalizes them. In my case, I do this several times a year. No regrets yet.
“I’m marginalized to the degree I vote my conscious and principles ”
You do not vote your conscience (check your word choice).
It is clear that your views and votes and screeds are about promoting Steve Hickey. From the death penalty to Peltier, to “truth & reconciliation”, to the God-like judgments of various commenters, Steve Hickey is growing more and more about the SHAMELESS promotion of Steve Hickey.
Steve Hickey’s main principle: get Steve Hickey’s name out there and excuse it with “conscience & principle”.
You need a good dose of humility.
You are quite the judge of my motives and character. And you are far from the mark. And you are a broken record.
Not sure where your spite and malice come from toward me. Perhaps you’d prefer reps that you never hear from, they have no thoughts to share with the media when they call and they just push green and red buttons. We need leaders and thought leaders and those types are lightening rods.
“You are quite the judge of my motives and character”
From your words, Christ is not in your heart.
From God’s view, your extreme and shameless efforts at garnering attention cast doubt on whether you’re acting out of principle.
“Not sure where your spite and malice come from toward me.”
What was the source of your spite & malice against Annette Bosworth?
“People in the know tell me our video lottery interests are tied into Vegas”
Who are these “people in the know”? What are their names?
Again, either back up your statement, or admit you’re peddling in wishful gossip.
” The applicants hide behind LLCs and ”
This is simple, Steve-O.
Go to the sec’y of states office and copy the letters of incorporation.
Hey go try that and see what you get.
South Dakota’s Soup/Records Nazi: No records for you!
No, I’m not calling anyone a Nazi. For you young people, it’s a reference to a famous “Seinfeld” sketch.
What precipitated the request by the Argus Leader?
Ellis called me for a comment as you can tell by reading the article. In our conversation he mentioned what precipitated the Argus Leader’s info request. With the exception of comments from Chuck Brennan, the media can’t get ahold of anyone to interview for articles on this matter. When they call the loan shops they get the phone hung up on them and no one knows who the owners and managers are or how to get ahold of them.
It’ll be good to know how these aren’t just mom and pop South Dakotan outfits. We do know some in our banking community are involved but they don’t want that broadcast very far.
I’m wondering if Hickey still wants to “free Leonard Peltier”? He doesn’t give much thought to what he says except to make sure it gets attention.
Yep, free Peltier was my suggestion. Such a move would be a step in the right direction in our states rocky race relations problems. Of course you will go on and have a fit about this and disregard my reasoning – which has nothing to do with his guilt or innocence – and which I spelled out carefully in my article last year.
Steve –
I’ve got to disagree with you here in the strongest possible terms. Setting a convicted murderer free who gunned down 2 FBI agents in cold blood doesn’t do anything except set a killer free. If you want the who story, I’d suggest you visit http://www.noparolepeltier.com.
It looks at every argument raised by the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, and each and every issue and allegation raised by Peltier, and repeated by the LPDC, has been addressed and resolved .
🙂 I’ve read all that, Pat and the American Indian Mafia book as we’ve talked about before.
How many did we kill in cold blood, women and children?
I’m not sure what this we stuff is, but I doubt you or I have done any of that.
“doesn’t do anything except set a killer free”
from Hickeys writings on the DP and the killer Peltier, one can only conclude that Steve’s objective is to free (“forgive & forget”) murderers in SD prisons.
What a sad sack of a representative.
just open the prison doors forgive and forget?
Absolute bullshit. Freeing a murderer doesn’t solve anything.
“Such a move would be a step in the right direction in our states rocky race relations problems.”
Rev. Hickey:
You have officially morphed into Bozo.
Congrats.
You just don’t get it, do you?!
Part of the country burns right now over race issues. And they are right here at home. I’m seeing no leadership on any issues in SD except one.
I’ll correct my statement— little leadership not no leadership
Mr. Hickey:
What you should do then is to go national and advocate for the election of Reps., for we all see what decades of Democrat “leadership:” has done to these riotous big cities.
How does releasing murderers calm murderous rioters?
Been there, done that.
“for all we know the state of South Dakota is in business here with the Gambino crime family on Vegas”
uh oh! the hubbelites are going to have a field day with this!
There’s a complete list of money lenders on the Division of Banking Website, at this link:
http://www.dlr.sd.gov/banking/money_lenders/documents/money_lender_licensee_list.pdf
Apparently its too hard for people to look for and at to learn the answers to their questions?
BK, I will give you that sometimes the Argus is pretty obtuse when it comes to data requests.
When I was with the SOS, they wanted a list of Lobbyists. We said “It’s right there on the Website, have at it for free.” They said, “No, we want an electronic version in excel to our specifications, and here’s our crabby open records threat.”
We said, “Our system (as we inherited it at the time) doesn’t do that, it just puts it in this other type of electronic format, and it will be X-Hundred Dollars to have the programming done if you want it differently. And here’s the law that says it’s up to you if that’s what you want.”
They still didn’t like it.
PP
I figured as much. Its difficult if not impossible for the press to understand how it has marginalized itself through its actions. Where’s the code of ethics for reporters? They crow about every one else’s ethics. Where are theirs written and who enforces them?
Thanks for all you do to promote healthy discourse in this state PP.
BK
Pat’s a good friend. But I’m not sure about the healthy discourse part here at DWC. This is a miserable place for me to dialog with people about issues. Uncivil, personal, anonymous, etc. Gets old.
“This is a miserable place for me to dialog with people about issues. Uncivil, personal, anonymous, etc. Gets old.”
Oh pullleeeze!
You come here post here, deflect criticisms with complaints about anonymity, ATTACK the views of others on Christianity, question whether they have Christ in their heart, claim to speak for God’s view, claim that “we” killed NAs, and now…
you try to climb up the cross of martyrdom–the same cross you erected for yourself!
Give it up.
You dish it out but cannot take it. If you’re such a man of principle and conviction as you claim, type what you want to type, and BACK IT UP.
Such self-serving pity is un-Christlike.
PP the law states “A Reasonable cost and amount of time ” in getting those records copied for the inquirer but it does not say a Government employee has to put it into this or that type digital form. They can digitalize it all once they have a hard copy of whatever they legally can have. Senate Bill 101 of 2011, Al Novstrups bill put some teeth into the act of obtaining public information by private entities. It may not apply here as the requested information may be of an “Intellectual Property” type classification.
4 1-27-1.15. No civil or criminal liability may attach to a public official for the mistaken
5 denial or provision of a record pursuant to this chapter if that action is taken in good faith. The
6 custodian of a public record may be subject to a civil penalty if the custodian of the public
7 record denies access to or fails to make available to the public for inspection or copying all
8 public records under the control of the custodian. The custodian may not unreasonably delay the
9 response to the request for the information. If the custodian has acted in bad faith, the custodian
10 may be personally liable for a civil penalty of fifty dollars per day for each day the custodian has
11 denied a person access to a public record.
The reckless participation in gossip is a form of bearing false witness, grave matter.
Since one can get a list of all the video lottery retailers and the pay day lenders and then going to the Secretary of State’s office and review the organization documents, one could easily prove whether the video lottery and pay day lending industries are in “business here with the Gambino crime family on (sic) Vegas” or hide behind nebulous “People in the know.”
Not willing to do the work is not an excuse for making reckless charges and innuendo against another. If one has reason to believe something as serious as mob connections and it is relatively easy to get supporting documentation, makes me wonder why they wouldn’t do so.
Go after the names Troy and you won’t get them. They are only available to the lottery commission. And now we find the license apps for payday lenders aren’t public either.
Trusting government is for fools.
Gambling families are active in many state gambling enterprises. Am I engaging in wild gossip to say for all we know SD is no different.
“People in the know tell me our video lottery interests are tied into Vegas”
Rev. Hickey:
Who are these “people in the know”? What are their names?
“Am I engaging in wild gossip ”
Yes.
Have you any shame?
the innuendo helps get his name in the paper, in front of the camera and butts in the pews.
research? only if it is self serving
I went to the Lottery site, clicked on the list of all licensed video accounts (could have done the same for ticket retailers), went down the first three LLC’s and got the relevant owner/management information. With that if willing to pay the cost (for $20 you can get a lot of information on a person) and make the effort, I could have done a detailed public and criminal search of the people listed.
Personally, if I was going to imply people were connected to people Gambino-like, I’d have done some work to provide at least a modicum of evidence.
Trusting elected representatives is for fools.
Here’s the lottery list. Off their site. Names are on it. Imagine that.
http://lottery.sd.gov/retailer/documents/VLOpOwn093014.pdf
That’s a local vendor list.
Steve Hickey,
If this isn’t the list of who you accuse of being Gambino-like, who are you accusing? The mostly convenience stores that sell scratch tickets? The people who manufacture the video lottery machines? The multi-state lotteries (i.e. Powerball)? The people who print the scratch tickets? The clerks in the convenience stores and video lottery casinos?
No.
I suppose that Troy’s little fact finding exposition here must be embarrassing to one who claimed the names cannot be accessed…or is he
“Uncivil, personal, anonymous, etc.”?
Steve Hickey in response to being asked if anyone on a list of all the people I know who are involved in the lottery industry in SD are Gambino-like: “No”
So, I ask again, who are you accusing as being Gambino-like?
I think I see the problem here, Troy. Steve isn’t accusing anyone of being Gambino-like. You’re the one going to great lengths to stuff those words into his mouth.
Steve said “for all we know” South Dakota is in business with the Gambino family. That statement is both true and worthy of our consideration.
Troy – “Personally, if I was going to imply people were connected to people Gambino-like, I’d have done some work to provide at least a modicum of evidence.”
Personally, if I were going to suggest someone was implying something, I’d look up the word “imply” and reread his actual comment.
http://lottery.sd.gov/retailer/documents/LicensedVideoAccounts093014.pdf
Here’s the “Licensed Video Accounts” list. It’s all on the same page at the SD Lottery website. lottery.sd.gov
It’s all there. One just needs to seek it using about the same amount of initiative it takes to access this page and proffer a response.
Anonymous 4:54:
There is a logical fallacy called “argumentum ad ignorantiam” which is arguing that since we have not information that something isn’t true, it must be true. Since Steve denies my list of who makes up the lottery industry, who is he talking about?
And, since he offers neither the “who” or no evidence for what is clearly an attempt to denigrate the lottery industry, his statement is also an example of bearing false witness (slandering slandering without any evidence).
Steve isn’t saying it “must be true” that South Dakota is in business with the Gambino family, Troy. He’s only pointing out that it’s possible. His statement isn’t an example of bearing false witness, but your accusation against him is.
And for future reference, slander is oral defamation. Written defamation is libel.
“And for future reference, slander is oral defamation. Written defamation is libel.”
Not quite genius.
Libel is any false statement that is PUBLISHED (not necessarily I n a written form). For example, when someone orally makes a false statement on the radio, is is LIBEL.
Consider yourself schooled.
“He’s only pointing out that it’s possible. ”
Well gee, ANYTHING is possible, so why bother speculating on something is is POSSIBLE? I could claim that it’s possible that you’re a pile of poop, but why would I do so< EXCEPT to insult you?
The REASON why Hickey stated what he stated was to insinuate that there are indeed Gambino-like connections among the video lottery people.
Now, le's connect "possibilities" to your libel/slander issue.
If I were to claim that it's "possible" that ordinary bloke "Joe Smih" was a child molester (knowing that I had no proof and making no effort to verify it), then I am libeling Joe Smith.
Additionally, a "reverend" like Hickey is probably held to a higher standard when it comes to "bearing false witness" than ordinary folks.
In this case, Hickey was challenged and provided several opportunities to provide proof of his Gambino statement–he did not. The only reasonable conclusion is that he had none, and made his outrageous statement for the purpose of insulting video lottery folks. As such, he was bearing false witness.
I can’t prove it, but I’m convinced Steve Hickey’s anonymous nemesis in this thread is Lee Stranahan. Nearly every comment bears Stranahan’s tone and style.
Interesting hypothesis. Thanks. Whoever it is they mad I challenged Bosworth.
Lee called me this week when he was in town and left me a voicemail wanting to have coffee. I didn’t return the call. My guard is up.
You didn’t return the call? But Christ said to treat others the way you’d like to be treated. You probably hurt his feelings.
I’d have called him back and declined—and listed the reasons if he asked for them—which probably would have hurt his feelings too.
Anonymous 5:34:
By that logic, it would also be ok to say “have you ever noticed the Hickey’s close their curtains at night and for all we know he is beating his wife.” Like you said it is possible.
You know that above doesn’t sound right and shouldn’t be said unless someone has reasonable information. Same with the accusation there are Gambino like interests in the lottery industry.
Both are unfounded slurs and a form of bearing false witness.
Since there’s no “Anonymous 5:34” here, I’ll assume you’re replying to the comment stamped “May 1, 2015 at 5:37 pm”…
Troy – “By that logic, it would also be ok to say ‘have you ever noticed the Hickey’s close their curtains at night and for all we know he is beating his wife.'”
Right. If someone believed Steve might be beating his wife, making the above statement wouldn’t be an example of bearing false witness. If the motive behind the statement was to prevent such abuse either now or in the future, it could even be an act of love.
Troy – “You know that above doesn’t sound right and shouldn’t be said unless someone has reasonable information. Same with the accusation there are Gambino like interests in the lottery industry. Both are unfounded slurs and a form of bearing false witness.”
(1) Steve hasn’t made an accusation that there are organized crime interests in the lottery industry. (2) Such an accusation would hardly be unfounded:
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150327/NEWS/150329306/13752
RE: Slander/Libel discusion.
The context of my comment was not with regard to legality/crime (as in a noun) but in the context of the vernacular. Slander as a verb is to intentionally besmirch, tarnish, smear another’s reputation. When done without evidence or falsely it becomes calumny, a form of bearing false witness.
Troy – “The context of my comment was not with regard to legality/crime (as in a noun) but in the context of the vernacular.”
In the vernacular “slandering” is engaging in slander, regardless of criminality. The verb and the noun refer to the same act.
Troy – “Slander as a verb is to intentionally besmirch, tarnish, smear another’s reputation.”
No, it doesn’t have to be intentional.
Troy – “When done without evidence or falsely it becomes calumny, a form of bearing false witness.”
Mere lack of evidence or falsehood doesn’t establish calumnious intent, and by definition slander is always a form of bearing false witness.