I just had a reader tip me off on this..
Noting the article directly below this, where I point out that outgoing US Attorney Randy Seiler filed paperwork to run for Attorney General nearly 2 weeks ago, I was asked “How is Randy Seiler going to run for AG when he’s just been hired to be the Hughes County States Attorney?”
Wait, what?
The Hughes County Commission on Tuesday hired just-retired U.S. Attorney Randy Seiler of Fort Pierre as interim state’s attorney to cover for State’s Attorney Wendy Kloeppner who is leaving in two weeks.
Seiler, 71, retired Dec. 31 after 22 years as a federal prosecutor, the past nearly three years working as the U.S. attorney for South Dakota.
Seiler told the Commission the idea is to “give you guys a little more time” to replace Kloeppner on a permanent basis. And it’s just “being a good neighbor,” as a resident of Fort Pierre across the Missouri River.
and..
An Air Force veteran who graduated from law school in 1980, Seiler worked at a law firm in Mobridge, during which time he worked as a deputy state’s attorney in Campbell County for a time in the 1980s.
He began working as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in 1995.
Besides his long experience as a prosecutor, a main qualification Seiler has for being interim state’s attorney in Hughes County is, he says: “I do not want the job on a permanent basis. I do not intend to run for the position.”
and..
Seiler’s arrangement approved on Tuesday seems to indicate the Commission didn’t get any applications in the past 25 days that they wished to accept.
Seiler will be paid $8,500 per month.
Seiler said he arrived at that amount by looking at what Kloeppner’s salary is this year, about $84,000, or $7,000 per month; then adding in an amount to account for the county employee benefits he won’t receive as an independent contractor.
Those benefits roughly amount to about 22 percent of the salary amount, bringing him to $8,500 per month, Seiler said.
Seiler noted to the County Commission that he did “not intend to run for the position” of State’s Attorney.. but where’s the part where he had already filed paperwork on January 8th that he was running for Attorney General?
(Might have been something that County Commissioners, and the local media, could have been interested in knowing at the time.)
Why on earth did the county commission hire a DEMOCRAT to be States Attorney in our capital county?
Something is not right here…