According to the Rapid City Journal, State Representative Lynn DiSanto is leading an on-line petition drive to revoke the recent pay increase that Commissioners voted for themselves which she started on January 7th. And from reading the article, in the process,you wonder just what’s going on there:
State Representative Lynne DiSanto, R-Rapid City, is angry that Pennington County commissioners gave themselves a 20 percent raise, and she is calling for a repeal of the the increase.
DiSanto is circulating an online petition titled, “Repeal Pennington County Commission’s Pay Increase, and Require Attendance to get Paid.”
and…
Raising commissioner salaries is an administrative action and cannot be referred to a public vote according to state law. Further, DiSanto’s petition has no legal standing, that is, it has no power to initiate any formal government action.
DiSanto’s husband, Mark DiSanto, recently announced he is running for the District 4 commission seat occupied by Commission Chairman Lyndell Petersen, who has not declared whether he will seek re-election to a third term. Petersen voted to approve the salary increase, although he said afterward he thought he was voting on a smaller raise.
and…
“As much as I know it could appear to be an attempt to create some controversy, this issue had been brought to me prior to him wanting to run,” DiSanto said in a telephone interview. “I can’t speak to all of Mark’s reason to run, but Mark and I both realized there is a serious issue on the Pennington County Commission, which motivated him to run.”
In the petition, DiSanto leveled accusations against Commissioner Ron Buskerud, saying he lives in Arizona for half the year and “sporadically” attends meetings.
In response to DiSanto’s accusations, Buskerud said, “She’s a liar.”
Buskerud said he goes to Arizona during the winter but spends a majority of his time in Pennington County. When Buskerud isn’t physically in Pennington County for the commissioner meetings, he teleconferences into the meetings using Skype.
and…
In the petition, DiSanto also alleges that commissioners work only 4 hours a month.
While they might disagree on issues before the legislature, I don’t recall I’ve ever seen a Legislator declare war on their county commission at the opening of a legislative session, especially coming as her husband has declared his candidacy. In case you’re wondering about the full text of the petition…
The Pennington County commission has recently voted for themselves to receive a 20% pay raise, despite the fact that they’ve recently asked voters to accept a tax increase due to a lack of funds for county roads and bridges. This has brought their pay to $18,000 per year for 4 hours of work PER MONTH. In addition to this, our commissioners are not currently required to attend the meetings and still receive their full pay. Commissioner Ron Buskerud lives in Arizona half of the year, only sporadically participating in the county commission meetings and still continues to draw a full salary on the back of the taxpayers.
We want to send a strong message to the Pennington County Commissioners that we do not believe that they should’ve have made a motion and voted in favor of their own raise without the consent of the voters at a time that they are asking for more. In addition we would like the commissioners to be REQUIRED to attend the meetings they have been elected to serve in, or they will NOT receive compensation for the missed meetings.
Read that here. (Currently 322 votes of support)
The salary issue is certainly controversial, and likely has voters good and exercised, but I’m not sure what an on-line petition of this nature does for either DiSanto, especially when there’s comments such as this..
“Moved to Colorado less than a year ago. My wife and I are reluctant to move back to Pennington County with elected representation like this.”
That doesn’t exactly sound like someone who is going to affect any election in the near future.
I can’t help but go back to her statement on the issue…
“As much as I know it could appear to be an attempt to create some controversy, this issue had been brought to me prior to him wanting to run,” DiSanto said in a telephone interview. “I can’t speak to all of Mark’s reason to run, but Mark and I both realized there is a serious issue on the Pennington County Commission, which motivated him to run.”
Trying to deny that this on-line petition was brought up as ” an attempt to create some controversy” is ridiculous. An attempt to create controversy is ALL that it is. It’s an on-line petition, like those that seek to ban Justin Beiber from the United States.
It has no force of law. It isn’t limited to people living in the area, obviously as noted from the Coloradan chiming in. It isn’t limited to people living in the United States. It’s just an attempt to get attention, which it did in the Rapid City Journal this morning.
As for her statement “I can’t speak to all of Mark’s reason to run….” Wait? What?
That’s a really odd statement coming from the man’s wife. Most spouses will discuss their hopes, dreams and aspirations with each other. If she hasn’t spoken to him about why he’s running, most would think that might be a good conversation for a husband and wife to have.
I can’t help but think as I refer back to that entire passage, my mother – departed fifteen years now – when faced with an odd statement from someone which didn’t seem to ring true used to say, “I think she’s full of beans.”
Take from that whatever you will.
Go get ’em, Lynn!
She is a political ladder climber. I don’t trust her one bit.