SD Law Review has detailed article on the Office of Senate President Pro Tempore by former Senator Lee Schoenbeck

Former Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck has an interesting article in this months’ law review about the evolution of the role of Senate President Pro Tempore from being a functionary under the Lt. Governor to commanding the entire Senate.

This extensive and wide ranging review of the office also details several challenges the Senate has faced; including how the Senate functioned during disciplinary hearings for Senator Dan Sutton, Julie Frye Mueller, the impeachment of Jason Ravnsborg, and the Jessica Castleberry conflict of interest discussions among others.

For most of South Dakota’s history, the Executive Branch controlled the Senate. While the written history of when the change began is difficult to piece together, in 1969, Jim Abdnor, who was then the Lt. Governor, appointed members to standing committees. Later in life, United States Senator Jim Abdnor was my boss and friend. He recounted to me a story of a chairmanship appointment where he passed over a Senator from Sioux Falls, who, a decade later, still despised Abdnor when we were organizing the 1980 Abdnor United States Senate campaign.

In the 1970 gubernatorial general election, Democrat State Senator Dick Kneip unseated incumbent Republican Governor Frank Farrar, but Republicans maintained control of the Senate. When the Senate adopted the Rules in 1971, the Senate Journal reflected for the first time that the Majority Leader would control the committee appointments.4 This change is not surprising, as it was unlikely the Republican majority would have let Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Dougherty control organizing the Senate. At the time, the Democrats cried foul, calling it a “political railroad job.”

and..

The modern President Pro Tem office began with Senator Harold Halvorsen. The 1995 Senate Rule now provided the Pro Tem to assign seats12 and hire the Senate employees. While the committee appointment language in Senate Rule 7-1 didn’t change (the Pro Tem had been in the rule in 1994), the Pro Tem now exercised the appointment power. In 2001, the committee appointment rule again became Senate Rule 4-1 and was changed to remove the Majority Leader reference, who had not exercised the duties anyway since 1995.

The change in responsibility was largely unnoticed by many. I first served in 1995 and did not realize the shift until returning as a Senator and studying the process in 2003. In 1995, despite the rule language, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jim Dunn assigned seats.

and..

I had already decided not to file for reelection and looked forward to quietly ending my Senate duties, but on October 11, 2006, the page’s father contacted me and lodged a formal complaint that his son had been sexually assaulted during the 2006 session by Senator Dan Sutton. I immediately contacted the Democrat Senate Minority Leader, Senator Gary Moore of Yankton, and we agreed to move forward on a bipartisan basis in any investigation. 

and..

In 2024, the Speaker of the House and I successfully implemented an independent human resources function in the LRC. Until the termination of the LRC Director in 2014, the LRC had been fortunate to have been led by stable, long-term directors. From 2014 until 2023, though, the LRC lacked that type of Director, and employment issues in the work environment abounded. The LRC had no formal HR process. In 2024, the E-board agreed to hire an independent HR consultant to address key HR areas: exit interviews, personnel complaints, and annual reviews of the LRC Director and the Auditor General. This much-needed assistance should allow for a stronger operational LRC in the future.

Go read the entire 20 page law review article here – well worth your time!