HURON – Ethics, professionalism and sexual harassment training attended by South Dakota legislators last week was well done, District 22 lawmakers said Saturday at the first of three legislative coffee forums scheduled through February.
The training was mandated in light of sexism and harassment complaints from statehouses around the country.
South Dakota has not been immune from similar incidents.
Rep. Roger Chase, R-Huron, said District 22 constituents in Beadle and Kingsbury County have no reason to be disappointed in their legislators, but that some people have been involved in bad situations during the legislative session in Pierre.
“The past is the past, let’s move forward,” he said.
Rep. Bob Glanzer, R-Huron, said the training session was a great idea and he learned a lot from attending. Sen. Jim White, R-Huron, said he also attended.
While 210 bills have been filed so far in the first two weeks of the session, legislators expect that number to possibly double in the coming days.
Chase, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said the panel will consider a number of interesting issues, including electronic log books for truckers, bridge inspections, autonomous vehicles and electric cars.
A member of the Appropriations Committee, White said members have begun hearing funding requests from nearly two dozen groups so far.
In response to a question from Rose Lee, executive director of People’s Transit, Chase said the transportation committee has discussed funding needs of the 22 municipal and private, nonprofit transit agencies in South Dakota.
The panel has talked about the need for a reliable fleet to provide transportation to people who have no way to get around otherwise, and the fact that the buses are aging.
Lee said for every federal dollar People’s Transit gets, she must match it with a local dollar.
White said appropriators have not seen a funding bill at this point, but agreed that among transit agencies “revenues are very, very tight.”

In Huron, 2,000 people depend on the buses.
At the request of Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who talked about the issue during his State of the State message earlier this month, legislators will consider a bill to delay the sunset date of the open waters compromise from this June until June 2021.
That will give the law more time to work, the governor said. The compromise was reached at a special legislative session last summer.
SB 24, identical to the compromise bill with the exception of the delayed sunset date, passed the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee by a 7-2 vote on Thursday.
Chase said as the bill moves through the process he doesn’t think it will get final approval without an attempt at amendments. There could also be additional bills on the issue, he said. Some have suggested the bill should be scrapped in favor of starting over, Glanzer said. But he said that would be a huge mistake.
“The non-meandered water bill is going to be the hot topic of the Legislature this year,” Chase said.
White talked about some of the agencies and groups that have come before the Appropriations Committee in the first two weeks of the session.
Legislators heard details about the State Fair from its manager, Peggy Besch, who talked about all the off-season events on the fairgrounds. With so many events, Huron and the fairgrounds is a destination point, White said.
“That is not just a state function, it’s a local function and it’s a regional function,” he said.
He said the state retirement system is 100 percent funded, and the state budget is balanced.
“There are very few states that can say that,” White said.
When SB 1, the transportation bill, was passed three years ago to provide funding for highways and bridges, only five of the 13 members of the House Transportation Committee were in the Legislature.
It means the eight new members, including Chase, are getting more input on that, he said.
Also, he said the state Department of Transportation is proposing a pilot program of setting electronic speed boards at two locations on the interstate highways to regulate speed limits during times of poor weather and heavy traffic.
The two areas are on I-29 south of Brookings and I-90 between Rapid City and Sturgis where there have been a large number of crashes, Chase said.
If successful, it could be done in other areas, he said.
Asked by an audience member about after school youth programs, the legislators agreed they are important in a time when both parents work and children often go home to empty houses.
Chase said he sees it as a community issue rather than a state mandate because such programs can be organized by churches and civic groups and, in Rapid City’s case, boys and girls clubs.
White said he is proud of the fact that legislators have finally addressed issues such as education and highway funding and non-meandered waters.
Chase said South Dakotans should be proud of the men and women who serve with distinction in the Army National Guard. Legislators had breakfast with Guard soldiers one morning.
Twenty-three of the 35 Guard units rated as superior in the nation are in South Dakota, he said.
He also said legislators are working hard to tackle the issues coming before them this winter.
“Unlike Washington, we are open and we are getting things done,” Chase said.

Photos by Roger Larsen/plainsman
Huron resident Dennis Olson poses a question to District 22 legislators Saturday morning, at the first of three scheduled Coffee with the Legislators, held at Huron City Hall.

Below, from the left are Senator Jim White, Mike Held, the moderator from the Huron Chamber and Visitors Bureau’s Governmental Affairs Committee; and Representives Bob Glanzer and Roger Chase.