The chief code counsel for the South Dakota state legislature has resigned after just one year on the job.
But he didn’t leave without warning state legislators how they are perceived within the group that helps them write and research bills.
It was a late night on the third week of session when code council Wenzel Cummings addressed the joint legislative procedure committee. The legislative group was looking to change a rule that allowed the legislature to amend administrative rules—which falls under the executive branch.
Cummings says he was shocked to see it.
“That is just con—starkly unconstitutional.”
As the top lawyer for the Legislative Research Council, Cummings said instead lawmakers could pass a bill aimed at an administrative rule.
That advice was unwelcomed by several Senate lawmakers at the time.
Less than six months later, Cummings is leaving.
Cummings says he moved back to South Dakota five years ago to be with his aging mother, but…
“At the end of the day it wasn’t worth it,” Cummings says. “Because of the treatment that this office is subjected to on a consistent basis by the members of this legislature and most notably this last session from the Senate. So, I decided at the end of session that I did not want to waste the best years of my career working for this body.”
Cummings’ comments were made during an executive board meeting of the state legislature. He says he took the job with the full intention of retiring from the position.
He describes an internal award handed to staff members of the LRC.
“It’s call the E Award,” Cummings says. “I will not tell you what the ‘e’ stands for in public, but essentially the award is handed from one staff person to another. Whenever those staff members are thrown under the bus. Publicly criticized. Publicly diminished. They pass this award from one staff member to the next. It’s a way that the staff tries to add humor to what is otherwise a devastating experience.”
Cummings is leaving after four years with the LRC. He’s taken a job with another state.
