In a unanimous vote, the state Open Meeting board declares Sturgis city government violated open meeting law during the transition from city manager format. It comes as municipal government has dealt with myriads of challenges throughout the process.
The matter was discussed at the most recent state Open Meeting commission this week and is reflective of a chaotic 2024 for Sturgis.
Arguing for the merit of the complaints is municipal law attorney Kellen Willert.
“We appear before you today on really two affidavits," Willert said. "There’s six total complaints on two affidavits. The document titled affidavit number one deals with two issues regarding taking votes by a secret ballot.”
The secret ballot votes in question occurred during the transitional period while removing the city manager position and related to the resignation of former Mayor Mark Carstensen.
Willert explained South Dakota’s executive, or closed, session law.
“It’s a closed meeting and it quote, is restricted to the purpose specified in the closure motion," Willert said. "Period, end quote. That’s not plural, and that makes sense. If you’re going to go into executive session, you should state the purpose, go into exec, stay within the topic, and if you have another reason to go into exec, you should come out and back in.”
Thus, according to board member Austin Hoffman, Sturgis city government violated state law during this process.
“I think if we’re going to infer, which is a fair thing to do, that there is supposed to be a purpose specified in the closure motion – there was not," Hoffman said. "Because of that, I will make a motion that (Sturgis city government) did violate open meetings law because a meeting was not specified.”
That motion was unanimously approved. No representatives from Sturgis were present for the meeting.