Why didn’t Jason Gant think of this? Secretary of State Shantel Krebs sends House Bill 1009 to the Local Government committee for the Legislature’s consideration. HB 1009 changes SDCL 2-7-1 to eliminate some printing costs by requiring that the legislative manuals distributed to legislators and other state offices be electronic. paper copies won’t disappear, but HB 1009 specifies that “A hard bound copy may be purchased at a price set by the secretary of state.”
Our last Secretary of State, Jason Gant, liked to brag about his office’s techno-wizardry (hey, techno-wizard! what spell do you cast to find three lost iPads?). If Gant’s techno-wizards had thought of making an electronic legislative manual, they could have avoided getting in trouble with the Sioux Falls printer they stiffed! They also would avoided breaking SDCL 2-7-1 by failing to fulfill their statutory obligation to print and distribute those hard copies in 2013.
Removing the printing requirement will save a few thousand dollars in printing costs (the Bureau of Administration currently charges $16.77 per hard-bound copy, plus $5 for shipping… and sales tax?! What the heck?!). However, in a strange turn, Secretary Krebs is making each hard-bound copy a little more expensive than the Gant editions by enlarging the photos of herself and other elected officials from the nice little third-of-a-column shots in the 2013 Gant edition to the full-page glossies in the 2015 Krebs edition:
Perhaps grannies and grampies were complaining that the previous photos were too small. Now we have pics suitable for clipping and framing.
HB 1009 removes the language about providing the legislative manual (also known as the Blue Book) to the public for a price. I assume the Secretary will continue to offer the Blue Book in PDF format online for free. The Legislative Manual is more of a South Dakota almanac than an actual instruction booklet for legislating (for that info, see the LRC’s Legislator Reference Book, the Legislative Drafting Manual, and the House Rules, Senate Rules, and Joint Rules for each Session), but we citizens welcome any information the state can put online for free.
I, for one, like the bigger pictures of the people.
I, for one, wonder why they need full page head shots.
Self-promotion, Mr. Nemec. Self-promotion.
The quarter page ones look too much like mug shots
Next year, how about action figures?
Or bobble heads.
a welcome decision to not print the manual that’s only 20-years behind the times. Full page photos – what hubris. What do you bet they are photo-shopped or retouched, too.
I would love Shantel Krebs and Marty Jackley action figures! They need to be 3.75″ so they fit in my Millennium Falcon.
Actually, my old Han Solo action figure looks a bit like Bernie Hunhoff… and Dengar reminds me of Roger Hunt.
I like the bobble head idea. A mindlessly smiling figure, nodding its head yes somehow seems appropriate for South Dakota.
This one is a no-brainer, it should fly by in the first week.
Grudz-if they were a liberal leaning bunch you’ want them small, eh>?
Mr. jake, I’m not an aficionado but 3.75″ bobble-heads seem like the standard size to me.
Assuming is dangerous. The new law does not require the manual be made available to the public, unlike the old statute. Oversight? A quick fix? Intentional? I have no idea, honestly, but I don’t see any reason why there can’t be a few words added about it being made available to the public on the SOS’s website. It’s in the statute now. Just keep that part.
Fair point, Sabrina! It wouldn’t be hard to amend HB 1009 to unstrike the phrase “and to the public.” It wouldn’t cost anything that we aren’t spending now placing that PDF online. Make it so!
Since they have the full page glamour shots I’m positive they want to distribute it to as many of the public as possible. Be careful they do not change that law to say we must all receive this book in our email every year.
Pat Powers has written a lengthy post on the Dump Site about his favorite subject: Pat Powers. He claims he is the “author” of the 2011 Blue Book. He also demonstrates that he really doesn’t understand what the word “author” means. Then again, he thinks he creates something every day by cutting and pasting other people’s work …
So (gets yer attn doesnt it?)…gant fuc*z up publishing contract, gets sued, so after he leaves, state’s lazer-vision focuses there and then SOS makes her series of gratuitous government selfies BIGGGER?? Is this still a contest w/ frankenstein? God save us from sdgop
Grudz u do not know what a selenium falcon is, do you?
Indeed, I do not know what a selenium falcon is, Ms. Leslie. Is it some deviant practice that you have blogged about? Is it a kind of phone selfie of pretty women?
Dave, I can’t bear it. Ironic that Pat would complain about vanity photos, yet take credit for “authorship” of a state document.