Dana Ferguson attended today’s meeting of the scandal-plagued Mid-Central Educational Cooperative in Platte today and got the big news that the MCEC board accepted a resignation from former GEAR UP director Stacy Phelps and non-renewed contracts for Brian Wagner, Doris Stiles, Pam Uecker, and Janelle Stewart. Wagner may be the most interesting of those personnel decisions: based in Redfield, Wagner was another six-figure middleman, right alongside GOP crony Rick Melmer.
But the most urgent bit of news from today’s MCEC meeting may be at the very bottom of Ferguson’s on-the-spot report:
The board also voted unanimously Thursday to obtain the contents of a safety deposit box kept at First Fidelity Bank in Mid-Central’s name. Guericke said Scott Westerhuis signed for the box as many as 15 years ago. He said he believed it contains financial documents related to the cooperative.
Guericke said he would turn over the documents to the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation if they proved valuable [Dana Ferguson, “Board Accepts Gear Up Program Coordinator’s Resignation,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2015.11.12].
Uh, Dan? There is a criminal investigation going on. We’re already missing Scott Westerhuis’s safe. You guys at MCEC already destroyed evidence by canceling the phone you provided to Nicole Westerhuis before the DCI could retrieve the last voicemail sent to that device less than three hours before Platte firefighters found the Westerhuis house in flames with the bodies of Nicole, Scott, and their children inside.
Dan, if your lawyer Scott Swier hasn’t already suggested this, you might want to call DCI before you go to First Fidelity Bank. You might want to bring a couple agents with you, hand them the key in the vault, and step back and let them decide what in safety deposit box might be valuable.
In the middle of a possible criminal investigation pops up a safe deposit box that might have incriminating evidence and the state of Keystone Kops-South Dakota Division-isn’t aware of said box and didn’t bother checking any and all banks for such clues already? Yeah,Dan-if you find evidence of a crime be sure and let Jackley know,will you? How freaking gawd damn dumb are these so called law enforcement officers of the sad state of South Hickmenistan?
And in other news, Governor Daugaard and Melody Schopp are going to be on Eye on Keloland tonight to explain that it wasn’t their responsibility to oversee GearUp and that if they had it to do all over again they’d do everything exactly like they did/are.
wow, dan
South Dakotans-move to iowa and bring the Black Hills with you. You’d get better state law enforcement if you lived on Mars and the stench of corruption wouldn’t follow you there. In iowa,the stench of cafos will help drown the smell of corruption. I think you’ll agree you will prefer the stink of hogs.
C.H. do you know anything about these superintendants,
Dan has his fingers as deep as anyone in this mess. Why aren’t they looking up his aeroelastic orifce for the goods?
Those in the system, “snarl” when I mention Schopp as a primary responsible person. They point to Dan. Ok, Melody, get the Gerke turkey and maybe we cut you some slack. Just don’t let him end up dead. We’d like to hear his bargaining terms.
If Melody is not willing to take a responsible person on, she apparently has mud or blood on her hands as well. If not who is being protected?
Every last person I talk to in Sioux Falls, says it is an out and out murder of Scott and his family. Who am I to argue?
For what it’s worth, I spent an evening in the company of one of Stacy’s former educators. He was adamant Stacy was not that type of individual.
When in Rome, I replied. We see it happen in politics all the time.
Well, Les, a lot of people said Richard Benda and Scott Westerhuis weren’t that type of individual, either. Life is full of surprises.
When in Rome? When in Pierre… when in Platte?
Was a crime committed when someone at MCEC canceled the cell phone contract of a murder victim without authorization from the DCI? At the very least it appears to be obstruction of justice.
Will opening the safety deposit box be similar to when Geraldo opened Capone’s safe?
Lights! Camera! Action!
With all the questions and possible wrongdoings at MCEC, I would think the state would have immediately stepped in and have an outside person oversee the day to day operations of the coop. The people who run this coop should have someone constantly looking over their shoulders.
Mike from Iowa, you are welcome to come hang with me on the rez anytime..N I will take you to some wonderful places in the black hills our tribes have bought back fair n square at above the appraised values after being stolen from us in violation of a government to government treaty supposedly protected by the US Constitution. We will have a laugh a cry and a great time.
The board voted unanimously? ??? WT? If I was on that board I would have made a motion to contact US Attorney’s office or FBI and have them seize the thing. After all gear up is federal funds so why not? And when Jackley SAID “YOU Democrats Voted For It” He lost all objectivity in my book. I still am appalled at that one.
I am not very certain anyone from Mud-central has any right or need to see what’s in there on first thought.
But I’m not on that board…n I guess my motion would have gone no where for a lack of a second.
Are we missing something in the explanation of the motion here Cory?
If I was Dan I would have notified Law enforcement immediately upon becoming knowledgeable of the deposit box.
I’m with Roger…nothing there.. but cripes Mud-central, business as usual? They act like the guy transferred to another job.
Oh yea…then my second motion would be to ask for Guerickes resignation.
Then my third motion would be to ask the board to accept my own resignation from the board.
Knot heads
After watching the Governor and Schopp on KELO tonight, I was struck by two things. One, they are afraid of the truth and two, they have no interest in having anyone learn what the truth is.
That the Governor and his son-in-law would place restrictions on the free press in covering the story is a joke and speaks to their complicity.
What amazes me is that the members of the Legislature, you know, the people we elected to run our state have been so silent…and that the media has not questioned them on what the hell is going on in Pierre. We shouldn’t let the Governor and his Son-in-law get all the credit for being one of the most corrupt states. We need to spread that credit to our state legislators as well.
The Governor said in the interview that he is waiting for law enforcement to do their investigation…and the top law enforcement guy is a crony…yep, nothing to see here folks…move along. Jackley is either incompetent or a part of the corruption and should resign so he can run for Governor of a corrupt state full time.
Really looking forward to Cory’s keen eye to dissect the Governor’s interviews and hoping beyond hope that the media starts connecting the dots for us.
The appearance of the Gov’na and Miss Melody on KELO speaks to the heat they are feeling. Stoke that fire.
That heat is the SDGOP cooking another batch of meth.
Geraldo! Yeah! Angela Kennecke should camp out at First Fidelity Bank until Dan gets there.
What strikes me as passing strange is wingnut’s attitude towards incompetence. They seem to think incompetence is a good thing.
Spike,I’d love to see the Rez. Saw the movie “Thunderheart” and was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the land. I love the green fields of iowa,but I’ve seen green about as much as I can stand to see green and then brown and then the dust that comes with harvest.
Meanwhile, Pat is squalling about Marty’s not having first dibs on the Westerhuis evidence and calling for the head of Mid-Central’s director while ignoring that Denny Daugaard is in charge of decisions make by the executive branch.
Daugaard: s— happens; Westerhuis murder not on my hands.
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/state/3882472-daugaard-education-agency-acted-appropriately-gear
Lot of specific details to digest,Kurtz,NOT!
Jana, I’ll get there. :-)
Spike, your comment gets me wondering why DCI didn’t seize that safety deposit box already. It’s as if Guericke and the board are saying they discovered the notorious missing (disintegrated?) safe in new business manager Stephanie Huber’s garage, so they’re going to go over and riffle through it and maybe hand over the items they think DCI might find valuable.
I’m surprised DCI didn’t find about this safety deposit box already and confiscate it as evidence before MCEC made any motion.
Larry, your point on Pat is right on. I’m plagiarizing that into a full post right now.
my points are always right on, Cory.
Btw, Cory: be sure to check into Randy Morris’ past at the BHSSC. He was a Future Fund recipient before he croaked.
Any criminal investigator with 2 brain cells would know to check for safe deposit boxes at any and all financial institutes when looking for missing cash and related documents.
If the box was registered to Westerhuis,he should have had a key for it. How does Guericke plan to open said box w/o the key,unless the box is registered to himself?
If the bank follows all rules,they won’t be handing over a box that is related to a criminal investigation to any one other than law enforcement,hopefully federal.